/R E P E A T -- "How Does Diversity Stimulate Innovation?" 31st Annual John Molson MBA International Case Competition/

MONTREAL, Dec. 29, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - Top MBA students from around the world will be competing at the 31^st Annual John Molson MBA International Case Competition (MBA-ICC) from January 3 to 8, 2012 at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel (900 René-Lévesque Blvd. W). Over 230 students will be participating, representing universities from New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Nigeria, France, Germany, Israel, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Canada and the US.

The event is the oldest and largest MBA case competition in the world.

Participants will be assigned business problems touching on a range of disciplines and issues and will then present their recommendations to a panel of real business executives.

This year's theme focuses on the impact of diversity on innovation. The theme is meant to probe how innovation tends to spring from networks of diverse contributions, rather than from individual sources.

The format of the competition has teams of four students facing off in a round-robin tournament of with winners moving on to a semi-final and final round. The first place team will be awarded the MBA-ICC Cup and will take home a $10,000 cash prize.

The most anticipated moment of the competition is the live case, which is scheduled to take place on January 6. This case features a real company presenting a real business problem to competing students. The selected company is generally a very high profile organization (Foreign Affairs Canada in 2011 and the Montreal Canadiens in 2010), and is announced only minutes before their representatives arrive at the competition.

A number of special guests will be in attendance as well. Alan DeSouza borough mayor of Saint-Laurent, Laurent Tainturier, President of BASF Canada Inc. and Lorne Gorber, Senior Vice-President, Global Communications and Investor Relations at CGI have confirmed their participation.

The event is free and open to the general public.

François Rheault, Organizer, 2012 John Molson
International Case Competition, at 514-402-5382 or 
[email protected]