ATLANTA – Mercer University's Stetson School of Business and Economics recently sent a team of MBA students to the International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC) for the first time. The students won two second-place awards.
IBECC, which is the oldest and most prestigious intercollegiate ethics case competition in the world, was held April 21-23 in New Orleans. Ten graduate schools competed, including teams from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Hong Kong.
Mercer's team, consisting of A.J. Donaldson, Brandon Monk, Varnica Singh and Brigitte Zaman, delivered a 30-minute presentation based on the book Waking Up Blind by Tom Harbin, M.D., MBA, a recent guest speaker at the University.
The students volunteered to attend the competition after learning of it from Dr. Bob Perkins, associate professor of management, in his Ethical Leadership course.
In the first phase of the competition, each team described problems with its case study from legal, financial and ethical standpoints, before recommending a solution. Expert judges, all practicing ethics and compliance professionals, posed challenging questions and provided feedback. Mercer won second place, behind a team from the University of Oxford of the United Kingdom.
In the second phase of the competition, two team members, Zaman and Monk, spoke only on their case's ethical implications. Mercer again won second place, this time behind McMaster University of Canada.
“Mercer can be very proud of our students who took three days off work and worked very hard to test their skills against very strong teams,” said Dr. Perkins. “I was pleased by the judges' compliments, and our students loved the experience and remarked enthusiastically on all they learned.
“Dr. Jody Blanke, Ernest L. Baskin Distinguished Chair and professor of computer information systems and law at Mercer, Debbie Wetherhead, a communications expert, and Dr. Edward Queen, of Emory University's Center for Ethics, contributed their expertise to helping our team to prepare. We are very grateful for their invaluable contributions that enabled our Mercer team to perform so well.”
About the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics
Established in 1984, Mercer University's Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics is named for Eugene W. Stetson, a 1901 Mercer graduate and business pioneer who leveraged the first major buyout in corporate history. Over the past 80 years, Mercer has granted over 12,000 business degrees, and many of its graduates hold senior leadership positions in companies around the world. Mercer's business school delivers career-focused business education programs and develops entrepreneurial leaders and responsible global citizens. It holds accreditation from the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which places it among the top five percent of all top business schools worldwide. Mercer's business school has been recognized by the Princeton Review for “Greatest Opportunity for Minority Students” and”Greatest Opportunity for Women” as well as being one of its “Best Business Schools.” In addition, it has been recognized among the “Top 15 Schools in the Nation for Marketing and Accounting.”
The School offers the following programs: Atlanta (Evening BBA, Full-Time (One-Year) MBA, Evening MBA, Executive MBA, Professional MBA, Master of Accountancy, M.S. in Business Analytics), Macon (Traditional BBA and Evening MBA), Douglas County and Henry County (Evening BBA). www.mercer.edu/business
