Posted on Jan. 17: MBA students present winning case

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BY Chantall Van Raay

January 17, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/ecase_winners.jpg” caption=”eCase competition winners”]When it comes to cracking problems faced by e-businesses, McMaster's MBA students have a strong case.

Two groups of McMaster business students placed first and third in the second annual eCase Competition held this week. Presented by the Michael DeGroote School of Business and the McMaster eBusiness Research Centre, the competition was held in conjunction with the McMaster World Congress Conference.

Six graduate teams from across the country were given 24 hours to present a detailed analyses, recommendation and implementation plan on an actual case faced by Canadian Tire Online. The situation was about the company's online service and challenges it faced with multi-channel retailing.

“The eCase competition gives students a chance to showcase their talent and apply the knowledge they've gained through the MBA program,” says Khaled Hassanein, associate professor of Information Systems. “Each case allows students to assume the role of a consultant to management of a company.”

After the first round of presentations on Tuesday, two teams from McMaster, a team from Calgary and a team from New Brunswick advanced to the final round on Wednesday. The top three teams were announced at the World Congress banquet Wednesday evening. Nearly half of the approximately 800 international delegates from industry and academia who attended the World Congress were at the banquet. The University of New Brunswick team placed second. Prizes of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $2,500 for third place were announced by co-directors Hassanein and Milena Head, director of the McMaster eBusiness Research Centre and assistant professor of Information Systems.

“It was a fantastic night,” said Hassanein who, with Head, coached the McMaster teams. “Our case competition teams have once again proven the quality of our students and our MBA program.”

Five members of the McMaster teams recently completed a second-year MBA course entitled 'eBusiness Case Studies', designed by Hassanein and Head, who co-taught the course the first time it was offered in the fall of 2001. Now taught by Hassanein, the course allows student teams to analyze and present cases related to eBusiness on a bi-weekly basis.

The eBusiness case studies course and eCase competition help prepare students for life beyond school, says Hassanein. “This allows them to take the knwledge they gained through the MBA program and apply that knowledge to actual real-life situations,” he says. “Especially if students are young, like they typically are when they join the MBA program at McMaster, they usually don't have a lot of experience, so the case method is a great way to give them experience in a short time.”

Photo caption: The McMaster University I team pose for a photo after being presented a $10,000 cheque for winning first prize in the eCase competition. Coaches Milena Head, left and Khaled Hassanein, right, flank students Constantinos Coursaris, Caroline Dwyer, Umar Ruhi, Ramez Salti and Carlos Santos. Members of McMaster University II are Malek El Refaie, Basheer Mohamed and Anish Vyas.