DECA is a professional development club that transforms students into case cracking masters. Delegates participate in multiple case study competitions Canada-wide, particularly in Ontario, to showcase their expertise in a variety of fields such as accounting, finance, marketing, and business law. Held once yearly, the DECA provincial competition is a two-day event in downtown Toronto and consists of 17 different case categories, featuring over 1300 students from 23 participating universities and colleges across the country.
On January 20-21, 63 delegates went on to face the DECA challenge and won a total of ten awards:
William King – 1st place and won $1,000 in the Start-up pitch Competition;
Christina Wong and Kelsey Baguley – Overall 2nd place in Marketing Management;
Tingi Gurung – 1st place in case #1 and 3rd place overall in Corporate Finance;
Vanessa Kelly – 2nd place in case #1 and 1st place overall in Human Resource Management;
Jason Luo – 1st place in case #2 and 1st place overall in Management Consulting;
Michelle Tam and Rula Al Halbouni – won Leaders in diversity award.
The executive team would like to thank all its delegates for their tireless work and remarkable accomplishments to help make the uOttawa chapter shine!
[What’s next for DECA uOttawa?]
Next for DECA is hosting their inaugural invitational conference called Momentum, held February 9 – 11. Open to all Telfer students, this event will include several networking opportunities with companies such as Narcity, RBC, TMX, Burgers & Fries Forever, and more.
Thereafter, stay tuned for DECA’s year-end event, where they will have their last case study activity and introduce their new executive team and President.
The 2018 MBA Games have officially come to a close but the legacy of this 3-day event will live on with the 600 MBA candidates who travelled to Ottawa from coast-to-coast to participate from January 5th to 7th.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the student-run MBA Games. For the first time ever, they were held in Ottawa, hosted by the Telfer School of Management.
“Meeting all of the passionate and talented competitors was so rewarding,” says Emma Azzi, Telfer MBA student and chair of the 2018 MBA Games. “It was amazing to see the months of planning come together.”
Despite the cold weather, all 17 participating schools brought a warm display of energy and skills to the academic, athletic and spirit events. Participants even braved an outdoor scavenger hunt in -20°C weather.
In total, $45,311 was raised in support of the Moose Hide Campaign, a grassroots Indigenous-led movement of men standing up against violence towards women and children.
Paul and Raven Lacerte, co-founders of the Moose Hide Campaign, said they were so grateful for all the efforts of the MBA delegations in raising funds for their organization and in spreading the message across university campuses.
Competition results:
Schulich School of Business (York University) was awarded the Queen’s Cup as the overall MBA Games winner.
Our own Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa) took home the Schulich Cup for their top scores in Academics which included Finance, Marketing, Strategy, and Diversity & Inclusion case competitions.
Beedie School of Business (Simon Fraser University) was the Titi Watul Spirit Overall Winner for their strong showing in the spirit components which included fundraising, social media, a video competition, a scavenger hunt and a case developed with the Moose Hide Campaign.
DeGroote School of Business (McMaster University) took home the newly minted Telfer Cup for their top overall scores in Athletics which included volleyball, basketball, dodgeball and curling tournaments.
In addition, four teams took home $10,000 grants from the Moose Hide Campaign to fund the on-campus initiatives they presented to address violence towards women.
Here are Telfer’s academic rankings:
1st place Strategy case: Shariq Akhlaq, Akil Manasia, Kyle Ferguson and Laurine Avallone.
1st place Finance case: Rohan Vaidya, Kuntal Shah, Peter Narbaitz and Eric Goneau.
2nd place Diversity and Inclusion case: Tanya Roy, Jujhar Singh, John Wins-Purdy and Chinmaya Mohapatro.
In addition, a special mention to our coaches Germain Aoun and Hantz Prosper who helped to drive these students to success.
The Right Honourable David Johnson, former Governor General and Executive Advisor to Deloitte Canada helped launch the event as the keynote speaker at the Opening Ceremonies Gala.
Congratulations to all participants! The 2018 MBA Games proved yet again that we really are #MoreTogether!
From January 5th to 7th, 2018, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at two of Canada's largest inter-university competitions. The teams participated in academic, sporting and social events.
The first competition, Jeux du commerce (JDC), brought together 13 universities at Concordia University in Montreal, home of the John Molson School of Business, as the bilingual competition celebrated its 30th year.
Unfortunately, the second competition, Jeux du Commerce Central (JDCC) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions.
Congratulations to Telfer BCom students for winning the following in academic and sporting events:
1st place – Finance Case: Dmitry Shorikov, Katya Berez and Xing Zang.
Coaches: Michael Reynolds and Professor Allan Riding.
1st place – Tax Case: Dominic Piscopo, Julie-Anne Given and Nikita Gupta
Coach: Dominic Franchi
2nd place – Netball: Sean Lumney, Curtis Lu, Santiago Pinzo, Tamara Roy-Stang, Emily Potvin, Jordan Earls, Marisha Sesto, Michael Shaheen and Maxime Frost
Coaches: Fadi Azzi and Emily Ryan
3rd place - Human Ressources Case: Marie-Claude Monette, Isabelle D'Aoust and Deanna Carter.
Coaches: Maral Elliot and Matt Archibald.
3rd place – Project Operation Management Case: Austin St. Pierre, Dylan Budimir-Hussey and Cherise Naidu.
Coaches: Professor Jasmin Manseau and Aghilas Chebini.
Polycycle, an initiative by the Telfer student club Enactus uOttawa, has been named the recipient of the $150,000 Community Legacy award through Aviva Canada’s Community Fund Program. The Community Legacy Award targets young social entrepreneurs who have ideas focused on the theme of creating a community legacy.
Aviva’s Community Legacy Fund targets individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 years old with a unique solution to tackling climate change or an idea that benefits Canada’s environmental legacy. Polycycle was one of five Community Legacy Finalists that received the most votes during the initial voting round. In the end, Polycycle was chosen as the winner of the Community Legacy Fund and were awarded $150,000 in funding to implement their idea within a two-year period.
Polycycle’s project focuses on reducing plastic waste through the collection, and up cycling of post-consumer plastic goods. The project utilizes special machines to shred, melt down, and remould plastic waste into a variety of consumer goods. The project also works with community members to ensure that social employment is an integral part of each system’s operation.
It was another great success for our Entrepreneurship Bridges Lecture Series, which brought together the co-founders and co-CEOs of Surmesur, François and Vincent Thériault, and the Elevator Pitch Competition presented by the National Bank.
The annual Elevator Pitch Competition showcases some of the University of Ottawa’s top talent. As a part of Global Entrepreneurship week, this competition allows young entrepreneurs to present their business ideas that are still in the early stages of development to a panel of judges and Rise to the Top. The winners are awarded with a generous cash prize that they can put towards furthering their business idea. “The competition is a great preview into what students are working on and what is to come. Entrepreneurs create jobs and grow economies and it’s encouraging to see that our students are building the next generation of businesses, both traditional for-profits and social enterprises”, mentions Stephen Daze.
The competition has two categories: validation and traction. Each category can make a big contribution to the development of a start-up, with prizes of $5,000 and $10,000 respectively.
Results:
Validation Competition: Swich
Swich is a carbon air filter company utilized for odor elimination across many industries. It’s the world’s first reusable and biodegradable can-styled carbon filter and is the most economic, efficient and environmentally sustainable option on the market.
“We are in the beginning of a Green rush, and when everyone in mining for gold you want to be the one selling them shovels and pickaxes. Or in our case Carbon filters”, said Adam Czach, Co-founder of Swich.
Traction Competition: Desk Nibbles
Desk Nibbles is a local uOttawa startup serving snacks across the country. They Strive to create the best customer experience and ensure providing their clients with the best snacks in Canada.
“Anyone can agree the work they do deserves to be treated with a snack once in a while. Desk Nibbles is a service that prides itself on delivering that treat straight to the employees of any office. Desk Nibbles delivers the best snacks to your office, so it can glow with varieties of taste tested, proven, premium healthy snacks. These snacks will energize the minds and bodies of the workplace. It’s also a simple, painless process, no need to lift a finger. Simply signup online or call a representative to place an order. Then receive bundles of the best healthy snacks for to any office hassle free.”
Visit their website at https://desknibbles.com/
In less than two months, close to 600 MBA students from over 20 schools across the country will descend on the Telfer School of Management to compete for the glory of the MBA Games 2018 Queens Cup.
