A team of four Odette students took home the first-place prize at this year’s 2020 Batttle on Bay Financial Case Competition, organized by students at Ryerson University in Toronto.
The winning team were l-r Nico Fazio, BJ Ivanovski, Kyle Drouillard, and Dylan Maitre. Battle on Bay is one of Canada’s longest standing and most respected finance case competitions, and this is the first time the Odette School of Business has placed in the top three. This year’s case was on Accenture, a global consulting and outsourcing firm.
The team was tasked with setting a price target on the company using various valuation methods as well as recommending a strategic acquisition.
BJ Ivanovski had also earned the “Best Speaker” award out of 50+ delegates. This award is given to the delegate in which the judges feel embodies outstanding presentation and communication skills.
The competition was structured with two rounds: a prepared case where delegates have a week to analyze a public company and answer questions given to them, and a crisis case where delegates are placed in rooms with little access to resources aside from their initial presentation. In the crisis case round, teams have 90 minutes to create a presentation which answers the questions given. The top six teams from the first round present their crisis case solution to a panel of judges and all other delegates, to compete for the grand prize.
Trust and teamwork played a crucial role in the success of the team.
“Going into this, we knew we had to use our individual strengths and put trust in each other to work as efficiently as possible – especially in the crisis case round.” Ivanovski said.
The Odette students competed against 13 teams from schools across Canada, including University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, McMaster University, University of Guelph, Dalhousie University, Ryerson University, Mount Royal University, and Bishops University.