Columbia Business School (CBS) is preparing to welcome top MBA students from around the world beginning tomorrow as part of the sixth annual Odyssey Global MBA Competition and Symposium.
The two-day, student-organized event will feature a three-part management competition in which students from leading global business schools will compete in pitching, case presentation and negotiation skills before a panel of industry leaders.
This year’s event will also include a symposium in which industry leaders will address the theme “Disrupt or Be Disrupted,” speaking to the need for companies to remain agile in the face of disruptive forces and manage innovation to stay ahead of any accompanying challenges. Keynote speakers include Frank Eliason, director of global social media at Citi; Neal Goldman, founder and CEO of Relationship Science; David Kidder, co-founder and CEO of Bionic; Bruce Greenwald, CBS Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management; and Craig Hatkoff, founder of Victor Capital Group and co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards.
Participating teams will visit the CBS campus on Friday and Saturday, March 28th and 29th, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, China Europe International Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School, HKUST Business School, INSEAD, London Business School, NYU Stern School of Business, University of Virginia Darden School of Business and Yale School of Management, among others.
Each of the teams will be judged on an entrepreneurial pitch, a case study presentation and negotiation skills by a panel of leading industry practitioners. The judges will award points based on strength of concept and solutions, negotiation skills and presentations.
Odyssey is a premier global student organization and leadership development program. CBS, which hosts the Odyssey event each year, has had a top-three finish three times since the competition debuted in 2009. London Business School, though, has been the most successful in the competition, winning top prize in 2009 and 2011. IESE won last year, Haas won in 2012, and Tuck won in 2010.
Learn more about Odyssey, the competition and this year’s symposium agenda.