The single largest gathering of MBA students in Canada, the MBA Games is a 3-day annual event, organized entirely by students, that brings participants together to network and build relationships while competing in series of academic, athletic and spirit competitions. The Student Association at Telfer is proud to host the 30th annual MBA Games over the weekend of January 5-7th 2018, for the first time ever in our nation’s capital.
The MBA Games is more than a competition. It is an opportunity for students with diverse backgrounds to come together to create lasting memories and innovate for a better future. To highlight how much more can be achieved in business when we create space for diversity, the 2018 Organizing Committee has chosen to mark this year’s games with the theme, More Together.
This year, the MBA Games has partnered with the Moose Hide Campaign, a grassroots, Indigenous-led initiative of men standing up against violence towards women and children. Participating teams have found creative ways to raise funds in their communities for this worthy cause: from bake sales and trivia nights to professional headshots. All funds raised will be donated to the Moose Hide Campaign’s Safe Spaces, Safe Places Initiative, which works to end violence towards women on university campuses across the country.
At the MBA Games, participating students will compete in academic cases sponsored by prominent organizations: platinum event sponsor Deloitte, platinum case sponsor, Export Development Canada (EDC) and Gold Case sponsor, Canada Post.
Athletic events will include volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, and for the first time, participants will get to try their hands at Canada’s other national sport, Curling at the Rideau Curling Club.
The spirit competitions will blend fun team-building with activities to get students thinking about social responsibility and the future.
The MBA Games 2018 Organizing committee is counting down the days until MBA students from across the country become More Together!
Goldy Hyder, CEO of Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada, with 2017 CEOX1Day finalist, Anna Halawa.
The CEO1XDay program, run by executive recruiting firm Odgers Berndtson, matches Canada’s top students with CEOs from across the country. Today’s students are the leaders of tomorrow and the yearly program aims to uncover some of Canada’s most promising future talent by giving them an unforgettable real-world experience.
Launched in 2013, CEOx1Day has matched close to 70 third and fourth year undergraduate students from across Canada with leading Canadian CEOs from organizations like Purolator, IKEA, the CFL, Manulife Financial and Economic Development Canada. This year, there is another fantastic line-up of CEOs from organizations in the private, public and not-for profit sectors including the Ottawa Senators, PayPal, Edelman, Amnesty International, Kellogg’s, and Purolator.
Past CEOx1Day students who have taken part in the program say that they received valuable experience that equips them with the tools to start building their careers. Because the selection process has several stages, there is an opportunity for students to get feedback on their leadership and interview skills, even if they don’t make it to the final round. The different phases of the selection process include an online leadership assessment, as well as phone and in-person interviews and a half day with Odgers Berndtson recruiters.
The application process kicks off September 28th until October 27th and the actual day spent with the CEO occurs in February of 2018.
Why Should You Apply?
The program gives third and fourth-year students an opportunity to take in-class learning and apply it to a real-world situation while providing them with the tools and skills needed to start building their career.
What Are the Benefits?
There are many benefits of going through the CEOX1Day application process – even if you don’t reach the finals:
2 out of 3 applicants will have the opportunity to receive a personalized leadership report from Hogan Assessments
Semi-finalists will be considered for an interview with McKinsey & Company for a summer internship or full-time job
Semi-finalists will spend a half day participating in group exercises and one-on-one interviewing which will strengthen their presentation and interviewing skills
And ultimately, the winners will spend a full day shadowing a CEO (including one-on-one time), learning about his/her background, career path, and leadership approach
Apply today to participate in a 10-minute Thesis Competition organized by the Sprott School of Business, the Telfer School of Management, and the Université de Québec en Outaouais’s Département des sciences administratives! On September 29 at Sprott, you’ll have the opportunity to square off against your business-school peers for $6,000 in cash prizes.
To apply, write a one-page submission with your supervisor. Three submissions will be chosen by each institution to advance to the 10-minute Thesis Competition on September 29.
If your proposal does not make the shortlist, you are invited to use it to contribute to a poster session to be held just prior to the thesis competition.
Why a 10-minute Thesis Competition?
By this point in your academic career, you’re probably well acquainted with the traditional academic presentation structure: research problem, theoretical framework, methodology, results, and conclusions – in that order. That you would want to adhere to that structure for most presentations doesn’t surprise us. We get it. It’s a big part of your academic training.
But there’s another important skill for young researchers to have: communicating the impact and significance of their work right up front, and in plain language. So with the Telfer-Sprott-UQO 10-minute Thesis Competition, we’re asking presenters to abandon the traditional academic presentation structure. Instead, find an alternative way to present your project in a way that a lay person would understand. Explain what’s innovative about your project and the potential impact of the research. Tell a story. Look for creative ways to explain how and why your research matters.
Rules
Eligible students/programs
PhD in Management - Sprott School
Doctorat en administration, D.B.A. - gestion de projet, UQO
Information Systems (IS) / Information Technology Management (ITM) students active in the Doctorat en sciences et technologies de l'information, UQO
PhD in Management - Telfer School of Management
PhD in Electronic Business Technologies, or EBT - Telfer School
M.Sc. in Management, M.Sc. in Health Systems, M.Sc. in EBT - Telfer School
Students who presented at the May 2016 Telfer-Sprott-UQO forum are also eligible, provided they apply with a new submission/proposal.
How to apply
Prepare a one-page submission with your supervisor. Include the content that would typically be included in an academic-type presentation, but in a different format – one that highlights what’s innovative about your project and its potential impact. We’re looking for creative ways of explaining how and why the research matters.
Thesis competition - highlights
Each institution will select 3 students for the presentation competition.
Each presentation should be no more than 10 minutes in length.
Presenters will be evaluated on their ability to convey the significance of their research with clarity and impact
$6,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. 1st prize – $3,000; 2nd prize – $2,000$; 3rd prize – $1,000
Key dates
July 31 - Student submit their notice of intent to participate
August 18 - Due date for one-page submissions, jointly prepared by the student and his/her supervisor
Early September – Telfer School, Sprott School and UQO have each chosen their three presenters
September 29 – 10-minute Thesis Competition and poster session at the Sprott School of Business
“At Telfer, you won’t only gain knowledge; you’ll also acquire valuable skills and experience – that’s something I always say at Telfer open houses and I think it really sums up why I feel Telfer stands out. At any business school in Ontario, you will find great in-class learning opportunities. But Telfer excels at offering students a plethora of hands-on experiences like case competitions, CO-OP, and mentorship programs that will make them stand out against the 20,000 other business graduates each year,” stated Lawrence Quan, a student completing his Bachelor of Commerce with option in Marketing.
Throughout his undergraduate studies, Lawrence took advantage of the opportunities available to him and got involved with a variety of initiatives including CASCO, 101 Week, the CO-OP program, working as a Teaching Assistant, and participating in the Digital Marketing Development Program.
“Joining clubs is a great way to get to know people. I can look back and say that my involvement in the many clubs and activities available at Telfer made up about 80% of my university memories. If I just went to class, went to work, and went home, I would have missed out on the many other amazing opportunities and experiences that Telfer has to offer.”
Lawrence was able to combine his passion for hockey with his career goal of being a marketing strategist through a dream CO-OP placement at Telfer: “My final CO-OP term was at EA SPORTS NHL on the Global Brand Management team. Every Canadian hockey fan has grown up playing their video games. Getting this job was a dream come true and allowed me to get paid to think about hockey all day, every day.”
As Lawrence explained, it’s not just the hands-on experience that is valuable to students, but also the professional network they can build through their studies. “Telfer exists within the great business community in Ottawa. Professionals are happy to help students, share advice, and provide mentorship. Telfer helps students connect with these professionals, pick their brains, and take advantage of the knowledge in the community.”
Lawrence is now working at FarmLead, a Canadian AgTech Startup, as a Customer Acquisition Specialist. He is responsible for FarmLead’s digital advertising and search engine optimization strategy. He credits his success in the workplace to his involvement. “Your success in getting a job will rely on so much more than just grades. Your grades may get you the interview, but it is your other experience that will get you the job.”
“If I had to choose one thing I love most about Telfer, it’s the people,” stated Emma Azzi, MBA Candidate at the Telfer School.
