Brock business students have found repeat success after winning top honours for the fourth consecutive year at the 2022 World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara (WTCN) International Case Competition.

The Goodman School of Business team competed virtually Friday, March 11 against students from Canisius College, the University of Buffalo, Niagara University, Daemen College and Niagara College.

This year’s case focused on Speed Global Services, a supply chain solutions business in the Buffalo-Niagara region. The case dealt with supply chain management and global logistics of the company operating in a new global trade environment. The students had 24 hours to prepare their solution and be ready to present to the judges.

The team comprised of Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student Jessica Foster, BBA International Double Degree students Ahmad Pasha and Malek Abou-Rabia, Bachelor of Accounting (BAcc) student Michael Cubelic and faculty advisors Kent Walker and Mark Parker.

From the students’ perspective, their success was a result of the team dynamic they were able to build through practices and mock training cases that really helped them when faced with a challenging case.

“You can’t simply solve the world’s global shipping and transportation issues in 24 hours,” Abou-Rabia said. “So, we looked specifically at how we could help Speed Global Services navigate around the issue.”

Once they decided on their recommendation, it came time to sell it to the judging panel.

“When you get to present, even on a Zoom call, you have to bring the energy and capture the audience,” Pasha said. “In our practices, we tried to keep the energy up because even if they don’t necessarily agree with our recommendations that aspect will take us further.”

The judging comprised of the President and other team members from Speed Global Services as well as representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce, WTCBN, World Trade Center Toronto and the Consulate General of Canada in New York as well as others.

Walker was impressed with the team’s ability to analyze and synthesize the main points of the case to provide a persuasive presentation under the tight deadline.

“This fourth consecutive win corroborates the care with which Goodman prepares its students for ‘real world’ business situations by providing them with experiential learning that gives them the opportunity to acquire invaluable transferable skills for their future workplaces,” he said.

The team thanked their advisors, faculty members Eric Dolansky and Barry Wright for their feedback on presentations, Goodman alumnus Sukhwinder Gill (BBA ’21) for his advice and the Goodman Student Programming team for helping them succeed.