Rules and Regulations

1.0     Eligibility
The competition is open to undergraduate schools offering commerce or business programs or an equivalent program deemed eligible by the organizers of the RRU 2011 competition.

2.0     Composition of Teams
Each University or College will be represented by a maximum of seven persons, including the following:

• A maximum of four students per team
• One student alternate
• One coach + one assistant

The team is defined as the four "competing" students.
Team members who compete at the beginning of the Competition must participate throughout the Competition. Teams may make only one substitution during the competition, which must be approved by the Competition Organizers. It is suggested that the alternate be called upon only in the event of extenuating circumstances (eg. Illness).

Any additional delegates attending the competition will be regarded as observers.

3.0 Competition Format
The format of the Competition is as follows:

• All teams will each present three cases
• Top three teams will present a fourth case
• Team results along with detailed scoring by all judges will be sent out to all teams within two weeks of the completion of the competition.

Please Note:

• Presentations orders are determined, by drawing team numbers, before the first case is provided to the teams.
• School names are to remain anonymous during the competition;  school names will only be communicated to the RRUIUCC hosting team.  Therefore, we recommend creating a team name, such as “ABC Consulting.” 
• Each team member must present at some point during the presentation.

4.0 The Cases
The selected cases are those that would be suitable for a final examination in an undergraduate Business Policy or Strategic Management course.

The entire competition consists of four cases in total. These will include three written cases taken from reputable sources, and a Live Case. Ideally, the Live Case will incorporate all areas into a real world example. Each case may focus on a single business focus, OR incorporate multiple areas, meaning a general strategy case study.

5.0 Case Preparation
All teams prepare and present three  cases at times specified in the schedule.

Teams have three hours in which to prepare their analysis and exhibits for the oral presentations. Teams are not required to prepare a written analysis.

The hosting team will provide competing teams with a workroom during the preparation period. Each team will have a team host assigned to them. The team host’s responsibility is to escort the team members to their preparation and presentation rooms, and to supervise the team during the preparation period.  

No communication is permitted between team members and anyone else outside of their presenting team . This is applicable from the beginning of the preparation time to the completion of the presentation time, with the exception of their team host.

Please Note:

• In the event that a team of four competing students are not present at the assigned time and location for the presentation of their case, that team will not be permitted to present and must forfeit that case and receive a score of 0 points. Please review section 9.0 for more information on penalties.

Supplies:

Teams are responsible for their own supplies. One Laptop with MS Office, paper, pens, pencils, and blank flipcharts will be allowed in for preparation.  Flip charts are for preparation only, they will not be allowed to be used in presentations.

Teams are not allowed to bring: Books, cellular phones, documents or other materials of any kind into the preparation room.  The only tools allowed are non-programmable and programmable calculators. (Note: All programmable calculators will be cleared of memory prior to commencing preparation).

Use of the Internet is NOT allowed.  We reserve the right to search each laptop for content, prior to preparation. NO templates or pre-work of any kind are permitted, all presentations are to be created from scratch. Please review section 9.0 for more information on penalties regarding breaching of rules.

At the end of the preparation period, all materials are submitted to their team host. Materials are returned to the teams at the time of their presentations. The Competition organizers reserve the right to make copies of all materials presented.

6.0 Presentation of Cases
Each team will make  an oral presentation before a panel of judges comprising no fewer than three representatives from the local business community. Each team presents their case and participates in the question and answer period separately. As such, each team has a maximum of twenty minutes to present its case. Upon completion of the presentation, the judges will then proceed to question that team for a maximum of ten minutes.

During each presentation, the judge moderator for the competition will raise notification signs to the team know when five minutes and one minute remain.

At the end of the twenty minute period, the judge moderator stops the presentation, whether the team has finished or not. At that point, the team's question period will begin for the stated ten minutes. The judge moderator advises the judges and the teams when one minute remains and when the time has expired.

It is each team's responsibility to define the roles in which they will be presenting the case to the judges. (For example, consultants and the board of directors).

During a team's presentation, the next team waits outside the room until the end of the previous question period. The team host will monitor to ensure that the waiting team does not discuss the case.

Spectators are allowed during team presentations; this includes participating teams that have completed their presentations.  

Please Note:

• Members of the audience may not communicate with the teams in any way.
• The presenting team’s coach and assistant must sit in assigned seating for the presentation.  
• Please review section 9.0 for more information on penalties regarding gestures and hand signals.  

Basic Format for Preparation and Presentation of Cases:

• three hour preparation period for each case
• twenty minute presentation period for by each team for each case
• ten minute question period by judges directed at each team for each case

7.0 Judges
The judging system will be as follows:

• The hosting team of the Competition select judges from the local business communities, Vancouver Island and Vancouver.
• Each judging panel consists of no less than three judges. The formation of judge panels is the sole responsibility of the competition organizers and cannot be contested.
• Each panel of judges assesses each of the teams’ strengths and weaknesses.  They will submit their comments to the competition organizers using the Judges' Evaluation Sheet.
• Judges will keep all scoring sheets until the end of each round so they can determine their final divisional standings.

8.0 Final Divisional Standings and Scoring

A team’s position is determined by the accumulated total of the points from the scoring sheets for all 3 presented cases.  In the case of a tie, the points used for “Quality of Recommendations: from all the judging sheets for the two tied teams will break the tie.  The three teams with the highest points will proceed to the fourth and final case. 

In the final case, each team is given a clean slate and ranked independently.

9.0 Penalties