Solvay Business Game- Account of experiences
This year we were the only team who had the chance to represent Corvinus University at the 8th Solvay Business Game which was organized by the Solvay Brussels School. As the name already implies, the competition is based on case studies but it differs from traditional competitions in the following ways:
- Only teams of two can apply who have to solve a McKinsey-type PST in order to qualify.
- At the competition teams have to solve four challenges in two days and a fifth one in advance at home.
- During the challenges teams are randomly assigned to others with whom they have to solve the given task together, thus we had to work on most of the challenges in teams of six.
- Time pressure was also an important aspect, we had to prepare the 5-7-minute presentations in 3 hours.
The competition was very instructive for us as it was our first international contest. We learned a lot thanks to the environment, after the competition it became easier to handle the time pressure but what is most important is that we experienced what it is like to work with people who we had never seen before. In our experience this can go very well but it can also have a very negative impact. In case of a good draw it was amazing to see the dynamics of our team – this is how our solution was prepared for the state support of rural areas in Mexico, but other times we were assigned to people whose background was completely different which led to a few difficulties.
The four challenges – besides the previously mentioned Mexican problem – included the formulation of Electrabel’s strategy, the popularization of Unilever’s Belgian ice cream portfolio and the sale of a company – this last one was an incredible, new experience as our team of six had to negotiate with another team about the selling price of a company. This was a completely different experience from case studies and a great opportunity to learn from the way people coming from different cultures can collectively use their knowledge and human skills. Moreover, this challenge was not followed by the jury, instead they gave points based on the final deal and the conclusions of the negotiation.
At the end of the competition the two best BA teams had the chance to demonstrate their debating skills in the final, to which we did not qualify unfortunately but the competition did not end there for us. As it turned out they did not only award those who came first based on the combined results but also those who won the particular challenges so we were happy to note that our six-member team won Unilever’s Marketing Challenge with the idea of introducing ice cream made of soy milk to the Belgian market.
After the announcement of the results and the reception which followed it, the 400 contenders blew off the steam together, thereby concluding the weekend.
All in all we found the competition to be really instructive, we gained a lot of experience which we will utilize later. The organization of the event was flawless and on top of it all the hotel where the competition was held was right across the airport terminal so we could have a good night’s sleep before the trip back home.
Betti and Gergő