1.0 THE COMPETITION

The John Molson MBA International Case Competition (the “Competition”) is organized by a team of MBA students from the John Molson School of Business with the support of student volunteers and a Board of Directors which includes a number of senior executives from the Montreal business community.

2.0 ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to graduate schools offering an MBA program or equivalent program deemed acceptable by the Board of Directors. A student who is registered in at least one course in such program at his/her school in the fall semester immediately preceding the Competition and who has not previously competed in any John Molson MBA International Case Competition is eligible to participate in the Competition.

3.0 THE TEAMS

Each school must be represented by at least four students who will make up the team and a coach. A student alternate and an assistant coach may also be included at the discretion of the school. The student alternate may only participate in the Competition in extenuating circumstances and with the approval of the organizers. An alternate who actually competes for his/her school in the Competition is ineligible to participate in future competitions. Any person may be designated coach or assistant coach but such person may not participate in any future competitions. In the event that there are an odd number of schools registered for the Competition, a team designated as Team Global will be constituted with five of the student alternates at least one of whom will be from a non North American school and one each from an American and Canadian school. The alternate for Team Global will be selected by draw. Any member of Team Global may rejoin his/her university team at any time during the Competition if circumstances make this necessary. In the event that the competition forms a Team Global, the participants that are asked to be members of Team Global will be allowed to represent their Universities in future competitions. It is expected that the representatives from each of the schools will become familiar with these rules and guidelines and that they will abide by them in the spirit of the Competition.

4.0 THE CASES

The cases used in the Competition will, to the best of the Organizers’ knowledge, be unpublished and untested. Some of the cases will be selected from submissions made to an annual international case writing competition arranged by the Organizers.

5.0 COMPETITION FORMAT

Teams will be assigned to divisions, the number of which will depend on the number of schools registered for the Competition. Divisions will be established by random draw at the opening ceremonies. Each division will have at least one non North American school, one American school and one Canadian school. Non North American schools will be assigned to divisions first, followed by the American schools and then the Canadian schools.

All of the teams will compete one on one in five cases during the round robin phase of the Competition against teams in their divisions as scheduled by the Organizers. The divisional winners will be the team with the highest number of wins in their division. Nine teams including each of the divisional winners and the non divisional winners with the highest point accumulation during the round robin will advance to the semifinals.

Please refer to the section on Scoring. The nine teams in the semifinals will be divided into three groups based on total point accumulation during the round robin. Group One will include teams ranked 1,6 and 9 in point accumulation, Group Two – teams 2,5 and 8 and Group 3 – teams 3,4 and 7. The winning team from each semifinal group will compete in the finals.

6.0 CASE PREPARATION

Teams will normally have three hours to analyze the case and to prepare exhibits in support of an oral presentation to a panel of Judges. No written analysis is required. Each team will be assigned a workroom for their preparation period as well as a team host who will supervise the team during the preparation period and escort them to the presentation room. Any number of overhead acetates may be used as exhibits for the presentation to the Judges’ panel. Additional exhibits may be prepared at the team’s discretion in anticipation of the question period. All exhibits must be handwritten. No material prepared prior to the Competition including blank acetates with school logos, is permitted. Teams are responsible for their own materials including blank flipchart paper, markers and acetates. Cellular phones, computers, programmable calculators, books or any other devices or documentation are not permitted in the preparation room. Cue cards and personal notes are allowed for the presentation.

At the end of preparation time, all presentation exhibits will be given to the team host who will only return them to the team for their presentation. During the period between the end of preparation time and presentation, participants will be allowed to continue discussing elements of the case. However, communication by the four presenters with their coaches, the student alternate or anyone outside of the team other than the team host will not be permitted from the beginning of case preparation to the end of the team’s presentation. Presentation exhibits will be given to the Judges’ panel at the end of the question period to assist them in their deliberations. Preparation time may be modified at the discretion of the Organizers on a case by case basis.

7.0 CASE PRESENTATION

Presentations may be made in English or French. Teams will notify the Organizers of the language selected prior to the Competition and will present in that language for the entire Competition.

