Sprott students win gold at NIBS Worldwide Case Competition
A team of Sprott undergraduate students brought home the gold medal from the Network of International Business Schools Worldwide Case Competition, which took place last week at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.
The team of Alejandro Barreto, Michael Cacho, Isabela Murillo and Karen Tran rose to the top of 16 finalist teams, representing universities in 10 countries across four continents, in the weeklong championship.
“The level of competition at this year’s event was the highest I’ve seen, which makes this win all the more remarkable,” says Robin Ritchie, coach and Associate Professor of Marketing at Sprott.
“When our team was announced as the winner, I immediately had a flashback of the past four months of preparation and the hard work that had led up to the competition before we had even arrived in Texas,” says Michael Cacho, a fourth year Bachelor of International Business student, specializing in International Marketing and Trade. “I think that’s the only way that you can win these competitions, through rigorous practice that happens beforehand.”
“It was amazing to see how well we all complemented each other, both in skill sets and personalities,” says Isabela Murillo, a third year student in Sprott’s Bachelor of Commerce program with a concentration in International Business.
Robin credits the team for their consistency and versatility. He adds that in addition to delivering in-depth and relevant solutions, the team did well at handling questions from judges, who included CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
“If it sounds easy, it isn’t,” says Robin. “They only had three or four hours to read the case, come up with a solution and prepare a presentation that would convince the judges.”
To add to the challenge, competitors are not permitted internet access while preparing their solution. Students must draw on their own business knowledge and each teammate is allowed to bring one textbook.
During the first two days of the competition, the team competed head-to-head against Ireland’s Dublin Institute of Technology, Southeast Missouri State University and Finland’s Lahti University. They advanced to the knockout rounds in second place standing in their division, behind Dublin.
Sprott won their quarter final match against long-time rival Concordia University from Montreal. They met Rotterdam University from the Netherlands in their semi-final match.
“For us, everything came together in the semi-finals,” says Robin. “Everything about the presentation was terrific. The team had command of the room, and you felt like they’d considered every possible angle. They weren’t students anymore – you really believed you were listening to experienced consultants.”
In the final round, Sprott and fellow Canadian team from the University of Prince Edward Island competed for the championship title.
“The final round was similar to the broad strategy cases which we had been receiving the whole week,” says Michael. “However, in the finals, there was much greater emphasis on the implementation for our solution, and we had to create a creative and effective solution to a not-so-creative case. I think this is where our team succeeded, in being able to apply both creativity and a practical implementation to an overarching top-level strategy case.”
“The competition and everything leading up to it was incredible,” says Isabela. “We received so much support from Sprott Competes faculty every weekend and evening practice, as well as from the alumni and students who came out to watch and give us feedback.”
“It was an honour to represent the Sprott School of Business at this international case competition,” says Michael. “I really want to thank our coach Robin Ritchie for pushing us every week to improve ourselves and focus on our weakest points to become a team that was strong in all aspects and could win the competition. After all that hard work, that is exactly what we did.”
About Sprott Competes
Sprott Competes is the Sprott School’s case training and competition program. Selected students take part in intense training to prepare for competition under the guidance of faculty coaches and industry mentors. To be eligible for a Sprott Competes team, students must have completed or be currently enrolled in BUSI 3800: Business Case Analysis.