It’s a community effort as Sprott hosts the Rotterdam-Carleton International Case Competition
Last week, business students from 16 top-ranked business schools in 12 countries came together – virtually – at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business for the Rotterdam-Carleton International Case Competition (ROCA).
“We were delighted to host ROCA this year,” said Robin Ritchie, associate dean of professional graduate programs at the Sprott School of Business and faculty co-lead for the week-long competition. “And delighted to see the best and the brightest from around the world come together and tackle timely issues related to sustainability, responsible leadership, and the economy of the future.”
Now in its second year, ROCA is an annual case competition resulting from a partnership between the Sprott School of Business and the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences’ Rotterdam Business School. Over the week, the competing teams had six hours to crack each of the three cases with an hour to record a presentation of their resolution. The teams participated in a question and feedback session with the judges for each case.
In preparation for the competition, Sprott collaborated with representatives from Air North, Bridgehead Coffee and Fullscript, and leveraged their expertise to develop cases that reflected current challenges for the companies.
Maya McIlhinney – first-year Bachelor of Commerce student and member of Sprott’s ROCA team – called the experience “eye-opening”. She said that it gave her an opportunity to observe how real businesses deal with real challenges, and also taught her the value of communication.
“I would encourage every Sprott student to participate in case competitions. No matter the result, you will always come out of these cases with more experience and knowledge than beforehand.”
“Our team worked really well together,” added Gabrielle Kolotinsky, fourth-year Bachelor of Commerce student. “I thought the competition was really well-organized as well. And the cases were really interesting.”
The competition also paved the way for some Sprott alumni – and case competition veterans – to come back and share their expertise as judges. Ben Ryan (BCom/12) – chief commercial officer at Air North – and Stephanie Ade (BCom/13) – engineering manager at Fullscript – both helped design the cases for their respective companies.
Sprott alumnus Robert Curtis (BCom/16) drew upon his expertise and experience in case competitions, and his consulting work with Deloitte, as coach of Sprott’s ROCA team.
“It’s great to share your experience from competing with your students, and be able to have real examples of how to tackle different case issues,” said Robert, who won the 2014 Network of International Business Schools International Case Competition with his Sprott teammates.
Several Sprott alumni also came back to judge.
“It was such a cool experience to have the roles reversed and be judging, as opposed to competing,” said Emma Zaorski (BCom/14). “After having competed back in university, then gaining real world experience and going through the judges training – it really helps you better understand what a winning solution looks like. I wish I had known the secret recipe eight years ago.”
Feruz Dglel Tesfay (BCom/21) served as the competition’s event coordinator, working with the Sprott Student Consulting Group to put the event together.
The 16 teams were divided into four divisions to tackle three cases over the week. The top teams from each division were then re-evaluated on the strengths of their solutions, and then winners were selected for each case by a panel of judges. The first case was won by Erasmus University, the second by Wilfrid Laurier University, and the third by the University of Technology Sydney.
“It was a great experience and we’re really excited about hosting ROCA again in two years,” Robin said. “We’ve seen the power that the experience had virtually, and we know about the additional good things that happen when you run a case competition face to face.”
“ROCA gives us the power to unlock our network, connect with our employers, showcase the school, bring people together, get them excited, and reinforce our international credentials.”