Day 1 – May 3rd, 2012

This year our team was led by MBA student Javier Glatt, with three MSc. Finance students: Stephanie Shi, Steven Sivorot, and me (Ben Huang). This was the first John Molson School of Business (JMSB) Van Berkom case competition, so we thought it would be a great way to test the waters.

Because Javier was already in Montreal for a trip with some MBAs and EMBAs, Stephanie, Steven, and I met him there. By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was already 1:30 AM. That did not stop us from trying some of Montreal’s midnight snacks, though! Steven had some pizzas from around the corner and I had some Timmy’s with a donut that I’ve never seen in BC before. Then it was bedtime; the next day was going to be a long one!

Day 2 – May 4th, 2012

Because we were all jetlagged, we decided to sleep in. It was a great time for brunch by the time we got up. We went to a breakfast chain “Cora’s” and it did not disappoint. On our way back, we walked by a stunning coffee shop called “Olivier Potier Artisan En Gourmandise” that later became our favorite place in Montreal. The pastries and espresso at this beautifully designed coffee shop just blew us away. I strongly recommend this place. After breakfast, the team sat down to finalize our overall strategy and review our models to get ready for the competition.

Registration for the competition started at 7:00 PM. With us were teams from Ontario and Quebec. Everyone looked confident and professional, and couldn’t wait for the competition the next day. After being greeted by the organizer, there was a small reception with wine and cheese. We decided to head back to the hotel early to do a final push of preparation. After reviewing my valuation models a few times, the team decided to go to bed early for the 7:00 AM event the next day.

Day 3 – May 5th, 2012

We got ready around 6:00 AM and made our way to the event with excitement. After breakfast, the teams were introduced to the target company and were given information about the company and its philosophy of how Van Berkom and Associates chooses its investment (poor Steven had memorized all this information the day before).

Due to the way the event was organized, we had to sit aside and were not allowed to talk about the company for 1.5 hours before we could start our case preparation. Those were probably the longest 1.5 hours I’d ever gone through in my entire life. Hopefully they will change this in future competitions.

Finally, it was our turn to start. Three hours was all we had to make a strong statement to prove that we could compete with the big schools from the East. With chills going down our spines, we read the annual reports, press releases, and other related information given. 30 minutes went by fast. We quickly discussed what we found, painted a general picture, and went to work on our presentation.

Javier worked on the business models and strategies, Stephanie on the financial analysis, and I on the stock evaluation. Steven assisted everyone on each part of the presentation.

30 minutes left… Time was against us. We all tried our best to put the presentation together into one file.

20 minutes left… We realized that the sensitivity analysis was missing!! Off Steven and I went…

10 minutes left… Wait! We hadn’t practiced yet?!

5 minutes… “Okay, let’s do each of our parts of the presentation on our own…”

Then someone walked into our room and announced that our time was up. We did not get to practice the entire thing but, in all honesty, it did not affect my confidence because I knew we were all great presenters.

We did not have more time to think about the case or the presentation. We made our way to the presentation room, shook the judges’ hands, and started our presentation. As I had expected, the presentation went smoothly. It flowed well and the judges seemed impressed. After our 20-minute presentation was a 10-minute Q&A session, which I thought we did relatively well in. There is always room for improvement, but from my experience with case competitions, I knew we did great.

Not surprisingly, we all came out of the room with confident smiles. Each of us was surprised by how well it went, and we were proud of what we were able to accomplish in just three hours. There was an hour break before they announced the finalists. We were so confident that we were going to make it to the next round that we started to prepare for our next presentation.

That hour felt very long as well.

Finally, we heard the news. We found out we did not make it. At the moment, my first thought was, “Wow, the schools from the East are that good?”

The judges later had a private discussion with us and explained the reasons why we were not chosen for the final. It was a tough pill to swallow, but I took the comments rather well.

Since we did not make it to the finals, we had the opportunity to sit in and watch the first finalist’s presentation. However, we soon found that it was tough because we felt that we could have done better. One of my teammates decided to not watch the two other presentations, but I decided to stay because I believed the final two would be better.

I was not disappointed. The final two teams were neck-and-neck and it was hard to determine who the winner would be. Both teams had flaws in their valuation models, but mistakes were expected given the timeframe.

After the competition were the reception dinner and networking session. Both went really well. I stayed behind for networking while my team went back to the hotel. By the time I got back, everyone was already in bed.

Day 4 – May 6th, 2012

Sadly, it was time to pack up. After sleeping in for a bit, we had a short breakfast and were off to the airport. We did not get a chance to tour the city very much due to the scheduling of our flights and the various events. It turned out that our flight was delayed for almost two hours. We wished we had known earlier so that we could have at least toured Montreal for two hours!

The overall experience was wonderful, though. The competition really brought our ability to handle time constraints to another level, and we all gained some knowledge on how professionals treat small-cap stocks. We would like to thank all the cohorts and the instructor who supported us and trained us. Hopefully next year’s team will bring it to the next level for our university.

Day One:

Zero to 4049 km, we made it to Dayton, Ohio!!!

Day Two:

The Redefining Investment Strategy Education Forum is an investment conference where we had the opportunity to pick-the-brains of fantastic industry panelists with topics ranging from “The Economy” to “Domestic (US) Markets” to “Alternative Investments”.

Jon was fortunate to have the opportunity to be on stage as a student panelist for the panel about “International & Emerging Markets”.  He met and talked to the industry panelists, who came from Bank of America, UBS, JP Morgan and Vontobel. After a quick “photo op” he sat on stage with the industry panel and asked a question to the panelist.  It was an awesome experience to sit in front of over a thousand students and industry leaders and get some expert opinions on one of the issues our Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS) team was discussing with respect to the money we manage on behalf of the SFU Endowment Fund.

Keynote addresses were also given from David Darst of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Robert Doll from BlackRock, and Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires (made into the 2010 drama “The Social Network”).