After a remarkable undergraduate experience with Telfer, there was no question where Emma Azzi wanted to continue her studies. For her, Telfer’s commitment to excellence, their dedication to fostering a positive, friendly environment, and their strong sense of student community, were all key factors that influenced her decision to pursue her MBA at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.
Elected as the MBA Games Director in January 2017, Emma’s role was to organize a team of Telfer students to travel to Vancouver Island University to represent the University of Ottawa at the MBA Games. As a Canada wide competition that involves student competing in academics, sports, and spirit, Emma knew that her passion for challenges, adventure, and networking opportunities would be fulfilled.
After competing in the games with the small but mighty Telfer team of 16, Emma knew that she wanted to make her mark on the MBA games. “I just had to figure out how.”
The perfect opportunity arose when Vancouver Island University announced an open bid for the 2018 MBA Games Host. With the help of Professor Greg Richards, Emma submitted a proposal documenting why the Telfer School of Management would be the perfect candidate to host the next games.
“Ultimately, we won! I am now the MBA Games 2018 Chair, and am ready to take on this exciting responsibility of hosting over 20 universities in Ottawa this upcoming January for the 30th annual MBA Games. The Games have never been hosted in the capital city and knowing that I played a part in bringing them home is one of my proudest moments at Telfer,” said Emma.
Emma acknowledged that the challenges she faced throughout her undergrad led her to where she is today, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She stated, “I know that every notion learnt during my Telfer training will make me a more confident professional, a stronger business advocate and a better team member. All these qualities and skills will be crucial in shaping my career.”
Each semester, students in the final-year Equity Valuation classes (ADM 4350 and ADM4750) take part in a real-world, real-time project, competing with each other to advise a business that is facing a difficult situation. Led by Professor Nitani, students during the winter 2017 semester tackled a challenge being faced by Dragonwave Inc., a company that offers high capacity broadband wireless networking systems for network operations and service providers.
Scott, a member of the winning team, described his experience: “The competition challenged my team’s ability to separate the information that truly mattered from all of the noise. We also had to actively fight our own biases as we created our valuation and storyline for the company.” According to Scott, his team brought many different strengths to the table, which ultimately sold the judges on their investment recommendations. Scott has one semester left of his undergraduate studies before he graduates in December. He’s currently one of the Capital Fund’s Portfolio Manager Leaders and will be working in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets this summer.
For Roma, another member of the winning team, the Equity Valuation case competition was the most all-encompassing and fun competition of his undergraduate studies. He really enjoyed the challenges associated with valuating a small public company, exploring the possibility of an acquisition, and presenting his team's hard work to fellow classmates, faculty, and industry professionals. After his graduation in June, Roma will be working as a Private Equity Associate at an Ottawa-based firm while pursuing his CFA designation.
Enactus uOttawa was runner-up at the 2017 Enactus Canada National Exposition in Vancouver, where 40 universities and colleges presented business-minded approaches to solving social problems. The uOttawa team showcased food security and job creation initiatives in Canada’s North.
Through The Growcer, Enactus uOttawa hopes to combat food insecurity in isolated Inuit communities.The team has also launched Sprout, which aims to bring fresh, healthy options to low-income food deserts in Ottawa and other cities.The projects were presented by Enactus uOttawa president Corey Ellis, Alida Burke, Faraz Malik and Vivian Liu.
The uOttawa team also took home the BDC Entrepreneurs First Project Partnership Best Project award for the Iqaluit Innovation Hub, a co-working space and community initiative to encourage entrepreneurship. The project was presented by Brianna Fraser and Steven Bui.
A fourth project, Sanajit, is a social enterprise in Iqaluit that up-cycles discarded wood into quality furniture. It acts as a recycling program for the community and a mentorship program for high school students to learn about the trades. The project was presented by Parker Selman and McKinley Richards.
Congratulations to Enactus uOttawa. Best wishes, as well, to the Memorial University team that will represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup to be held London, England, in September.
In April 2017, students in the 4th year class Case Studies in Accounting (ADM4340) presented their final project in the context of the CPA Accounting Case Competition.
Congratulations to the winning team:
Jordano Gonzalez
Sarah Morin
Zachary Princi
Vaughn Asher Sapers
Iskandar Nasrallah
We asked the winning team to share their experience with us as well as their plans after graduation since most are graduating this term.
Jordano began by sharing a few tips for students who taking the class next year. He said that being confident in a presentation is key to having the audience agree with what you’re saying. He also suggested being prepared for the question period since it can be quite stressful. After graduation, Jordano will be joining RCGT (Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton) as a Consultant.
Like Jordano, Sarah will be graduating this semester and will be working for the government as well pursuing her CPA designation. This competition was her last as an undergraduate student. She explained “this presentation is not something I’m going to forget any time soon and quite honestly, it's pretty cool that this was the last presentation of my undergraduate degree”.
Zach has a strong passion for entrepreneurship and has co-founded a startup called Eephorea. Eephorea is an entertainment production company that produces and promotes live entertainment experiences. After graduation, he hopes to expand his startup and help pioneer the live entertainment and music industries here in Ottawa. In addition to that, he is being bridged in full-time at the House of Commons as an Accounting Officer.
As for Vaughn, he currently works for the Canada Revenue Agency and will be bridged into a full time position there after graduation. He strongly feels that he wants to use his degree and the knowledge and experience acquired during his studies to help fight those that abuse our taxation and financial systems.
Finally, Iskandar started his own tax prep company specializing in student taxes. His aim is to give accounting students the opportunity to gain experience by doing other students’ taxes at a very low cost. He and his partner won a government grant and have been featured in Glue magazine's business journal.
We would like to congratulate the winning team, and wish them the best of luck on their future endeavours!
On May 3, 2017, the Telfer Community joined Enactus uOttawa at the Annual National Showcase to highlight their key accomplishments and explain the high-level impact the team has had on the community.
The event also served to “send-off” the team, who will be attending the Enactus Canada National Exposition, happening in Vancouver on May 9-11. During this event, teams will present their projects, and demonstrate to panels of senior executives how they are making a real impact in their communities. Teams attending the National Exposition will be competing for the title of National Champion and a chance to represent Canada in English on the world stage in the fall of 2017.
This chance to represent the University at a national level comes after the Enactus uOttawa team competed in the Regional Exposition, and placed second in the Financial Literacy and Eco Living challenges as well as first place in the remaining two; Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship. The projects presented were judged based off specific impact criteria, unique to each particular category.
The projects presented by the team were all a result of the students’ hard work applying the skills they learn in and outside the classroom. Here is an example of the projects that will be presented at the National Exposition:
Sanajit is a social enterprise in Iqaluit, Nunavut that up-cycles discarded wood into quality furniture, also acts as a recycling program for the community and a mentorship program for high school students to learn about the trades. The project will be presented by Parker Selman and McKinley Richards.
The Iqaluit Innovation Hub is a co-working space and community initiative to encourage entrepreneurship as a viable career path and provide otherwise non-existent resources to individuals looking to start their own ventures in the north. The project will be presented by Brianna Fraser and Steven Bui.
Sprout is a local social enterprise looking to address Ottawa’s food deserts by using a consignment approach that enables convenience store owners to provide affordable fresh produce to families in need. Sprout will be one of the projects featured in the team’s National presentation by Corey Ellis, Alida Burke, Faraz Malik and Vivian Liu.
Join us in wishing them good luck for the National Exposition, and stay tuned for the results!
As is done at the end of every term, the Telfer School of Management was pleased to organize the Intopia Simulation for 4th year students as part of their Strategic Management class. The competition starts on the Friday afternoon and ends late on Sunday. Students spend the three days at Desmarais Pavilion and often stay late into the night on Friday and Saturday night.
One of the winning teams shared their impressions with us. Team 38 includes Sogui Sylla, Mohamadou Barry, Philippe Langlois, Philippe Émond and Yazid Agougou, who are all 3rd and 4th year students. The majority of them are planning to finish their studies this term or in December 2017. Yazid explained that this weekend was extraordinary and memorable for all team members. They worked hard day and night, throughout the weekend. They were so committed that they even stayed overnight to negotiate sales contracts for their products with other teams. Surely, very few students slept during their Intopia weekend!
