The big switch to teaching online for many business schools in 2020 also brought the challenge of teaching in new ways, and the use of business cases – true ‘stories’ about business that are used as teaching tools to show the application of a theory or concept – is more relevant than ever. Business cases help educators to teach online as well as in the classroom. RSM’s Case Development Centre (CDC) develops business cases by working closely with academia and businesses.
Marketing category winner
The RSM case TomTom: Mapping the Course from B2C to B2B won the Marketing category award at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2021. It was prepared and written by RSM professors Steven Sweldens and Stefano Puntoni; case writer Niela Kleinsmith and managing editor Tao Yue at RSM’s Case Development Centre; and Matthieu Campion, formerly Head of Marketing for the Automotive Division at TomTom, the Dutch software technology company that is best known for its portable navigation device. TomTom is now generating more than half its revenues from location and navigation technology development, licensing and sales to automotive and hi-tech companies. The case explores the company’s transition from a B2C oriented business (selling personal navigation devices) to a B2B oriented one selling data, maps and services to customers such as Uber, Microsoft, Apple and major car manufacturers. This is the second award from The Case Centre for this TomTom case. Last year, it won The Case Centre’s Outstanding Case Writer competition award.
Production and Operations Management category winner
Winner of the Production and Operations Management category award at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2021 was the business case Ant Financial (A), prepared and written by Feng Zhu, Krishna G. Palepu, Anthony K. Woo and Nancy Hua Dai of Harvard Business School; and Ying Zhang, RSM’s Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Chinese Economy and Business. The case explores cultural and geographical challenges faced by this Chinese financial technology company in processing vast numbers of financial e-commerce transactions.
Judging the awards and competitions
Case Centre Awards in the Management categories are presented to those cases that have seen the largest growth in adoption across the globe in the past year. Cases that have been added to The Case Centre’s collection in the past five years are eligible. Hence, the Case Awards in the management categories are assessed anonymously, based on objective data.
Apart from the Category awards, there are also Case Competition awards which are decided by a panel of judges. As one of the winners of last year’s Outstanding Case Writer Competition, RSM’s Managing editor at the Case Centre Tao Yue was also one of the judges for the 2021 Outstanding Case Writer competition, alongside Caren Scheepers (Gordon Institute of Business Science); Naman Desai (Indian Institute of Management); and Richard McCracken (president of The Case Centre).