Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

The Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM) is proud again. At this time, Students of Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UGM successfully won 3rd place in the 12-hour case of RSM STAR Case Competition. The competition was held virtually from 16 to 23 April 2021 by the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) campus, Erasmus University, Netherlands. The 'Critical One' team consisting of Veronika Xaveria (IUP Management 2016), Erica Lesmana (Accounting 2017), Alexander Tjhung (IUP Management 2018), Mathew Ihot Lorenz Sijabat (IUP Economics 2019) won 3rd place after completing the business case about Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) in 12 hours. In addition, they also participated in a 24-hour business case to resolve cases related to Docubird which is a Microsoft 365 add-in for smart document management.

In this annual international business case competition organized by the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Netherlands, FEB UGM ‘Critical One’ team had to compete with 15 teams from world-class universities. Besides UGM, this competition also had participants from the following universities; Ivey Business School, Copenhagen Business School, Corvinus University Budapest, University of Calgary, Chulalongkorn University, University of Technology Sydney, HEC Montreal, National University of Singapore, University of Waikato, Thammasat University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen, IE Business School Madrid, University of St Gallen, and Rotterdam School of Management.

This year, RSM STAR Case Competition takes the theme of Future Growth, which discusses the current fast-changing society, companies are always looking for innovative ways to further develop their operations and grow. This theme is motivated by the many phenomena that change people behavior quickly, for example, the COVID-19 phenomenon, which causes companies to be required to continue to adapt to new changes.

In the 12 hour case competition with study case regarding Coca-Cola, all participants were challenged to present the best and innovative solutions to support Coca-Cola in their marketing strategy to increase consumer perceptions of the company's commitment to sustainability and environment. This case was also required to choose a market that must be targeted specifically. Meanwhile, the 24 hour case is a case study from Docubird, where each team was required to provide a go-to-market strategy for this newly founded startup to accelerate their sales and add users to their add-in quickly.

This year's competition format consists of 4 pools and 2 rounds, namely preliminary and final for 12-hour case and 24-hour case respectively. To participate in this competition, UGM ‘Critical One’ team must go through a selection round where each team is required by the RSM STAR Case Club to send a motivation letter and an overview of participation history in the case competition for each team member. To advance to the final round, each team is required to be the first winner in their division by eliminating the other three teams. In the 12-hour preliminary round with the case study from Coca-Cola, UGM team managed to advance to the final round after winning from National University of Singapore, University of St Gallen and HEC Montreal. Then in the final round, the UGM team faced off against 3 winners from other pools, namely Rotterdam School of Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and University of Calgary.

The victory was achieved with hard work and team work. According to Veronika Xaveria, even though the competition was held virtually and in a different format from the previous year, the Critical One team still took the initiative to practice independently and actively sought support and feedback with faculty advisors and alumni who had participated to represent UGM at RSM STAR Case Competition in previous years.

“The generous support from the Faculty of Economics and Business UGM during preparation and during competitions also served as the main motivation for our team to give our best performance to make Universitas Gadjah Mada proud”, she concluded.

We would like to thank and congratulate for the 'Critical One' FEB UGM team!

Reportage : Sony Budiarso/Kirana Lalita Pristy