4^th Annual RBC x Rotman Sustainable Finance Case Competition

Registration closed on February 3, 2023 at 11:59 pm

Case Competition FAQS - General Comments

What is this?

• The Lee-Chin Institute at Rotman is proud to host the 4^th annual RBC x Rotman Sustainable Finance Case Competition (online) for MBA students at Canadian business schools (and students of related graduate business programs like MFin, MMA, MScSM or joint MBA programs).
• Teams from across Canada are eligible - please join in with your team of up to 5 members. Last year 29 teams from coast-to-coast registered.
  

When is this happening?

• The Case Competition is part of the 4^th Annual RBC x Rotman Sustainable Finance Week, held during the week of March 6 - March 11, 2023.
• The final round of the case competition will be held online on the afternoon of March 11, 2023.
  
• The registration deadline is February 3, 2023.
  

How does the case work?

• The case will be released February 3, 2023.
  
• All teams will be required to prepare a recorded presentation in response to the case competition and submit by March 3, 2023, 11:59PM EST.
• The top 5 teams will be selected By March 7, 2023.
  
• The final round of judging will be held online on the afternoon of March 11, 2023. All finalists will be required to present their case solution to a team of industry experts for judging.
  
• Winners will be selected by 5PM EDT on March 11, 2023 and announced online.
  

What does the winning team get?

• The top team will receive a cheque for $10,000 as well as an opportunity to speak with key RBC staff about possible internships, rotational programs or other positions relating to their expanding sustainable finance mandate!
• The second-place team will receive a cheque for $5,000.
  

When are videos due for the preliminary round?

• Your video entry in response to the case is due by Friday, March 3, 2023, 11:59PM EST.
• Early submissions are welcomed (and encouraged).
  

What video formats are acceptable?

• We recommend that your recorded video presentations are hosted on YouTube, which our judges are familiar with and can access easily.

How will the videos be used? 

• Videos and live presentations are used by judges to evaluate/judge the responses. 
• We do not claim rights to entries, but videos and presentations will be shared with a range of industry and faculty judges so will in effect be made public. If entrants have an IP concern, they should protect what they deem to be their IP before entering, or not include any such IP. 
• To celebrate the finalists' achievements and help competitors in future years, we will make the finalists' videos public after the competition with their permission. We will reach out to after the competition for this purpose. 

How should we identify our teams? 

• Please present and mark your slides using the team name you entered with. DO NOT REVEAL which school/program you are from in your video, your remarks or your presentation slides

Should teams balance all members when presenting? 

• Teams may share the presentation time among members equally or unequally but participation by all members at some point is encouraged.

When will we find out if we are finalists? 

• A team of judges will review all entries and decide on the top five finalists between March 3 and March 7, 2023. The top 5 teams will be contacted by end of day March 3, followed by all other entrants. Given the large number of entrants, please be patient. 
• March 7 (from March 3)

How will the finals work? 

• The five finalist teams will present live online on Saturday, March 11, 2023 between 1 pm - 4 pm as follows: 

• Details (Zoom rooms and protocol, as well as a order of presentation) will be sent to the finalist teams well in advance.
  
• The order of finalists teams will be determined randomly. 
• Teams will each have 15 minutes to present to the judges, then 10 minutes for Q&A. 
• After all teams have presented, judges will then take an hour to deliberate and choose the top two teams - a winner and a runner-up.
• The announcement of winners will take place online at on Saturday, March 11 at about 5:00pm. Emails will also be sent to the finalist teams shortly following the announcement. 

Contact us with questions at rlohin@rotman.utoronto.ca . Answers to questions will be posted here for the benefit of all teams.

What are the judges looking for? 

• Judges will look for the best approaches to the case. The top teams will best demonstrate their understanding of the challenge and the client's needs, propose a defensible approach consistent with the client's financial and ESG objectives, and provide a clear, compelling presentation (not just glitzy slides).

Are example videos from previous competitions available?

•  Videos from the 2022 competition are available at https://www.youtube.com/@lee-chininstitute4399/videos
  These include the five finalists and five honourable mentions in no specific order.

How should we deal with appendices or other supplementary materials? 

• You can add whatever material you like to the video, as long as the length does not exceed 15 minutes.  This will probably be more of an issue for the final five teams, who can refer to additional materials during their live Q&A session if needed.

Could you please clarify if ETFs are considered a segregated fund, or if we should try to minimize using ETFs in our portfolio where possible?

• By "segregated" we mean account segregation for unique client requirements. The OTGN's investments should be segregated where possible (that is, in the equities portion of the portfolio) so that they have the right to directly engage with owned companies about their ESG performance on the most relevant issues.

• Pooled funds make the fund manager'responsible for company engagement and managers are typically unwilling to exercise the same rights on behalf of (often many different) clients.
  
  
• An implication of segregating funds would be to limit the use of mutual funds and ETFs in equities, although you could use them as a portion of the overall portfolio. 
  
  
• If you've been looking up the term "segregated fund" (leading from the unclear use of this term in the case) it would give a misleading answer relating to an insurance-backed instrument. See https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/segregation.asp for a better definition.