That was a long day, but each speaker provided a different and interesting perspective on the economy and in particular their specialization in the economy.

It’s like the saying goes, “if you ask five economists their opinion, you will get six answers.”

Day Three:

This was a great day for SFU and everyone involved with SIAS.

First thing in the morning at 8:00 am we gave a 15-minute presentation to a panel of three portfolio managers/industry specialists.  We discussed the structure of SIAS, our investment process and strategy, and recent performance.  They were thoroughly impressed!

As a result of the risk-adjusted performance of the SIAS Fund for 2011, during the networking reception, SIAS was awarded First Place for the Balanced Portfolio category among all participating student managed funds.  We were thrilled, and very proud of our SIAS team members, both past and present, who helped select investments that generated good risk adjusted returns for our client.

In between the events were workshops and smaller panel groups where we got the chance to learn more about specific areas of finance such as equity analysis, technical analysis, wealth management, hedge funds, and proprietary trading. These break-out sessions were intimate and detailed very specific day-to-day activities that gave us many new ideas to think about.

Day Four:

4049 km to 8098 km, we’re home!

This was a constant learning experience from workshops, panels, presentations, networking and just the experience of doing something different.  Even though it was a huge time commitment during the busiest time in the semester, it was well worth the time and effort.  The ideas and perspectives we took from the event could prove invaluable going forward with our careers.

At the end of the day, it was a long trip with sleepless nights and early mornings, but if we went back in time, we would do it again.

Bill Dennis
Jared Wolk
Mehdi Saedi
Jon Lo

The Beedie team members were:
Lucas Mitchell, Javier Glatt, Rob Graham, Rachelle Hay
Brian Peterson, Tom Malcolm, Erica Hakonson, Chris Russell

Preparation
“Don’t just go to compete, go there to win!” These enthusiastic words of advice came from Neil Abramson, our Emerging Markets Professor at SFU. I smiled in response, and wondered how we could really make it happen.

Balancing our usual mountain of assignments, group projects and presentations with competition preparation was no mean feat. Practice began in the months leading up to the competition and the teams began to gel as we sacrificed our Saturdays for the cause. With the support of SFU staff members and students from past MBA cohorts, we began a training regime. We carried out case simulation after case simulation, and by incorporating feedback from judges we tightened our strategy as time went on.

Thursday 8^th March, 2012
The flight to Calgary passed quickly and we were soon greeted by surprisingly warm weather upon arrival. After settling in, we made our way to the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business to attend the opening reception, where we were treated to keynote speeches by Patrick Lor, CEO Fotolia, and Gary Kovacs, CEO Mozilla Corporation. Through personal photographs and witty anecdotes, these CEOs shared insights from their trials and experiences over the years. As the evening progressed we took advantage of the chance to network with our fellow competitors from across Canada, chatting over cheese plates and samosas. As the night wrapped-up we reconvened in our teams to confirm our game plan for following day. A full night’s sleep before the approaching storm was in order, so we all bade each other farewell for the evening.

Friday 9^th March, 2012
Bright and early, we made our way to the Haskayne School of Business, eager to receive our team envelope which would reveal the identity of the case company and contain the full competition case. Upon arrival we were escorted to our individual team rooms. Team names had been assigned to hide the identities and university origins of the teams. The name “Team Fook” was allotted to Brian Peterson, Tom Malcolm, Erica Hakonson and Chris Russell, while “Team Molson Coors” was assigned to Lucas Mitchell, Javier Glatt, Rob Graham and Rachelle Hay.

When the envelope was ripped open we were met with a 43-page case, authored by Chuck Warnica, Oil & Gas Associate at CIBC Commercial Banking. The case focused on DIRTT Environmental Solutions, recently named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies and recipient of the Best Managed Award (sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, and Queen’s School of Business). Based on DIRTT’s exceptional track record of explosive growth and exceptional financial performance, teams were to build a comprehensive and sustainable growth strategy for the company, carrying them forward for the next two, five and ten years, including a liquidity event in the medium term.

Like horses on a racetrack we took off and ploughed through the case, examining financial records, performance indicators and competitor profiles. As the hours crept by, the walls of our private team room became covered from end to end in flip chart pages detailing our analysis and ideas. Over time, we hacked away at our computers, building the deck and creating graphs, models and pro formas to assess and support our recommendations.

That afternoon each team was allowed 20 minutes with a Certified Accountant. We squeezed in as many questions as we possibly could, but before we knew it the 20 minutes had flown by and we were racing to incorporate the CGA’s feedback into our strategy.

Saturday 10^th March, 2012
The work continued long into the wee hours of Saturday morning, but with the help of coffee, Doritos, and committed teammates, we encouraged each other to push through until we were satisfied with the caliber of our work. We had set our standards high and we were determined to give the competing schools a run for their money. After a few more grueling hours, we agreed to call it a night and headed back to our hotel rooms for a brief catnap before suiting up for the morning presentations.

Later that morning, with the team wearing matching suits and loaded with even more caffeine, we made our way back to the competition where the teams pitched their strategies to the panel of judges. This was immediately followed by an antagonizing Q&A session where team members addressed a barrage of criticisms and queries from the executive panel members.

By lunch time the four team finalists had been announced – with two of the four teams consisting of Team Fook and Team Molson Coors! Overcome with a mélange of excitement and exhaustion, we quickly ate lunch before being escorted to private preparation team rooms. The finalists were given one hour to tweak their presentations before presenting to a new panel of judges which consisted of leading Calgary businessmen, including Miles Nixon, DIRTT’s very own CFO and VP Finance. Each team was then drilled relentlessly in the Q&A session that followed.

The competition results were not revealed until the formal awards dinner that evening, with Team Molson Coors and Team Fook from SFU’s Beedie School of Business placing second and fourth respectively. The DeGroote team from McMaster University placed third, with a team from the Haskayne School of Business the overall winners.