Intopia participants are required to make quick decisions before a predetermined time elapses. Students must negotiate with each other in order to grow their business over the weekend. Intopia participants get immediate feedback on their decisions and are given the opportunity to apply what they learned during their 4 years at the Telfer School.
For participating students, the simulation is very realistic. Some of the members of Team 38 even dressed up in suits to negotiate with the other teams found throughout Desmarais. In the early decisions, Team 38 did not rank among the top teams, but thanks to their hard work, perseverance and team spirit, they won first place in the category of Best Strategy – Finished Goods Producer.
Team 57, a small team comprised of three members, won first place in the category of Best Strategy – Component Producer, despite their small size. Members Alexandre Ranger, Benoit Guilbault and Francis Grenier, also said that they found the weekend beneficial. Alexandre, a student who hopes to get his CPA, shared that the Intopia simulation was not only a very rewarding and fun experience, but it helped him put into practice a lot of the knowledge he gained throughout his studies. In addition, participants apply skills learned outside of class, such as negotiation skills.
The three team members learned a lot from this simulation, but they said that the primary benefit of this experience was the networking aspect. For them, being able to network with students from the English classes was representative of the real job market and this experience will play a positive role in their professional lives.
Congratulations to Team 19 (Anita Mahava, Cody Miller, Mike Bowen, Miroslav Gacic and Mussie Hailu) on winning first place in the category of Best Strategy – Service Provider. Congratulations also to Team 53 (Matthew Monteith, Miranda Chan, Stefanie El-Beyourti and Isra Sabunju) on earning first place in the category of Best Strategy – Integrated Firm.
The University of Toronto’s Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC), brings together some of the world's top business schools for a 3 day intensive simulation. Out of the 52 attending schools, The University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management performed exceptionally and emerged 13th. Telfer surpassed competition from schools such as McGill, Pennsylvania State University, Columbia, University of Chicago, Western, Queens, The Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and University of Hong Kong.
This year’s team consisted of six of our highest-performing finance students: Evan Friend, Danika Fu, Jack Lau, Dmitry Shorikov, William Tu, and Patrick Winogron, and was coached by Pouya Safi, the Manager of the Financial Research and Learning Lab. The team was formed following their exceptional performance at the Telfer Trading Competition in October. Since then, the team had been meeting regularly to devise their strategies and practice on the RIT software. Anyone passing by the Financial Research and Learning Lab was likely to have seen these students preparing for the competition. The preparation only became more intense as the competition approached. By the time reading week had started, RITC team members could be found practicing round the clock, often spending more than 12 straight hours in the lab. Even on the train ride to Toronto, the team continued to fine-tune their strategies.
The events opened with a welcome ceremony and introduction to the event. There was also a social outcry round for competitors to practice outcry strategy, and Jack Lau placed 2nd in this event!
This year, the competition was broken down into six official events focusing on options, sales & trading, commodities, fixed income, algorithmic trading and quantitative outcry. The competition was largely made up of graduate students in programs such as finance, mathematics, financial engineering and quantitative financial modeling.
First among the events was the BP Commodities case. Here, team members were assigned roles as traders, producers or refiners. The team had to work together to interpret market signals and trade various petroleum commodities and futures contracts. This was an extremely strong case for the Telfer team, placing 6th in this event.
In the options case, teams had to analyze market data to trade different call options on a fictitious exchange-traded fund. Competitors devised a model that collected, interpreted and modeled this data and devised a strategy to successfully trade on this model’s data. The final strategy combined volatility measures, delta hedging and pricing arbitrage to result in a 6th place finish.
With two sixth place finishes on the first day, the Telfer team occupied 6th place going into day two. Day two included cases such as credit risk, algorithmic trading, sales & trading and quantitative outcry.
The S&P Global Credit Risk case involved pricing corporate fixed income products, and calculating their risks. Tools such as implied price difference, and Altman Z-scores were used to help predict the price path and if the company would default on their debt. After extremely high hopes for the case, Telfer was ranked in the top 20.
The sales and trading case, sponsored by Flow Traders, was another great event for the Telfer team, finising in 14th place. The case required participants to take on the role of a trader and make rapid evaluations of liquidity risk. Throughout the case, the traders had to assess the value and risk level of dozens of tender offers and execute trades on the positions gained through these tender offers. Success was determined by the team’s ability to manage its market exposure while exploiting market-making opportunities.
The Algorithmic Trading case, in which the Telfer team finished in the top 25, focused on the development of a trading algorithm that would analyze market data and trade on that data, all while avoiding market penalties. Requiring a tremendous amount of preparation, this case was carried out by a single team member, Dmitry Shorikov, sequestered in a closed room.
The most exciting competition was the Quantitative Outcry Case. This involved two team members acting as market analysts and incorporating market data into a model of numerous countries’ GDP in order to price a market index. This estimate was then transmitted via silent hand signals to two other team members working in an open-outcry trading pit. These players, dressed in bright costumes to make themselves more visible to the analysts, bought and sold based on the analysts’ instructions.
In the past four years of attending, it was clear that this was one of the most determined and prepared teams the Telfer School has ever sent. The team improved on the previous year's result, and considering all of the preparation and practice prior to the competition, it is easy to understand why. The RITC team had been meeting every Saturday since November practicing and creating strategies. The students returning to school next semester are already eager to improve on their excellent performance this year, and those graduating are wishing for one more chance. A special thanks goes to Mr. Pouya Safi, the Telfer Marketing Department, CETSC, and the Telfer Career Centre for their help in funding the expenses of attending the competition.
Every year, the team is looking to acquire new talent, and will be prospecting at the Telfer Trading Competition in October 2017. If you are interested in investing, trading, financial modeling or would just like to get more involved, do not hesitate to try out. The team encourages any interested students to try out or contact them for any information.
On March 3-4, 2017, the Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada and Deloitte, hosted the second annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition.
During this case competition, teams examined emerging challenges and proposed solutions pertaining to the frequently overlooked issues of diversity and inclusion in organizations. This innovative competition gives future leaders a better appreciation of the opportunities for businesses to change and grow because of the Canadian workforce’s diverse nature.
“Diversity and Inclusion is a survival issue for organizations that needs to be owned by the CEO and no longer a check box exercise for HR,” stated Kate Morican, Partner Human Capital, Deloitte Canada. “At Deloitte, we focus on developing leaders who practice inclusive behaviors each and every day to help our clients and our people excel. We are delighted to support this important initiative, in partnership with Export Development Canada and the University of Ottawa.”
The Telfer School of Management’s delegation proved their skills in leadership by winning the case competition. The winning team included Matt Chesser, Vikas Kumar, Abhijit Doiphode, and Taro Abarbanel-Ueumura. Here are the overall results from the competition:
1st Place - Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
2nd Place - Schulich School of Business, York University
3rd Place - John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
Honourable Mention 1 - HEC Montreal, Universite de Montreal
Honourable Mention 2 - Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
“To harness the benefits of a diverse workforce, we are working to create a culture that is inclusive and welcoming to all employees”, says Robert Fosco, Vice President, Talent, Learning and Culture, EDC. “Sponsoring this competition for the second time provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate to future business leaders that diversity as well as inclusion are critical for the competitiveness of Canadian companies.”
“Beyond being the right thing to do, the business case for having a diverse and inclusive workforce is extremely compelling and backed by a growing body of research,” stated Matt Chesser, who was part of the winning delegation at the competition. “Reading recent research on inclusivity and sitting in on workshops by EDC and Deloitte - two leaders in diversity and inclusion - was fascinating. The fact that we won was just a pleasant surprise to end a great two days. We were fortunate to have a team with a diverse set of experiences that we could draw on for the case."
We thank all the schools for sending excellent representatives for this competition.
Written by Alexis Cawadias-McGeadie, assistant, Student Experience and Events
The 11th edition of the Financial Open took place on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 2017. Hosted by the Telfer School of Management, the competition is the biggest of its kind in Canada and welcomes over 350 students and volunteers from eleven Canadian universities.
The Telfer School of Management sent a delegation of 28 students to compete in eight different cases in finance and accounting.
This year our students took home second place in the Stock Simulation. Congratulations to Anne Armstrong, Juan Franlin Karamoy, Alex Milosevic and Jack Lau (Coach: George Khalife).
The Telfer delegation would like to extend a special thank you to the organizing committee of this event. Their effort and commitment to planning and hosting the event was demonstrated by the incredible success of the weekend.
