CBS Case Competition

 While I'm here, one of the things I want to take advantage of is being at a business school and the differences that come with it (like having Champagne served in one of my classes last week. That was a first for me). One thing that is very different is the interaction with companies. In one of my classes, a company came and gave us a presentation about a business problem they have. Our final project is to come up with a solution to the problem. This is a common format for class projects at CBS.

On a bigger scale, every winter CBS hosts the CBS Case Competition. Nine teams come from all over the world to compete. On Wednesday morning, the case was announced: How can Tom's (a Danish chocolate company) diversify into a global economy? The nine teams had 32 hours to come up with a solution. The top three were chosen and they presented in front of a live audience on Friday. In addition, teams of Scandinavian students could work on their own to "Beat the Elite" and an award was given for the best of these solutions.
The final presentations are a big deal, so I went to see them. I got there 20 minutes early, but didn't get a spot in the auditorium, so I had to watch it streaming from another room.

The teams from University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and CBS each had 20 minutes to present and 15 minutes to answer questions. The business plans were interesting: UBC suggested moving into travel retail, NUS proposed a Chinese market as well as healthy options, and CBS also suggested healthy options in addition to expanding the Swedish market. I was impressed with the level of detail that the students came up with in such a short time. They had numbers and projections, slogans and packaging: they gave very complete business plans. In the end, NUS was the winner.

I really enjoyed watching the presentations (although there were one or two students who would benefit from taking my public speaking course) and was impressed with the real life experience that students get by doing this.