Unconventional Food, Innovative Solutions

Ryan Vachon, Subject Team Leader, Business
On Thursday, December 8, Greenwood's twice-a-year business case competition took place. A record 85 students opted to compete in this semester's competition. Competing in teams of three to five, students spent the day solving an undergraduate Ivey Business School case study, preparing recommendations, and eventually facing the judges in challenging Q&As. This year's judges included local investors and businesspeople, school leaders and even a special guest judge streaming from Germany.
 
Crickets were the subject of the day. The task was to develop a plan for Entomo Farms, a popular Ontario cricket farm, to effectively market crickets as food. Solutions varied tremendously, ranging from crickets as pet food to crickets as baby food. Creativity, coherence and teamwork were critical to tackling this year's challenging problem. 
 
One new element introduced to this term's competition was a coaching model. All teams were given six minutes of mid-day coaching with Peter Bowman ‘12, a Greenwood alum and professional strategist. Peter heard each team's elevator pitch and provided them with encouragement and guiding questions as the competition moved into the latter half of the day. 
 
By 3:30 p.m., all 20 teams delivered their presentations. Judges selected four semifinalists, one from each room. Two additional rounds later, our 12 judges came together to crown a final champion. Here are the four teams they decided to recognize:
 
Semifinalist: Clara Duffy ‘24, Mia Evans '24 and Daniela Kay ‘24
Semifinalist: Miles Brown ‘23, Seamus McKeag ‘23, Calvin Warrillow '23 and Adam Willock ‘23
2nd Place: Aubrey Campbell ‘24, Maia Connell ‘24, Siena Henshaw ‘24 and Avery Muradali '24
Champions: Jonah Blicker ‘23, Jamie Kaul ‘23, Curtis Li ‘23, Harry Moffat ‘23 and Nate Samuel ‘23
 
A special opportunity was given to this year's winning team - a chance to personally present their solutions to Kelly Hagen, the current CEO of Entomo Farms. With the networking help of John Ruffolo, a Greenwood parent and frequent guest judge, Kelly Hagen generously visited Greenwood on Wednesday, December 14 to personally meet the winning team (pictured below), watch their presentation, provide authentic feedback and gift them with a delicious sample of Entomo's cricket-based goods. 
 
The Business Studies team would like to thank many parties for making this event possible, chiefly among which are the many students who ventured further together. Students embraced the challenge and made us proud. Moreover, the Business Studies team thanks the events team, our IT staff, the many judges who generously volunteered their time and Greenwood’s school leadership for continuing to support these case competitions.
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