MBA student teams dominate at the Haskayne 24 Hour Case Competition

MBA students from SFU’s Beedie School of Business made up two of the four teams who placed at the recent Haskayne 24 Hour Case Competition.

This year’s competition was held at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary from March 8-11 and featured 16 teams from MBA programs at universities from across the nation. The two SFU teams finished second and fourth, taking home prizes of $3,000 and $1,000 respectively.

The Haskayne 24 Hour Case Competition is a three-day event that challenges students from leading MBA programs across Canada to use their creative and analytical skills to assess real problems and deliver real solutions. Teams are given 24 hours to prepare a previously unseen case before presenting to a panel of judges.

The unique competition brings together the pressure of business decision-making with the students’ developing skills in teamwork, analysis, communication and critical thinking. Student teams work around the clock to find solutions to real-life problems, before presenting their ideas to a panel of judges, made up of senior business executives from the Calgary area. Teams are judged on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of implementation.

This year’s case, written by Chuck Warnica, Oil & Gas Associate at CIBC Commercial Banking, focused on DIRTT Environmental Solutions, recently named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies (Best Managed Award).

To prepare for the competition, the teams received advice and training from SFU staff and took part in several simulations under competition conditions. Members of last year’s SFU cohort acted as judges in these training sessions which included a 24-hour simulation based on the competition case from the previous year.

The SFU team which finished second, Team Molson Coors, consisted of MBA students Rachelle Hay, Rob Graham, Lucas Mitchell and Javier Glatt. Their case, entitled “Project Rethink”, proposed a strategic re-focusing of DIRTT’s product and services, promoting a holistic business service to their customer base. Their presentation provided a detailed implementation timeline for sustainable company growth and outlined steps to position DIRTT as a global industry leader.

“We pulled out all the stops, pushing through the wee hours of the morning to create and polish a well-thought out business strategy that we were proud of. The competition was stiff, and we were determined to give them a run for their money” says Hay. “It was an amazing experience to put our MBA learning into practice, under the critical eyes of senior business executives. The opportunity to represent the Beedie School of Business was certainly a major highlight of my student career.”

The second Beedie team, Team Fooks, consisted of MBA students Erica Hakonson, Thomas Malcolm, Brian Peterson and Chris Russell. The other teams to reach the podium were the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, who placed first, and the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, who took third place.

For more information about the Haskayne 24 Hour Case Competition, visit www.ucalgary.ca/mbasociety/casecomp