All in all, it had been a gruelling but rewarding weekend, putting our MBA learning to the test. At this stage, it was only fitting that we make a toast to our achievements and to the Beedie School of Business. The celebratory sound of clinking glasses brought the evening to a close.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the SFU staff, faculty and past cohort members that assisted us along the way and helped to make our success possible. We are especially grateful to Jeff Nehajowich for his unwavering support.

Team Molson Coors (2nd place):

Team Fooks (4th place):

Writing this post I am in the fifth month of my internship with Ecotrust Canada. Ecotrust is a federal charity that self-identifies as an ENGO and an enterprising nonprofit, working towards a conservation economy for BC. The objective of this posting is to explain, based on my personal experience, the importance of using your network to secure an internship. As some of you may have heard, it is not about finding “a” job (internship) but rather “the” job. I believe I’ve succeeded in achieving the latter of the two.

Coming into Vancouver from Athens one thing I didn’t take into consideration was population. Having in mind populated cities of North America and, let’s be honest, my reference point of Hollywood films, I thought Vancouver would be much larger. I simply didn’t check in advance to discover that Vancouver and the Lower Mainland has a population of just over two million people! Coming from Athens, with a population in excess of five million, I can only say that Vancouver seemed very small and slow paced.

Networking is always an important aspect of community building, but within a business community centered around only two million people, it becomes crucial. I have, since arriving, made a serious effort to attend events, tweet, connect through LinkedIn and slowly but steadily build both my presence and my network here.

Simply… do it!

During the first couple of weeks of the MBA, I was elected as Co-President of SFU Net Impact Beedie Chapter, a student run chapter with its own mandate: “Our mission as emerging business leaders is to make a positive environmental, social and economic impact in the Vancouver community by advocating responsible and sustainable business practices.” In recognition of my commitment I was given a complimentary seat at a table sponsored by SFU at the 5th Annual Spring Gala and Young Agents Awards. At the event I had the pleasure to meet Brenda Kuecks, President of Ecotrust Canada when both of us arrived early and had casual time to time to talk and learn about each other’s background.

After keeping track of this relationship and calling to ask Brenda to be one of our speakers for the 20/30 Speaker Series hosted by Net Impact, I asked for an information interview. I was honored to have such an insightful meeting (jargon term: info interview), learning not only about Ecotrust Canada and its work but also much about the non – profit sector more generally. Being a student can open a lot of “doors”. Used strategically, these doors can lead you to people willing to provide good guidance.

Be knowledgeable of your environment

During the conversation, I introduced a funding opportunity that exists for students-researchers in Canadian Universities through the Mitacs organization, and specifically the Mitacs Accelerate Project that sponsors research based internships. It is an important funding opportunity that may help some of you garner financial support to put your experience and knowledge to the test in the workforce.

Long story short

It worked! Since October of 2011 I have been a member of Ecotrust Canada working as a Project Analyst in Economic Development. The project is titled “Business planning for social enterprises” and it has been a great experience. Not only am I getting to put into practice what I have learned during the MBA program, but at the same time I am receiving great guidance and insights to further improve my work.

Gold nuggets:

1. Connect: Be careful and be sure to personalize everything (especially LinkedIn invitations)
2. Be sure to utilize your title: Being a graduate student opens a lot of doors
3. Build your online presence and network

Also build your offline presence and network (sometimes it will bring you into a different set of
relationships)

Acknowledgements

I am grateful and would like to thank Brenda Kuecks, President of Ecotrust Canada for offering me this opportunity, Oba Harding, Director of Business Development, Mitacs for providing his valuable help in securing a smooth and successful application, Jeremy Stone, Economic Development Project Manager of Ecotrust Canada for his close guidance and resourceful feedback on my work and of course all the staff at the organization that welcomed me at their “home”.

I would also like to mention the faculty, staff and fellow MBA candidates for their support and active presence during this important step of my life. They have all enriched my experience and have been really valuable to me in many different ways.

About George Chatzivasileiou

George is an MBA Candidate working at the nonprofit organization Ecotrust Canada as an Economic Development Project Analyst. This is an intern position co-sponsored by Mitacs Accelerate Program and of course Ecotrust Canada. George holds a BS in Shipping, Trade and Transport. He enjoys learning, thus you are most likely to see him at events with topics about economy, sustainability, social entrepreneurship and of course shipping. He is also blogging at g-controversial.blogspot.com.

On January 6^th 2012, an excited and energetic team of MBA students from the Beedie School of Business (SFU) landed in Edmonton for the 2012 MBA Games.  The expectation of a frozen city dissipated as a warm Edmonton welcomed MBA students from across the country. Large Greyhound buses lined up at the airport uploading groups of the nation’s next great business minds and leaders. Although most participants were sleep deprived, one could clearly witness the adrenaline beating through everyone’s veins.

The MBA Games is an annual Canada-wide competition that brings together MBA students from across the country. The MBA Games originated at Queen’s University in 1988 and continued there until 1997. Since then, the MBA Games have been hosted at various schools. As a ritual, the MBA Games are held in the city of the reigning champion.

Sunshine peaked through the clouds as buses dropped off herds of colour and clothing coordinated – representing different schools – groups of MBAs at the Westin Hotel in downtown Edmonton. The city seemed to have livened up with the newly arrived guests. The sounds of exciting cheers and laughter became great additions to the city of Edmonton for the weekend of January 6^th to 8^th. Let the MBA Games begin!

The MBA Games involved academic, spirit, and athletic events, and opportunities to network with future leaders. SFU MBA students showcased a great deal of cohesiveness and team support throughout the games.

“BEEDIE BEEDIE BEEDIE, S-F-U, BEEDIE, SIMON, BEEDIE, FRASER, BEEDIE BEEDIE BEEDIE, S-F-U!” As the team cheered loudly at each sporting event, they displayed significant signs of confidence and pride.

