Final Stage of Azerbaijan Business Case Competition 2017

On December 3rd, the US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association organized the Final stage of Azerbaijan Business Case Competition at Hilton. This year competition is performed in virtue of BP, SOCAR-AQS, Azercell, Engin, Azər Türk Bank, AzSığorta, Deloitte and EY sponsorship, as well as by organizational support of U.S. Embassy in Baku.

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 have faced.

This year 26 teams from 5 universities: ADA University, Baku Engineering University, Azerbaijan State Economic University, Academy of Azerbaijan State Customs Committee 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 4 teams left for Final.

During the past six weeks, all teams have been actively engaged in trainings on business analysis, strategy development, presentation skills and other topics.

According to the rules, teams at the Semi-final performed their projects to the juries - representatives of local and international business companies. In next step, four winner teams of Semi-final stage presented their analysis to juries 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 stage. Winning teams received 10.000 AZN in total (1st place - 6.000 AZN-, 3.000 AZN - 2nd place, 1.000 AZN - 3rd place).

Azerbaijan Business Case Competition is an annual contest where the student teams of Azerbaijan"s top universities are participating. In this competition, students solve real business cases applying obtained knowledge in the field of finance, marketing, accounting, technology and administration, and later presenting them to the juries, representatives of various business companies in Azerbaijan.

Competition has been held since 2002 and this year ABCC celebrating its 15th Anniversary. Considering the lack of practice of business case analysis in Azerbaijan, the volunteers of MBA Enterprise Corps decided the launch of this project. Since 2006, the right of conducting this competition has been given to the US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA). Over 1000 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 US-Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that unites alumni of the State Department educational exchange programs, Azerbaijan State Program alumni and self-funded students studied 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.