2016 EFMD Case Writing Competition Winners Announced

The case study method has a long history of bringing lively discussions into MBA curricula. Students get an opportunity to solve real-life business challenges, identified by expert faculty and presented in the form of written cases. But not all cases are created equal.

For three decades, the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) has been organizing its yearly case writing competition to honor the business faculty, PhD candidates and researchers behind the best and most innovative business cases. Criteria for a strong submission include the relevancy of the subject matter and how well the case serves its students by covering a wide range of learning objectives and offering insights into various approaches to help them arrive at solutions to its focal business challenges.

Technological innovation was revealed as the prominent theme of this year’s list, as linked to business in mobile technology and environmental sustainability. This mirrors the interests of MBA candidates, whose third-most popular target sector is technology (after consulting and finance), based on the latest QS Applicant Survey.

The winning faculty selected by EFMD this year represent 17 different business schools and come from 11 countries, with professors from IMD and the Singapore Management University dominating the list, with three prizes each.

The awards’ ‘Best of the Best’ winners are yet to be selected and will be announced formally at a ceremony in Brussels, as part of EFMD’s annual conference, which starts tomorrow. All business case winners receive a €2000 prize (c. US$2,300), though the prospect that their case and the associated business challenges will be tackled by a wider community of MBA students on receipt of an EFMD accolade is likely to be more coveted.

Environmental sustainability a hot business case topic

As is the case with a learning method that pulls inspiration from the real world, the business cases and their subjects can, together, provide insight into a broader picture of the global business landscape. This year, three new categories were added for cases that expose students to business challenges related to environmental sustainability, a topic of increasing resonance in business and MBA study.

In these categories, sponsored by Climate-KIC (the EU’smain climate innovation initiative), the cases brought innovative companies into the limelight, including: California’s Newlight Technologies, which converts greenhouse gas emissions into cost-effective thermoplastics, (written by IMD professor, Daina Mazutis, and PhD candidate, Daniel Day); and UK-Based Abundance Investment (formerly Abundance Generation), an online crowdfunding platform for renewable energy solutions (written by Imperial College Business School’s professor, Charles Donovan, and PhD candidate, Christopher Corbishley).

India’s Suzlon Energy Limited also made the winners list in one of the awards existing categories, on bringing technologies to market. In this case, the technology in question was the renewable resource of wind power and the paper was a collaborative effort by researchers at Fox Business School and Indian School of Business).

Mobile phone technology companies focus of winning business cases

Another popular focus among this year’s winning business cases was the mobile technology sector. In an ‘Emerging Global Chinese Competitors’ category, IMD’s professor Howard Yu, investigates Xiaomi, a Beijing-based mobile phone startup that leveraged social media to crowdsource its product development, making it the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker in under five years, according to IMD. Penned a “homegrown” version of Apple in the business case, Xiaomi is also said to be the world’s second-most valuable startup (after WeWork).

In another nod to socially-minded business, Kellogg professor Sarit Markovich, and senior business case writer and entrepreneur, Nilima Achwal, investigated Kenya’s mobile money market, with a look at M-Changa, a fundraising tool which enables community giving via SMS.