By Nina Cherney

In February 1982, the Commerce Graduate Students’ Association of Concordia hosted the first Case Competition to be held in Canada at the graduate level. Five universities participated and the competition ended in a tie between McGill University and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The event was deemed such a success by all who attended, that the Competition has now become an annual event at Concordia, under the sponsorship of the Concordia Centre for Management Studies.

This year’s response to invitations has been overwhelming: of the 14 schools invited, 13 have already confirmed their attendance. The following schools will be participating: Dalhousie University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, McGill University, McMaster University, Queen’s University, Université de Laval, Université d’Ottawa, Université du Québec à Montreal, Université de Sherbrooke, University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, York University and the host university, Concordia.

Each university will be sending a team of two to four students. Each team will have an opportunity to present three cases before a panel of judges, composed of two professors from the participating universities and three to four prominent business executives. The response from the business community to participate as judges in this event has been equally enthusiastic.

Students will have the opportunity to meet and work with top-level executives from a wide range of companies such as Alcan, Avon, Air Canada, Bombardier, Seagram’s, CN, Bell Canada, Nordair, Pascal’s, Squibb, National Bank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank, Catelli, Power Corporation, Domtar, Imperial Tobacco, Nesbitt Thomson, O’Keefe, Price Waterhouse and numerous others.

Each team will have four hours to prepare a written analysis of each case, which will then be followed by an oral presentation before the panel of judges. At any one time, seven presentations will be going on. Each team accumulates points after the completion of each presentation. After three rounds, the two teams having accumulated the most points, will present the final case.

The winning team will be announced at the closing banquet, to be held at the Hotel Bonaventure. The winning school will be presented with the Concordia Cup, which it can keep on display for one year.

This year, Concordia will be well-represented by four students in the MBA program: Luc Bachand, who has considerable marketing experience, having worked for both a brewery and a steel company; Dominique Charron, a chartered accountant, who will be doing her PhD in Accounting; Jean Freed, who has received the Xerox of Canada Fellowship, as well as the FCAC jeune administrateur award and has 10 years of computer manufacturing and design experience; and Arnon Steinfeld, who has three years experience as an investment dealer.

The debates will be held on the sixth floor of the Hall building. Precise times and room numbers will be posted for those interested in attending.