Case with a strong impact: Building internal and external relations
Published: 2022-12-19
It’s not only Christmas time, it’s Case time! At this time of year some students and their coach are training hard at LUSEM, aiming for making it far in the The John Molson MBA Case Competition in Canada at the turn of the year. But this is far from all when it comes to case at LUSEM. Keep reading!
Speaking of case at LUSEM; no difficulties associated with continuing the story. Except for the above mentioned Molson case competition, another competiton is coming up in Lund and Copenhagen, a joint event between LUSEM and CBS, a new training for case judges and some further interesting facts and comments from Mats Urde and Ulf Ramberg, sharing their latest news on case at LUSEM.
Case competitions
The John Molson MBA Case Competition is a competition that challenge the students both as individuals and as a team regarding problem-solving. Mats has found some good working strategies when preparing for this competition, as a competitor last year put it, “comparable to an olympic game in MBA”.
To be able to set up a team for the competition in Canada students are invited to take part in four training sessions at LUSEM. This year was a record since 35 students applied to participate. After the training sessions four students got elected for the Molson competition and are now training case solving together. One of the strategic parts of the training is to go on the 'case weekend' in Mölle, where the Molson team usually does one of their training sessions.
“During these four training sessions all students get to practice case solving. New this year was that judges, people from the business world, took part. They came from Swedbank, Handelsbanken, EY and Deloitte,“ Mats Urde tells.
Uf Ramberg continues:
“What has been extra fun this autumn is that we have also had PhD students in our training sessions. Their perspective has been extremely important and is a guarantee of some regrowth!“
What it can look like after a well done competition...The Molson team of 2018 with coach Mats Urde second from the left after winning 3 out of 5 cases with an end ranking of being the 16th best team out of 36.
Just before New Year’s Eve the students in the team leave for Canada and Mats will join in on the 1st of January, the first day of the competition. There will be regular updates from the competition at LUSEM’s social media.
Another important case competition coming up is the Nordic Case Challenge in March 2023. The Nordic Case Competition is an annual case competition for business students in the Nordics. Responsible of the training and the team at LUSEM is Ulf Ramberg.
How do you elect the students that compete for LUSEM in Nordic Case Challenge 2023 and how do you train them before the competition?
“A jury at the School selects the team that submitted the best business plan. This team will then represent LUSEM in NCC 2023 and of course receive training from us before this competition at the end of March. They will get to practice solving a number of cases, get feedback on both the solution and the presentation of qualified judges.“
What do you think about our chances this time?
“The spirit of NCC is permeated by an idea of learning and feedback. Of course they are there to compete, but learning and constructive feedback are in the driver's seat, which is not least noticeable through the structure that NCC has. Given the training this fall and the talented students we have at bachelor's level, I have high hopes....,“ Ulf concludes.
Judge training
New for this year is a training for case judges. To become a certified case judge, one should participate in the four sessions mentioned above but also in a training called ‘judges training’. This leads to the title LUSEM Case competition judge and a diploma.
“This is an idea that me and my colleagues Ulf Ramberg and Ola Mattisson have had for a while. As far as I know no other university has this kind of certified case judge training,” says Mats.
One of the newly appointed case competition judges Tobias Lindberg, Director Business Consulting Nordics at EY, one of LUSEM's partner companies, thinks highly about the training he just got during the autumn:
"Great judge training. Inspiring to meet so many talented students and teamworking as judges to listen to, give advice and judge various cases."
"A big thank you to the partner companies, these external contacts have been invaluable when getting for example case competition judges."
Thanks to LundaEkonomerna and the partner companies
The three case teachers involved in LUSEM Case Academy are keen to emphasize that without the close cooperation with LundaEkonomerna it wouldn't have been possible to inform, attract and handle the record-breaking number of students eager to participate in the training sessions during the Molson selection process.
“We had more than 30 students coming for case training every night between 16-22 which hadn't been possible without some great help from LundaEkonomerna. They have handled all the work related to applications and admission,“ says Ulf Ramberg.
He continues:
“A big thank you to the people we have collaborated with at the partner companies, these external contacts have been invaluable when getting for example case competition judges. This is a great opportunity for our partner companies to get a close and personal contact with our students. Without this resource at LUSEM, we would never have been able to achieve this.“
During a case training session autumn 2022 at LUSEM with one of the case competition judges Tobias Lindberg, Director Business Consulting Nordics at EY.
The Case Centre
Another important partner is The Case Centre. The Case Centre in Britain and the US was set up in 1973 and was the result of a joint initiative by 22 higher education institutions who wanted a reliable facility for sharing case materials among business teachers. Thanks to the collaboration Mats and his colleagues have with this centre, in terms of sharing case experiences, writing articles together and so on, LUSEM gets to be part of the most important international case organization in the world. The Case Centre is the world’s largest repository of case studies and was also the organization that appointed Mats Outstanding case teacher a couple of years ago.
“To have this collaboration and contact is of great importance, the centre is like an engine for all case teaching and their work has a great impact. They are dedicated to advance the case method worldwide and sharing knowledge,” Mats explains.
About The LUSEM Case Academy and the Business Case Judges:
The purpose of the LUSEM Case Academy is to forward the case teaching, learning and research method. The LUSEM Case Competition Training is a highly specialised training programme. The student teams’ case solutions are presented, followed by a Q&A session with a panel of judges. The LUSEM Case Academy certifies business case judges. To be certified, one has to actively participate in a training programme and successfully fulfill the role of a judge. The role of a judge is to share experienceand knowledge by providing fair and constructive feedback. Insightful feedback is provided to help individual students and teams to improve their presentation and argumentation skills. Advice is given for the crafting of analytical and creative solutions with realistic implementation plans and purposeful expected outcomes. Evaluations are given by a committee of judges with motivations of different teams' performance based on presentation, analysis, recommendation, and implementation.
Below teachers and coaches at the LUSEM case Academy. From the left, Mats Urde, Ola Mattisson, Ulf Ramberg.