As intimidating as the games were, the team worked together as one. It was apparent that not only did SFU bring its competitiveness, but also its value in friendliness. SFU students easily struck conversation with fellows from the opposite team, commenting and praising each other’s efforts.

“The games were a fantastic experience!  Our team did the Beedie School of Business proud with strong showings in the academic, spirit, and athletic events.  Most importantly, we worked really well together as a team and showed hundreds of students from business schools across the country that the Beedie MBA is a world class program” said Lucas Mitchell, Team Captain for SFU at the games.

Colin Stansfield, a SFU MBA candidate and representative, reflected with a smile on his face, “It was a spectacular showing on the part of our academic teams.  We knew it would be challenging to compete against students from other schools where they run two-year programs, but the diversity inherent in our program – the wide variety of experience that we bring with us to Beedie – stood us in good stead.  Our teams achieved remarkable results and I could not be prouder of the hard work put in by our academic competitors.”

Each night, social events offered opportunities for students to mingle with others under a more relaxed environment. Dancing and celebrating a day’s hard work, participants enjoyed each other’s company and what the nightlife the city had to offer.

More than 500 people representing 19 schools across Canada competed in the games. Days began as early as 8am and schedules were jam packed with activities! Spirit teams travelled around the city of Edmonton using a 2-day transit pass given to everyone by the Games committee. Academic events were mentally challenging, as teams were given tight time constraints to package the best solution for the business problems presented. Sporting events were exciting; participants and supporters in these events made loud echoes in the University of Alberta. Faces of hope, smiles of joy, and eyes of anticipation, every participant was engaged in the spirit of the games.

“We were amazed at the amount of skill at the sporting events. Not only did every team have talented athletes, but they were quality people as well. There were some amazing games and we were happy to have given some of the top teams a run for their money. I’ve never been prouder of any other team!” spoke Brian Peterson, an achieved athlete representing SFU.

On the last day, every MBA candidate listened intently to the keynote speaker Court Carruthers eloquently express his interpretation of the theme of this year’s MBA Games – innovation and the future of technology. As the MBA games came to an end after many hours of conquering challenges and utilizing great minds to solve real business problems, the winning team led the crowd to the dance floor after dinner with one last celebration before concluding MBA Games 2012 in Edmonton.

In retrospect, the games wouldn’t have been so amazing without the support of the members on the team. For the team from SFU, many students had lost their voice cheering on their teammates throughout the games. This experience will definitely last a lifetime. As many friendships were solidified, new buds of networks sparked throughout the trip. The city of Edmonton has made a great contribution as the backdrop for the amazing things that happened on this weekend.

To view SFU’s LipDubbed Youtube Video for the MBA Games intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE4oXz193UQ&feature=related

My name is Rachel Li. I am an international student from China and I’m now a candidate in the Master of Financial Risk Management (MFRM) program at SFU.

The MFRM program is an excellent program from which I have learned a lot of new and useful material.  I came to SFU in August last year. I have learned a lot in this program about not only finance, but programming and statistics as well. The subjects taught outside of finance were completely new to me. With the help of the Career Management Centre, I’ve learned that a multitude of employers in financial industry are looking for potential employees who know about more than just finance. Since the financial crisis in 2008, financial institutes have attached more importance to financial risk management. Thanks to this program, I’m now on my way to having a more diverse level of knowledge. I believe my decision to enroll in the MFRM program was a wise choice.

Besides the courses offered, this program also provides a lot of real-world experience. In the student-run endowment fund, SIAS, I’m a fixed income analyst. In the first semester, I was mainly focused on the analysis of the whole fixed income portfolio against the benchmark. I was fortunate enough to meet two professionals in fixed income to learn about how a fixed income portfolio is managed. This semester, I’ve shifted my concentration to the credit risk analysis of bonds. This is also quite new for me, so I’ve been reading some books about it. My teammate and I have made a template of credit risk analysis based on credit rating agencies and financial ratio analysis. I look forward to learning more about this as I take the course offered later in this program on Credit Risk.

Before joining the SFU’s MFRM program, I attained a Bachelor of Finance from Shandong Financial University. I was awarded the “National Scholarship” and graduated as an “Excellent Graduate Student”. I also passed the CFA level I exam in the fourth year of university, and am now a CFA level II candidate. In this process, I have learned a lot about finance and now I’m trying to put what I have learned into practice in SIAS.

Vancouver is really a wonderful place to live in. The weather here is always cool; neither too hot nor too cold. There are many scenic spots to visit; I have been to Stanley Park, Cypress Mountain, Central Park and a lot of other beautiful places. Throughout my stay in Vancouver, I have gotten more of an idea about western culture such as food, lifestyle and how to be open to people from different cultures.

As an international student who first arrived in Canada five months ago, I still need time to adapt to the environment. Language is one of the biggest difficulties I’ve faced. However, throughout the first term my English has improved a lot. This improvement has come from communicating with people around me as much as possible.

The following months will be much more fulfilling and intense. However, I’m confident that I can manage my time very well to balance the social & academic activities and the participation of SIAS.

Rachel Mingying Li

“How do you feel about getting on your hands and knees and pretending to be a bull?  We need to get in some practice rides before the next round”.

I was prepared to be confronted with a number of new experiences when I enrolled in the MBA program but I did not see this coming.  Not a problem, I adapt, I have a wide variety of skills and I thrive under challenging circumstances.  More importantly, I have 51 classmates who help me on a daily basis and for whom I will gladly return the favour.  If that means bucking around on all fours… yee-haw!

Now I don’t mean to minimize the other components of the MBA Games experience – the athletic competitions were thrilling, the academic teams’ performance was inspiring, and the networking was rewardingly social – but what I will remember most is the deepening of the friendships that have been building through the first months of our program.

More than money, more than performance metrics, and certainly more than mined data and regression analysis, business is about people.  The hard skills I learn in class will stand me in good stead but I will also gain considerable advantage from the soft skills that I hone during long hours spent in the company of my cohort.

