EVA Consulting from UNSW Sydney won the second case. From left Emily Cong, Varun Mahendra Amin, Sarah Sieun Kim, and Christian Max Huang.
Each year, BI International Case Competition (BIICC) brings together students from across the world to compete in presenting the best business cases for two leading Norwegian companies.
This year, teams from twelve schools in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America participated. The competition featured two business cases. The dairy producer Tine provided the first case, and Norway’s largest insurance company Gjensidige provided the second case.
Team EVA Consulting from the University of New South Wales in Sydney won the second case. Two teams were crowned winners of the first case: Team FICT from The University of Porto – FEP and Team Vinne Consulting from the National University of Singapore.
“Winning BIICC is the culmination of many weeks of hard work and training. Over our preparation time, we have developed not only our skills but also as a team. For our hard work to be recognized with this honor is an outstanding achievement that we are very grateful for,” says Christian Huang from EVA Consulting, who won the second case.
This is the seventh year in a row BI organizes the competition. Due to COVID it was held digitally this year and last year. Usually the teams travel to Oslo.
“I want to congratulate the winning team EVA Consulting with a very professional presentation and excellent suggestions for us as a company. My jury colleague from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) told me this presentation would have been praised if it were given to BCG. It is difficult to find greater acclaim for a student,” says Sigurd Syrdal, Head of CRM Customer Strategy and Planning at Gjensidige, and Leader of the jury.
BI’s President Inge Jan Henjesand is impressed with the teams.
“It always makes me proud to see so many excellent and engaged students apply their skills and knowledge to real-world business cases. Feedback from the business case companies shows that the quality of the proposed solutions was very high. Providing opportunities like this and connecting students across the world is an essential part of BI’s commitment to student success. I especially want to congratulate team EVA on the victory,” he says
BIICC runs for almost a week, including an open case competition for all students, and stands where business partners provide valuable advice for students. This year’s business partners were Boston Consulting Group, Cognizant, Gjensidige, the Norwegian postal service Posten, and Tine.
A unique chance
“At Gjensidige, we see case competitions as win-win for students and business. The students get the opportunity to work with relevant questions that make them even more attractive in the job market, and we as businesses get welcome insight into what students – the employees and customers of tomorrow – think about us and our business challenges. We strongly encourage students at BI to solve cases,” says Leader of the jury Sigurd Syrdal.
The Gjensidige case was about unlocking the power of agile working.
“We in Gjensidige allow ourselves to be inspired by the case solutions. I see several red threads run through many of them. For example, multiple teams observed how our app has some untapped potential. I shared my insight with a colleague in Gjensidige during the competition, and I have already invited her to a meeting about it. The winning case has provided useful insight into several of our current challenges. We want to invite EVA Consulting to a dialogue with us about their suggestions.” continues Syrdal.
“As students, the theoretical knowledge we develop in the classroom can sometimes be challenging to apply in a real business environment; case competitions like BIICC bridge the gap between these two worlds. They allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge to real-life business problems. Beyond this, students can develop a range of soft skills such as teamwork, presentation and communication which are highly applicable to education, training and professional work environments,” says Varun Mahendra Amin from EVA Consulting.
Details about BIICC 2022
- The competing schools were The American University of Beirut, Corvinus University of Budapest, IE Business School, National University of Singapore, Rotterdam Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, Technological University Dublin, Texas A&M University, The University of Porto – FEP, University of Navarra, UNSW Sydney, and BI Norwegian Business School.
- The competition has been held annually since 2016.
- It ran over a week, with the first case presented on February 12, and the winners of the finals case presented late on February 17.
- Two teams were crowned winners of the first case from Tine: FICT Team from The University of Porto – FEP (consisting of Inês Maria Guimarães Prata, Marta Alexandra Clemente Vigário, Rodrigo da Silva Carvalho, and Rui Pedro Salcedo Coelho Massena Pereira) and Vinne Consulting from the National University of Singapore (consisting of Megan Faith Chan, Robinson Liokubuwono, Zheng Xiang Lim, and Calvin Chur).
- The runners up for winners of the second case were Phoenix Consulting from the American University of Beirut in 2nd place, and Vinne Consulting from the National University of Singapore in 3rd place.