Teams will be responsible to identify the roles which they and the Judges will be adopting at the beginning of their presentations. Each team will have a strictly enforced maximum of 25 minutes to make its presentation followed by a 15 minute question and answer period with the Judges’ panel. There will be a ten minute break before the second team’s presentation. The second team will not be allowed in the presentation room until after the question period for the first team. The first team will be allowed to remain in the presentation room during the second team’s presentation. The order of presentation will be set by the Organizers but each team will present first at least twice during the round robin phase of the Competition.

In the semifinal and final rounds, there will be three team presentations followed by question periods. The team in each grouping with the highest number of points accumulated during the round robin will have the option of selecting if it wishes to present first, second or third in its grouping. The team with the second highest point total will be given second choice. As in the round robin, a team cannot attend another team’s presentation until it has completed its presentation and question period.

Each member of a team is required to participate in the team’s presentation but not necessarily in the question period following the presentation. The teams may not interact during the presentations nor should there be any communication with the audience. Teams may record their own presentations. The Organizers may record any presentation for purposes of promoting the Competition.

8.0 JUDGES

Judges are selected by the Organizers from the business community. Panels are constituted at the discretion of the Organizers and will include at least three Judges one of whom will be designated Lead Judge. The Lead Judge will chair the question period, lead the deliberations, cast the decisive vote in the event of a split panel and during the round robin phase, prepare an evaluation sheet for each team’s confidential use once the result has been determined. Each team in the semifinals will receive a summary evaluation from the Judges’ panel after deliberations have been completed. Judges have a maximum of one hour to render their decision in the round robin phase. There are no deliberation time limits in the semifinals and finals. The panel’s decision is final.

9.0 SCORING

During the round robin, Judges are required to allocate eleven points between the two teams for each individual contest. If the Judges agree in selecting a winning team ( 4 of 5 Judges on a 5 Judge panel and all 3 Judges on a 3 Judge panel ), they will award a minimum of seven and a maximum of eleven points to the winning team and a maximum of four points to the losing team. The winning team will also be awarded a 30 point bonus. In the event the panel is split (3-2 on a 5 Judge panel and 2-1 on a 3 Judge panel), the winning team will be awarded six of the eleven points plus a 20 point bonus. The losing team will be awarded 5 points plus a 10 point bonus.

Any team that has not arrived at the preparation room at its appointed time will be disqualified from that round. The competing team will make its presentation and be allocated seven to eleven points by the Judges’ panel plus the 30 point award for the win. The defaulting team will receive no points.

There is no point allocation in the semifinals and finals. The Judges will declare a winner in each of the semifinal contests. The three winning teams will then participate in the finals. The Judges decision regarding the first, second and third place winners will be announced at the closing dinner.

9.1 TIE BREAKING

In the event two teams in a division have the same number of wins at the end of the round robin, the divisional winner will be the winner of the contest between the two teams during the round robin. If more than two teams are tied, the winner will be the team with the best record in the contest between them in the round robin. If teams are still tied, the winner will be the team with the highest number of points accumulated during the round robin.

In the event teams are tied for the last semifinal position, the semifinalist will be selected with the application, in sequence, of the following criteria: a) the winner of the contest between the teams; b) the team that defeated the first place team in their division; c) the team with the lowest total margin of loss in losses incurred during the round robin; d) the team with the highest total margin of wins in winning contests during the round robin and e) a coin toss. The same process will be applied to determine the ranking of the semifinalists.

10.0 GENERAL

The Competition is intended to provide a learning experience for the students that will encourage healthy competition, professionalism and interaction by our future business leaders, both amongst themselves and with our business community. The Rules and Guidelines are not all encompassing and situations may arise that have not been covered. It is the expectation of the Organizers and of the Board of Directors that any issues or disputes will be resolved in the spirit of the Competition.

NOTICE:

These rules have been established to ensure utmost fairness in the John Molson MBA International Case Competition. The organizers retain the right to disqualify any team from the competition or from future competitions if the above rules are not observed OR if a team does not maintain a proper standard of conduct in the professional spirit of the competition.

However, please note that THE DECISION OF THE JUDGING PANEL IS FINAL, AND IS NOT SUBJECT TO REVIEW.

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