A team from the University of Southern Indiana’s Romain College of Business participated in the 2016 Royal Roads University International Undergraduate Case Competition (RRUIUCC) held March 17-19, 2016, in Victoria, British Columbia. This is the eighth consecutive year a team from USI has been invited to participate.
The team included Erica Oberbroeckling, senior, accounting major and senior marketing majors Robert Rich, Cole Schafer and Morgan Thewes. Josh Beiriger, Jr., junior, accounting major, served as an alternate. They were coached by Romain College faculty members Tim Bryan and Jeanette Maier-Lytle.
L to R: Robert Rich, Josh Beiriger, Erica Oberbroeckling, Jeanette Maier-Lytle, Tim Bryan, Morgan Thewes, and Cole Schafer, pictured at Royal Roads University.
The RRUIUCC features teams from 20 different schools offering bachelor’s degrees in commerce, business, or equivalent degree programs. The competition format is a round-robin tournament of four business cases, including one “live” case taken from a local company. Teams presented their solutions to a panel of judges, composed of senior business executives from a variety of backgrounds. Each round of cases were analyzed and prepared for three hours, but topics and presentation criteria varied each round. Presentations were 20 minutes, followed by question and answer sessions of 10 minutes.
Teams are scored on the following categories: identification of key issues, analysis, consideration of alternatives, quality of recommendations, implementation and action planning, quality of presentation, and ability to handle questions. Accumulated scores from the first three cases were used to determine the Top Four finalists for the fourth and final case.
The team with their Ambassador Zack Meier.
“I watched them grow and develop over the past few months into one of the best teams I have ever coached,” Maier-Lytle said of the team that was announced in 2015. “The other coaches said they were well-coached and polished and they loved their creative idea. They also said they hoped they would see them in the finals. Those are words every coach wants to hear after a performance. Our team members made me truly proud.”
The 14th annual RRUIUCC attracted teams from Europe and across North America, and USI was one of only four from the United States invited to participate. Business case competitions challenge highly motivated business students to showcase their knowledge, skills, and talent. Through a relevant and spirited competition, the RRUIUCC inspires university students to strive for the highest levels of critical thinking and professionalism. In addition, this competition relies on business professionals to judge student recommendations, bridging the gap between the corporate and academic worlds.
The results were Dublin Institute of Technology (first place); University of Alberta (second place); Northern Institute of Technology (third place); and University of Saskatchewan (fourth place).
Published March 21, 2016