Heavener team claims two first-place awards at International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Students from the Heavener School of Business at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business came in among the top teams at the 2021 International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition (IBESCC).
Warrington’s undergraduate team received two first-place awards for their efforts at Loyola Marymount University’s IBESCC.
IBESCC is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious event of its kind. Undergraduate and graduate students from around the world participate in the annual competition to identify problems and present solutions to some of the most pressing ethical issues in global business today.
“The International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition attracts some of the best universities in the world,” said Dr. Brian Ray, Director of the Poe Business Ethics Center. “It is tremendous to see Warrington’s team achieve such success against prestigious institutions like George Washington University, the University of Miami, UMass Amherst, Washington University, Hanyang University in Korea and Istanbul Commerce University in Turkey. It has been a pleasure working with these students as they explored innovative ways to promote the United Nation’s sustainable development goals. They all did an excellent job representing the University of Florida!”
The team of Zachary Kashman (BSBA ’23), Vikram Singh (BSBA ’21), Shreya Venkat (BSBA ’23) and Morgan Crandall (BSBA ’23) won first place for both the 10-minute ethical issues round and the 90-second sustainable development round of the case competition.
Kashman, Singh, Venkat and Crandall were asked to put together teams of 3 to 5 members and select an appropriate case that related to one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In their presentation, they discussed the legal, financial and ethical dimensions of the problem, and presented a solution that was viable on each dimension.
The team chose the SDGs of Clean Water and Sanitation and Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Their solution was centered around Bisleri, India’s top bottled water manufacturer, to align with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public-private partnership plan in Kerala, India and invest in water infrastructure.
For Singh, this was his last ethics case competition before he graduates from Warrington this spring.
“It feels great to win on my way out,” he said. “This is a storybook ending to my 4 years here at UF, it’s truly a blessing. I would like to thank God, my family, teammates and coach for this victory. Without you all it would have never been possible. Jake, our captain, expertly assembled the team and saw something in us that we didn’t see ourselves. Riding into the sunset never felt more bittersweet.”
Crandall and Kashman are just getting started on their ethics case competition journey, and this first win is exciting.
“This is my first semester on the team, so I’m really proud of everything we were able to accomplish at IBESCC,” Crandall said. “I’m so excited to continue working with this incredible team. Thank you to Dr. Ray for all of his support while we prepared for this competition!”
Kashman added, “The success the team had this year at IBESCC is a story of hard work and dedication. The patience this team had, and the amazing leadership of Dr. Ray helped prepare us to perform at such a high caliber. Being my first semester on the team I look forward to seeing the growth and upward trend of our group.”
Venkat is also proud of the team’s performance at this year’s IBESCC.
“It feels great to win,” she said. “We put a lot of work into our solution, and I’m glad we were able to defend it well.”
