Students from The University of New Mexico's Anderson School of Management earned second place honors in the 2018 Daniels Fund Consortium Business Ethics Case Competition held in Denver recently.

A team from the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business took first place in the competitionm while the third place team was from the University of Wyoming’s College of Business.

This was the seventh annual Daniels Fund Consortium Case Competition. Ten teams of four to six undergraduate business students participated in this unique competition, designed exclusively for universities that are members of the Daniels Fund Ethics Consortium. The Daniels Fund, established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, is a private charitable foundation dedicated to making life better for the people of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming through its grants program, scholarship program and ethics initiative.

The Case Competition exposes college students to a thought-provoking business ethics case, similar to a situation that they might face in their professional careers. In the first phase of the competition, the teams have a month to analyze a case using principle-based ethics, develop an executive summary of recommended actions, and prepare a presentation.

After making a presentation to a panel of judges, the teams are given information about a crisis affecting the business portrayed in the case; in four hours, the teams have to create another situation addressing the crisis. It is designed to challenge students’ ethical reasoning, give them tools for ethical decision-making, and raise awareness of the importance of principle-based ethics in business decision-making.

Teams were evaluated based on their use of principles established by the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative in honor of the late Colorado businessman and entrepreneur Bill Daniels. They include integrity, trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, respect, rule of law, and viability.

Other institutions that competed included: Colorado Mesa University’s Department of Business, Colorado State University’s College of Business, New Mexico State University’s College of Business, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs’ College of Business, University of Colorado Denver’s Business School, University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business and University of Northern Colorado’s Monfort College of Business.

For more information, visit Daniels Fund Ethics Competition.