The MBA Games afforded many such opportunities.  I learned about teamwork and the power of working in concert to achieve a common goal.  I learned about encouragement: cheering my friends’ success and standing with them to face challenges.  I witnessed countless acts of heartfelt kindness and I shared in joyful camaraderie.  Through it all I gained a greater appreciation for the amazing collection of friends with whom I share my days and nights at the Segal Graduate School.

So be it a pressure-filled presentation or a make-or-break exam, whether I am still in school or charging forward in my new career, with a team like the one I was a part of at the MBA Games, I am confident that I can tackle anything.

I am ready for the rodeo.

Never was this more clear than in Edmonton this weekend at the MBA Games.  35 of us traveled to Alberta to represent the Beedie School of Business in academic, athletic, and spirit competitions.  We went up against the best and brightest of 18 other business schools in Canada, and not only did we hold our own, we learned some valuable lessons in the process.

Our academic teams did the school proud with excellent results.  Our marketing team was able to combine their considerable skills and and backgrounds to build a presentation that carried them into the semi-finals.  Our strategy team took the lessons of professors like Craig Emby, Mark Moore, and Leyland Pitt, as well as their own personal insights and skills, and channeled them all into a presentation that earned them fourth place.  Finally, the strong finish of our operations simulation team demonstrated that how we use information is just as important as the information itself.

In ultimate frisbee we earned a hard-fought third place, despite facing teams with far more experience and training, and in the process learned important lessons about having trust in our teammates and the power of sheer determination.  Likewise, we had strong showings in volleyball and dodgeball, proving that leadership and teamwork is every bit as important as finance and marketing.  These might seem like small insights; they’re not. An MBA is more than a pile of formulas and concepts, and learning to work together to get a frisbee across a line while a determined group of people are doing their best to stop you is every bit as legitimate as learning to read a balance sheet, and it can’t be taught in a classroom.

In fact for me, the most impressive performance of the whole weekend was how well we acquitted ourselves in the spirit category.  When you spend your days looking at numbers and case studies and formulas, it can sometimes be easy to lose sight of how important people are to accomplishing anything.  And we have the best people.  We were always the loudest; we were always the biggest; and we were always the brightest.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard people say how intimidating we were to compete against, because our cheering section was relentless.

And I can’t tell you how important it is to know your people are behind you when you’re trying to find the strength to jump just a little higher for the frisbee, or you’re trying to calm your nerves before presenting to a panel of judges.  Anyone can make lip dub videos and learn dance moves and order some t-shirts, though we did all of those things better than anyone.  The real test of a team is seeing who shows up to cheer their teammates on at the end of an exhausting day, when they could be napping or shopping.  The real test of a team is whether we get angry when someone fumbles a ball or whether we cheer twice as hard.  The real test of a team is whether pressure brings them together or drives them apart.  I met a ton of people this weekend.  They were all smart, welcoming, good people.  But they weren’t my people.  I know I’m not alone when I say that the biggest lesson of the weekend was confirming that I made the right choice when I chose SFU.

The NIBC Final Round took place on January 10^th – 12^th at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, BC.  The competition consisted of the top 14 Undergraduate and 10 Masters teams from across the country out of the initial pool of 132 teams.  The Finals consisted of two parts:

1. A real-life M&A case that was pitched to industry professionals

2. A final presentation to an audience of 350 delegates and a panel of Senior Managing Directors from the major investment banks (Top 2 MBAs, Top 3 Undergrads)

January 10^th, 2012

We arrived at the Pan Pacific in the early afternoon, and were pleased to find that the hotel was only a few blocks away from our school.  Once we had settled into the 5-star hotel, we worked intensely doing last minute research and revisions to our PowerPoint template.  The only events scheduled that night were registration and orientation, so we had plenty of time to ourselves to work and stock up on food and water for the competition (everything at the hotel was expensive!).

January 11^th, 2012

This was a day full of listening to presentations and panellists.  The opening keynote was from Mr. Matthew Quinlan, Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Mining at CIBC World Markets.  The morning progressed into an overview of investment banking with presentations from representatives from Macquarie Capital, RBC Capital Markets, CIBC World Markets, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  After a brief lunch run to get dim sum, we proceeded to attend four sets of panels that varied from sales/trading to corporate finance.  To finish off the night, there was a career fair and a networking event put on by RBC.

January 12^th, 2012

This was the big day. The competition.  We woke up bright and early for breakfast at 6:00am, and began the case at 6:30.  The case was on gold mining, and it was our duty to establish the terms of an M&A transaction.  It involved financial models, comparables, precedent transactions, and qualitative analysis.  For a time constraint of roughly six hours, there was certainly a lot on our plate.  We managed to complete the case to the best of our ability, and were then cabbed to National Bank Financial, where we made a seven-minute presentation followed by a seven-minute Q&A to a group of investment bankers.  Unfortunately, we were informed that we did not finish at the top in our division of five, so we missed out on the opportunity to present at the Gala Dinner.  The team that advanced was from the University of Toronto and they went on to win the competition with a very polished presentation.  After the competition, the Chairman of the Board for Goldcorp, Mr. Ian Telfer, made a humorous speech about his thoughts about the competition and offered some general advice.  To wrap up the night, there was an exclusive party at a club called Barcelona, with complimentary limousine service.  This competition gave us a real insight on the life of investment bankers and was a great learning experience.

Our team would like to thank Derek Yee, Ashkan ZiabakhshDeylami, Milton-Andres Bernal, and the current students in our program for helping us prepare with all of our practice rounds.

SFU’s Beedie School of Business was honoured by the invitation to Schulich’s inaugural Case Competition on Sustainability in the Mining Sector and was thrilled at the opportunity to engage with this increasingly pressing issue. The team of four was assembled about a month out from the competition, with Scott, Dave and Matt having had experience in the mining sector, and Lindsay’s education being in the field of Sustainability. With two representatives from the 2010 MBA cohort and two from the 2011 MBA cohort, the team enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each other and to reconcile our visions for the case.

