Rules & Guidelines (1-5)

Section 1.0 – The Competition

The John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition (JMUCC) is organized by a team of students from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. The members of the Organizing Committee are accountable to the Board of Directors; which consists of a number of senior executives from the Montreal Business Community.

Formerly known as the Undergraduate National Case Competition (UNCC), this week-long event challenges twenty-four teams from internationally renowned business schools to put their creative and analytical skills to the test.

Throughout the course of the competition, each team will be required to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the classroom towards solving actual business cases. Once the analysis is completed, each team will present their recommendations, as well as a detailed plan of action to a panel of corporate executives who will evaluate the students’ presentations.

Section 2.0 – Eligibility Of Participants

The competition is open to undergraduate schools offering a bachelor program or equivalent program deemed acceptable by the Board of Directors. A student who is registered in at least one course in such program at his/her school in the fall semester immediately preceding the Competition is eligible to participate in the Competition. A student who has already competed in any other John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition is not eligible, unless otherwise stated by the Board of Directors.

Section 3.0 – Team Delegates

Each school must be represented by four undergraduate students who will make up the team, with the option of a faculty advisor (a faculty advisor is strongly encouraged). It is expected that the representatives from each of the schools will become familiar with these rules and guidelines and that they will abide by them in the spirit of the competition.

Section 4.0 – Division Pools

The John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition will consist of twenty-four (24) universities, with each of the six (6) divisions being comprised of four (4) universities. Universities will be randomly selected into one (1) of the six (6) divisions during the opening ceremonies through a lottery system.

Division 1	Division 2	Division 3	Division 4	Division 5	Division 6
Team 1A	Team 2A	Team 3A	Team 4A	Team 5A	Team 6A
Team 1B	Team 2B	Team 3B	Team 4B	Team 5B	Team 6B
Team 1C	Team 2C	Team 3C	Team 4C	Team 5C	Team 6C
Team 1D	Team 2D	Team 3D	Team 4D	Team 5D	Team 6D

Section 5.0 – Competition Format

The twenty-four universities will be divided into six (6) divisions, with each division being comprised of four (4) universities. The competition will consist of two preliminary stages. The university with the highest cumulative score after the two preliminary stages will be declared the winner of their respective division, and advance to the finals.

In this stage, teams will be presenting “head-to-head” versus the other universities in their division. In other words, Team A will present against Team B, while Team C will present against Team D. The match-ups will alternate over a three day period, so that by the end of the first stage, each university will have presented three times – once against each of their divisional opponents.

The judging panel will allocate a total of eleven (11) points per match between the two teams. For example, one team would be awarded 8 points while the other team would be awarded 3 points. Points will be awarded based on predetermined list of criteria (eg. financial implications of recommendation plan). An “allocation of points” system eliminates the biases that exist when awarding points arbitrarily, such as with a percentage system.

The second stage will consist of students research, where they will have twenty-four (24) hours to prepare before presenting their strategic solutions to a panel of business executives.

The judging panel will rank the teams relative to others in their division.

Afterwards, the results from the first two preliminary rounds will be combined to determine which team from each of the six divisions will advance to the finals.

The six finalists will present their strategic solutions from the twenty-four hour research case to a new panel of business executives. In the final round, every team will start with a clean slate whereby the “winner takes all”. The first, second, and third place winners will be announced later on that evening at the Awards Ceremony Gala.

STAGE ONE			+	STAGE TWO	=	PRELIMINARY STAGES
Case 1	Case 2	Case 3		24-hour Research Case		Winners of Each Division Advance to Final Stage