Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute brought home the $500 top prize from the inaugural GryphBiz Case Competition held at the University of Guelph on March 2. The competition, which challenged teams to respond to a business case featuring Boston Pizza, welcomed four Guelph high schools to Macdonald Hall, the newly-renovated home of business at the university.
In addition to Centennial, participating high schools included Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute, Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School and John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute. A total of 11 teams participated.
“For students interested in pursuing business studies at the post-secondary level, this case competition is a great introduction to the kind of material they will encounter,” said Kerry Godfrey, acting dean of the College of Business and Economics. “We hope they left U of G excited for what they might experience if they decide to continue their education in this area.”
The competition started with a semi-final round where the teams from each school competed against each other for a place in the finals. The four final teams were then given an ethical dilemma connected to the original case and 45 minutes to develop a response before presenting to a panel of judges.
The students on the winning team, Aro Bhattacharjee, Muttaqi Islam, Byron Geddes, Cameron Powell and Adam Rowles, were commended for their ability to address all aspects of the dilemma, take a broad perspective and present a feasible response. The judges also praised them for including the entire team during their question and answer period.
“We really enjoyed coming to the University of Guelph to compete in GryphBiz,” said Bhattacharjee. “It gave us the opportunity to solve problems as a team and we also enjoyed the respectful competition we experienced with the other students.”
Drawing on the success of GryphBiz, students of the College of Business and Economics will be running a variation of the competition from May 5 to 6 called SEEDS (Students Engaging, Educating and Developing Students). It will be run as a class project and will have high school students from across southwestern Ontario coming to the U of G campus to compete.
For information on SEEDS, contact Cayley Littlejohn, cayley@mail.uoguelph.ca.
GryphBiz photo gallery
GryphBiz competitors
Students take a quick photo before starting semifinals.
Orientation
Acting dean Kerry Godfrey addresses students prior to starting the competition.
GryphBiz finalists
Our finalists developed a response to an ethical dilemma to compete for the top prize.
And the winners are...
Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute.
Our student volunteers
The night would not have been the same without you. Thanks for all of your hard work.