As soon as we got together we started to reach out to the Mining community in Vancouver, with the help of Stephanie Bertels, who acted as our “coach” during the preparation period. The team received the case two weeks out from the competition and it entailed a property in Papua New Guinea which is owned by Barrick Gold, who was the main sponsor of the competition. This particular property was acquired in 2006 as part of a bundle acquisition of 12 properties in total. The problem is, the property came with serious “legacy issues” such as human rights infractions and a method of tailings disposal which entails dumping the tailings directly into the river system – something that has been outlawed at all but two mines in the world due to the real and perceived environmental impacts of the practice. The construction of a conventional tailings pond at the site has been deemed unsafe as a result of the highly unstable geographical characteristics of the region. While this mine is proving very profitable for Barrick, there has been some backlash from the investing community attributable to the perception that the company’s ownership of the property is not up to international ethical standards. The questions posed in the case asked how mining companies can factor into their acquisition model the risks and rewards of sustainability issues, and upon acquisition, how can mining firms ensure that their corporate sustainability values and policies are effectively integrated into the acquired operation?

The issues at hand and the questions put forth in the case are incredibly complex, challenging, and relevant to the problems which the industry as a whole is increasingly faced with. The overwhelming participation of key industry actors as judges – including dozens of CEOs and other high level executives from some of the world’s largest mining companies – was impressive and demonstrated the serious tone which the industry is taking in regard to sustainability issues in mining. While we did not finalize at the competition, working on the case and engaging with these issues has been one of the most rewarding experiences of the program.  The team would like to take this opportunity to thank SFU’s Beedie School of Business for fully supporting our participation in the Schulich International Case Competition and to sincerely thank Stephanie Bertels for her dedicated assistance to the team.
 

All the Best,

Lindsay McIvor

The members of the Beedie MBA team—Rachelle, Matt, Tim, and Rob—recount their experience in the competition.

November 10

Bright and early flight at 0700, we were all a bit bleary, but after a few cat naps the fog cleared and we had arrived in the bigger “Big Smoke”. After a relatively short cab ride and check in at the hotel, we had about 45 minutes to get ready for the site orientation at Ryerson. We arrived at The Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson and were amused but amazed to find it above a Canadian Tire and Best Buy in the heart of downtown T.O. After a brief facilities orientation and a review of the FEI rules and introductions from the Ryerson coach and Dean, we were released for the evening. Following a brief reception at Ryerson, we found a little pub called the Fox and Firkin across the street from the hotel and began to formulate a strategy.

November 11

Bright and early, 0400 Pacific Time, we were back at Ryerson for the case presentation from the company executives. This year’s case was Cineplex, a Canadian entertainment giant. The presentation consisted of an investor-focused discussion of the performance of the firm over the past few years.  One of the rules of the competition is team anonymity, which we nearly violated by bringing Beedie bags to the presentation. A quick solution by our resident engineer Matt and some electrical tape solved the problem before the executives arrived.

Probably the most interesting component of this case was the lack of a clearly identifiable problem. The firm had been performing well over the last several years, despite the global recession, and had generated $1 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year.

After some questions, we were led to the academic quarantine to discuss the case to decide the primary challenge and how to manage Cineplex’s growth strategies. We worked late into the evening, fueled by cold Pizza Pizza (similar to Little Caesars), Tim Hortons (gallons and gallons of Timmys), and pop. Once we had thoroughly and completely burned our brains and were satisfied with our presentation, we called it a night.

November 12

Back at Ryerson bright and early (and really missing our beautifully pristine campus), we had some time to review our slides and print copies out before the presentations began. We were called back to the main auditorium for the presentation draw. It was a highly technical process, whereby FEI Toronto Chapter Chair drew team names from a hat. We were selected to present at approximately 1100 and had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Brad Bardua, Vancouver FEI Chapter President, who had flown to Toronto to offer support to our team.

We returned to our meeting room to practice before our presentation. Before long, it was our turn and we presented our case analysis to a panel of judges. Despite some minor hiccups, the presentation went relatively smoothly. The question and answer period was definitely intense and we were met with some very challenging questions including some we had not considered during our discussion.

After the Q&A, Brad took us out to lunch and gave us some great feedback on what we had done and what we needed to focus our attention on.  It was great to have a friendly face in the audience and even better to get immediate feedback on our delivery!

Once all of the teams presented their cases, the competition committee called us back and delivered the crisis: Netflix was in a position to offer same-day release for new movies (simultaneously with the box office). It was our task to determine a strategy to mitigate the threat.

We were allotted approximately 1.5 hours to complete an analysis and presentation of our crisis recommendations. A frenzy of discussions and PowerPoint generation ensued. We completed the deck, but much to our frustration and the frustration of a few other teams, one of the teams had decided to double-side print their deck. This tied up the only printer on the floor, producing one page every 4 minutes.  We were not able to produce our deck, but as it turns out, we were not selected to present in the final.

The eight teams that did not present in the final were given a glass plaque in recognition of their participation and hard work. We were then able to relax a little, watch the final presentations, and learn from the strategies presented by some of the other teams. It is always interesting to watch others present the same materials and see what does and does not work in presentations.

After the completion of the presentations, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our gear and head out to the banquet at the Hart House at the University of Toronto, where we were able to meet and chat with some of the other teams before heading for dinner. There, we met some distinguished alumni including Brian Haines, Steve Wade, Rob, and Matt Yelavich. Following some great conversation, food and some drinks, we went to another pub near the hotel with the team from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.

Before we knew it, the time had come for us to catch our flight home to Vancouver.

The Best in Class Case Competition was an amazing learning opportunity to apply our academic knowledge to real-world problems and it was great to meet with other MBA Candidates from other institutions, compare notes, and develop some good connections.

