by Patricia Moser

Indications are that this year’s Concordia MBA Case Competition will be the biggest and best yet.

“Last year we didn’t have any teams from the far west and this year it looks like we’ll get UBC. In all, we expect about 15 teams to take part,” said Luigi Franco, one of two coordinators from the Case competition.

This is the third year that the competition is being held and each year it has generated more interest. And this student organized event fulfils a number of purposes.

“The Case competition promotes Concordia to the business world and it shows Concordia to be a top business school to both academics and businessmen. It also brings the business world inside the university in the form of judges for the competition,” said Franco.

The Concordia Centre for Management Studies provides funds for the major portion of the competition, with the remainder coming from corporate donations.

The competition will be held from January 26 through January 29. Each team will be required to partake in three matches, with the finalists taking part in a fourth. During each match the teams are given a case for which they are given four hours to prepare both a written analysis and oral presentation.

Two teams are then pitted against each other, one team presenting first and then the other presenting the same case. The judges, who hail from both business and academia, can question the teams for 30 minutes. At no time do the teams interact.

A Concordia team has not yet been chosen for the competition, although eight individuals are vying for the position under the tutelage of Prof. Bakr Ibrahim. Preparing students for the competition has been going on since October, with them meeting each week to learn the art of putting cases together quickly and efficiently. It is a lot of work, but the students are rewarded with exposure to possible employers and a course credit.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the competition can do so by calling Luigi Franco or Paul Leventhal at 879-4475 or dropping in at GM 207-7.