Azerbaijan Business Case Competition 2018 Completes

Baku/12.12.18/Turan: On December 9th, The US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association organized the final round of the Azerbaijan Business Case Competition 2018 at the Hilton Hotel. The competition was performed in virtue of local and international companies operating in Azerbaijan, including: SOCAR AQS, Azercell, BP, Coca-Cola, Engin LTD, Azer Turk Bank, Azsigorta, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, as well as by organizational support of the U.S. Embassy and Hilton Hotel.

The Azerbaijan Business Case Competition is the most prestigious business competition among undergraduate and graduate students who are studying in the field of finance, business and economics.

During the competition, students were given Cases of Harvard Business School for analysis based on real-life business problems companies had faced.

This year 26 teams from 6 universities: ADA University, Baku Engineering University, Azerbaijan State Economic University, Khazar University, the Academy of Public Administration, and Baku Higher Oil School participated in the competition. Only 16 teams out of 26 earned the chance of passing to the semi-final stage, and four teams were left for the finals.

Based on the structure of the competition, all the teams had been trained on business analysis, strategic planning, presentation skills, and other topics within two weeks, and applied gained knowledge over different case solutions within 3 weeks. Along with this, teams participated in a Mock Round before the final stage.

According to the rules, teams presented their case solutions in front of judges representing local and international business structures at the semifinal round. Four winner teams of semifinal round presented their case solutions to judges in order to fight for the first place.

Finalists were required to find solutions for cases, and evaluation of the team was based on their critical business thinking, financial analysis, marketing strategy, presentation skills, including their preparation for Q&A session. Winning teams received 10 000 AZN in total (1st place - 6 000 AZN-, 3 000 AZN - 2nd place, 1 000 AZN - 3rd place).

The Azerbaijan Business Case Competition is an annual competition involving students representing leading universities of our country. In this competition, students solve real business problems by applying knowledge gained in areas such as finance, marketing, accounting, technology and management, and present them to the jury consisting of representatives of business circles of Azerbaijan.

The competition, which marked the 16th anniversary this year, had been launched since 2002. Volunteers of the MBA Enterprise Corps have laid the foundation for this project, taking into account the shortage of business key analysis in Azerbaijan. Since 2006, the right of conducting this competition has been given to the US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA). Approximately 1200 very talented students so far participated in this project.

Azerbaijan Business Case Competition plays a significant role in the development of students" analytical and presentation skills, as well as contributes to the career development and management skills.

The U.S.-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that unites alumni of the State Department educational exchange programs in Azerbaijan. The AAA was established in October 2003 by a group of US-educated Azerbaijani alumni with the aim of uniting all alumni of Azerbaijan under one umbrella and using their knowledge and skills to help developing Azerbaijan. -0-