GBCC teams analyze the VW emissions scandal

National University of Singapore Team Members: Clayton Chu Chun Jia, Fabian Kho Han Jie, Jasmine Lim Jia Yan, and Sean Ling Wei Tsi, accompanied by their faculty adviser Professor Hum Sin Hoon.

National University of Singapore Team Members: Clayton Chu Chun Jia, Fabian Kho Han Jie, Jasmine Lim Jia Yan, and Sean Ling Wei Tsi, accompanied by their faculty adviser Professor Hum Sin Hoon.

This Saturday, the Global Business Center hosted its 18th annual undergraduate competition – where twelve teams representing nine countries competed for the title Global Business Case Competition (GBCC) Champion.

Each of the GBCC teams spent 48 hours analyzing a business case written by Foster School Sr. Lecturer Debra Glassman: “Volkswagen Group: The Emissions Scandal and the Costs of Deception”.   In September 2015, the US EPA announced that VW diesels had cheated on the emissions tests with a “defeat device” – software that detected when a car’s emissions were being tested.  The device reduced emissions during testing, but allowed emissions as much as 40 times higher during regular driving.  Eventually it was revealed that the company had installed defeat devices in 11 million VWs, Audis and Porsches worldwide, including 600,000 in the US.  GBCC Teams were tasked with determining the total costs of the emissions scandal, and with recommending strategies for VW for 2025.  Over a 48-hour time period, teams had to grapple with questions including: How can VW regain the trust of its customers? Should VW abandon diesel? What geographies should VW focus on for the future? What should VW do about the US Market?

Following an exciting preliminary round, four teams were selected to move on to the finals: McGill University, The Global Team (Students representing: National University of Singapore, University of California Berkeley, Universidade do Porto, and University of Washington), National University of Singapore, and Queensland University of Technology.

In the end, the judges chose the National University of Singapore as this year’s GBCC Champion.

We would like to acknowledge the hard work of our GBCC Student Leadership Team who spent countless hours organizing this big event, and thank the community member judges who generously volunteered their time on Saturday to watch presentations from the competing teams. The Global Business Center would also like to thank Debra Glassman for writing the case.  And finally, GBCC would not be possible without our major sponsors:

The Boeing Company
Costco Wholesale
F5 Networks
Russell Investments
Starbucks Coffee International
Wells Fargo

Global Bus. 4.5.16 1
www.foster.uw.edu/gbcc

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