EDHEC Named France National Champions of the KPMG International Case Competition
Impact Consulting, a team of four, EDHEC M1 Business Management students, are national winners of the KPMG International Case Competition (KICC). Ethan Brown, Katrin Engels, Aurore Neufville, and Vladislav Volovik, who comprise the winning team, will represent France at the international finals in Lisbon, Portugal, April 10-13.
The two-round, all-day, competition, required the winning students to rely on knowledge learnt in their classroom studies and employ practical skills developed in their associations. The team designed a growth strategy for an international luxury hotel enterprise and delivered, for the same hotel chain, an innovation strategy to develop new business processes.
Their course studies in Strategic Management and Advanced Topics in Growth Strategy prepared them to understand the complexity of the KPMG case study and to apply a real-world business solution. To win the competition, the team needed overcome time pressure, organise their ideas, and present them to multiple stakeholders. Participation in their associations gave the students public speaking and pitching experience. These essential skills, useful in communicating to a variety of personalities helped them to master the presentation aspect of the competition.
Driven by the idea of self-improvement and for having fun, the competitive advantage shared by the EDHEC students might be their good team spirit. Their confidence in each other and ability to work, under pressure, as a unit, attributed to their synergy. “Our team consists of four international students—France, Germany, Russia, and the United States of America—with different background experiences, so we are able to build a full picture of the business situation presented to us,” said Aurore Neufville of France.
Shaped by their diverse skills and differing points-of-view the EDHEC team understood the basis of a complex problem and could structure a story to communicate their business solution. The KPMG International Case Competition (KICC) attracts over 3,000 students from universities across the world. In France, the competition is organised amongst 8 business schools (Audencia, EDHEC, EM Lyon, ESCP Europe, ESSEC, HEC, Grenoble EM) and for the last two years it has been open to engineering schools (Arts & Métiers Paris Tech and ESTP) We are proud of the EDHEC M1 Business Management students and their achievements on the national level. We wish them the best in Lisbon and celebrate their success as the best team in France.
