A team of Conestoga Business students won a bronze medal at the Lloyd Clive Memorial Student Case Competition held February 6 and 7 in Cambridge.
Business students Andriy Strebkov, Ian Fischer, Gabriel Silva Castillo and Aaron Brock represented Conestoga at the Lloyd Clive Memorial Case Competition held February 6 and 7. The team finished in third place.
Aaron Brock, Ian Fischer and Gabriel Silva Castillo from the Supply Chain and Operations Management diploma program, along with Andriy Strebkov from the International Business Management degree program, represented Conestoga. They competed against 11 other colleges from Ontario and two university teams from Quebec.
The competition was hosted by APICS - the leading professional association for supply chain and operations management - and required teams to use Fresh Connection, a web-based business simulation that challenges users to make real-world business decisions. Competitors were tested on their overall ability to work as a team and act like a full-functioning business, working towards the highest return on investment possible. Conestoga has come in third place for the last three years.
“I think we did fantastic,” said Brock, who also explained how course work helped prepare the team for the competition. “In our program we learn how to interact with the other sections of the business so you know what kind of goals marketing has, or the goals that purchasing has. It really gives you a sense of how the overall business functions.”
Teammate Fischer was also happy he had the opportunity to apply his skills at the competition: “It’s a great experience and it’s eye opening because you see how an action affects your bottom line. It’s not just in theory because you get to actually see your results; I think that will really help in the future.”
Faculty member and team advisor Leopold Koff said he was pleased with the team’s third place win and noted Conestoga’s teams have had some stiff competition: the first and second place wins over the last few years have gone to teams from Master’s level university programs.
Koff said Business students faced a similar challenge at the Supply Chain Management Association’s National Competition on February 20 where they competed against 24 other college and university teams, including Master’s level programs, from across Canada. “After our team finished its final presentation students from the other teams came to congratulate us thinking we had won,” said Koff. “We placed fifth, but our team demonstrated they have the skills to compete against the other schools and universities.”
Conestoga’s three-year Supply Chain and Operations Management program prepares students for successful careers in the growing field of supply chain management. For more information, visit the program’s website
Story by Kathryn Taylor, a second-year student in Conestoga's Public Relations diploma program.