2015 Victory Judge motorcycle

2015 Victory Judge motorcycle

University of Iowa business students are providing consulting services to a company in northwest Iowa in exchange for a motorcycle. UI MBA student Phil Edman says the 2015 Victory Judge motorcycle is being raffled off to benefit the university’s scholarship fund. “The raffle tickets are $25 apiece and we’re only selling a maximum of 2,500 tickets,” Edman says. “All of the net proceeds are going to University of Iowa scholarship funds.”

Polaris Industries donated the motorcycle, which is manufactured at the company’s plant in Spirit Lake. In return, University of Iowa Tippie College of Business students are helping Polaris improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Spirit Lake plant.

Edman says Polaris is hoping to respond to customer demand quicker. “To do that, they’ve had to expand the amount of inventory they have to hold and inventory costs money,” Edman says. “Where we come in, we’re helping them understand how much inventory they need to hold and how they can optimize that so they minimize their costs and maximize their value to their dealerships.”

While the students involved in the project are gaining valuable work experience, Edman says Polaris is benefiting as well and may find some future employees. “They get extremely, high-potential, driven candidates working on projects like this through the MBA program at a very minimal price. In this case, they donated us one motorcycle and we’re going to do an entire inventory optimization project for them,” Edman says.

The Iowa-made Victory motorcycle involved in the raffle is only distributed in Europe. The bike, valued at roughly $14,000, is on display at McGrath Powersports in Cedar Rapids. The raffle ends April 24 and the winner will be selected on May 1.