What is a Business Case Competition?

The St. Thomas MBA program offers several opportunities to compete in business case competitions. Students tackle real-world strategic issues and develop solutions to real-world business problems.

“One of the neat things about the case competitions is that they’re real and relevant. They’re resume building opportunities that real companies hire on,” said Colleen Sauter, Director of External Relations.

Each team selects a topic from any area of business ethics and describes both the problem and a proposed solution. The competition requires teams to deliver their case in three formats, all of which are judged by practicing ethics and compliance professionals:

• 30-minute presentation with all team members, to illuminate the financial, legal and ethical dimensions of the problem and to recommend a solution, followed by Q&A
• 10-minute presentation on the ethical implications of the topic with two team members
• 90-second ethics presentation by one team member

St. Thomas students historically do well, taking top honors at regional and national events like ACG Cup, PWc, International Business Ethics and the Black MBA Case Competition. 

Case competitions were Jessica Tjornehoi’s first foray into ethical leadership.

“I was doing an externship at Medtronic when I signed up for the IBECC case competition,” she said. “The topic was about the ethics of doing a corporate inversion to Ireland. Medtronic had literally just done this.”

Tjornehoi ’15 JD/MBA and her team not only won, but competed at the international competition in New Orleans. Medtronic took notice.

“One of the first things I was asked to do was present at their ethics and compliance team meeting,” said Tjornehoi. “That was week one on the job!”