Warrington ethics case team places first among 16 universities, chosen as most valuable at the competition

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A team of undergraduate students from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business finished among the top teams at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC), a student-run organization at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Canada. The team finished second among the six teams in the final ethics case competition, in addition to taking home the Co-Chairperson Award and first place in the Creative Case Competition.

The Inter-Collegiate Business Competition is Canada’s premier case competition. The main competition is split in two rounds, a preliminary and final round. The preliminary round is a written case competition designed to challenge competitors’ ability to write a quality business report. The top six teams from the preliminary round move to the final round, in which competitors have five and a half hours to prepare and present a case to a panel of judges.  

From right: Dorian Simpkins, Isabella Roman-Secor and Carly Ritterband at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition.

The team members included Dorian Simpkins (BSBA ’22), Isabella Roman-Secor (BSBA ’22) and team captain Carly Ritterband (BA ’20). Simpkins, Roman-Secor and Ritterband were tasked with developing a plan for a fictional family with a local business and how the family should respond most ethically to a business proposition.

“The main event was about a family who had owned a business, a retirement home, for many years in a local community,” Simpkins said. “We were asked to play the role of business consultants who would help the family decide if it was more ethical to keep the business they owned and stay in the location where the business first started, or move to another town, knowing that the land would be developed into a tourist destination that didn’t meet the local community’s moral standards.”

From the moment they received the case, the team had five and a half hours to create their argument and presentation. Ultimately, the team decided to recommend the family move their business from its original location in order to preserve the business, but also recommend that a more-family friendly business, like a bed and breakfast, take its place to keep with the moral standards of the local community.

“We’re especially proud since this was only the second case competition we’ve done together and that we took home three awards,” Roman-Secor said. “We had a smaller team, but we were still able to do well and show off for UF.”

The Co-Chairperson Award, which represents the most valuable school at the competition, was Simpkins, Roman-Secor and Ritterband’s second award at the ICBC. With this win, UF Warrington broke Concordia University’s six-year streak.

Simpkins presented individually to win the Creative Case Competition. This competition was among all sixteen teams that came to the ICBC and asked each university to pitch their suggestion for businesses that would help make a fictional city more sustainable.

Simpkins, Roman-Secor and Ritterband were proud to represent UF Warrington on an international scale, and noted their appreciation to the support of those who helped them do so.

“We’d like to thank the sponsors of the Poe Center and Dr. Ray,” Ritterband said. “It’s because of their support that we’re able to compete and represent UF at case competitions like ICBC.”