School of Business takes second consecutive silver medal at NIBS Case Competition
For the second year in a row, a team from UPEI’s School of Business has taken home the silver medal at the Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Case Competition. The case team from UPEI, including Erin Devine, Robert McIsaac, Harrison Wood, and Megan Martin, competed in the qualifying round last November where they earned their chance to compete this winter at the championship round at the Greehey School of Business in San Antonio, Texas.
“NIBS is a prestigious international competition, and dozens of schools around the globe compete in the qualifying round each year,” said Dr. Juergen Krause, Dean of the School of Business. “To make it into the championship round and then to go on to win a silver medal two years in a row is an exceptional accomplishment. Congratulations to the students and their coach, Mary.”
UPEI’s team was one of only three universities from Canada to make the finals in Texas. Of the other 13 teams competing, two were from China, seven from countries in Europe (Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the United Kingdom), one from Peru, and three from the United States. The four-day competition was organized in a divisional round-robin format. In each round, students receive a business case that they have never seen before, and they then have three hours to read, analyze, strategize, and come up with a solution and implementation plan for the business’s problem. Immediately after the three-hour preparation period, students presented their solution to a panel of industry and academic judges, who then questioned the students on their solution. The teams that advanced to the quarter- and semi-final rounds did two cases a day on the last two days. The final two teams that emerged after five rounds of competition were UPEI and Carleton University. The UPEI team took home its second silver medal.
“I’m very proud of our team and the results we were able to achieve,” said team member Harrison Wood. “I thank the School of Business for preparing us and supporting us throughout this year.”
“NIBS was an invaluable experience,” said Robert McIsaac. “Not only did it assert the fact that UPEI provides some of the best business education in the world, but it provided the opportunity to see how other cultures approach business, and gave us a spotlight on an international stage.”
Team coach Mary Whitrow said, “These students did some amazing work throughout their marathon of a week in Texas and their perseverance and hard work was rewarded. Thank you to all the professors and the Dean of Business who have supported and helped these students achieve outstanding results for UPEI.”