Written by Drew Morash, President, Telfer Management Competitions de Gestion Telfer (TMCGT)
Case competitions, as I’m sure you’ve heard, are highly recommended and beneficial. I have never met a university graduate who has regretted their decision to get involved. Aside from making you stand out from your peers once you enter the job market, being involved in case competitions (whether as a delegate or as a member of your school’s executive committee) has many more benefits:
Networking and friendships Not only will you become closer to those in your delegation, but you have an amazing chance to meet other like-minded students from other schools. Case competitions also provide many opportunities to meet employers and professionals.
Critical thinking under pressure This is the essence of a case competition – to solve a problem under a time limit and to present it to judges. Being able to think critically and clearly can help you become a respected decision maker in your career.
Presentation skills
What better way to practice your public speaking skills? Truth is, you will always have to sell your ideas, and the skills you acquire in your presentation class can be expanded in case competitions. Watch your confidence soar!
Application of class knowledge
We tend to remember things we’ve put into practice, right? Apply what you learn in your other classes to help you solve these cases. Using this knowledge reinforces what you learned and can make you a better student.
Teamwork
You are not only working closely in your category teams, but also as with an entire delegation. Having strong support from your peers in a common goal is encouraging and confidence-boosting. Teamwork skills are a soft skill sought-after by employers. What a great way to practice!
Fun and vacation
Usually, case competitions hosted at other universities require some travel. In the evening, case competition organizers will have planned fun activities, so you can even take the time to explore a new city.
School pride
Being a delegate means you represent your school in external case competitions. This is a great opportunity to show your school pride and increase your sense of belonging to uOttawa and the Telfer School.
WINNING YES WINNING! It’s a bit cheesy, but there are no losers at case competitions! Whether you win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or nothing, you are still gaining valuable experience and all the benefits of case competitions listed above.
Students put their academic knowledge into action with DECA, a global professional development program for students who strive to compete and network with other like-minded young professionals. Delegates attend competitions with an oral presentation and a written component, featuring a wide variety of categories, such as Business Financial Services, Marketing Management, Travel Management, and Management Consulting.
This year, the University of Ottawa’s DECA Chapter had several triumphant victories during the annual DECA U Provincials competition, which took place on January 20-22 in downtown Toronto at the Sheraton Centre. With 68 delegates competing, uOttawa was one of the 20 universities and colleges with their eyes set on gold, and their hard work paid off! Here are their results:
Connor Giddens – 1st overall in Human Resource Management, Top 3 for Roleplay Anna Halawa and Sonia Alb – 2nd overall in Marketing Management, Top 3 for Roleplay Tingi Mulvihill – 2nd overall in Business Financial Services Jason Luo – 2nd overall in Retail Management Jingwen Lin - Top 3 for Roleplay in Retail Management SoniaAlb - Top 3 Written Tests
DECA uOttawa wishes to thank Matt Archibald, Kina Leclair, Emilie Kitchen, and the Telfer School of Management for giving the delegation the support, guidance, and academic training necessary to prepare for the competition. Additionally, it would like to highlight the efforts of Anna Halawa (President) and Bobbi Nguyen (Vice President) for the time, effort, and hard work they devoted to the club. Finally, DECA would also like to recognize the dedication of the Executive Committee of the club, as none of DECA’s successes would be possible without their countless hours of work (Maxim Goldenberg, Divya Mehta, Jordan Monaghan, Nikita Gupta, Sonia Alb, Michelle Tam, Rula Al Halbouni, Zach Zhang, Fiona Doomasia, and Connor Giddens).
What’s next for DECA uOttawa? Students from the delegation will be competing in various invitational competitions across universities in the province to carry on the uOttawa streak of success. It also will have the chance to participate in the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). Stay tuned!
Written by Nikita Gupta, VP of Internal Affairs, DECA uOttawa
If you happen to walk by the Desmarais building during the weekend of January 28-29, you’ll be surprised to find 400 motivated students from all over Eastern Canada. These students, hailing from 11 different universities, will be meeting at the Telfer School of Management for a case competition called Financial Open (OF).
This type of competition gives students the opportunity to work together to solve case competitions in a three-hour timeframe, and then present recommendations to a panel of expert judges. For the Financial Open, students will present finance and accounting cases. This year, the theme of #OF2017 is “From Coast to Coast” – participants will explore the history and values of Canada and celebrate its 150th anniversary of confederation!
Top row, from left to right: Samuel Soucy (VP Logistics), Joshua Ayer (VP Communications), Philippe Moore (Director of Logistics), Kevin Saumure (VP Sponsorship) and Ryan Rahman (VP Finance). Middle row: Katarina Mrkela (VP Academic - Finance) and Kassandra Tannouri (Director of Logistics). Front row: Miranda Taing (VP Marketing), Kim Angèle Vallières (President), Andrée-Anne Martel (VP Academic - Accounting) and Sarah Morin (Director of Translations).
The Telfer School of Management and the University of Ottawa would like to extend a warm welcome to all Financial Open participants. We look forward to welcoming you on campus on January 28 for what will surely be an unforgettable weekend. Hosting the Financial Open is a great addition to the many events we are holding in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Telfer naming gift!
From January 6 to 8, 2017, nearly 130 students represented the Telfer School of Management at two of Canada's biggest inter-university competitions. The teams participated in academic, sporting and social events.
The first competition, Jeux du commerce (JDC), gathered 13 universities at the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, as the bilingual competition celebrated its 29th year.
The second competition took place back home in Ottawa, where more Telfer students competed at Carleton University for Jeux du commerce Central (JDCC), an annual event hosted by the Canadian Association of Business Students that brings together 14 universities across Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes.
Congratulations to students for winning the following in academic, sporting and social events:
Team Awards
JDC 3rd Place overall, Academic Cup
JDC Recognition Award : Liane Brière
1st Place Trophies
JDC Marketing Case: Amy Lam, Brenda Lam and Roma Stepanchenko
(Coach: Professor David Large)
JDC Surprise Case: Caroline Robertson, Sarai Castrejon and Kassandra Tannouri
JDC Sport - Volleyball: Mira Azzi, Michele Ancrum, Mathieu Brunet, Curtis Lu, Adam Wang, Marisha Sesto, Dylan Kostka, Jordan Earls and Yvan Ntivumbara
(Coaches: Fadi Azzi and Emily Ryan)
JDCC International Business: Paxton Mayer, Mussie Hailu and Mila Giray
(Coaches: Professor Tyler Chamberlin, Jesse Dunn and Richard Laberge)
JDCC Delegation MVP: Mila Giray
3rd Place Trophies
JDC Entrepreneurial Innovation Case: Emily Potvin, Chelsea Parker and Tarek Mansour
(Coach: Professor Stephen Daze)
JDC Project Management Case: Paul Eom, Eric Thomson and Sharanya Tharmarajan
(Coach: Aghilas Chebini)
JDC Finance Case: Rabbi Kazi, Scott Beiersdorfer, Margaret Omodu
(Coach: Professor Michael Reynolds)
JDCC Accounting Case: Nikita Gupta, Julie-Anne Given and Meaghan McMahon (Coaches: Professor Sylvain Durocher and Professor Sheldon Weatherstone)
Written by Amy Lam, VP Academic of the JDC Delegation
From right to left: Erickque Plante, Shayan Obaidullah, Yvette Nakouzi Aoun (Assistant Coach) James Wilson, Derek Ovadia, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Germain Aoun (Coach), Philippe Lamothe, James Robert, Camelia Dubic, Anali Christina Stewart, Greg Richards (MBA Program Director), Emma Azzi, Keith Asare, Matthew Chesser, Goldwin John Guiang, Jayakumar Jayamanian. Two 2017 MBA Games delegates were not present for this photo: Curtis Haché and Jeremy Pluym.
On January 2, 2017, 16 of Telfer’s finest MBA students kicked off the New Year by travelling to Vancouver Island University to compete in the MBA Games against 18 other Canadian universities. Despite being one of the smaller teams present, they managed to vigorously compete in both the academic and sports components and exceeded expectations by winning multiple titles.
Thanks to the combined efforts of all its teams, the Telfer School of Management has gained second place in the academic rankings.
The Finance Team landed second place in the competition. Members of the team are: Phil Lamothe, Shayan Obaidullah, Curtis Hache, and Jamie Wilson.
