University of Regina Business students will have the chance to make their case with an annual competition returning in early November.

Competitors during the event are placed in teams of four where they have three hours to pinpoint the most important issues facing a given company.

“Its about getting out of your comfort zone,” said Abrie Houk, one of the planners of the event.

Houk, who has been working with co-VP of the Academics of the Hill Business Students Societies Belle Brown-McEwen and four other co-chairs have been tasked with putting together the annual Hill Case Competition.

The Paul J. Hill School of Business at the University of Regina will host the annual competition in early November this year, with the judged portion taking place on its last day.

Brown-McEwen described the cases students are presented with as stories about certain businesses. These stories give an analysis of the business, an introduction to the industry involved and explain the parameters of the issue.

“It puts students under some tight time constraints and forces them to work together to come up with a solution,” said Houk. Students are then tasked with creating a strategy to address these problems in order to help the company achieve their goals.

Afterwards, competitors must present their recommendations to a mock board of directors for judging.

“This is a big challenge,” said Houk, who went onto explain that the competitors in this event are limited in both knowledge and experience – many have only taken an introductory business class. “They don’t know about marketing and HR and finance and accounting, so they really have to draw on what’s in the case.”

They both agree that this competition tends to act as a steep learning curve.

“It’s important because they are going to be doing cases like this throughout their degree,” says Brown-McEwen. These competitions also give students an opportunity to network.

“As much as it is about academics it is about networking and being involved,” said Houk. Schools form Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario are coming to the U of R for this competition.

Houk and Brown-McEwan both agree that this diversity is important. “To expand the competition and have more external teams, it’s really valuable to have that fresh perspective and diversity in the competition.”

The Hill Business Students Society represents the students of the Paul J. Hill School of Business. It is comprised of over 60 student volunteers who organize and facilitate events and activities for over 1,600 students.
The sixth annual Hill Case Competition will take place from November 1 to 3, 2019.