Our students win the TUM Business Game 2023
Congratulations to our students Laura Enderlin (Master in Consumer Science) and Vansh Chopra (Masters in Management), who alongside Wenchao Hao (Ph.D. student in Psycholinguistics at LMU) and Vincent Mattheij (TUM Bachelor Mechanical Engineering) won this year´s TUM Business Game!
Once again students of the TUM School of Management are among the winners of the TUM Business Game, the biggest case study competition in Munich since 2016. This proves once more, that our interdisciplinary study programs equip our students with an essential skill set, which enables them to easily face real-world business cases with like-minded peers in a diverse environment.
In a short interview, the winners tell us about their experience at the TUM Business Game 2023:
What was your case study all about?
Business Game is an on-stage business challenge, which is not limited to a single case study but rather each team presenting their solution to multiple cases provided by the corporate partners. Bound by a 3-hour time limit to solve each case, our team made successful pitches on the topics of:
1. The future of Parking
Finding innovative solutions for a future repurposing of abundant space in car parkings
2. Value creation for a consumer goods brand
Developing a strategy for this brand including regional extension, portfolio and store design
optimization
3. NFTs in the corporate world
Increasing employer attractiveness by the use of NFT’s in the employee journey
4. Ethical framework for Artificial Intelligence
Evaluation of ethical risks in several use cases of AI
What was the biggest challenge?
Focus on important things and not trying to fix every small detail for the pitch
The hardest part of competing in such a challenge is working together as a team. There needs to be proper communication and understanding amongst all team members to deliver a professional presentation in a short preparation period. Given that you do not know your team members from before, it's a tough one to navigate. Especially with the wide variety of academic, professional, and personal backgrounds, we all come from.
However, our team was able to understand this challenge, so we always tried to get everyone on the same page and managed to successfully work together towards delivering winning pitches in multiple cases.
Another thing we learnt in the course of the event was to focus only on the important things and to imagine yourself being in the position of the jury. With the help of their valuable feedback after each pitch, we were able to improve step by step.
Have you cooperated with industry partners?
Besides the great opportunity to network with fellow students and interesting personalities from academia, the TUM Business Game also held the opportunity to get yourself connected with leading industry partners. After challenging preparations and pitches, there was always time for networking. So, we talked to representatives of the four business game partners (EY Parthenon, KPMG, Allianz and German Forum for Ethical Machine Decision Making) and many more. It was a relaxed atmosphere, and all of the industry partners were highly interested in our thoughts and personalities, as well as sharing their experience with us.
What knowledge form your studies at TUM School of Management has helped you the most in solving the case study?
The most important thing learnt at TUM school of Management that helped us do well at the challenge, is the experience to collaborate with fellow students from different fields and backgrounds in our seminars and classes. Having a diverse team constellation certainly contributes in a more holistic solution approach, where everybody can share his or her knowledge and ideas. Communicating and supporting each other are the key things to consider if you want to be successful as a team in solving those business cases.
The Winners:
Laura Enderlin, Master in Consumer Science at TUM School of Management.
She is truly passionate about people and their behavior and highly interested to get insights in their motivations and decisions. With a professional background in controlling, she especially loves to have a deeper look at the numbers and data behind. She applied for TUM Business Game 2023 because she wanted to take the opportunity to grow her personal network and to challenge herself in an international and inspiring environment.
Vansh Chopra, Masters in Management at TUM School of Management. He previously worked in the field of digital growth in The Middle East, India and in Germany. During his studies at TUM, he sparked an interest in the field of pricing and behavioral economics and is currently gaining experience in the same field. He applied for the TUM Business Game to get an insight to the world of consulting and network with industry specialists and like-minded individuals.
Wenchao Hao, Ph.D. student in Psycholinguistics at LMU.
Besides her academic program, she is also greatly interested in various business and industry topics. She describes herself as a very curious person, and topics such as cognitive models of language and their applications, the metaverse, brain-computer interface technology, AI/ML and DeFi always spark my curiosity. She initially decided to participate in the TUM Business Game to step out of my comfort zone and challenge herself.
Vincent Mattheij, Bachelor Mechanical Engineering at TUM. He is actually focusing on the aerospace industry, but was interested into business/financial topics since school. In order to broaden his horizon and network, he decided to apply for the TUM Business Game 2023.