4 MBA Students at the VanBerkom/JMSB Small Cap Case Competition

The second annual Van Berkom sponsored case competition hosted at the John Molson School of Business proved to be a challenging and rewarding experience. The competition consisted of 22 universities across Canada that were required to submit a preliminary analysis that would then determine if they could advance to the final competition of only 9 schools. The case at the competition was similar in nature to that of the prelimnary analysis, however we were limited to only three hours and two laptops to reproduce similar results in a presentation format to a panel of judges that assembled an investment committee.

This was a firsthand experience to witness the depth, analysis, and rigor that is expected in security selection at Van Berkom. Although we were not a finalist in the competition, we left this experience with a great amount of learning about the types of qualitative risks faced by a portfolio manager, as well as the types of concerns that are imminent when looking at a five year holding period for a particular stock.

HEC MBA wins the 24H Haskayne Case Competition at the University of Calgary!

Most of the MBA students had the chance of having a well-deserved break during this long awaited week of holiday… sun, beach and Piña Coladas!

Not for everyone though; the 24h Haskayne Case Competition team from HEC was riding on its last drop of energy to compete against 15 other teams from Canada, USA and Hong Kong. With very few hours of sleep, the team managed to impress the judges with strong arguments delivered in a very professional fashion. This perfect combination pushed the team onto the top step of the podium, carving the HEC letters on the bull trophy.

Thank you to our coach, Brian King, for his valuable advice and to the JMSB team for sharing their experience.

Teams Participating in the Sustainability Challenge

12 teams are participating in the HEC Sustainability Challenge. We wish each team the best of luck. Below is the list of participants:

  • HEC Montréal
  • John Molson School of Business (Concordia University – Montréal)
  • Beedie School of Business (Simon Fraser University – Vancouver)
  • Asper School of Business (Manitoba)
  • DeGroote School of Business (Mc Master – Hamilton)
  • Queen’s School of Business (Toronto)
  • Rotman School of Management (Toronto)
  • University of Vermont (USA)
  • Ted Rogers School of Business (Ryerson University – Toronto)
  • Alberta School of Business (Canada)
  • Schulich School of Business (York University -Toronto)
  • University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

The 2013 MBA Team that will represent HEC at the competition!

David Boisseleau: “I wanted to be part of the HEC challenge because there is so much work to do for the corporate world to integrate sustainability into their practices. The challenge of our generation is to present a new profitable and sustainable business vision”.

Cédric Gagnon-Ducharme: Undertaking an MBA and summarily touching subjects such as finance, economy, logistic or marketing certainly gives any professional a wide range of tools to understand the stakes of management and realization. Nonetheless, the manager, no matter if he is working for a company, the government or for himself, still works within the society; he is first and foremost a citizen, accountable for his success to the society and the environment within which he works. The present Challenge is, for me, a way to demonstrate that we are master of our way of doing business, that we forge our future trough management, not the contrary”.

Frédéric Larivière: Everyone should be concerned and responsible about the possibility of leaving the land in a condition equal to or better than that in which we ourselves-received. It is a duty to our children to give them the same chance that we had. The problem is that it is very difficult to achieve. A bit like the Titanic who tried unsuccessfully to prevent the fatal iceberg, the human race is absolutely massive mobilization to hopefully avoid the humanitarian catastrophe that could cause global result of the current development”.

Simon Turcotte: Industry in the 21st century must consider its impact on all its stakeholders. The new generation of leadership must make social responsibility as an integral part of growth and success in business, and I want to take part in making this a reality”.