NANAIMO – Students in Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Master of Business Administration (MBA) program have earned first and third prizes in the Riipen Modus Case Competition, putting their heads together to solve real-world business challenges for a BC-based urban design company. MBA students Aliya Bogdanova and Debasish Sinha impressed the judges from ‘Team Modus’, especially with their thorough research and great marketing ideas.
“Their presentation was well organized and their answers in the Q&A showed that they were a ‘well-oiled machine’ and made a very strong team together,” said a statement from the judges in the July 18 competition.
Riipen is a free, online skill-building platform that allows students to gain real-world experience and create a valuable post-graduation network to help in gaining employment. Companies are welcome to post projects on the Riipen website, as long as they are short-term, open and flexible, and allows students to use their skills as they complete them.
Bogdanova, an international student from Moscow, Russia, and Sinha, from Shillong, India, will both graduate in June 2016, and hope to pursue careers in global business. Both students had extensive business experience before joining VIU’s MBA program, including six years of marketing and communications experience across various industries in India for Sinha, and eight years of brand management and marketing experience in Fortune 500 companies for Bogdanova.
“The case competitions is an integral part of our studies,” says Bogdanova. “The competition not only helped us apply our learning to real life business problems but also helped us rub shoulders with our peers across BC and we felt very honoured to proudly represent our school.”
Another VIU MBA team — Fabiola Gomez, Belle Bacus, Alex Jacob, Michal Nayyar – took third prize, competing with eight teams from VIU, Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University.
