Successful participation at JMUCC 2018 in Montreal, Canada
Between February 18-24, 2018 the Concordia University hosted the 10th John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition (JMUCC) in Montreal, Canada, which is the biggest and one of the most prestigious case study competitions in the world. The organizers invited 24 universities to this year’s edition, the team representing the Babeș-Bolyai University and the GTK – Business Consulting Club from Cluj-Napoca being also among the selected ones. The team delivered an outstanding performance during the competition, and has also won the prize of $3.500 for a professional essay submitted prior to the competition.
Every year, JMUCC hosts universities that have shown an outstanding performance during the previous years on an international level. In 2018 the team from Cluj-Napoca has obtained an invitation for the first time in the history of this event, largely due to the results obtained in 2017 at international competitions held at the Harvard University, the University College London or the Norwegian School of Economics.
Most of the selected teams were representing universities from Canada and the USA, four Asian, two Australian and six European teams being also invited to the competition. The team representing the GTK – Business consulting Club was composed of four students, namely Éltes Rita (Management, 3rd year), Kelemen Kincső (Business Informatics, 2nd year), Deák Péter (Business Informatics, 3rd year) and Szabó Norbert (Finance and banking, 3rd year).
Before traveling to Montreal, the team had a long and intense period of preparation. At the competition the participating teams had the task to solve three 3-hour case studies and a 24-hour case. At the 3-hour cases the teams had only 3 hours to find an effective solution to the challenges of a local company, which was followed by a 15-20 minutes presentation to the jury. First, the participants had to come up with a strategy for a software company. On the following day competitors had to work on an HR problem, while on the third day the teams had to offer a solution for a company designing smart gadgets to help concentration. For the 24-hour case the competing teams had to come up with an effective strategy for Walmart Canada. During the 3-hour cases two teams were competing against each other and the jury had to divide 15 points between them. Although the team from Cluj did not succeed to qualify to the final round of the competition, one of the challenges has been won by the GTK team against the University of Alberta.
The final result of the competition:
1st place: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
2nd place: Queensland University Of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
3rd place: University Of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
The qualification of the GTK team to JMUCC 2018 represented a great opportunity to compete with leading universities from all around the world, and test the team’s knowledge and presentation skills in a highly competitive environment. Congratulations to the team and to their coaches!
Special thanks to the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Babes-Bolyai University and to the OTP Bank Romania for their contribution to finance the costs of the participation!