Near the end of March, our team of fourth-year students—Abisha (AFM), Colette (SFM), Dhiya (SFM), and Lucas (SFM)—had the opportunity to represent the University of Waterloo for the first time at the McGill Desautels Business Ethics Case Competition in Montreal!
On a Thursday evening, we were welcomed with drinks and dinner where we had the chance to meet the other teams, learn some cool facts about the participating universities through trivia, and get some wisdom from the keynote speaker on growing our career. We were intentionally seated at different tables, encouraging us to network with students from other schools.
The next morning, we got up bright and early as we were in the earliest cohort which meant we had to be at the university by 7AM. We spent the next five hours huddled in our assigned study room as we poured over the caseand worked on developing a compelling solution to the issue and deciding how to present it to the judges in a way that best aligned with what they were looking for.
Although we initially struggled due to our lack of familiarity with the industry (aerospace engineering), we were ultimately able to come up with our proposal backed by our analysis drawing on knowledge from courses like AFM 311 Connections to Ethical Context, SFM 309 Environment and Business Ethics, and SFM 101 Intro to Sustainability & Finance Management.
Despite only having time to practice once or twice, our presentation went smoothly. The judges asked some tough questions but, as a team, we were able to respond calmly and thoughtfully while referencing our presentation deck which helped us in explaining our perspectives when the answers were not straightforward.
While we learned a lot during those 6 hours, there were two key takeaways from the experience that stood out. First, don’t be afraid to be creative with your proposal (while keeping it feasible, of course); we leaned on the safe side of our solution as we heavily prioritized feasibility which was important, but being a bit more innovative would have helped our presentation stand out more. Second, don’t lose sight of what the company’s main problem is. The case presented multiple challenges, and our attempt to address them all may have diluted the strength of our solution.
Overall, competing in the McGill Desautels Business Ethics Case Competition was an amazing experience and we highly encourage SAF students to consider participating in a case competition!