Sprott Student Team Bests Top Business Schools to Win Case Competition
A team of undergraduate students from Carleton’s Sprott School of Business won this year’s Van Berkom JMSB Small-Cap Case Competition at Montreal’s Concordia University, defeating groups of graduate and undergraduate students from some of North America’s top business schools.
Carleton’s Cason Bravener, Parker Olineck, Sarah McKinnon and Chiara Palumbo won the premier international case competition focused on small-cap investment, which, according to organizers at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, “provides business students with an opportunity to showcase their ability to analyze financial business cases, develop strategic recommendations and apply the academic skills they have gained in the classroom while networking with other business students and professionals in the finance industry.”
Bravener is a fourth-year Bachelor of International Business student concentrating in Global Financial Management and Systems; McKinnon is a fourth-year International Business and Finance student; Olineck is a third-year Bachelor of Commerce student with a double concentration in Accounting and Finance; and Palumbo is a fourth-year Bachelor of Commerce and Finance student.
“I am extremely proud of this team,” said Rob Curtis, Sprott Competes co-ordinator and Sprott alumnus. “The four of them took a tremendous amount of ownership over their training and skill development. They were incredibly hard working, practising multiple times a week, and sometimes multiple times in one day. They deserve full credit for their dedication, their win, and I am so happy for their success.”
Fellow Sprott alumnus Oleh Reive coached the team with support from Curtis, who helped coach all of this year’s Sprott Competes teams.
Reive was a member of the Sprott team that won the Van Berkom case competition in 2016, the first year the university attended. Carleton finished second at the event in 2017.
At this year’s competition, they took on master’s students from the Hass School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, among other high-performing opponents.
According to the Sprott Competes website, case competitions challenge students to work collaboratively to identify and tackle issues raised by a real business situation, as described in a written case study. Teams have a limited amount of time to review the history and data provided, analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and present strategic alternatives and recommendations to address the needs of the organization featured in the case.
“Through participation in Sprott Competes, students earn the opportunity to represent Carleton at competitions around the world,” says Curtis. “Students are provided mentoring and coaching from alumni, professors and their peers to best prepare them for success against the world’s top business schools.
“Regardless of final result, students learn valuable skills that will stick with them for their careers. The Sprott Van Berkom team and our other former winners can take away the confidence of knowing that they went head to head with their peers from around the world and not only held their own, but excelled.”
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