We want to extend our thanks again to FEI Vancouver for the opportunity to represent the Chapter at the national level, and especially to Brad Bardua for coming to Toronto to offer his support and feedback. We also want to gratefully thank the Beedie School of Business for its support in this competition!

Cheers!

Rachelle, Matt, Tim, and Rob

We arrived at our hotel next to the conference centre and the whole area of the city was buzzing with professionally-dressed Net Impact-ers, all of whom seemed really excited to be there. The first major organized event of the conference was the Welcome to Oregon Party, and it was held at a fantastic venue for socializing and dancing. We tasted local beers, met other Net Impact members from across North America and around the world, discussed our various visions for a Sustainable planet, and danced it up! The next morning we got our coffees and headed over to the conference centre for the first of two day’s sessions.

The sessions were absolutely fantastic – the topics that were covered, the speakers who came to share their knowledge, and the fellow students’ engaging and intelligent questions all contributed to an incredibly inspiring learning experience. The first session Julian attended was “Our Financial Footprint: Transforming the Economic System through Finance”, a session which generated many ideas including the notion of using a Genuine Progress indicator rather than simply GDP as a better way to measure total welfare. The first session I went to was based on the realm of International Development and was titled, “Conflict Minerals: How to Bring Peace to a Supply Chain”. The speakers included an executive from Dell computers and questions were raised from the audience by managers at Apple and Microsoft, among other big business names. The panel speakers weighed in on the responsibility of Buyer-Driven Supply Chain Companies, such as the large computer manufacturing companies, to understand where their resources are coming from and what effect their extraction is having on local communities’ socio-political and socio-economic conditions. The session highlighted the unfortunate reality that many essential minerals, especially those that are mined in underdeveloped countries such as those in Central Africa, are sometimes mined and sold in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuse.

There were also more interactive sessions available to attend and Julian participated in “Next Generation Strategies for Social Change: How to Use Markets to Achieve Missions”. In this session, Jason Saul, CEO of Mission Measurement, talked about how companies will enact social change if it is profitable, and called upon us to be the next generation to find ‘social solutions’. The attendees were put into groups of 4 or 5 and were asked to come up with a ‘social solution’ for Apple. The two points that had to be respected were a) that there would be a positive social impact and b) that there was a profit to be made. Julian’s group came up with the idea of enacting a waste removal program at Apple whereby Apple customers could pay a small fee to have their old computer dismantled and have its harmful components removed before being sent to landfill. Julian and his group came up with the idea that the dismantling be done in a safe environment, in areas where the Apple stores are located by low-income or people with mental difficulties. This would have the following impacts a) local employment for people who have trouble finding work b) removal of harmful components from landfills and b) profit for Apple (and a positive image). Their group won the challenge and received a copy of Mr. Saul’s book Social Innovation, Inc.!

One of the best sessions I went to was a panel discussion called, “Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Program from Scratch”. The speakers included Tod Arbogast, Vice President Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility for Avon Products Inc.; Meg Garlinghouse, Head of Employment Branding and Community at LinkedIn; Michael Jordan, SVP Sustainability Strategy, Jones Land Lasalle; and had Regina Hauser, Executive Director of The Natural Step Network USA as the moderator. The audience heard about various frameworks, strategies, and tools for overcoming challenges to launch exceptional Corporate Responsibility programmes or how to take an existing program to the next level. The key messages communicated were the importance of having champions within organizations, preferably at the executive level; the need to foster relationships built on common goals across the organization; and the importance of employee engagement and accountability at all levels of an organization.  The speakers emphasized the importance of devising plausible goals and initiatives which can be sustained over the long-run, and the need to install metrics of various kinds. Lastly, the speaker panel weighed in on the three critical skills for having a Sustainability/CSR-related career. They agreed that you must be a “people person” because you will need to be able to engage broadly across the company and community. It is also important to have fantastic conflict resolution skills – something which derives from being a people person. Thirdly, it is crucial to obtain and display an attitude of pragmatism in finding and communicating solutions to the Sustainability problems businesses face.
The speakers at the conference were of the highest calibre and included high-level executives from Nike, Boeing, Deloitte, Campbell Soup Company, Levi Strauss & Co., Starbucks, Gap, Dell, FedEx, and eBay. There were also speakers from Universities and Governments from the West to East Coasts of the United States. The opportunities to network and socialize during our time in Portland also really added to the value and fun of the experience. We connected with students from the UBC and University of Alberta Net Impact chapters and had a great night out on the town, from which some new friendships and good memories have resulted, and some joint Net Impact events are now in the works. We were the first cohort to have students attend and we would like to take this opportunity to encourage future SFU students to try to attend the conference and to thank the Beedie School of Business for supporting our attendance. It really was an invaluable experience to be exposed to the conversations which are being had by high-level executives of large and small North American businesses in order to understand where their heads are at, what kind of benchmarking is being done within and across industries, and what key ideas are working to drive Sustainability into the agenda of businesses.

All the Best,

Lindsay McIvor

The team arrived in Toronto on the late afternoon of Friday and attended a reception held at the Ted Rogers School of Management building, located in the core of downtown Toronto. The reception served as an exceptional networking venue for students from twelve MBA programs across North America (primarily from Canada).  At this introductory gathering, the contest format and details were introduced by Dale Carl, Director of Graduate Students at Ryerson University – the winning school for last year’s TATA Cup.  Carl closed off the reception with a final tip on the topic of the next day’s case, identifying that the topic would be on a man-made international catastrophe that occurred in the most recent year or two.  After the reception, the team went off to brainstorm ideas on potential topics and we unanimously agreed that the man-made British Petroleum (BP) oil spill that occurred in April 2010, which caused severe economic, social and environmental damage to the Gulf Coast, was the likely candidate.  We worked late into the night running a practice simulation on this topic and then went to bed feeling satisfied having undertaken our due diligence.

