Podium finishes for Beedie BBAs at global competitions

The Beedie School of Business BBICC team. From left to right: Lindsay van Leeuwen, Justin Ling, Isabel Gomez-Garcia, Matt Martell and Peyman Abedi-Rad.

Students from the Beedie School of Business have enjoyed success at two prestigious international business case competitions, each capturing a top three finish in their respective competitions.

The teams competed at the Belgrade Business International Case Competition (BBICC), hosted by the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and the Royal Roads University International Undergraduate Case Competition (RRUIUCC), hosted by the University of Victoria. Each Beedie School of Business team earned bronze in their competition.

The BBICC team, coached by Beedie alumnus Matt Martell, consisted of undergraduates Isabel Gomez-Garcia, Lindsay van Leeuwen, Justin Ling, and Peyman Rad. The students won their place on the podium after competing against 12 teams from around the world, including New Zealand, the UK, Singapore, Denmark and the US.

The BBICC competition is the first global undergraduate business case competition to be held in Belgrade, and offered a unique opportunity for international business schools to participate in the first Southeastern Europe case study competition.

Prior to the competition, the Beedie team was treated to a meeting with the Crown Prince and Princess of Serbia, a reception at the Canadian Ambassador’s residents, a tour of several monasteries and fortresses, a wine tasting in Novi Sad, and an amazing race style tour of old Belgrade.

“Since the start of the year, the BBICC team have spent up to fifteen hours a week honing their presentation, analysis and case solving skills,” says Martell. “In the end, the students did an excellent job at solving and presenting a difficult case on how to sell FIAT cars in Serbia, and their bronze finish is just reward for their hard work.”

Meanwhile the RRUIUCC team, coached by Beedie School of Business alumnus Isaiah Baldissera and instructor Tara Immell, consisted of undergraduates Jeffrey Lee, Gordon Zhang, Scott Hirsch, Mohammad Tabesh, and Rubia Zhai. The team captured their top three finish after competing against 19 other teams from across the globe, including Canada, the US, Norway and Singapore.

“The team put in many late nights and overcame several major obstacles to get to this point,” says Baldissera. “Placing at an international competition takes some natural talent, a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, and I’m proud of the team for their dedication. I’d also like to express my thanks to the people at the Beedie School of Business who have worked equally as hard to make this a reality for us.”

The RRUIUCC competition utilizes a round-robin format with four business cases, including one real-world case taken from a local company. Participating teams were required to apply their analytical, decision-making and communication skills to the issues raised in the cases before presenting strategic choices and action plans to a panel of judges composed of senior business executives from a variety of business backgrounds.

For more information on the Beedie School of Business undergraduate Case Competition Training Program, visit https://beedie.sfu.ca/bba/competitions/.

Visit http://rruiucc.royalroads.ca/ for more information on the RRUIUCC, or http://www.bbicc.org/ for information on the BBICC.