Algonquin Business Students Win GOLD at the 2013 Vanier College BDC Case Challenge
Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Algonquin College Team members (from second to the left) Andrew Thomson, Coach Bill Garbarino, Tara Sisson, and Jenna Collins. Photo Courtesy of Vanier Foundation.
On February 9th and 10th, 28 colleges from across Canada met at Vanier College in Montreal to compete in the 8th annual Vanier College BDC Case Competition.
This event is for Marketing and Management students and Algonquin College has always been a strong performer with a track record of one gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals. This year’s team consisted of three Business – Management and Entrepreneurship students: Jennamarie Collins, Tara Sisson, and Andrew Thomson. Professors Bill Garbarino and Ian Anderson coached the team.
On the first day of the competition, the teams are split into three divisions. Each team is given a business case to solve. Teams are in “isolation” for 3 hours to solve the case (industry assessment, company assessment, core problem determination, target market decision and positioning, strategic alternative assessment, recommendation, marketing mix tactics to support the recommendation, financials, and implementation plan).
Each team then delivers a 20 minute presentation + 5 minute Q&A with a panel of 3-4 judges. The presentation is also in front of an audience comprised of industry people, faculty and staff from the various Colleges, other competitors who’ve completed their presentations. At the end of the day the judges identify the top two teams from each division who will move on to the medal round. On Sunday the top six teams address a brand new case, follow the same procedures, and deliver their presentations.
The Algonquin students had outstanding performances on both days. The judges noted their professionalism and enthusiasm. They presented strategic alternatives to solve the core problem and their marketing mix tactics were both practical and creative. Their financials and ROI calculations were exceptional. The team also had excellent interactions and really supported each other, both during the presentations and in the Q&A.
Jenna, Tara, and Andrew worked very hard to prepare for this event. BDC competitors are chosen from the members of the team that represented Algonquin in the fall at the Ontario Colleges’ Marketing Competition. These students submitted themselves as a team for consideration and participated in a mock BDC event in December.
Once they were selected as this year’s team, the real work began. They were given research to do over the holiday break and then 2-3 coaching sessions were scheduled per week starting in January. With only five weeks to prepare, the clock was ticking and they had to cover a lot of ground, in addition to their regular school work.
Clearly, all the time and energy the team and their coaches put into preparing for this event paid off. Everyone at the School of Business and Algonquin College are extremely proud of their success. President Kent MacDonald was one of the first to offer his congratulations over Twitter.
Congratulations once again to Jenna, Tara, Andrew and coaches Bill and Ian for a hard-earned and well-deserved win!
By: Laura Campbell and Bill Garbarino
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- Entrepreneurship Events Marketing Students