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CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY TRIUMPH LEADS STRONG
SHOWING BY CANADIAN
SCHOOLS AT JOHN MOLSON MBA INTERNATIONAL CASE COMPETITION
MONTREAL, JANUARY 12, 2004 — The John Molson School of Business brought Concordia University of Montreal its first ever John Molson MBA International Case Competition championship on the weekend, leading a Canadian school sweep of the top three positions at the 23rd edition of the event. The John Molson School of Business (renamed in 2000), earned the $10,000 first prize presented by Export Development Canada. The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary placed second and third respectively in the 32-team competition that comprised entries from universities in Canada, the United States, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Spain and New Zealand. Rotman received the $7,000 Pratt & Whitney prize, while Haskayne was awarded $5,000 by Pfizer. Haskayne also compiled the most points in the preliminary round to earn the $3,000 award given by the Scotiabank Group. “I’m extremely pleased with the way the team performed,” said Tim Field, who along with assistant Noor Shawwa coaches the John Molson School of Business entry of Olivier Camet, Michel Carrier, Ksenija Cvetkovic, Tamara Huggan and Patrick Smith. “The most important factor for the team’s success, I believe, was its cohesiveness and its ability to articulate and sell its ideas to the judges.” The case study for the three teams that qualified for the final involved a California winery and its aspirations to become the first global wine brand. The students on each team were given three hours to read and analyze the case before making their recommendations as to how the wine company could achieve its aim to the panel of five judges, all senior executives from the business community. “The John Molson School of Business group did a good job identifying the key issues of the case, and that contributed to its victory in the final,” said Dr. Pierre Brunet, Chairman of Peak Financial Group and a long-time member of the International Case Competition Advisory Board. Leo Donlevy, a member of the winning University of Calgary team in 1995 and the head coach of this year’s Haskayne team, described the competition as “an emotional roller-coaster and a physical and mental grind. I was proud of our team’s performance this year. Winning the round robin part of the tournament and being the only team to go 5-0 is probably more of a significant achievement than it is given credit for, and I thank the organizers and Scotiabank for adding the award for doing this.”  Nine of the 32 teams qualified for the semi-finals, and Canadian schools swept all of these positions, an unprecedented development since the competition was opened internationally several years ago. In addition to the three finalists, Saint Mary’s (Halifax), McGill (Montreal), Wilfrid Laurier (Waterloo, Ont.), Schulich (York, Toronto), DeGroote (McMaster, Hamilton) and HEC (Montreal) emerged from the round-robin segment. “The pace of the competition is grueling – examining seven different companies in five days,” remarked Rotman head coach Becky Reuber. “I’m proud of what our team was able to accomplish. Not only did the team do a great job in presenting solid recommendations and action plans to solve real business problems, the students managed to keep their cool and their sense of humour in the process. Both Rotman and JMSB did a fabulous job on the final case. Although their recommendations were quite different, both of the presentations were cogent and persuasive and had many strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t envy the judges.” The top position by an international school went to Auckland, New Zealand and Helsinki, Finland, who compiled 121 points for a share of 10th place, two points from qualifying for the semi-finals. Paderborn, a German school, earned the Richard Outcault Team Spirit Award for its demonstration of sportsmanship. Downloadable photos of the top three teams are available at: http://www.mbacasecomp.com/en/competition/results.htm -30-
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