The HR Team landed third place. Members of the team are: Matt Chesser, Keith Asare, and Camelia Dubic.
Additionally, the Telfer MBA team would not have won second place if it wasn’t for the notable efforts of the Strategy Team (Jamie Wilson, Eric Plant, Camelia Dubic, and James Myers) and the Marketing Team (Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, and Derek Ovadia).
The Dodgeball Team earned a well-deserved third place win. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Anali Stewart, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jeremy Pluym, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, Eric Plant, James Myers, and Derek Ovadia.
The Volleyball Team landed sixth place. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Shayan Obaidullah, Anali Stewart, Phil Lamothe, Matt Chesser, Curtis Hache, Jeremy Pluym, and Keith Asare.
Congratulations to the whole team for their outstanding effort and determination throughout the MBA Games!
Each semester, students in the final-year Equity Valuation classes (ADM 4350 and ADM4750) take part in a real-world, real-time project, competing with each other to advise a business that is facing a difficult situation. Led by Professors Nitani and Racicot, students during the fall semester tackled a challenge being faced by the management team of Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. (IRG). Imvescor is a Quebec-based franchisor of four leading Canadian restaurant chains: Bâton Rouge, Trattoria Di Mikes, Scores, and Pizza Delight, as well as a manufacturer of packaged food sold by grocers.
Over the past few years, the market and financial performance of Imvescor improved substantially from previous periods. Led by its CEO, Frank Hennessey and CFO, Tania Clark and their team, the price of Imvescor’s shares had more than doubled, reflecting a clear improvement in its underlying profitability and prospects. However, in late summer, some institutional investors had written to Imvescor’s Board of Directors to encourage the firm to put itself “up for sale”, arguing that its shares were thinly traded. Meanwhile, Imvescor’s management team was planning for continued growth. In this context, students were challenged with providing Mr. Hennessey and his team with recommendations on how to proceed.
Final presentations of the best submissions were held on December 8th, 2016 with the top three submissions presenting their recommendations to the management team of Imvescor and a panel of finance professionals. Several student teams not only valued Imvescor, but also recommended and valued potential strategic acquisition targets.
The Telfer School was honoured to welcome Imvescor CEO, Frank Hennessey, and CFO, Tania Clarke, as active participants in this assignment. Both met with the students during the fall, directing students to key public-domain resources, and Mr. Hennessey was present during students’ presentations. The Telfer Scool is grateful for their involvement. Likewise, we acknowledge Hugh Johnston, CPA, CA, a strategic and financial architect who specializes in the restaurant business. Mr. Johnson travelled from Toronto to hear the students’ presentations and to provide valuable feedback.
Fourth year Finance student Nick Kazaka described his experience: “The live case represents a unique opportunity for students to present to the CEO and upper-management of a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars on the strengths of its business, its intrinsic value and even provide recommendations for management going forward. The class and this live case in particular, demands an incredible amount of work during a short time frame. However the transferrable skills and experience from the case gives students a great introduction to equity research and valuation, and a taste of investment banking”.
This year, two teams tied for first place. Congratulations to:
Eric Carmichael and Valerie Brault
Evan Kerr and Nick Kazaka
Third place was awarded to:
Tina Liusun and Andy Yu
Congratulations to the winning team for best poster:
Each year, students in the 4th year class Case Studies in Accounting (ADM 4340 and ADM 4740) participate in a case competition in which they analyze a real company and report on accounting issues being faced by the company.
Daniel, a student in the winning team, explained that this year, the case was on Toshiba’s accounting fraud and the factors that led to the accounting fraud between 2008 and 2015. The students spent many hours doing research and getting familiar with Toshiba’s finances. The best groups presented their cases in front of a panel of judges on December 8.
For many of the students, this was their last semester. For Daniel, “winning the case competition was a really great way to finish my undergrad at Telfer. The case competition was a great way to pull together everything we learnt in the past 4 and half years”. Anna, another student in the winning team, enjoyed the case studies in accounting class throughout the semester because it gave her the opportunity to begin preparing for the CPA exams in the future. Lastly, for Paul, “ADM 4340 was one of the classes I enjoyed the most in my undergrad since it focused on the application of concepts and provided me with an opportunity to apply these concepts to real situations”.
We would like to congratulate the winning team:
Paul Landry
Anna Chen
Daniel Aubry
Derek Dinardo
Thank you to CPA Ontario for sponsoring the event and to Professor Sheldon Weatherstone, as well as Matt Prime, Jennifer McLeod and Professor Brian Conheady who were all members of the judging panel.
On Thursday, November 24, a group of students participated in the finals of a case competition as part of their Case Studies in Accounting course. We asked two students of the winning team to share their experience with us. Melissa and Caroline explained that this class was very beneficial for all the students that participated. In Melissa’s words: “The case competition gave us the chance to test all of our acquired knowledge [and] really prepares us for our future CPA title”. For Caroline, another student in the winning team, a case competition is like a puzzle, the only difference is that when you’re completing a puzzle you know there’s a missing piece.
Caroline added that even if the class is a lot of work, it was one her favorite throughout her entire studies. The class gave her a chance to put in practice everything she learned during her time here at the Telfer School of Management.
The case competition tested the students’ knowledge, and they also had the chance to meet experts in the field. According to Melissa, these experts exposed the entire class to many aspects of the accounting world.
The judges of the competition were Denis Chainé, partner at Logan-Katz; Marie-Geneviève Bégin, Justice Canada and Jean-Philippe Aubé, SixaCapital, as well as Professor Sylvain Durocher.
The winning team and the team that ranked second were respectively awarded $2 000 and $1 000. These prizes are courtesy of CPA Canada and SixaCapital. In addition to that, each member of the two teams was awarded a 100 $ gift card at Best Buy, courtesy of Logan-Katz.
Congratulations to the winning teams, from left to right:
From November 11 to 13, 4th year students from the BCom participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation, a competition created as a component of the 4th year Strategic Management class.
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world, known as Intopia, where students get immediate feedback on their decisions.
According to Victoria, a student who participated in the simulation over the weekend: "Intopia is a weekend long business simulation that lets the students who play it experience running a company in a competitive industry with all the stress of running said company over 9 years compiled into 3 days."
She also mentioned the hectic energy of the activity and how the Desmarais building was full of eager and motivated students that were running around. She adds that every team struggled to get their decisions in as the clock counted down.
Alexandre Maisonneuve, another student who participated in Intopia, says that his biggest takeaway is that Intopia allows students to practice the most basic skills of all in business: that art of negotiating.
Congratulations to members of the overall winning team: Team 20!
(Left to right) Andrew Lim, Zachary Page, Ioana Lazescu, Catherine Chu, Oluwatobiloba Afolabi, and Genevieve Walton (CPA)
Individual Award winners were:
Best Negotiator: Christopher Chan (Left), with Genevieve Walton (CPA), Noureddine Elkadri, & Abdenour Slaouti.
Most Congenial Player: Taylor Davidson (Centre) with Genevieve Walton (CPA), and Noureddine Elkadri.
Most Valuable Player: Zachary Page (Left) with Genevieve Walton (CPA), Noureddine Elkadri.
Honourable mention:
For a superb performance overall and top performance as an R&D specialist, Team 60:
Cheuk Sze Ng, Hoi Tung Lau, Ming Tak Liu, Zihan Gao
This capstone activity has recently been renamed to recognize CPA Ontario’s comprehensive contribution of $370,000 to the Telfer School to support students, teaching and research.
The second annual Telfer Internal Case Competition (TICC) occurred on the weekend of November 4. During the Friday night, first and second year teams improved their case competition skills by case cracking with an experienced mentor, and gained valuable feedback from upper year students. During the day on Saturday, participating teams (from first to fourth year) competed for the win in front of industry professionals and case competition veterans.
On Saturday evening, a gala of over 175 people was held to announce the winners. All in all, this year was a huge success!
TICC is hosted by the Telfer Marketing Association, the Human Resources Association, the Finance Society and Telfer International, and brings marketing, human resources, finance, and international management students together.
From July 8 to10, 4th-year students from the bachelor of commerce participated in the Intopia Strategy Simulation. This competition was created as a component of the 4th-year Strategic Management class.
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world, known as Intopia, where students get immediate feedback on their decisions. This simulation gives the students a chance to test the knowledge they have accumulated over their 4 years at university.
