Beedie School of Business News

The 2013 Beedie School of Business JDC West team

SFU’s Beedie School of Business captured the Academic School of the Year award at the prestigious JDC West case competition, held from January 18 to 20 at the University of British Columbia, edging out stiff competition from 11 other leading Canadian business schools to claim the title. The Academic School of the Year award is presented to the team which achieves the highest overall finish in the JDC West competition’s ten academic categories.

In addition, the Beedie School of Business placed third in the School of the Year category and enjoyed further significant success in the individual competition categories, taking first place in the International Business and Finance competitions; second place in the Management Information Systems, Business Strategy, Human Resources and Taxation categories; and third place in both Accounting and Debate.

“The success our 2013 JDC West team enjoyed is a tremendous achievement and reflects the well-rounded attributes of our undergraduate students and the alumni coaches who supported them,” said Andrew Gemino, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs.

“Competing with so many other top business schools and being named Academic School of the Year is a testament to the quality of education our students receive at the Beedie School of Business. The students, coaches and staff that supported this effort can be rightly proud of their success.” Keep reading…

Tags: Academic School of the Year, accounting, Amit Bhagat, Andrew Gemino, BBA, Beedie School of Business, Business Strategy, Case competition, case competitions, competition, Dean’s Circle, Debate, finance, human resources, international business, JDC West, Jeux du Commerce West Business Competition, Joel Thom, KPMG, management information systems, Maney Grewal, Sean Peters, sfu, SFU Beedie, Simon Fraser University, Student Engagement Office, Taxation, UBC, undergraduate, University of British Columbia

The winning team visiting one of the local businesses. From left to right: Pawel Herra, James Yang, Ashley Burgess, Rajlakshmi Mital and Mohammad Habbal

Students from the MBA program at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business have been pounding the pavement in an effort to bolster business prospects in the Heritage District of downtown Vancouver during evenings and weekends – when thousands of area office workers have gone home. The district – the historic commerce and banking area of Vancouver’s West Hastings Street – is a dynamic area for retailing and includes some world-renowned brands in addition to numerous small- and medium-sized businesses. The emergence of the area has translated into an unprecedented opportunity for area development, marketing and promotion.

To this end, the first ever MBA Opportunity Quest saw SFU’s graduate students engaging with local businesses in the core West Hastings Street area in order to help local merchants create strategies to bring the area to life when the weekday traffic starts to dwindle.

The event was pioneered by Professor Eric Gedajlovic through a partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA). Before hitting the streets, the students were briefed by Gedajlovic and Ivy Fong, Member Services and Projects Officer, DVBIA, on the problems facing the area and what their expectations of the students were. The cohort of 52 students was split into 12 uniformed teams before being unleashed onto both West Hastings and Pender Street between Richards and Thurlow on the morning of May 23. Keep reading…

Tags: business community, Business Strategy, Daniel Shapiro, DVBIA, entrepreneurship, Eric Gedajlovic, Heritage District, innovation, local business community, MBA, Opportunity Quest, social entrepreneurship, West Hastings Street

For many people, the notion of investing in a business involves an eventual return of capital and ultimate profitability. However, financial gain was the last thing on the mind of Beedie School of Business lecturer and PhD student Adam Mills when he made his latest investment in BBA student projects – ultimately leading to funds raised for children with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

In his Business 478 strategy class, Mills tasked his students with starting up their own businesses. He gave five groups of undergraduate students $100 each from his own pocket as start-up capital in exchange for 15 percent of each business, and told the students they could keep any additional profit.

Mills decided early in the process that hands-on experience was a more engaging way for the students to learn about business strategy than the traditional approach of writing a business plan as a capstone project. Keep reading…

Tags: Adam Mills, Business Strategy, entrepreneurship, Fruit Dealers, PhD