For the ninth consecutive year, a team of MBA students from the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management (GGFBM) competed in the John Molson MBA International Case Competition at Concordia University, Montreal.
“This is a world championship of business school case competitions," explains Prof. Oded Lowengart, GGFBM Dean, “which are business strategy competitions. The GGFBM's participation in this very rigorous competition keeps our students in the running, in the international arena, in the limelight of the big leagues."
The Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is the first and only Israeli school to participate in the student-run event, which is billed as the largest and oldest of its kind in the world.
The competition is a round-robin tournament consisting of seven unpublished business cases selected from the annual Case Writing Competition. The highlight of the week is a live case presentation by a major company facing a real-life business challenge. This annual event is the largest, oldest and most prestigious MBA case competition in the world bringing together 36 business schools from 19 countries.
This year's GGFBM competitors (pictured below with bios) were from the singular Mandel Social Leadership MBA Program (SLMBA): Eran Rozen, Ittai Trifman, Yonatan Arnon, Klil Nevo Atad, Noga Pfeffermann. Their coach was GGFBM Honors MBA alumnus Meital Magid. Says Magid beamingly: “while I run my own consulting firm in Tel Aviv, I am thrilled to come back to Beer Sheva to coach the GGFBM team each year, because I know from personal experience the meaning and importance of this international competition: I was on the GGFBM Team in 2011."
Not in the least disheartened, the students expressed what Coach Meital also surmised: “It's no secret that each year our GGFBM students make the most creative solutions and strategies. If there were a prize for creativity, our team would win every time. The conservative business world may not be ready for us, but we are. The GGFBM Team gets better and better every year," but more importantly, “are learning skills they can put into practice for life."
L-R: Klil Nevo Atad, Meital Magid, Ittai Trifman, Eran Rozen, Yonatan Arnon, Noga Pfeffermann
Eran Rosen described the first
case the team competed in against Eller College of Management,
Arizona University, “who beat us 6 to 5. We were so energized under huge
pressure, empowered to create great solutions. And it was so moving that 15
members of CABGU attended the meet to cheer us! They came back every day, it
was amazing.”
Team members:
Yonatan Arnon, who holds a BA in Judaic studies and theatre from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was the Jewish Agency emissary to Columbia/Barnard Hillel for three years. He wants to use his new business skills to further his interest in developing young adult communities that are inclusive and foster creativity.
Klil Nevo Atad, an Open University graduate, spent more than three years working with at-risk youth in the southern Israeli city of Netivot, after spending two years working for an NGO in Nepal. As she puts it, the Mandel MBA Program has taught her how to “combine the worlds of business and social work." She added that, “Being at this competition has been the opportunity of a lifetime; it's priceless."
Eran and Ittai with Youppi the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Team mascot
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Noga, Ittai, Klil and Eran outside in MINUS 20 degrees Celsius
Noga Pfeffermann, who holds a BA in political science and communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a former army officer. She also worked at the Israeli consulate in New York for a year and is now developing a program to encourage young women to get involved in politics.
Ittai Trifman, is a student in the Mandel Social MBA program in BGU. He works as a facilitator for Maslan – the Southern help center for victims of sexual violence. He gives lectures and workshops on prevention of sexual harassment to all audiences. In addition, he is a facilitator in LEAD, an organization promoting young leadership. Ittai has worked as editor in chief of the student newspaper at BGU, as well as a teacher in many organizations including a community garden, a science class for children and more.
Eran Rozen has a BA in physical therapy from BGU. In 2016, he founded Bkind, a startup that provides a platform for acts of kindness, based on the notion of “paying it forward." He earlier created Bike for the Fight, which raised money for cancer research in Israel by holding cycling events throughout Canada and the United States.
