The MBA class of 2015 has wrapped up its time at Ivey, but the impact the students have made over the last 12 months will set the bar for years to come.
MBA students have competed in 12 case competitions this year and have won first place at four. Their track record is impressive, but given the nature of Ivey’s MBA program and the kind of talent it attracts, it isn’t surprising.
“Ivey attracts very good students,” MBA candidate Stephen Reddin said. “You naturally end up with a talented group of people that is seeking to participate in these competitions right from the outset. The standards are already pretty high in terms of the teams we’re putting in the field.”
Reddin and fellow MBA candidate Kun Shi were elected at the beginning of the year to organize the case competitions for the class. They handle the logistics, finding competitions to send their classmates to and helping put teams together. The two also competed in the Rotman Health Care Strategy Competition in December, where they took home the first place prize.
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The Ivey class has competed in competitions across North America and has gone up against top international schools. Some of the highlights for the MBA ’15 class include the following:
- Winning first place in the NIBC Case Competition against international teams from Yale, New York University, National University of Singapore, HEC Paris, and MIT Sloan
- Winning first place in the Rotman Health Care Strategy Competition against Canadian teams from Rotman School of Management, Schulich School of Business, and Ted Rogers School of Management
- Winning first place in the Ivey-Haskayne Leadership Case Competition, along with the Haskayne School of Business team, against teams from across Canada, including the Asper School of Business and Sobey School of Business
- Winning first place in the RMA Sobey Credit Risk Case Competition against teams from across Canada, including Queen’s School of Business, Rowe School of Business, and Rotman School of Management
The advantage
Competing in case competitions is not a requirement for MBA students, but it certainly gives them an advantage they wouldn’t get in a normal classroom setting.
“All of the students who competed in case competitions took something valuable from the experience, even if they didn’t win,” Shi said. “People learn lessons they just cannot learn in a regular program.”
The case competitions add a different dimension to what the students learn in a classroom. Students get the opportunity to take the leadership qualities they learn and put them into practice.
“It really prepares you for the outside world,” Reddin said. “You’re put in a time bound, highly stressful situation and you have to work together as a team and come out with a compelling proposition.”
Ivey’s success
So why has Ivey, and this MBA class in particular, been so successful in case competitions? Reddin breaks the class’ success down into three components: the Ivey Case-Method of learning, the communication skills Ivey students learn, and the students themselves.
“Where we really beat the competitors is on the presentation and the ability to communicate,” Reddin says, giving credit to the mandatory communication classes MBA students complete early in the year.
He also points out that because the class learns from cases every day, they’re already at an advantage. Take these cases and communication skills, and combine them with the School’s impressive students, and it’s not hard to see why Ivey has achieved success.
“A lot of the curriculum helped, the 24-hour reports we’ve done,” Shi said. “It helps that the case competitions happen later in the year. Students already know each other, they know how to work well in a team together.”
As the class graduates and moves on in their careers, they leave behind the encouragement for future students to go out and compete. Reddin and Shi hope that as the years go on, Ivey MBA students will find more case competitions to participate in and hopefully win.
“It’s like any other sport or competition,” Reddin said. “It’s a lot of fun to get together with a team of talented people and win.”
