This prestigious international event comprises of 36 teams from 4 continents and is the oldest and largest case competition in the world, involving 200 outstanding MBA students from well known business schools as well as 270 judges from the Montreal business community. The competition format is a round-robin tournament consisting of five business cases. The cases are selected from top entries of the annual Case Writing Competition in addition to a live case presentation by a major company about a real-life business challenge that they are currently facing. Teams are judged on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of solution implementation. The winning team has the opportunity to take home a cash prize of $10,000 and the team showing the most spirit throughout the competition is honoured with the Richard Outcault Team Spirit Award. This enormous event requires the great support of a dedicated Board of Directors and 9 months of preparation by the organizers!
In 2009, the John Molson Sustainable Business Group (JSG) and the MBA International Case Competition (MBA ICC) joined forces in an effort to make the MBA ICC a more environmentally and socially conscious competition. Over the years, the alliance has strengthened with the creation of a formally recognized position dedicated to sustainability throughout the competition. The goal of this position is to highlight sustainability as an essential tool for success in a rapidly changing business world, which is consistent with esteemed economist Jeff Rubin's positing that we must “recognize the limits to growth, and what sustainability really means for our economy" (The End of Growth, 2012). As a business school, they feel it is of utmost importance to embody what it truly means to consistently incorporate the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit into all of their operations.
Some of the ways they are upholding their sustainability principles during the competition include taking the following actions:
- Hotel-Choosing a venue with a top "Green/Eco-Conscious" rating.
- Food-Serving vegetarian, locally sourced food and beverages as much as possible during the competition and composting all organic waste.
- Events-These are held at a walking-distance from the hotel, and they work with event hosts to increase the environmental aspects of each event.
- Transportation- All electric, zero emission vehicles will ferry participants from the airport to the hotel.
- Communications-Printed materials have been reduced and replaced by e-versions on USB keys when possible. All printed material is printed on partially or 100% recycled paper.
- Gifts-A John Molson MBA International Case Competition Forest has been created in partnership with The Carbon Farmer. The forest will be filled with trees planted in honour of each judge participating in the competition to recognize their incredibly generous donation of time and expertise in helping the business leaders of tomorrow ` fuel their passion and skill set. Each virtual tree seen online mirrors the real life tree that is planted to help create a flourishing forest in Canada's boreal region and will aid significantly in the restoration of habitat for the native species of plants and animals that call the area home.
For more information about their dedicated commitment to sustainability, visit: http://www.jsgjmsb.ca/ and for additional information about the event as a whole, please go to their informative website at: http://mbacasecomp.com
