News Article

CNA’s fourth annual business case competition results


2/18/2010 9:46:40 AM


The winners of the fourth annual CNA Business Case competition are Team Crush from Prince Philip Drive campus. (left to right) – Henry Ward, Stephanie Pretty, Cyril Clancey, Jess Walsh and Paul Dunne (coach).

College of the North Atlantic (CNA) hosted their fourth annual business case competition this past weekend. Six CNA teams participated in the competition which included two teams from Prince Philip Drive campus in St. John’s, two teams from Grand Falls-Windsor campus, one team from Corner Brook campus and one team from Bay St. George campus.

The winning team from Prince Philip Drive, called Team Crush, consisted of Jess Walsh (third year Business Management, Marketing), Henry Ward, (third year Business Management, Accounting), Stephanie Pretty (third year Business Management, Accounting) and Cyril Clancey (second year, Hospitality Tourism Management). The team was coached by Paul Dunne, Marketing instructor.

For winning the competition, Team Crush will now go to Qatar in March for the CNA-Q International Business Case competition. Jess Walsh, one of the winners, says that all the preparation for this competition was well worth it and hopes that her team can make CNA proud when competing in Qatar.

“We were able to prove, not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the College of the North Atlantic what we were capable of. We finished the first case in last place in our division, and we felt that we let everyone down. But after some inspirational talk from our coach, Paul Dunne, and another coach, Barry Green, we rallied back the next morning and placed first in our division, then later that night, first overall.”

“We spent a total of nine hours reading, planning, talking, working, and striving to make every presentation better than the one before. I hope that we can come back from Qatar and make all of them proud again.”

Paul Dunne, Marketing instructor and winning team coach, believes that this competition allows the students to think outside the box.

“The students are thrilled to be representing College of the North Atlantic in the Qatar competition. This team has all the necessary skills to win this competition. There are three Business Management students and one Hospitality/Tourism student. There is a diverse range of backgrounds in this group that gives them the ability to think outside the box and in case competitions this is a great asset. I think the quality of all our students was exhibited this weekend and hopefully we can return from Qatar as the international winners.”

Dunne says the students worked hard together and remained focused. All of which paid off in the end.

“The competition was an excellent demonstration of our student’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. The winning team was in fifth place after the first day, but steadily gained momentum throughout the three case analyses...saving the best effort for last. The students really showed the ability to work together and remain focused on the task before them.”

The event was hosted by Grand Falls-Windsor campus. The guest speaker at Saturday evening’s banquet was the Hon. Susan Sullivan, Minister of Human Resources, Labour & Employment.

Other teams participating were Synergy Consulting from Grand Falls-Windsor campus (second place), Team Mumtax from Corner Brook (third place), Aristotle Consulting from Grand Falls-Windsor (fourth place), Team Supreme from Bay St. George and Team Inferno from Prince Philip Drive.


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Media Contact:

Pamela Spencer
Public Relations Assistant
709 643 7928
pam.spencer@cna.nl.ca