RSM STAR Case Competition 2011 – Diary Wednesday 18th of May 8 PM All the participants have arrived. Welcome Team 42 from GSOM, St. Petersburg, SIM Team from Corvinus University, Budapest, Team Optimize from Smurfit Business School, Dublin and of course our very own Team RSM from Rotterdam!

Now it is time for the opening dinner!

And a little speech.

3:30 AM: Time for the last participants to go to their beds, as a couple of hours of sleep are necessary to survive the work intensive day tomorrow!

Thursday 19th of May 6:15 AM: The alarm clock is ringing and the boot camp drill sergeant is ready. So the day can start but first we have to get the teams out of bed! 7:30 AM Fortunately! One hour of torture and now we are awake and it is time for some coffee, breakfast, and a hot shower. 12:00 PM: ISIS here we come! And that blue box in the middle of the table is supposed to be a satellite?

Time for the case:

An awesome presentation was given by Jeroen Rotteveel, founder of ISIS, and the cases have been handed out! The RSM STAR Case Competition 2011 has officially started! Now it is up to the teams to make it work. They have an hour before we will get together and have lunch. 1:45PM: The first competition is won by Team 42! They were the first who finished their lunch in order to continue brainstorming and working on the case.

4:00 PM: Team RSM: Focused and no time for distraction

SIM Team: Think before you act…or write.

Team optimize: Looks like a lot of coffee in order to boost the creativity. And to stay awake.

Team 42: Negotiating, discussing and laughing. Looks like they enjoy such intensive working days.

As can be seen the groups are busy and have barely time for a picture because the time is ticking: 18 hours to go! The deadline is tomorrow 10 AM. 6:00 PM: Time to leave! Thanks ISIS for everything and for sure the results will be convincing, as the teams will most likely work the whole night! But first we are going to have dinner at the hostel. 7:00 PM:

Everyone is starving but the buffet looks good. Some even take two plates at the same time! Salad, rice, tortellini and meatballs it is. Even the committee has some time to rest and eat. Hmmm, delicious and the desert tasty! Tobias is the living proof as he had 5! 8:00PM: Team Optimize from Dublin decided to take a nap in order to work the whole night. Hopefully the nap will not turn into a 12-hour marathon sleep. The other teams are working intensively on their project. Team 42 from St. Petersburg decided to use Prezi instead of PowerPoint in order to present their results. Fortunately they know how it works…as it looks quite complicated. Looking forward to the presentations!

11:00 PM: Team Optimize is awake, although they look quite sleepy.

Team 42 is busy and still laughing. Did they get a different case?

The groups are still busy. Quite a challenge to be so focused all day long, respect! Friday 9:00 AM: Most of the teams are finalizing their presentations while having breakfast. Team RSM slept for 2 hours and the others made the same experience. Despite the lack of sleep all look quite fresh. May be due to the excitement! The deadline for handing in their presentations is in one hour. 9:45 AM: Team Optimize from Dublin are the first who are handing in their presentation. 9:50 AM: Sim Team from Budapest is second, followed by Team 42 form St. Petersburg. 9:59 AM: Team RSM waited until the last minute but they made it in or lets say on time! Now it is time for Tobias to bring the presentations to the Rotterdam School of Management,

Erasmus University, where Janine, Joy, and Rik are preparing the room where the presentations will be held. 10:00 AM: Now the teams have half an hour to get dressed and freshen up, as the taxis will be at the hostel soon. 10:30 AM: 16 students but only two taxis, although we ordered four! Team 42 goes first as they are the first to present. SIM Team is taking the other taxi. Fortunately Team RSM is supportive and flexible: they will take the tram. And 5 minutes later a third taxi arrives. Fortunately it works out! 11:00 AM: Everyone is ready, excited and willing to start. But not all jury members are present. Dr. Sidhu from the department of strategic management and entrepreneurship is missing. 11:15 AM: It turns out that Dr. Sidhu called in sick this morning. Two jury members are not enough! Thanks to Peter we have a third member for the presentation of the first two groups.

And due to the spontaneous participation of Dr. Bogenrieder from the department of organization and personnel management, we also have a third member for the second part. Thanks to both of you!

12:30 AM: The first presentation is given by Team 42 and the second by SIM Team:

Time for a break.

Despite a little delay in the beginning we can have a break as scheduled. Team 42 and SIM Team are happy with their presentations and glad that they can now enjoy the rest of the day. And while most of us have a sandwich, Team Optimize and Team RSM are busy with practicing their presentations. The third presentation given by Team Optimize and last but not least Team RSM:

3:00 PM: All presentations were held and the results and recommendations were really interesting and diverse. Now it is time for a presentation held by StudentEvents while the jury gets together and has to make a decision. 3:30 PM: Time to go downstairs to ‘De Smitse’ in order to have a drink and wait for the announcement of the winners. 3:40 PM: The fourth place goes to: Team Optimize from Dublin The third place goes to: Team 42 from St. Petersburg The second place goes to: Team RSM from Rotterdam

And the winner is: SIM Team from Budapest! Congratulations and enjoy your new iPod touch!

Time for a group picture and some more drinks before we go back to the hostel in order to change and have a great dinner!

In fact we are all winners. The last couple of days we won new friends, great and unique experience and the knowledge that our bodies function even in extreme situations with little sleep and intensive work. A good preparation for the real working life!

6:00 PM: We are at the hostel and are busy with arranging bikes for everyone. What would be a trip to the Netherlands without cycling?!

6:30 PM: We arrived save at BAZAR where we are going to have a three-course dinner. I am just happy that we had no accident on our way, as some did not look too secure on their bike. Especially when escorting another person on the carrier.

8:45 PM: After an amazing dinner and completely stuffed it is time to get on the bikes again as we have to be at the Euromast, the highest look-out in Rotterdam. Fortunately it is not too far away and we will only need tem minutes to get there. 9:15 PM: An incredible view and everyone seems to be astonished and amazed. What a impressive closing activity. Time to relax a bit and enjoy this amazing view over Rotterdam before it is time to party! 11:00 PM: It looks like the VIP Room only opened for us today. But it is typical for the Netherlands that the party will not start before 1 AM. At that time the clubs in Dublin almost close again. But with a couple of bottles of Prosecco and the relaxing but still

excited mood everyone is in we simply celebrate our own party! Cheers to everyone it was a great time, thanks for coming and putting so much effort into it! We really loved it! PROST! Saturday 10:00 AM: Time to say good-bye! Some will stay until Sunday in Rotterdam or visit Amsterdam today. Some just want to sleep and others want to experience the city without any case on their mind.