Congratulations to the members of the winning team:
The Francophone MBA team from the Telfer School of Management has won first place in the 2016 HEC Montréal Sustainability Challenge. The competition was held on Friday, March 18, 2016 at HEC Montréal.
The Telfer team consisted of Jean-François Claveau, Mathieu Daoust, Majid Fassi Fehri, Hala Migahed and their coach, Mathias Kouassi.
This was the seventh time HEC Montréal has organized this event. The Sustainability Challenge is an international case competition that affords MBA students from across Canada and abroad a unique opportunity to put their managerial and analytical skills to the test, as well as expand their professional networks.
The objective for each team is to develop concrete solutions that apply to a current issue and present them to a jury made up of executives from large international corporations.
"I am very proud of this accomplishment by the Telfer MBA Team", says Mathias Kouassi, the team's coach. "This is a high level competition that includes many MBA programs from Canada and around the world, in which participants are invited to show originality and analytical thought to ponder emerging issues on sustainability and offer concrete solutions to these issues."
He adds: "Thank you to our champions for being such great ambassadors of our MBA program and to our professors and staff who contribute to students' well being and to the Telfer MBA program on a daily basis."
The 24th edition of Happening Marketing(in French only) took place at the Université du Québec à Rimouski – Levis Campus on March 18-20, 2016. The Happening Marketing, which includes more than 10 universities and brings together more than 500 students, is the largest inter-university marketing competition in eastern Canada. This competition includes several components: academic, athletic, social and participation.
Our students took home five trophies:
Social - 1st place
Dominic Piscopo, Victoria Obeid, Natasha Heinz, Sarah Pétrin-Perron
Social Queen: Natasha Heinz
Sports - 3rd place
Curtis Lu, Sophie Nadeau, Mike Shaheen, Myreille Chouinard, Mathieu Brunet, Emily Potvin, Qusai Saleh, Michèle Marchand
Coach: Ross Dilks
Marketing Strategy - 3rd place
Holly Todd, Samantha Rao, Maral Elliott
Coaches: Hantz Prosper and Germain Aoun
Member + (MVP): Maral Elliott
Full Campaign (“Le contrat”) - 3rd place
Tarek Mansour, Marie-Pier Harvey, Maxime Trépanier, Sarai Castrejon
Coach: Michael Guolla
Member + (MVP): Maxime Trépanier
Surprise case - 3rd place
Richard Laberge, Maria FitzPatrick, Camille Porier
Coach: Jesse Dunn
Relationship Marketing
Member + (MVP): Roma Stepanchenko
Congratulations to our students for these great results!
On Saturday, March 5, 2016, the Telfer Finance Society held its annual case competition. For the second year in a row, the competition had TMX CDS as its title sponsor. It was a stock pitch competition incorporating the use of the Bloomberg terminals and a real world simulation. The competition concluded with a gala where the top 3 teams were awarded cash prizes and all participants were able to network with professionals.
Overall, there were 4 judges and 6 teams that participated, all representing various institutions and companies. The delegates came from John Molson School of Business, University of Waterloo, Nipissing University, University of Toronto and the Telfer School of Management.
The judges were Jean Desgagné (President and CEO, Global Enterprise Services, TMX), Ray Yuen (Director of Corporate Strategy, The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited), Vincent Robitaille (Executive Director, Treasury Board of Canada), and MJ Qurashi (Chair Tax Committee, CPA).
The University of Toronto was crowned as the winner of the competition, the John Molson School of Business came in second, and Telfer came in third.
The TMX CDS Financial Case Competition would not have been possible without the support of all of the sponsors, the judges, and volunteers who kindly gave their time.
The Redefine Conference took place from March 4th to March 6th, 2016 at the University of Waterloo. Delegates were required to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to present their solutions to real-world business cases to industry professionals. Competitive events included: Marketing Management, Fashion and Retail Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, and International Business.
DECA uOttawa sent a delegation of five students to this competition, three of which came home with first place medals. Congratulations to Zach Zhang (1st place in the Pitch Competition), Anna Halawa (1st place in Fashion and Retail Marketing), and Andy Yu (1st place in Finance).
DECA uOttawa would like to recognize all of the participants at the Redefine Conference: Jordan Monaghan, Eva Lin, Anna Halawa, Zach Zhang and Andy Yu. The DECA uOttawa executive team would also like to extend a huge thank you to Matt Archibald, Diane Mugeni and the Telfer School of Management for their involvment and support. Lastly, the chapter’s competitive success would not have been possible without the immense dedication, member empowerment, training and mentorship provided by this year’s President, Eva Lin.
What’s next for DECA uOttawa? The chapter is sending delegates to Montreal next week for the final competition of the school year, DECA McGill’s Spring Invitational. The executive team and the entire chapter wish all delegates the utmost success.
The global competition pits a global group of universities using IBM Watson Analytics to explore complex data sets. The top ten finalists will be selected July 1, 2016. The top two finalists will be invited to present their solutions at the IBM Insight 2016 event in Las Vegas in October 2016.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition hosted by the CFA Institute that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. The competition starts with local rounds in October, followed by a regional round in April, and ends with a global final in one of the global financial centers. Students work in teams to research and analyze a publicly traded company - sometimes even meeting face-to-face with company executives and conducting conference calls.
In the local first round hosted by CFA Society Toronto, the Telfer School of Management team competed with eleven undergraduate teams from other Canadian universities such as Queen’s, the University of Toronto and Western University. Teams were tasked with the creation of an equity research report on Canadian Tire Corporation’s class A shares and providing a buy/sell/hold recommendation on the shares based on their analysis. Following evaluation and feedback from industry experts and investment professionals, the top four teams would enter the local final to present and defend their recommendations.
Ethan Zhang, Portfolio Manager of the student managed Telfer Capital Fund (TCF), is leading the Telfer Team with Rabbi Kazi (Portfolio Manager, TCF), Alejandro Fiszman (Analyst, TCF) and Dmitry Shorikov (Analyst, TCF). As a part of the challenge, Aaron Sapelak was the designated mentor for the team and Pouya Safi, Finance Lab Manager, the faculty advisor. During a two-month research period from October to December, the team dedicated upwards of a hundred hours to produce a top quality 30-page equity research report and its complementing financial models.
Only in its first participation in the competition, the Telfer team has been selected to be one of the top four finalists qualified to the local final. The team is scheduled to present their investment recommendation on February 25, 2016 in Toronto to a panel of judges. Only one of the four teams will be selected to advance to the Americas regional round on April 13, 2016, taking place in Chicago. Finally, winners from regional rounds will advance to the Global Finals on April 14, 2016, where one team from each region (Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); Americas) will compete to become the 2016 CFA Institute Research Challenge Champion.
Article written by team member Brandon Larochelle, BCom Finance
January 14, 2016 marked the first time Telfer School of Management had been invited to the annual CFA Ethics Challenge held in Toronto. As a newcomer, there were obvious expectations set on us, as a school, to do well and to showcase the strengths and skills that can be gathered through our four-year undergraduate Finance program.
The third event of its kind was hosted by Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and the participants, albeit small in numbers (four in total), were very high in quality and consisted mostly of graduate students. The participating schools were:
Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto)
Schulich School of Business (York University)
Smith School of Business (Queen’s University)
Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa)
The Competition
The CFA Ethics Challenge spanned from mid-October until mid-January. The purpose of the challenge was to read and identify underlying ethical problems in the provided case, as well as provide viable solutions to solve the issues moving forward for all parties involved with guidance from a Faculty Advisor (Pouya Safi). On January 14, 2016, all teams were required to present their findings in front of a panel of four judges, in addition to an audience filled with colleagues of CFA members, event organizers, and even friends and family of other teams. In the end, the three-month process dwindled down to a two and a half hour event filled with four ten-minute presentations and ten-minute question periods.
The Environment
As Telfer had been granted the honour of first presenting group, the reality of competition sunk in. There was also an additional intimidation factor that we, as a group, had not taken into account. Where all of the students from our team were fourth year undergraduates, every other team had been composed of Masters’ students who had already made their way into the financial markets. However, we did not let change our confidence going in.