We woke up early the next morning, feeling refreshed and confident from our practice session.  We opened the case package as soon as we arrived to our designated room and were slightly taken by surprise when we learned that the case was in fact the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that took place in March 2011. In retrospect, the selection of this topic was just as likely as the BP oil spill and the team would have benefitted by exploring and researching a number of potential topics.  However, as one teammate pointed out, we made the mistake of over-focusing on the technicality that the Fukushima event was caused by a tsunami – a natural disaster – even though the extent of the damage was primarily due to the nearby man-made nuclear power facilities.  The lesson learned?  When faced with preparing for potential topics in case competitions and in other situations, it is useful to brainstorm a wide range of possibilities and spend a bit of time preparing for the most likely subjects before narrowing down to a single topic.

We swiftly moved on from our disappointment that the topic wasn’t the one that we had prepared for and worked through the case as we normally would have.  We were diligent in ensuring that our case preparation was well under the three hour time limit and we prepared clean and informative presentation slides with a focus on solving the issue using a triple-bottom line approach.  We had a little less than an hour to practice our presentation and we were able to provide pointers to one another on how to add clarity and the personal touch through stories and examples.  It was evident that we worked well as a team and trusted one another – a team trait that is so critical, especially when working under time pressure and in preparing for the judges’ question period – a process that is best if every team member is able to step up and represent the team in their response.

In our opinion, our final presentation to the panel of judges was a success and for some of us, it was a personal best.  We stayed well in tune with our role-playing efforts as consultants presenting to the TEPCO Board of Directors, starting off the session with a cultural Japanese bow and speaking clearly and confidently both during the presentation and the question period.  However, we recognize that there were two main downfalls to our presentation which serve as lessons learned for the future:

1.)   It is critical to allow for extra time to practice the presentation to perfect the timing of each component.  Our team fell short of the allotted 20 minutes and therefore lost our opportunity to discuss some important points in a greater level of detail.

2.)   It is useful to review the judging criteria sheet once more just prior to practicing the presentation to ensure that each major topic is sufficiently covered.  Our team focused too heavily on ensuring the flow of the presentation and on our strategy’s implementation plan, which led to less coverage of other major components.

When all the presentations were over, we were served lunch and the results were announced – the three schools who made it into the final round were University of Ottawa, Queen’s University and University of Alberta (in order of final ranking).  All MBA students were given the opportunity to see the presentations that made it to the finals, which were tweaked with an extra piece of information given solely to the finalists.  The competition was exciting to watch and we were able to learn from the quality presentations given by the finalists.  In the end, Ottawa took home the gold, while every participant of the Tata Cup were given participation plaques, Starbucks gift cards, as well as introductory job interviews by Tata Consultancy Services.

Overall, this was a fascinating event and a great opportunity for MBA students to develop professionally – both as an individual and as part of a team.  We were put in an uncomfortable situation and overcame the challenge with the company of like-minded individuals, and emerged as stronger business professionals at the end.  Based on these experiences and through our discussions with other MBA students, we also took home valuable lessons of how Beedie can administer new case competition initiatives to improve their role in providing future opportunities for our MBA students.

Through the orientation week, all of the MBA cohort gets the idea that we are going to have a very busy schedule and it’s a lot of work ahead. Mostly team work.

As a part of the orientation week — which I personally found very useful — we attended a teamwork workshop which served us well in two ways.

First, we got a chance to know each other more in-depth. Second, we were provided with a scientific self-assessment test which enabled us to know our learning pattern. This was something that I never knew of before.

It was such a great experience to know how people learn the same subject through different approaches. The fun part was that after a day-long workshop, our instructor asked us to utilize what we had learned through the course. But how? Good question.

By making a balloon tower! Yes that’s right — I’m pretty much sure all of you have heard about the macaroni bridge competitions or cup festivals at the universities, but balloon tower is something extremely amazing. You got seven minutes to build it, with limited building materials and you have to work in teams. The winner would be tallest, most stable tower, which could withstand outdoor conditions. Yes, that’s right you had to bring it to the street and test its stability.

I can’t even describe how everybody was feeling and acting through that sequence of events. There was a lot of stuff going on at the same time. Some groups, depending on their members’ backgrounds, started to set up an engineering design, while the other started to produce an artistic masterpiece, and so on. To cut the long story short, after all that furious competition, the winner was announced. But that was just the start of the story — right when everybody thought that the game is over the fun part came along. “Let’s put all the towers together!” called our instructor. Student from all groups enthusiastically assembled the “master balloon tower”, which was something like a giant colorful cloud.

The lesson was great: Teamwork is something more than individuals and cooperation is not always equal sacrifice. Sometimes we CAN have the cake and eat it too! Work in the groups and enjoy it.

So what’s the bigger secret? I’m telling you now, from that day I got what MBA stands: “Master of Balloon Administration”. In retrospect, this was an experience — and a higher education acronym — not soon to be forgotten.

We have 19 survey respondents so far. Most of these respondents are those with a high interest in environmental issues and CSR so we’ve recognized that our results will lean towards environmental progressiveness rather than showing a true average of the industry in aggregate. All in all though the project is coming along well. It is a fair amount of work but our team morale is high and we firmly believe that our end result will be informative. We’re also learning a lot in the process – we’ve all become stronger in cold-calling, composing compelling e-mails and letters, and in our interview skills as we begin to meet with industry associations and best-practice leaders.

On Friday we attended an event held by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce here in Singapore. We were invited by Marlene Han, the President (and the aunt of our MBA colleague and friend Chelsea). The event was at Urban Fairways and provided a perfect chance to meet and network with fellow Canadians including David Sevigny, the High Commissioner for Canada to Singapore while working on our swing. We had a great time, and it was wonderful to meet Marlene in person as she has provided advice and contacts as we’ve pursued this project.

The weekend was great – checked out the nightlife at Clarke Quay, met up with some of Eva’s high school friends, ate some amazing Indian food and had snacks and a swim on Sunday with Eva’s Father.

Team at Clarke Quay

Back to work now…