The 2012 Haskayne 24-Hour Case Competition
Four MBA students from the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) traveled to the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business to participate in the third annual Haskayne 24-Hour Case Competition, which took place from March 8 to 11.
Coached by part-time instructor Dickson Jay and MBA alumnus Aaron Linden, the team (Cedrin Law, Maria Gabriela Gomez, Elena Raznovan and Srikanth Sekar) prepared for the strategy competition by running through a number of practice cases. As the name of the competition suggests, competing teams are only provided with the case upon arrival and are given 24 hours to prepare their presentations. Teams were encouraged to use outside resources, allowing them to strengthen their analyses, recommendations and implementation plans.
The opening ceremonies of the competition featured guest speakers Patrick Lor, President of Fotolia North America and Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla Inc, both of whom are proud Haskayne alumni. Teams were drawn into their respective divisions, with JMSB having been placed in Division 1, and then returned to the Hyatt Regency hotel to rest up for the next day’s proceedings.
JMSB received their case at 10:00 a.m. on March 9. It concerned DIRTT, a provider of interior modular architectural solutions. The preparation period featured two very distinctive elements. First, each team was permitted to consult with a Certified General Accountant for twenty minutes. Second, teams had the opportunity to ask Miles Nixon, DIRTT’s CFO, questions during a question-and-answer period that took place during dinner. Nixon was later a judge in the final round of the competition.
At 10:30 a.m. the following morning, having virtually worked through the night, the JMSB presented their recommendations. The team faced a particularly difficult question and answer period, but performed well. Despite this, JMSB did not qualify for the final round. Ultimately, Haskayne went on to win the competition thanks to their impressive recommendations and plans.
The JMSB team was very proud to represent Concordia in Calgary and had a great experience at Haskayne. The team would like to thank their lead coaches, Dickson Jay and Aaron Linden for preparing them for the competition, as well as head coach Tim Field, for his guidance and wisdom.
Special thanks to the John Molson Graduate Student Association and the John Molson School of Business for funding the team’s participation in the competition and to VP Case Competitions, Matthew Fishman for handling the team’s logistics.