Rob Volcko and Bosco Tong are both MBA ’19 candidates. They are also the 2019 Ivey MBA Case Competition Student Ambassadors and blogged about their experiences at the 5th Annual East Meets West MBA Leadership Case Competition at the Ivey Business School February 7-9.
MBA student teams from 10 Canadian universities learned about the fiscal demands of business and the ethical challenges of good leadership as they worked through live cases ranging from harassment in the workplace to artificial intelligence. It was all part of the 5th Annual East Meets West MBA Leadership Case Competition at Ivey February 7-9.
And the winners are…
A team from the Asper School of Business (University of Manitoba) won the first-place prize of $1,000. The team included Matthew Borgford, Tanis Brako, Carlos Kan, and Emily Sanders, and was supervised by an advisor, Judy Jayasuriay.
An Ivey team consisting of David Humphrey, Josh Beattie, Laura Gawley, and Matt Simioni, all MBA ’19, finished second.
In total, 10 teams competed:
- Concordia University – John Molson School of Business;
- McMaster University – DeGroote School of Business;
- Ryerson University – Ted Rogers School of Management;
- Simon Fraser University – Beedie School of Business;
- University of Alberta – Alberta School of Business;
- University of Calgary – Haskayne School of Business;
- University of Manitoba – Asper School of Business;
- University of Victoria – Peter B. Gustavson School of Business;
- Western University – Ivey Business School; and,
- York University – Schulich School of Business.
Balancing work and play
Beyond the formal competitions, the participants enjoyed social nights at the Pub on Richmond, Palasad North, and The Ceeps. Overall, the event had just the right balance of hard work and play and some of the competitors said it was one of their favourite case competition experiences in their MBA studies.
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It was also a great opportunity for the competitors to build their networks across the Canadian business landscape. The teams were shuffled so the participants worked with different teammates. Many of the participants will undoubtedly go on to achieve senior leadership positions at top companies and the case competition helped them to foster strong business relationships early on in their careers.
The competition is co-organized by Ivey’s Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership and the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary and the schools alternate as hosts each year. Both institutions are dedicated to the development of the next generation of business leaders through best-in-class research and education.
We look forward to 2020 when the East Meets West case competition is hosted at the University of Calgary!
