In the fall of 1981, two enterprising MBA students, Nora Kelly and Annette Wilde, founded the National MBA Case competition, as it was known at that time. These two dynamic ladies assembled interested faculty members and fellow students and staged the first ever competition in the winter of 1982 between Concordia and four other universities, McGill University, University of Ottawa, Université Laval and Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM). The first prize was shared between UQAM and McGill University.

In 1992, the competition went international and now comprises 36 teams from 4 continents and is fully committed to bilingualism. It is the oldest and largest case competition in the world involving 180 outstanding MBA students from well known business schools as well as 450 judges from the Montreal business community. This enormous event requires a budget in excess of $250,000 and 9 months of preparation by the board of directors and organizers. The spirit of the competition is celebrated through the Richard Outcault Spirit Award and the prestige has been increased by the Case Writing Competition.

The competition was hard work and great fun at the same time. It was an unrivalled experience for all of us – professionally and personally!

Ruediger Hahn, 2005 team member, University of Düsseldorf

I truly think participating in the event was one of the most pivotal moments in my life. I gained confidence, and it provided me with something exciting to talk about in job interviews that demonstrated my ability to work in a team environment and under pressure.

Jonathan Mosel, 1992 team member, Concordia University

It was the best experience of my MBA. It gave me the opportunities to practice my knowledge and experiences. We also had the great opportunity to build a high performance team and to share these greats moments with others teams.

Tony Toufic, 2001 team member, Université Laval

Le cas “live” de la compagnie Jet Blue était une expérience incroyable! Le représentant de la compagnie a fait une présentation relevée et les caractéristiques du cas m'ont inspiré.

Sylvain Girard, 2005 team member, Université Laval

I am proud that Concordia has carried on the tradition and really has distinguished itself with this annual event.

Valerie La Traverse, 1991 organizer

The event took place during the famous “Ice Storm” of January 1998. At home we had no electricity so I had to find a place to stay. Good thing that I had one of the Team Preparation room keys so I slept there on the couch. The next morning, Event Organizer Max Thompson entered the room and saw me quietly sleeping. His words ” You would make a great Organizer!”. I did just that the next year.

Carl Tischuk, 1999 Organizer, Judge

The convention of teams from universities from all over the world and the atmosphere of unity and understanding of diverse cultures were great and amazing experiences,… just as being a cow at the theme party. Fascinated by the perfect work of the organizing team, I thought that being able to help organizing this unique event would be a great opportunity to gain intensive practical experience and at the same time meet and work with people from the business community…and here I am!!

Ruth Wolters, 2005 team member, University of Münster; 2006 Executive Assiatant (JMSB exchange student); 2007 Organizer

We were known as the Macarena Team (the song was quite popular at the time) Two of our team members (Jorge Bushby and Claudia Castellanos) fell in love during the competition and got married and now they have a beautiful child.

Oscar J. Vallejo, 1999 team member, ESAN, Peru

The Third Annual Case Competition started as a term project. Twenty years later, how proud we all are to see the enduring success of this great idea. This serves to show that, given the required dose of energy and positive thinking, small ideas can become great.

Sabine Altier, 1985 Organizer