Head of the class

Newfoundland business students take on the world’s best and win

Memorial University’s business students have done it again.

Four students of the school’s masters of business administration program took home the Concordia Cup in the John Molson MBA International Case Competition held in Montreal recently. The quartet beat out 36 teams from 18 countries to claim the competition’s top prize. The win marked the fifth time the St. John’s-based university has won the award, more than any other school in the world. It previously won the Concordia Cup in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1996.

Nick Lane, who was part of the Memorial team along with Kate Boland, Stephanie Daley and Greg Piercey, says winning the competition was a proud moment for him and the team. “We put a lot of time and effort into it,” Lane says. “It’s one of the proudest moments of my life.”

The competition challenges MBA students from some of the world’s top business schools to solve business cases. Schools are pitted against each other in a round robin format. Teams are given a case that includes the details of a business problem that has happened in the marketplace. The squads then have three hours to review the case and work out a set of recommendations that provide direction for how the company can solve the problem. Each team then presents its recommendations to a panel of judges and a winner is chosen. The Memorial team defeated the University of Calgary and Queensland University of Technology from Australia in the final to win the Concordia Cup. It also took home $10,000 for its efforts.

Lane already works for Deloitte in St. John’s, so there is no need to use the win to provide a boost in a job search. However, the victory will benefit his career and that of his teammates. “A lot of us took this on to see how far we could push ourselves,” he says. “But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit of a confidence builder. It helped us realize we have potential we may not have reached yet.”