First Annual Corporate Ethics and
Strategic Management Case Competition
Team Instructions
Introduction
Welcome to the Corporate Ethics and Strategic Management Case Competition!
As a member of a team in this competition, you represent your school before a
panel of professionals and academics that will test your knowledge and abilities.
Prizes
The winning team will receive a cash prize of $2,500, and the second and third
runners up will receive $1,800 and $1,200 respectively
Competition Format
Each team represents a management team responding to their board’s request
for information and recommendation on an issue of corporate social responsibility
that the Board of Directors regards as critical. Team members must be
registered by 4pm October 4th, 2006. The registration form can be downloaded
online at zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/centers/cci/cci-case-competition. All registered
participants will then receive a Monday-Friday subscription to the NY Times, and
access to the Times Select data search tools.
The case materials will be available to each team at noon on October 26 th. Each
team must submit a written memo to the ad hoc committee of the board of
directors by 4pm on Monday, October 30th. Detailed instructions for writing the
memo can be found in the Executive Memo Format guidelines online.
In addition your team will make a 20-minute power point presentation to the ad
hoc committee on November 3rd, with a copy submitted to the committee’s
secretary by 4pm on November 1st. All submissions should be sent to Matthew
LePere (Matthew_LePere@baruch.cuny.edu). Your presentation will be on the
computers when you arrive on November 3rd. You will not be allowed to change
your presentation once you send it to Mr. LePere.
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On Friday, November 3rd, we will hold oral presentations before a group of
judges playing the ad hoc committee. The order of presentation will be randomly
drawn. The sessions will be open to all, except for those members of teams who
have still to present. Each team will have 40 minutes for their presentation,
divided into a 20-minute presentation and 20-minute Question and Answer
session. During the Q&A, the judges will examine the team’s recommendation
and its rationale.
Your Task
Your team has been selected to brief the ad hoc committee of your Board of
Directors (the group of judges) on the case problem.
You are not restricted to the materials that are distributed to you via the web.
However, these are the materials the judges have, and if you include significant
materials other than these, you may wish to include them in the appendices to
your memo or as handouts for the presentation.
Your score will combine how well you met the criteria of the written memo, with
your performance on the oral presentation on the following dimensions (detailed
judges instructions are listed online in the Judges Scorecard.
 Legal: are there any laws, cases, or regulations that limit or constrain your
recommendation?
 Financial: what are the financial issues that limit or constrain your
recommendation?
 Social/Environmental Responsibility: what are the social or environmental
issues that limit or constrain your recommendation?
 How well were you able to make the trade-offs among the legal,
social/environmental and financial issues facing the company? Did you
provide a convincing rationale for the trade-offs you recommended?
 Written communication skills as demonstrated in the Executive Memo
 Presentation Skills: was your presentation professionally done?
 Overall Persuasiveness: did you convince the judges?
 Late submissions will be penalized
Deadlines
4pm, October 4
Registration of all team members
Noon, October 26
Case materials posted online
4pm, October 30
Submission of Executive Memo
4pm, November 1
Submission of PowerPoint presentations
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Late submissions will be penalized. No materials can be changed once
submitted. Items should be sent to Matthew_LePere@baruch.cuny.edu.
The Schedule for November 3rd is as follows:
8:30 am
Continental breakfast
Orientation to the Day
Random Drawing for Order of Presentations
09:00 am
First presentation
09:50 am
Second presentation
10:40 am
Coffee Break
11.00am
Third presentation
11:50 am
Fourth presentation
12:40 pm
Lunch
1:40 pm
Fifth presentation
2:30 pm
Sixth Presentation
3:20 pm
Break
3:30 pm
Speaker, The New York Times
4:15 pm
Announcement of Winner
Awarding of Prizes
Closing Reception and Networking
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