Corvinus Beats Leading U.S. University at Business Competition

The Corvinus University of Budapest team beat two of the world's top ten universities in the Marshall International Case Competition, apart from the University of California, Berkeley, ranked 10th, they also managed to beat the team of the National University of Singapore, ranked 8th in the QS World University Rankings.

Corvinus was represented by Anna Kálmán, Noémi Kopka, Alexandra Pongrácz, and Tamás Gáspár, and the lecturer having prepared them, Miklós Stocker. In the competition, participants had to perform in various formats; sometimes they had to come up with a solution to a complex business problem within five hours, while other times they had 24 hours to do so.

The focus of the short case was on how a digital transformation consulting firm could achieve radical growth by employing a specific strategy tailored to the market. In the long case, the task was to encourage more digital interactions among fans of a football club and to elevate the club's brand to international renown. Corvinus' solutions came first in their division in both cases. 

"During the competition, we benefited greatly from the wide range of case studies taught in a well thought-out system at Corvinus. For the consultancy case, for example, our team developed a client acquisition strategy for the Asian market with a manufacturing and retail focus, based on an analysis of the external environment," said Anna Kálmán, one of the team members. 

"I was extremely pleased to receive feedback after the final that our team's solution, judged on both accuracy, depth, and feasibility, would be taught by a lecturer from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. This also shows that students interested in business programs can get world-class knowledge in Hungary" - shared Miklós Stocker, head of the Institute of Strategy and Management at Corvinus University, who also runs the Case Track at the university, which prepares students for business case competitions.  

In the multi-round student competition, the Corvinus team was the only one to qualify for the final five with a 100% score, finishing in a respectable third place behind teams from Emory University, Atlanta, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The Hungarians also beat the Rotterdam School of Management and the Business School of the University of Hong Kong in the final. The format of the final was special, as instead of the usual presentation and question-and-answer session, the team had to give a half-hour presentation in which the jury had the opportunity to stop the team at any time after five minutes and ask questions about the solution, which of course was used many times.

The presentations of the final can be watched on the Facebook page of the organizers, the Corvinus presentation starts at 2:44.