After our presentation and question period was over, we had the luxury of sitting in to watch the remainder of the event. After listening to the next three presentations, we remained confident in our team’s chances to win based on the feedback we had gotten during the competition compared to the three other teams. We felt that as a group, we adequately demonstrated Telfer School of Management’s ability to cultivate outside the box thinking in its students, and it seemed to impress!
When the results were finally announced at the networking event that had taken place after the presentation period, we took the loss with pride fully knowing that we had just marginally been beaten out by Rotman School of Management. Judges and audience members alike came to congratulate us on our content, presentation skills, and team unity. I could not be more proud of my group, and to be a part of Telfer School of Management.
Photo caption - Left to Right: Eric Goneau, Jeanne St-Louis, Riccardo Najem, Brandon Larochelle
The 10th edition of Omnium financier took place from January 29 to January 31, 2016 at Université Laval in Quebec City. The Telfer School of Management sent a delegation of 30 BCom students to compete in eight different cases in finance and accounting. The competition is the biggest of its kind in Canada and welcomes over 350 students and volunteers from eleven Canadian universities.
This year our students took home the first place in the Managerial Accounting Case. Congratulations to Sonia Alb, Patrick Tumbas, Jianyi Li (Coach: Marc Tassé)
The Omnium financier Telfer executives wish to extend a thank you to the entire delegation (Financial Accounting - Joshua Ayer, Kristjan Luik, Maxim Goldenberg; Managerial Accounting - Sonia Alb, Patrick Tumbas, Jianyi Li; Taxation - Mélissa Iskandar, Caroline Dupéré Tremblay, Julie Séguin; Personal Finance - Elliott Foley, Patrick Kaminski, Frank Lixin Lu; Market Finance - Andy Chen Yu, Dmitry Shorikov, Zach Zhang; Corporate Finance - Steven Benoît Ménard, Margaret Omodu, Felipe Izquierdo; Financial News Quiz - Alexandre Blais, Jiazhe Li, Claudtzlie Desormes; Stock Simulation - Robert Millan, Philip Niwinski, Cameron Hayes, Andrew Nzomo; Volunteers - Anne Armstrong, Mathilda Murray, Serge Kuiya Lajoie) for their devotion in the various pre-competition practices and their continuous motivation. The executive team also wants to thank the godfather of the delegation, Samuel Soucy, for his support throughout the entire weekend and the coordinator, Kim Angèle Vallières, for her hard work throughout the school year towards making this project happen. The committee finally wants to thank the coaches on behalf of all teams for their great help.
A special thank you is extended to the organizational committee of this event who has done incredible work towards the organization of this competition and who demonstrated great professionalism throughout their mandate.
This year’s MBA Games were held from January 2 to 4, 2016 in Toronto. Fifteen of Telfer’s finest MBA and MHA students travelled to York University to participate in academic case competitions focused around finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, and strategy. They also participated in sports, cultural and spirit activities, displaying excellence in teamwork, leadership, and engagement in every division.
The Marketing Team landed first place in the competition. Members of the team are: John Lachapelle, Ihor Bryden, Sarah Lag and Julio Chiong.
"Being part of the MBA Games was a unique experience that none of us will ever forget,” comments the Marketing Team. “It was an honour representing Telfer and going head to head against some remarkably talented people. Bringing the trophy back home with us was the icing on the cake!"
Other achievements at this year’s Games:
The Spirit Team (Mariam Iqbal, Abeer Sami, Michelle Navarro) won one of the spirit events, in which they had to build a maze out of cardboard boxes with the theme of Outer Space for kids from the Ronald McDonald House Charity.
The Dodgeball Team (Ella Cooper, Lianne Davies, Uyen Ta, John Lachapelle, Ihor Brydun) made it to the quarter finals.
“The MBA games is an annual competition of some 500 MBA students from across the country,” says Greg Richards, Director of the MBA program at the Telfer School. “I'm incredibly proud of the MBAs and MHAs who participated this year. We were a small team but made up in spirit what we lacked in size. Congratulations to all students who participated and to the marketing team for a great performance.”
Meet some of the members of this year’s delegation:
Mariam Iqbal was Telfer’s team captain for the MBA Games, which is her main task as one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBA Student Association (MBASA). She says she decided to participate in the sport section of the MBA Games because to her, it represented a great opportunity to meet and network with students from other universities. “It also allows us to display the skills we have learned, representing Telfer,” she says. Mariam says she chose to study at the Telfer School of Management because: “the faculty comprises of experts and well versed professors and mentors, allowing for maximum growth of [her] network and learning beyond classrooms.”
Julio Cam is also one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBASA. He wanted to take part of the MBA Games because he likes to take advantage of every opportunity he gets during his MBA experience to meet new people, to learn new skills and to have fun. Julio says his most memorable experience at Telfer so far has been taking a Marketing class with Professor Michael Mulvey as he says that his classes were not only interesting, but that he always tried to bridge the gap between theory and practice by giving students real life examples.
Uyen Phuong Ta joined the MBA Games to represent her team and school but most importantly, she says that she wanted “to make new connections, think critically and start the new year with a BANG!” Uyen’s five year goal is to work in the healthcare industry as an administrator and making a difference to Canadians by improving the system delivery.
This year is Michelle Navarro’s second year competing in the MBA Games. She says she signed up again, in the Strategy Case Competition, because she had so much fun competing last year. Michelle says that what matters to her is being able to conduct business in an ethical way, and in a way that benefits all stakeholders and employees: “Telfer has managed to show me that you can have a successful business or segment of the public service and maintain moral and ethical integrity at the same time!”
Hala Migahed took part of the MBA Games because she wanted to learn from and share ideas with other students across Canada with similar aspirations. She chose to do her MBA at Telfer because it is offered in French, because teachers have the practical and theoretical knowledge, and the schedule allows her to maintain her full time job. What matters most to Hala is learning from experience to improve herself on a personal and professional level. She says: “The school has helped me learn not just from a book but from real people with real stories and priceless experience.”
Congratulations to whole team for their determination and valiant efforts throughout the MBA Games!
The University of Ottawa has been named the 2015 Enactus National Champion by this country’s largest student leadership development organization, Enactus Canada, and a 72 person judging panel comprised of top Canadian CEOs, for their ability to enable social, environmental and economic progress through entrepreneurial action.
The team from the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management took home the Tim Hortons Cup in recognition of the impact made at home and abroad through a variety of projects, one of which is providing meaningful job opportunities to individuals with a mental illness.
The winning team included:
Kathleen Kemp
Ajmal Sataar
Sam Thumm
Hannah Behzadi
Sayem Reza
Timmy Guo
“Winning Nationals has been the most amazing ending to my university career. It’s surreal to see that the work that our team has accomplished over the past few years has made such an impact that we’ve been crowned the National champion” said Kathleen Kemp.
“Championing and empowering young people is as important to Tim Hortons as it is with our Tim Horton Children’s Foundation, which shares so many key values with Enactus,” said David Clanachan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Tim Hortons Canada. “Tim Hortons is proud to support Enactus and the entrepreneurial spirits of the young Canadians participating in this competition. We wish them continued success as they make a true difference in their own lives and in that of their communities.”
Enactus University of Ottawa stood victorious with their project CigBins, a cigarette butt and recycling service that has diverted 100,000+ cigarette butts off city streets and generated $73,200 in revenue.
“The Enactus team from the University of Ottawa greatly improved the quality of life for individuals by creating and implementing innovative and forward-thinking community projects,” said Nicole Almond, Enactus Canada president. “We are eager to see Enactus University of Ottawa compete and represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup.”
The National Champion team took home the Tim Hortons Cup and now advances to represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup taking place in South Africa in the fall of this year.
More than 1,200 delegates including the country’s brightest university and college students, academic professionals and top business leaders witnessed the crowning of the National Champion at the 2015 Enactus Canada National Exposition held in Toronto.
In addition, the financial Literacy team placed 3rd in their category. Congratulations to:
Mieka Loepp
Wendy Liang
Faraz Malik
About Enactus Canada
Enactus Canada, this country’s largest student leadership development organization, is shaping generations of entrepreneurial leaders who are passionate about advancing the economic, social and environmental health of Canada. Guided by academic advisors and business experts, more than 2,400 entrepreneurial postsecondary students led 250 community empowerment projects and business ventures this past year in communities coast to coast. As a global network of 36 countries, Enactus uses the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. For more information, visit enactus.ca.
The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
