Elon students Mike Nowak, Brian Serow, Matt Gillette and Alex Carberry traveled to Montreal to compete in the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition, held February 20-26 at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business.
This year 24 teams from internationally renowned business schools were challenged to put their creative and analytical skills to the test.
Throughout the course of the three-stage competition, each team was required to apply the knowledge and skills they had acquired in the classroom towards solving actual business cases. Once the analysis was completed, each team presented their recommendations, as well as a detailed plan of action to a panel of corporate executives who evaluated the students’ presentations.
After making it through a preliminary “round robin” stage, the Elon team won Stage 2 in their division. This phase consisted of a 24-hour research case, in which students were given a real-world business problem. Elon competed against teams from National University of Singapore, University of Prince Edward Island, and BI Norway.
The Elon team of Carberry, Gillette, Nowak and Serow prepared for the competition by presenting previous JMUCC cases to faculty in the Love School of Business for feedback. Team member Brian Serow, a junior Marketing and Entrepreneurship major from Raleigh, N.C., says that participation in this kind of business strategy competition illustrates the need for balance in the business world. “On the twenty-four-hour case we had a terrific balance in our strategy, offering a creative solution with impressive financial, logistic, and marketing elements. We needed the skills of every member of our team to complete the challenge in the time frame.”
Michael Nowak, a senior Finance and Entrepreneurship student from Narragansett, R.I., agrees. “My experience at this competition instilled in me the importance of being a ‘jack of all trades’—to know how to analyze a situation, come up with recommendations, incorporate all the financing, and then to be able to present your findings in a passionately articulate way.”
Elon was among only six American universities represented at the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition. This is the first year Elon has participated in the invitation-only business- strategy case competition. The students were accompanied by their faculty advisor, business law professor Christina Benson.