Edmonton - Our undergraduate students won the School of the Year trophy following the 2009 Jeux De Commerce West Competition January 23-25, besting a field of 650 students from five provinces. Dean Mike Percy said the students who enter competitions like JDC West are preparing themselves for a tough market in uncertain economic times. “Employers are looking for people who are willing to be social and daring and academic. These types of activities build your network,” he said at the opening ceremonies.

Stephen Olney, director of business development for key sponsor PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), also spoke at the opening ceremonies and likened the energy in the room to a rock concert, with “a spirit of confidence and possibilities that is refreshing in a time of global uncertainty in this crazy time we’re in.”

Winning Placements

First Place:

• Accounting
• Management Information Systems
• Marketing
• Not For Profit

Second Place:

• Tax
• Sports
• Human Resources

Third Place:

• Finance

“We challenged our students this year. I firmly believe that our students can compete with those from any school in Canada. It is nice to see them show that to be true,” said academic advisor Professor Andrew Leach.

“The students in the academic competition put in at least 50 hours of work over and above their course requirements. It is a testament to the quality of students in our BCom program. I can’t say enough good things.”

Maureen Walsh, team captain, who is graduating in December with a major in marketing said: “Our case teams had one and half-hour long weekly team meetings since September. They’ve really been focusing since the last JDC competition last year on this.” Mike told the students they will be productive future leaders. “This type of competition helps you hone your skills. I hope in 10 years to see your names as people making a difference in an ethical way.”

Inaugural Win – Not For Profit

Sean Collins, who captained the first not for profit case competition, explained each of the 14 school teams got their case handed to them on the spot and immediately went into seclusion. The problem centred around a non-profit theatre company in Oregon, which had to relocate but needed to raise $2.5 million to do so.

The not for profit team, which included Dawid Chmiel and John Schmidt, focused on fundraising, since the site choices of an old school or firehall were limited (they chose the school to bring in more new patrons). “Our fundraising was three pronged with individual donors; grants and foundations; and corporate sponsors,” said Sean.

In keeping with Broadway Rose Company name, the U of A team came up with the Thousand Roses Campaign, which would allow 1,000 donors to each have their name etched on a glass rose in a display at the front entry, raising $1 million.

“The one thing that I took away is that you have to be creative in measuring success with not for profit organizations,” said Collins. “You don’t always have to measure the bottom line. The theatre company was about the capital campaign but they also wanted to introduce new people to the theatre which is another reason to choose a new location.”

“A week before JDC we did a case with Edmonton Youth Restorative Action Project,” said Collins, explaining that not for profit group works with youth on creative solutions to crime. “We did a consultation on ideas for how they could fundraise and create business strategies, operations and recruit. Next month we’ll take some of our ideas to them on how they may want to go forward.”

Industry Support

Sponsors for JDC West 2009 included PWC, the Alberta School of Business, Certified Management Accountants of Alberta (CMAA), ATB Financial, Telus, and Certified General Accountants. Each case competition was sponsored by a company which in turn provided judges for that case.

Some sponsors spoke about the theme of the competition, which was “Inspiring Innovation” this year.

“We feel it’s important to promote development for people in university which includes things like this JDC West event,” said Shannon Ketcheson, post secondary development officer with CMAA. “Because this JDC year is about innovation, the values are matching up well with us – we focus on innovation, creativity and strategy.”

For further information, contact:

Maureen Walsh
Team Captain
JDC West, University of Alberta
780.886.1699

Sean Collins
Team Captain
JDC West, University of Alberta
Not For Profit Case Competition
780.232.0339

Karen Baird
Public Affairs Associate
Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
780.492.8695
karen.baird@ualberta.ca

Monica Wegner
Communications Strategist
Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
780.492.7996
monica.wegner@ualberta.ca