Laurier students take first place at ICBC

On Jan. 7, the 32nd annual Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC) finals – a four-day event that pits the country’s top business students against each other in a case-study challenge – took place in Kingston; Wilfrid Laurier University was well-represented, with seven students qualifying.

Students from across the country, handpicked by their professors, participated in the event.
A qualifying round took place prior to the winter break through which students were selected to compete in the finals.

“It was a huge accomplishment for so many Laurier students to qualify for the final round of [the competition],” said fourth-year business student Catherine Guba.

The impressive performance by Guba and her fourth-year business peer Jared Grossman in the human resources case study resulted in a coveted first place finish.

Both Guba and Grossman had never participated in any sort of business competition before but were asked to compete by a faculty member.

Grossman explained that he and Guba worked diligently in the qualification round, stating that, “Although this was our first experience with the ICBC, we were confident in our ability to succeed.”

Tying for first place in the qualifying round, Guba and Grossman were among the six teams to advance to the finals in the human resources case competition.

Guba described the final round as very stressful. “We were presented with a case study and spent five and a half hours in a room working on it.”

The two completed the case, beating out the other teams from Concordia and the University of Calgary to take home the first place trophy.

Grossman credited their success to “the support from the Laurier faculty and our previous experience solving real-life business problems.”