Last week, the School of Business Administration hosted its globally renowned World Cup of case competitions, the Family Enterprise Case Competition (FECC). And once again Burlington, Vt. became the international center of family business case competition, as 24 teams from some of the best business schools on four continents came to the Green Mountain state with one goal in mind: to win the cup and bragging rights.

After four days of competition, students from Jönköping International Business School in Sweden successfully defended their title by again winning the graduate competition, while the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa took the top slot in the undergraduate rankings.

Students, judges and sponsors from more than 20 countries travelled from as far away as Hyderabad India, Malaysia, Chile, Saudi Arabia, France and Sweden to compete in this unique, annual event.

During four tough rounds of competition, teams presented their case findings and recommendations to a distinguished panel of judges who determined which group best understood, analyzed and presented the most compelling case study. Now in its third year, FECC remains the only global competition focused on issues that impact family businesses and has earned a reputation as one of the preeminent student case competitions to attend.

"The School of Business Administration is proud to be a leader in the field of family enterprise by hosting this global event," said Sanjay Sharma, dean of the School of Business Administration. "The fact that the Family Enterprise Case Competition draws participants to UVM from around the planet, reinforces the reality that the issues that affect family businesses know no boundaries."

Massimo Baù, coach of the winning graduate team from Jönköping International Business School in Sweden said, "This has been an incredible learning opportunity for me as a coach and for my students. It is such an exciting experience to be here, and at the same time it’s a real competition, but it’s a place where students have the opportunity to interact with other great students."

His sentiments were echoed by Carol Wittmeyer, coach of the St. Bonaventure University team who said, “I loved being here with my colleagues and learning things that I hadn’t thought of, things that are going to help me do my job, help me in my work, and help our students. They are going to be better students and better leaders in their classes.”

In the graduate division, second place went to the Indian School of Business, while in the undergraduate division Dalhousie University placed second and third place was a tie between the Universidad del Desarrollo from Chile and Wilfrid Laurier University from Canada.

See the full list of awards winners

PUBLISHED

01-13-2015
John Turner