Penn State team places third in Inter-Collegiate Business Competition
2/12/2020
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two students representing the Penn State Smeal College of Business placed third recently in the ethics stream of the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC) hosted by the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Molly Brown, a senior dual majoring in finance and Spanish, and Natasha Ferguson, a senior industrial engineering major, were coached by Michelle Darnell, Smeal’s director of honor and integrity. A team representing Simon Fraser University, from Burnaby, British Columbia, placed first, followed by a team from the University of Florida.
It was the first time a team from Smeal participated in the ICBC.
The ICBC is considered by many to be the world’s most academically rigorous case competition, and Canada’s oldest, largest and most prestigious undergraduate case competition.
Competition in the ICBC is split into two rounds. The preliminary round is a written case response designed to challenge competitors’ ability to write a quality business report. The top six teams in each stream advanced to the final weekend, a three-day event that balances fierce competition in a five and a half hour case presented to a panel of expert judges.
Students are sequestered during the competition and given only a few hours after receiving the case to develop their response. Internet access is forbidden.
This year’s ICBC ethics stream case in the preliminary round was about protecting the elderly from scams on social media. More technically, protecting against marketing and sales activities of certain businesses that are technically legal, but ethically questionable.
The final weekend case focused on a small town in Canada that was declining because of economic changes, and how to ethically respond to interest in a gambling/marijuana/brothel business setting up shop in town.
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Natasha Ferguson, left, and Molly Brown teamed up to represent the Penn State Smeal College of Business at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition. Ferguson and Brown placed third in the ethics stream. IMAGE: PROVIDED
