Almost 35 participants from RSM’s International Full-time MBA and Executive MBA classes explored the energy industry, applied their new skills to real challenges, grew their networks, and learned more about the Dutch working environment.
Students could select one of three Eneco case topics: energy trading, big data marketing, and Jedlix (an Eneco-funded start-up). They only had three weeks to prepare for their pitches for the competition, which was organised by the MBA Energy Club, MBA Student Association, and Eneco.
Combining marketing tools with practical findings
After an initial round of pitches, winning teams were named for each of the three categories. Immediately afterwards, the category winners presented their pitches again in front of analysts, managers, directors and their peers. In an intense final round, the Jedlix case team – comprised of MBA students Trude Faber, Aabhas Mago, Ricardo Pacheco, and Alexander Yudin – took the prize.
“The opportunity to compete in the Eneco competition and develop a market growth strategy for the Jedlix app, has taught us that at all levels of doing business 'keeping it simple' is inevitable to succeed,” says Trude Faber. “It made my team win!”
The Jedlix team had based their recommendations on marketing tools learned in the MBA, such as the ‘customer purchase funnel’ and ‘resource allocation’, and combined this with practical findings from the customer experience and profile. They addressed key facts and behaviours that should be taken into account while launching and developing the phone app Jedlix for electric car owners. With that, the winning team impressed the jury by presenting practical solutions that could be implemented rapidly on the operational level.
Creative solutions
For Eneco, one of the largest producers and suppliers of natural gas, electricity and heat in the Netherlands, the competition was a source of creative solutions and refreshing ideas on how to tackle several challenges in the energy sector.
“We very much enjoy working together with the RSM’s MBA programme because of the quality of the solutions that are given. These have again sparked new insights. The versatility and resilience of the students is remarkable and we look forward to the next competition,” said the organisers from Eneco; Bert Bouwmeister, Martin Hartvelt and Jorinde Vernooij.
The winners were rewarded with gift cards provided by RSM Student Association and Waka Waka solar charges offered by Eneco.
