HEC Montréal Takes First Place

MBA Students Win the Rotman CSR Case Competition

February 18, 2010

A team of HEC Montréal Intensive MBA students won the fourth annual International Net Impact Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Case Competition, organized by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, held in that city on February 13 and 14. The HEC Montréal team of Ian Philp, David Hanegraaf, Michael Carpman and Simon Thornington will share a $4,000 prize.

The Rotman School’s annual CSR case competition is an excellent opportunity for students from MBA programs across North America to showcase their creativity and analytical skills in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. The goal of this competition is to raise awareness of CSR among future decision makers. The competing teams tackled a case which featured a well-known natural resource company and its decision on whether to invest in a war-torn country in the Middle East.

Their ability to solve the case was judged on such criteria as their understanding and analysis of the financial and social issues and considerations, the quality and feasibility of their recommendations and the effectiveness of their presentation.

“The opportunity to participate in this case competition was a rich learning experience. In crafting our response to the case question, our team absorbed the fundamental principles of CSR and understood the challenges of applying them in practice,” says Ian Philp, spokesperson of the winning team. “We learned that a proper CSR analysis involves a careful evaluation of the stakeholders’ needs and the ability to weigh the risks and opportunities of engaging in a business venture.”

The universities participating in this year’s competition included the business schools at the following universities: Alberta, DePaul in Chicago, Drexel in Philadelphia, Queen’s and Rotman, along with three faculties of management: John Molson at Concordia University, Schulich at York University and Desautels at McGill University.

A team from the Rotman School placed second, and students from McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management came third.

 
 

From left to right:  HEC Montréal's team members Simon Thornington, David Hanegraaf, Ian Philp and Michael Carpman.