<p>The much awaited culmination of the series of week nine events – the finals of the CBS Case Competition 2009 took place at Solbjerg Plads, SPs01 on Friday, 27th February, 2009, with three finalists – the University of Southern California, The University of Auckland and our very own Copenhagen Business School.</p>
The Finalists
The first team to present was Copenhagen Business School. Rasmus Steiners, Nicki Brøchner, Caspar Høgh and Simon Rasmussen – all final year bachelor students at CBS came – out to huge cheers from their fellow CBS students. Their main recommendation was a new product initiative called ‘Eurotrade’ aimed towards facilitating Schibsted’s cross-border trading. The team really emphasized the threat Schibsted Media House faced from competitors like eBay in their arguments for this solution.
University of Southern California was the second team to present. The team, Conquest Consulting – Justin Saks, Craig Schleicher, Emma Browne and Shreya Oswal – wowed the audience with their detailed analysis and structured presentation. They proposed a two-pronged approach called ‘Enhance and Expand’ which would make Schibsted create a hybrid version of their existing business model and expand into eight other countries in Europe.
Finally, Cat in the Hat Consulting – Yi-Lign Lin, Alison Dunn, Luke Bulling and Kate Haywood – from the University of Auckland made their presentation. In a very innovative and well-paced presentation, they put forth the solution of ‘Race to the Top,’ a strategy to ensure market leadership for Schibsted Classified Media through launching new initiatives and expand into other markets (such as Russia and Hungry).
Judgement Day
To judge the finals, some of the most illustrious and successful members of the business and academic communities had been invited – ranging from Mads Øvlisen, former CEO of Novo Nordisk and Kim Fausing, COO of Danfoss over our very own professors, Martin Iversen and Majken Schultz, to two representatives from Schibsted – Executive Vice President Sverre Munck and Schibsted Classified Media’s CFO, Stein Yndestad.
The jury did not hold back in challinging the teams on their solutions, treating them as they would treat external consultants and asking some very difficult questions. It was clear that there was a strong focus on finding a sustainable competitive advantage in the teams’ solutions. However, each team had quite distinct recommendations for the case company and showed such distinct personalities to the spectators, making it a very close race indeed.
The jury and competitors then withdrew until the results were to be announced at 22:00 at the Awards Banquet held for the participants.
The final decisions about how CBS’ Programme Administration is to ensure the best possible Student Services in the future are just about ready to be presented. Two things were already settled...
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