SMU’s Team Cognitare, Lee Kong Chian School of Business’s business case club, triumphed over 11 teams hailing from four continents to emerge champions at the 2017 RSM Star Case Competition held in April.

The team which has brought home the championship title comprised Jazelle Tan Hui Yi (3^rd year, BBM), Josephine Soh Jiaying (3^rd year, double degree BACC and BBM), Jamie Lim Zhi En (2^nd year, BBM) and Bryan Yong Ren Wei (1st year, BBM).  They had participated in the fourth edition of the competition, which was organised and hosted by the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, to showcase the analytical capabilities and innovative young minds of business schools from all around the world.

This year, the competition attracted 12 teams from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland, including teams from the University of St. Gallen, Ivey Business School and Chinese University of Hong Kong.

To prepare for the competition, the team had started training intensively from February, including doing in-depth research to ensure that they were familiar with the region’s latest market developments and trends.

Achieving the top spot was no mean feat, but Team Cognitare delivered stellar performance in the 24-hour case challenge and eventually came in first position, ahead of Ivey Business School and Haskayne School of Business.  The 24-hour case challenge concerned Nike Europe, which wanted to seek new ideas to help the company adapt to changing consumer needs and to gain a competitive edge in the highly competitive market.  Participating teams were to propose a three-year strategic plan for Nike, Inc.’s European supply chain to enable it to better serve market demand, while meeting the moonshot goal set by Nike Global to double its revenue with half the environmental impact. 

Not only did their innovative and implementable strategy win them the championship title, Team Cognitare was also commended by the judges for their unique presentation style, which emphasised the team’s camaraderie.

"The RSM Star Case Competition is known for its sustainability slant and the most important takeaway for the team is the fact that sustainability efforts can be both highly impactful and cost efficient.  Through the Nike case, we were able to understand and apply these topics that have been widely discussed in the SMU classrooms, which truly reflected the business world out there.  It goes without saying that our team’s achievement would not have been possible without the guidance we have received from the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business, our professors and alumni of the club," said Jazelle.

[Featured photo: (L-R) Bryan Yong Ren Wei, Jamie Lim Zhi En, Josephine Soh Jiaying and Jazelle Tan Hui Yi – triumphant at the 2017 RSM Star Case Competition.]