The University of Alberta team won the 2016 University of Navarra International Case Competition (UNICC). Kiana Remagni, Bianca Barry, Adam Purdon, Troy Minogue and their coach, Douglas Leong, earned more total points than their competitors in the week-long competition. They were accompanied at the podium by the finalists from Concordia University and Simon Fraser University. HEC Montréal finished in fourth place. All four Canadian universities were able to compete thanks to the School of Economics and Business Administration’s partnership agreements, which allow students to study on the University of Navarra campus.

A total of 80 students from 10 countries competed at the University of Navarra last week in the hopes of taking home first prize in the fifth annual Case Competition, hosted by the School of Economics and Business Administration. According to Mari Carmen Bielza, the Director of the School’s International Area, “The experience of welcoming students from so many different countries and cultures has been wonderful. We’re very grateful to the company representatives who sat on the jury and to the University of Navarra students, who gave their all to help manage the event and also made their international counterparts feel right at home.”

The case competitions are part of an international league based on the case method: teams are given an actual problem affecting a real business and must present their own creative, ethical and practical solution to a jury. They have to draw on a wide range of knowledge areas, including economics, finance, business administration, marketing and speaking in public.

Students from 16 universities on five continents took part in this year’s competition. These included one African university: the American University in Cairo; three Asian universities: the University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; two universities in Oceania: Queensland University of Technology and the University of Otago, both in New Zealand; eight North American universities: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of South Carolina and the University of Washington, all in the United States; and Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, HEC Montréal, the Alberta School of Business, Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business and Simon Fraser University in Canada; and two European universities: the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and the host, the University of Navarra.

A week-long competition

The qualifying rounds took place on Monday and Tuesday in the Amigos Building, where students were given three hours to prepare their case presentations. On Wednesday the students were given free time to explore Navarre and rest up for Thursday, when they spent 24 hours in their hotel focusing on their final proposals and preparing for their presentations on Friday, when the winner of the 2016 UNICC was chosen.

Although most participants had come for the competition, the student organizers also planned recreational activities so that the international visitors could learn about Navarre and its culture, in the hopes that this visit would be the first of many and the start of a long and fruitful relationship. Activities included tours of the main attractions in Pamplona’s old city, meals in typical cider bars, visits to museums and wineries, and trips to San Sebastian.