Bridgetown, BARBADOS:--- The Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) celebrated its first victory in the Caribbean Case Study Analysis Competition by dethroning the previously unbeaten Mona campus on the Cave Hill campus recently.
This year three teams, from the Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine campuses, took part, putting their business case analysis and presentation skills to the test in analysing the Richard Ivey School of Business-produced Coral Divers Resort case study.
The Cave Hill team became the first to break the consecutive run of the Mona team which had won the competition's three previous editions. St. Augustine was second while Mona was third. Cave Hill hoisted the challenge trophy as well as US $1,500 cash. Mona received a team cash prize of US $750, while St. Augustine received a team prize of US $500.
The CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank Chairman's Prizes each valued at US $500 were also awarded with the Cave Hill team winning the prize for the Most Original Presentation. Mona won for the Best Analysis of the Case and also copped the prize for the Best Individual Presenter with Chinese exchange student Nan Li from the University of Lafayette.
Team Spirit Prizes of US $200 each were presented to members of each team recognised for their role in building and promoting team spirit. Winners awarded were: Kiz Nathaniel, Kaydean Dale and Dawn Davis from the Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine campuses respectively.
The presentations were judged by a panel of five judges from corporate Barbados represented by CIBC FirstCaribbean's Patricia Rowe-Seale, Audit Portfolio Director; Jacqui Bend, Head of Investigations and Reconciliations; and Roslyn Turney, Manager – Client Relationship and Service Delivery. They were joined on the panel by Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry members Dr. Basil Springer and David Hutchinson in selecting the winning teams and individual performances.
Teams had a maximum of 20 minutes in which to present the case and 10 minutes to respond to questions from the panel of judges and were evaluated on content (65%) and delivery style (35%).
This year's competition featured a series of team building and motivational exercises aimed at forging strong ties with business students across the region while providing academic and educational training.
A joint initiative by FirstCaribbean and the UWI, the annual competition is funded by CIBC FirstCaribbean which recently threw its support once again behind the competition to the tune of USD $75,000 over a period of three years.
The competition is open to universities across the region and promotes the use of the CIBC FirstCaribbean business cases, as well as other Caribbean business cases, as a teaching device in University classrooms, enabling students to examine classroom theory in practical business realities.
Each team comprised five student members as well as a faculty member. Cave Hill's team members were Dr. Akhentoolove Corbin, faculty, and students - Dexter Norville, Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi, Lynford Inverary, Kiz Nathaniel, and Rowena Boyce. Mona's team featured Dr. Trevor Smith and Tenneil Rashford (faculty members) as well as Kaydean Dale, Matthew Ferguson, Andrew Khan, Nan Li, and Karamo Riley; and the team from St. Augustine relied on faculty member Renata Tulsie, and students Qayyim Shaikh, Tamara Prosper, Shinelle Law, Janay Tamara Patrick, and Dawn Davis.