Schulich School of Business students – Team ACE – won gold at the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario’s seventh annual Case Competition, winning $5,000 and the coveted CMA Ontario Case Competition Cup.
“The Case Competition was an excellent way to apply what we’re learning in our program,” said Latursia Kathiraveluppillai, of the winning team. “The added pressure of the time limit and the interactivity of the stakeholder groups made the experience much closer to solving real-world issues in the market.”
Members of Team ACE from York’s Schulich School of Business: from left, Arnold Lai, Karen Tran, Latursia Kathiraveluppillai and Shelley Li
The other three victorious team members were Arnold Lai, Shelley Li and Karen Tran. In second place, Team Tryhard from Conestoga College in Waterloo, won $2,500. In all, 100 students competed from 16 Ontario universities and colleges. This year’s competition was held at McMaster University in Hamilton.
During the competition, students were invited to put their management leadership skills to the test. The teams used ExperiencePoint, a computer-based, decision-driven simulation, where they were challenged to strategically advise a fictional company’s senior management on a change management plan given limited resources of time and money. ExperiencePoint offers a range of award-winning web-based simulations that are used in top business schools and executive programs around the world.
This year, the teams were challenged to take on the role of a senior adviser to the fictional Global Tech Inc., a manufacturer of global positioning systems (GPS). Students were challenged to diagnose the business issues and using change management principles, plan and implement a solution.
Each team player taking part was a CMA Associate Student and had completed, or is in the process of completing, a CMA Ontario recognized Introductory Management Accounting course.