Business Administration students place second at NAIT Case Competition
Four Medicine Hat College (MHC) business students are feeling proud after taking second place at the Winter City Case Competition, held at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) on February 17-19.
Business Administration students Kyler Brost, Nicholas Cummings, Rajveer Kaur, and Mishele Romanuck travelled to Edmonton to compete against students from colleges and universities across the province.
After an intense 12-hour competition in which they were asked to solve a business problem for the energy bar company, Seven Summit Snacks, the students were proud to become finalists against those enrolled in Bachelor’s degree programs at the University of Alberta (first place) and Mount Royal University (third place).
“It felt a lot like a bootcamp for me in the best way,” says first-year student Romanuck, who was initially intimidated by the length of the competition. “In the end it was actually really good and twelve hours was a good amount of time for me.”
The teams were tasked with finding solutions to help the company decide if they should expand their manufacturing. MHC’s team suggested the company focus on their marketing by repositioning their brand to appeal to a broader audience. They then created and presented a marketing plan, tailored to the brand’s personas, which helped to land them in the finals.
Despite most of the team members only being in their first year of the Business Administration program, the team felt their ideas set them apart.
“All the other teams were far more experienced, having third years some even having fourth years on their teams,” says Brost, who plans to major in accounting in his second year of studies. “I think almost our inexperience allowed us to think outside of the box more.”
They did not have access to technology during the competition, ensuring the students relied on teamwork to apply their learning from the classroom. They also took part in networking opportunities and panels in the days leading up to the competition, which allowed them to gain additional insights from Canadian business owners prior to competing.
Through their involvement in MHC’s Case Club, the team felt prepared for the competition as they have participated in weekly practices since September.
“I felt like I learned a lot just from Case Club,” says Brost. “You can learn about marketing and theories of management, but until you actually apply that repeatedly to different cases, it kind of doesn't stick. I think Case Club just helps you apply what you're learning in class throughout the year and going to a big case like this just doubles down on that.”
Students from all programs within the School of Business & Continuing Studies are welcome to join Case Club to apply their classroom knowledge to real business cases. To learn more about joining, current students may email Miranda Davies at mdavies@mhc.ab.ca.
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