The main goal of this initiative is the promotion of business education. Case Study Competition is a refreshing, stimulating and dynamic two day contest, through which six-member cross functional teams coming from individual companies have the opportunity to learn from and compete (benchmark) against the competing teams from other participating companies, in an environment which is empowering teambuilding, harnessing competitiveness and helping individuals to find own solutions, rather than to be told what to do. Competition consists of case study analysis and presentation of the solutions.
Case Study is chosen by the Chair of the CSC Committee. Case Study always deals with real companies and their actual situation (problem, issue, challenge). The case study is given to the teams at the beginning of the first day and they are allowed 24 hours to prepare their presentation in front of the CSC Committee. They get the chance for the rehearsing presentation after 24 hours and with the feedback and advices from the Committee members are allowed another several hours for the final preparations. During the afternoon of the second day each team presents their solution to the CSC Committee during the half an hour session. After all teams finish their presentations, CSC Committee decides upon the winner. The winner is announced at the end of the afternoon in front of all teams, company representatives, media and IEDC alumni.
CSC Committee consists of three members. The Chair of the Committee is always an IEDC Professor. The other two members are IEDC MBA alumni with extensive business experience. CSC Committee decides upon the winner of the competition based on the CSC Criteria. Besides the CSC Committee at least two more IEDC MBA alumni are actively participating at the competition as the Advisors. Advisors are together with CSC Committee visiting the participating teams during their work on the presentations and are providing necessary clarifications and explanations concerning case study analysis.
Participating companies are usually market leaders in their branch. Not less than 5 and not more than 8 companies participate at each CSC. Each company sends one team, which consists of six members, usually in middle managerial positions. Teams are advised to be cross-functional (ideally a company would send members from as many different departments as possible, so that all areas of expertise needed for the comprehensive case study solution would be covered, e.g. finance, accounting, marketing, operations,HR, …).
The basic condition for participation is that none of the members has already completed MBA Program at any School.
The Award for the winning teams of individual countries is the participation for all team members at one of the elective MBA courses at IEDC-Bled School of Management. The winning team of every country also gets qualified for the Global Case Study Competition. The winning team of the Global CSC will win for its company a two-day tailor-made seminar with an IEDC’s professor on the subject to be mutually agreed by IEDC and the company.
Benefits of Case Study Competition to the participating companies and teams are many. Through group work and active participation in this competition, participants:
• Facilitate and support each other’s' learning processes;
• Improve their problem solving and decision-making skills;
• Develop core management skills, including communication skills, team work, leadership, presentation skills and time management;
• Learn the value of group work in the development of creative alternatives and the search for more optimal solutions;
• Become a very strong team;
• Get the opportunity for benchmarking against the other teams that come from some of the largest companies on the market.
The CSC participating fee is 1.000 EUR/team. The invoice is issued by the IEDC Alumni Club. The fee covers the costs of instruction, teaching material, use of classrooms and seminar rooms, lunches, evening receptions. Participants are responsible for the costs of travel, lodging and any other meals. The date: 27-28 May 2014, Bucharest.
For more info, please access the website
http://www.iedc.si/alumni/case-study-competition/about-csc or contact Mr Cristian Gheorghe, 0722408757; cristian.gheorghe@nexusconsulting.ro
