A typical business ethics case-study competition may not seem like an exciting event, but Daniel’s annual Race and Case competition combines ethical study with adventure and friendly ski-racing to up the ante when it comes to ethics competitions.
Currently in its 12th year, the Daniels College of Business Graduate Business Student Association hosts a Race and Case competition where business students within Daniels and from around the country come to DU to participate in a business ethics case competition and Alpine ski challenge rolled into one. It is unique to the Daniels College of Business as no other business school combines a case challenge with a NASTAR race.
NASTAR (an acronym for NAtional STAndard Race) is the world’s largest known recreational ski and snowboard race program.
The winners of the internal Daniels competition that took place on January 24-25 at Daniels, with the ski race taking place at Winter Park, was a team composed of Josh Cort, Joseph DeLia, Ann-Britt Hakansson, Kelsey Garrett and all students in the Daniels one-year MBA program, as well as Wenjie Fu and Kristen Qi, also Daniels MBA students. The fastest overall female skier was Ann-Britt Hakansson, from Trukee, Calif., and Ian Tobin, whose team did not place in the case competition.
Joe DeLia, member of the winning team, said his team put in hours of hard work in preparing for the case competition.
“It was way more work and research than we had expected. But everyone on our team did a really good job of doing equal parts to get ready for the case and I think that is what helped us win it in the end,” said DeLia.
Ann-Britt Hakansson remarked that they had not expected to win the entire competition.
“We were really surprised at first, but then we all got excited and were like ‘we actually did it. I was also really happy about scoring myself a free pair of skis,” said Hakansson.
Now the winning team will move on to the national competition and attempt to reclaim the national Race and Case title for DU, last year’s national winner being the University of Utah.
The DU-internal “Daniels versus Daniels” competition had 49 DU graduate students placed into nine teams. The national competition, also organized annually by DU, brings in teams from universities in Utah, Indiana, South Carolina, Pittsburgh and around Colorado to compete against each other. The external competition will be held February 28–March 1 at Daniels and then at Beaver Creek Resort, Colo.
The competition scoring system is weighted 80 percent on the ethics case competition and 20 percent on the ski racing. The number-one winning team from the internal competitions then goes on to represent DU in the external national competition.
Graduate business school programs are invited to bring teams of four to six students. The amount of other universities that choose to participate vary from year to year, with six participating this year, but up to 11 having competed in previous years. Judges who determine the winners of the ethics case competition in the internal Daniels competition are partially composed of alumni, whereas the judges for the national ethics case competition do not include any alumni, to avoid bias.
Team requirements are at least two males and two females. Also, one team member must be an international student. All team members must present during the case competition, and at least two males and two females must participate in the NASTAR race or must accept a default time for each non-racing member. The ski-races are judged on time. Both weighted scores are added together to get the final team score.
“Race and Case is an event that is built, designed, developed and delivered by students,” said Patrick Orr, the senior director of graduate student operations at Daniels.
The competition was initially started in 2002 by a group of Daniels graduate students.
“From the inception, they wanted to come up with a case competition that centered around ethics, sustainability and corporate social responsibility, then combine it with a fun competition that would put us up to the mountains to actually race,” said Orr.
According to Orr, this year’s internal DU competition received a $5,000 alumni scholarship donation for the winners. The first place team received $3,000; the second place team won $1,500; the third place team won $500. The fastest overall male and female skiers won a free pair of skis donated by Icelantic.
“We are definitely trying to take back the title back for DU, and I think our team has a pretty good chance of winning,” said DeLia.
