OCNews

Five Okanagan College teams have made it to the final round of the Queen’s University Intercollegiate Business Competition (ICBC).

The ICBC draws post-secondary business student teams from around the world, culminating in a finals weekend, which has been moved virtually this year. Due to the ongoing pandemic, however, students will participate in the prestigious competition’s finals online on Jan. 14 and 15 instead of making the trek to Kingston, Ont.

Four OC teams made the finals in the categories of Marketing, Finance, Ethics, and Digital Strategy. OC ranked in the top five among all the participating schools, which qualified the College to send a fifth team — the Debate Team — for the finals weekend.

Rebecca Pleasance and Nic Poirier of the Digital Strategy Team said it was exciting to get this far in a highly competitive setting.

“I’m pretty excited. I joined the team as a spur of the moment decision, so I’m hyped to be in the finals,” she said.

Pleasance and Poirier explained that instead of being given a case like other teams, their category was given a certain type of technology, which they had to find a use for and strategize its implementation so that it adds value to a given organization. Poirier said they were assigned blockchain.

“If I’m going to be honest, I didn’t expect to get this far. I didn’t even know what blockchain was when we started, so I was trying to figure out what it was and then trying to make a useful application out of it,” Pleasance said. “There was a huge learning curve for me on top of trying to compete.”

Poirier said their coach, Business Professor Glen Coulthard, encouraged them by pointing out all the various topics the students covered during their studies.  

“(Coulthard) pointed out that OC has a wide coverage in what it teaches, which definitely gave me some comfort knowing we had an advantage,” he said. “The broadness of the case, and what we’ve learned, ended up being a big plus for us.”

Marketing Team coach Mark Ziebarth said OC students regularly “punch above their weight” in competitions, so it was no surprise OC teams made it to the finals.

“OC’s ‘secret sauce’ is bringing together industry-seasoned professors with young, talented students to develop competition teams with superior critical-thinking capabilities, excellent oral and written communications skills, and a solid grounding in real-world business scenarios,” he explained.

Marketing Team members Rachel Cramen and MacKenna Lenarcic said it was extremely rewarding to qualify for the finals after all their hard work.

“While competing, we changed our mindset from ‘if’ to ‘when’ we make finals,” Lenarcic said. “Although Rachel is a finance major and I’ve just begun my marketing specialty, our coaches never doubted our ability to make it. Their confidence in us was a huge factor in our success.”

Cramen said despite their diligence and the coaching they received, she and Lenarcic didn’t quite expect to make the finals either.

“We were the underdogs and didn’t necessarily expect to make it,” she said. “That being said, we already knew OC is a competitive school, but it’s still so cool to rank among the bigger schools.”

Ethics Team members Travis Johnston and Gurjot Singh said with the creative thinking they put into their case, they had an inkling they’d make it far.

“When we finished the case, we were confident with our response,” Singh said. “We knew what the judges were expecting and we knew what the most common solution was and we came up with something creative so we were pretty confident that we had a really good solution.”

Johnston said they also felt hopeful.

“We felt strong about the solution we had presented but at the same time, when you look at the competitors we were up against, they’re from some of the largest universities in Canada,” he said. “You end up taking a realistic frame of mind and don’t raise your expectations too much.”

Singh added that the ethical solution for a business isn’t always black and white, so they felt comfortable with the alternate solution they came up with, which took into consideration many things

“I think that’s part of our success: we came up with an ethical hybrid solution where a business could stay operational during the pandemic,” Singh said.

Their coach Robert Ryan said strong ethics in the long run will lead to a strong business, which is why he was proud of his team.

“The Team in the Ethics stream of Gurjot and Travis exemplify the future of strong performance in every way,” he said.

Arjan Thouli, one half of the Finance Team, said it was incredible to see their hard work paying off.

“(Teammate) Ryan (Tannahill) was staring at an Excel sheet for a pretty long time in preparation for this, so it’s nice to be rewarded for that,” he said. “Even the hard work that we put into our classes, we were able to apply towards the competition itself so it’s fantastic to see the application aspect of it.”

Tannahill says he encourages people to take advantage of the time they have as students and participate in competitions.

“They’re fun and offer a real-life opportunity for you to apply what you’ve learned,” he said. “It’s hard work but it’s worth it and you meet interesting people.”

Students in other teams echoed the sentiment.

“I definitely didn’t realize how impactful this competition would be on my education,” Cramen of the Marketing Team said. “I cannot recommend it enough to other students.”

The fifth OC team participating in the competition is the Debate Team, made up of Ethan Zhang, Austin Drake and their alternate Daniel Seib, and coached by Professors Robert Groves and Devin Rubadeau.

Groves said given OC’s track record of successful teams and ranking in the top five among all the participating schools, the College was invited to participate in the debate competition for the finals weekend.

“Our debate teams have always competed well at the finals weekend,” he said. “Our debate team is practicing hard. Expectations are high. Our ICBC teams always show that our school can compete at the highest level, with distinction, and this year will be no different.”

Zhang and Drake said they’re both grateful for the efforts of all OC teams, which gave them the chance to participate in the final debate.

“I believe we have great talent on the teams with great support from wonderful professors,” Zhang said. “The School of Business has a very strong teaching team and environment. It’s time to show OC’s strength and spread the word about the College’s School of Business.”

Drake said at first, he was intimidated to participate in the competition.

“But after a few practice debates and some feedback from (Robert) Groves, I feel very confident and I’m excited to take on some of the bigger universities and show them what OC students can do,” he said.

Okanagan College School of Business Dean William Gillett said the faculty is proud of the students that made it into the ICBC finals.

“Okanagan College students excel through dedication to their education and the strong support and guidance they receive from their professors and mentors across our business program,” he said.

“We look forward to watching our students perform in their final presentations and demonstrate their exceptional ability and excellent education.”