These business case competitions help students to develop their problem-solving, analytical and presentation skills with consultancy training – which are then put to the test with real-life business challenges judged by representatives of the companies. The latest wins from the RSM teams have been added to the Champions Trophy Case Competition 2025 league table.
Mighty strategic in Maastricht
After many weeks of intense preparation and training, Theo Warten, Emma Vittoz, Erik Finlay Holzkämper, and Anezka Pospichalova and faculty advisor Dr Bas Koene headed to Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands ready to solve two four-hour cases and one 24-hour case, all with a strategic focus. Each round involves a presentation to the jury and a Q&A session.
The RSM team won the second four-hour case in their division against three teams: Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University and Western University’s Ivey Business School, both from Canada, and the team from University of Sydney in Australia. The case involved Novelist, a Dutch digital wealth management start-up, with co-founder Daniel den Boer as a member of the jury.
With consistently clear, creative and solid analyses and solutions, the RSM team went on to win the 24-hour case about AAK, a manufacturer of plant-based oils and fats, against three teams: Ivey Business School, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta. This sent them through to the final round to present their 24-hour case to the judges again. This final presentation confirmed their victory against the top finishers from the other three divisions: National University of Singapore Business School was placed second, Maastricht University School of Business and Economics was third and Nanyang Technological University Singapore fourth.
Solid skills
The Maastricht jury’s comments reflect the solid consultancy and problem-solving skills that these RSM students have worked so hard on, and their ability to use them under pressure and against the clock. Jury members – representatives of the companies featured in the challenges – said they found it incredible what the teams were able to do in such a short amount of time; they made solid analyses and came up with creative and practical ideas. What’s more, the students’ ideas help the participating businesses not to get too set in their ways. “The case solutions are fresh perspectives on our business challenges, giving us great ideas to move forward,” said one.
In a social media post about his experience of the competition, winning team member Theo Warten, who is in Year 2 of the BSc International Business Administration programme, said the team’s achievement had taken countless hours of preparation with late nights building PowerPoint slides, and benefitted from mutual support from all the team members.
Tough judges in Bangkok
Then it was the turn of another RSM STAR Case Club team to head to Bangkok in Thailand for the Chulalongkorn International Business Case Competition from 19–25 May. Juan Alba Praska, Maya Boudier, Rebecca Armando and Baptiste Mazuel were accompanied by their faculty advisor Willem Koolhaas.
The format for this competition was two cases: a concise 8-hour case about the growth strategy of the 11 hospitals in the Phyathai-Paolo Hospital Group, and a 24-hour case about the market expansion in Vietnam for TOA Paint. The cases were intentionally designed to require strategic thinking and comprehensive analytical skills. The winning team would be selected based on its presentation of this case and its performance in the Q&A session with the jury.
“The very senior level of the judges was impressive,” said faculty advisor Willem Koolhaas. “Their questions were tough but fair, and were a great preparation for the team members’ future careers in international business.”
Unanimous jury
Impressed with the RSM team’s presentation, the jury unanimously voted it the winner. In second place was the University of Auckland from New Zealand, third was the City University of Hong Kong and fourth was the Smith School of Business at Queen's University in Canada.
What’s more, RSM’s Juan Alba Praska, a student on the BSc International Business Administration programme, won the award for best speaker in the competition. Writing a social media post about the experience, he said: “We all felt the pressure to win going into the last competition of the year. We knew that we had to perform at a level we hadn't before, and that's exactly what we did. Much of this confidence came from our training.”
