HEC Paris MBA students took a lot of victory laps recently, winning top awards in case competitions with other business schools across the world. Here’s a recap of the accolades they earned during the 2016-2017 school year:

Thought for Food Challenge, May 2017

 

With an estimated one billion humans already going to bed hungry every night, the Thought for Food Challenge asks participants how to feed the 9 billion people projected to be on the planet in 2050.  HEC Paris’ Team Agri Yolo earned their spot among the top 10 finalists–out of 500 entries from 129 countries–by proposing a scalable, interactive platform which unites young investors with local agribusinesses and owners of unused, arable land. Team members Samijoe Saroufim, Tatiana Ángel, Sathvik Ganesan, Mamoudou Bocoum and Shir Sheftel even put their idea through a preliminary stress test: during 10 days, they traveled to Colombia and met with everyone from local farmers to the country’s former Minister of Agriculture and current Director of the Chamber of Commerce to discuss the solution’s feasibility.

 

International Case Competition in Finance, April 2017

 

Showcasing their analytical savvy, four HEC Paris MBA students took second place in the SDA Bocconi School of Management’s International Competition in Finance. As part of the April event, Antoine Sevrain, Yeojin Yoon, Kjell Ahrens and Daniel Pérez García revised a business plan for a medium-sized utility entering the electric car-sharing business. Their calculations for moving the company to cleaner energy beat 18 other competitors, including LBS, ESADE and IE business schools.

 

A.T. Kearney Global Prize Strategy Case Competition, November 2016

 

The A.T. Kearney Global Prize Strategy Case Competition offers participants an intense, real-time window into the consulting world. Competitors are charged with developing the most innovative, actionable and strategic solution for an actual management-consulting case brought to A.T. Kearney.

The four HEC Paris MBA students—Nadège Zambon, Elias Fares, Alexandre Legeay and Mathieu Mondan—faced off against nearly 100 teams from 10 schools, including LBS, Insead, SDA Bocconi, Booth and Rotman, to claim top prize. Their proposition brought the client’s annual growth to 15 percent, and overcame many of its operational problems. Mathieu believes teamwork was the key to their success: “It was not four individuals, and I think that made a huge difference,” he explained.

 

Zurich Enterprise Challenge – Project Firefly, October 2016

 

During the 13^th annual Zurich Enterprise Challenge, HEC Paris MBA students Arif Nezami, Kumari Aminarta, Gaurav Khetan and Kirill Novyshev beat 80 teams to take first place (joint winners with GIBS Business School) in the global risk-analysis case competition. For the second and third phases of this prestigious challenge, they partnered with Coca Cola Hellenic, a leading Coca Cola bottler in Europe, to analyze a real-world recycling problem.

During a period of 5 weeks, the students assessed the financial risks and the opportunities of the Circular Economy guidelines, the European Union’s plan to boost recycling by putting targets on all EU member states. Praised for their creative and easily implemented solution, the team earned 5000 Swiss Francs in October 2016 at the Zurich Global Risk Management Summit in Cannes.