Last week, a student team from All Stars Rotterdam participated in an online international case competition at the Norwegian Business School (BI). After a warm-up round in which Mehmet Kaplan (IB), Siebren van den Bosch (TBK), Boaz de Gruijter (Bedrijfskunde) en Bijan Faghfouri (IB) had to advise a Norwegian dairy cooperative on the feasibility of a plan to export brown cheese to Asia, they really had to get to work two days later. Cracking a 30hr case!

In the first round, Rotterdam had to “yield” to the University of Singapore, now it would be Hogeschool Rotterdam’s turn. However, the challenge is tough. Gjensidige is a leading Norwegian insurance company. Time to market, customer value and business value need to improve if Gjensidige is to maintain its position. The only way forward is a transition to more agile working at Gjensidige. But how do you organize this? How do you really involve all employees? What are the quick-wins and long-term benefits? So many questions …

Siebren, Bijan, Boaz and Mehmet have made a good plan. The story is clear and the benefits obvious. They do warn management though that it will take a few years before agile working will really be implemented everywhere in the company.

Obviously, the University of New South Wales from Australia is our main opponent. Their strategy is similar, but implementation is faster. The question is whether that is realistic; the Rotterdam coaches (Britta and Hans) are doubtful. The jury deliberates long and declares … the Australians the division winner; moments later they also win the entire competition.

Ahhh, Rotterdam was so close. But the team doesn’t go home (digitally speaking) empty-handed. Because of their enormous effort and enthusiasm, they have won the trophy for the most spirited team. A nice end to a great case competition week and a well-deserved prize.