Last week, the Global Business Center celebrated the 22^nd anniversary of UW Foster’s Global Business Case Competition (GBCC). 24 undergraduate teams, representing 19 countries and working across 11 time zones, competed for the title of UW GBCC Champion.

The teams and their respective countries were:

• Ashesi University (Ghana)
• Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania)
• Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
• Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary)
• Erasmus University (Netherlands)
• Florida State University (USA)
• Kobe University (Japan)
• Korea University (Korea)
• McMaster University (Canada)
• National Chengchi University (Taiwan)
• National University of Singapore (Singapore)
• Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
• Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador)
• University College: Dublin (Ireland)
• University of Arizona (USA)
• University of Belgrade (Serbia)
• University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
• University of Navarra (Spain)
• University of Porto (Portugal)
• University of Southern California (USA)
• University of Sydney (Australia)
• University of Vermont (USA)
• University of Washington (USA)
• Western University (Canada)

GBCC teams tackled both a 24-hour Global Teams Case and 72-Hour University Teams Case during the week.  For the 24-hour case, mixed teams of global participants analyzed the case, “Bitmovin Inc.: A Start-Up Goes Global,” published by Ivey Business Publishing. The charge asked teams to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Bitmovin’s sales and marketing process, determine current trends in the video infrastructure market, and recommend changes to the firm’s strategy to remain on its intended growth track.

For the 72-hour case, university teams received GBCC’s case #2, “Tesla’s Global Expansion Strategy.” This case, written by Foster faculty members Dr. Suresh Kotha and Dr. Debra Glassman, asked teams to 1) determine whether Tesla made the right decision locating a Gigafactory in Germany, 2) evaluate whether Tesla should open the next Gigafactory in India or another location, and 3) decide if Tesla’s global expansion will contribute positively or negatively to its future stock price over the next three years. After only 72-hours of analysis, 24 teams entered into the preliminary rounds. Only three were selected to move on to the finals: Chulalongkorn University, Erasmus University, and University of Porto.

The finalists presented their recommendations to an enthusiastic crowd of students and community members via Zoom on April 26^th, 2021. The competition was fierce but, in the end, after an hour of deliberation, the judges chose University of Porto (Portugal) as this year’s GBCC Champion. Erasmus University (The Netherlands) took home second place honors. The winners were announced Monday morning at the GBCC 22^nd annual Champions Announcement, held via Zoom. Teams heard from Dean Frank Hodge, Case co-author and Faculty Director of the Global Business Center, Dr. Debra Glassman, and Roei Ganzarski, Final Round Judge and CEO of magniX.

University of Porto – UW GBCC 2021 Champions

Erasmus University – 2^nd Place GBCC Winners

We would like to acknowledge the hard work of our GBCC Student Leadership Team who spent countless hours organizing this big event.  And finally, GBCC would not be possible without our major sponsors:

• F5 Networks
• The Boeing Company
• Costco Wholesale
• Wells Fargo

UW GBCC 2021 Leadership Team

Learn more about UW GBCC by visting Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Email [email protected] with questions or to express interest in UW GBCC 2022.