JMSB Closing Case Competitions
Concordia’s John Molson School of Business Competition Program is teaching business students how to win.
The JMSB-exclusive program sent students to international case competitions—where participants compete to find the best solution in a business scenario—and brought a number of gold medals for Concordia.
“This year alone, we have sent teams to competitions around Canada, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong with more to come in the Netherlands and Denmark,” said John Molson Competition Committee VP Communications Benoit Chevrier.
“Within Canada, we have attained our best results ever at our two largest competitions, the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition and the Jeux du Commerce. [Case competition competitors] took home two gold medals, and one silver, as well as the Chairperson’s award for the school with the most spirit [at the Inter-Collegiate competition],” said Chevrier. “And at the [Jeux de Commerce], they finished first overall for the third time in the 21 year history of the games.”
The team of 85 students sent to the Jeux de Commerce passed 13 other schools and 1,200 people, including McGill University. Chevrier said that most of the success is owed to Mark Haber, the head advisor for the JMCC.
“He’s the one that makes us stand out from the other schools,” said Chevrier. “He’s incredibly devoted, and he’s always there when we need him.”
Chevrier said that Haber was especially good at instilling confidence in him and the rest of his fellow competitors during presentations, which is essential to gaining success in case competitions and the business world.
“It’s not that hard to come up with a good idea, or to have a general idea of what you want to do,” said Chevrier, “but [the real challenge is] to frame [that idea] in an intelligent way that you can present it to people and to have the confidence to stand before them and really show that your idea or method is the best.”
JMSB’s prestige is largely due to things like JMCC’s success, according to Chevrier, adding that the faculty’s image is growing internationally.
The case competition is having tryouts for next year’s team at the end of the winter semester.
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 21, published February 1, 2011.
