Russell Investments International Case Competition (RIICC)

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2023

NotCo is a Chilean food-tech company that uses artificial intelligence to create plant-based products, including NotMayo, NotMilk, and NotChicken. Privately held NotCo achieved unicorn status in 2021 and has a current estimated valuation of $1.5 B. In 2022, it formed a joint venture with Kraft Heinz to expand distribution of NotCo products and develop new products. As competitors in the annual Russell Investments International Case Competition (RIICC), UW student teams identified one new market outside of this list to target and developed a strategy for selling NotMilk in that market.

With just 48 hours to grapple with this real-world challenge before presenting to corporate judges, over 100 students came up with wide ranging recommendations including expansion plans to China, Germany, India, Indonesia and South Korea.

Undergraduate Champions: Samantha Jacqueline Choi, Eleri Lyon, Srisubrahmanyar Ramasamy, Kai Hutchison

Congratulations to the following winning teams:

Undergraduate Champion:

Team C2: Samantha Jacqueline Choi, Kai Hutchison, Eleri Lyon, Srisubrahmanyar Ramasamy

Undergraduate Finalists:

Team A1: Khoi Dam, Iva Dhooria, Vridhi Manchanda, Adrian Soh,

Team B2: Sammie Hong, Kenneth Tian, Jaclyn Woo, Stacy Zhang

Freshmen Track Champions

Team D4: Ashton Meyer-Bibbins, Neha Kommareddy, Brian Zhang, Brady Faul

Team E1: Daniel Ganzarski, Trevor Lorenez, Grant Oliver, Katelyn Ye

Team F4: Madison Iwata, Vivian Lam, Dana Loui, Harini Vijeyanandh,

Masters Track Champions

Team G2: Yi-Kai Chen, Rachana Chetan, Erina Kim, Hezekiah Shanu (All MSBA)

View the Finalist Presentations Here

View the Event Photo Gallery Here

2022

More than 150 students spent 48 hours analyzing whether Danone, a mission driven company headquartered in France, should stay in Russia or leave given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With a mission to “bring health through food to as many people as possible”, Danone initially decided to continue serving the dairy (EDP) and baby food markets in Russia. In October 2022, Danone announced a plan to sell its Russian EDP business. What criteria might be used to make and implement these difficult decisions?

As participants in the Russell Investments International Case Competition, student teams were challenged to develop criteria not only related to Danone’s stay or leave decision but also related to the selection of a buyer and determination of an asking price. They presented their recommendations to judge panels comprised of business community members. The competition provided an opportunity to apply classroom learning to a real world problem.

View the Finalist Presentations Here

Champions

Undergraduate First: Dominik Vlasak (Senior, Finance/Information Systems), Jessie Zhan (Senior, Marketing/Information Systems), Drake Chong (Senior, Finance), Matt Unutzer (Senior, Finance)

Undergraduate Second: Britney Hu (Sophomore, Accounting), Drew Blik (Junior, Finance/Information Systems), Gyanendra Sengar (Junior, Finance/Economics), Kohki Sakamoto (Senior, Economics)

Undergraduate Third: Tyler Taricco (Senior, Finance), Jay Lakhani (Senior, Marketing), Raj Lakhani (Junior, Finance/Marketing), Mariana Salazar (Senior, Marketing/Information Systems)

Freshmen Direct Track: Kai Hutchinson (Accounting/Finance), Srisubrahmanyar Ramasamy (Finance), Eleri Lyon (Entrepreneurship, Marketing), Alex Ma (Finance, Information Systems)

Master’s Track: Taranjeev Bath (MSIS), Ujjwal Chauhan (MSIS), Animesh Mohanty (MSIS), Amit Sherpa (MSIS)

View the Event Gallery Here

2021

In September 2021, Wise (previously TransferWise) launched a new service called Assets for UK customers. The service lets customers earn returns on their balances by investing in stocks. Stock investments are in an index-tracking fund (iShares World Equity Index) managed by BlackRock. As of now, Assets is only available to customers in the UK, but Wise plans to roll it out in other countries in the future. Students played the role of an outside consulting team tasked to propose a marketing strategy for launching Assets in a new global market:

• Explanation of choice of country to enter
• Propose a marketing strategy addressing:
  • Who are the target customers, and how big is the target market?
  • What is the message to potential customers?
  • What marketing channels (media, venues, etc.) do you recommend?
  • How much will the marketing strategy cost?
  • What are the metrics for determining success?

Team 1: Akshansh Arora, Landon Forsythe, Kostyantyn Ryzkhov, William Beeson
Team 2: Sai Raksha Rayala, Laura Wang, Allie Lee, Daphne D’sa
Team 3: Everett Buck, Josh Dembowski, Russell Morrison, Zachary Goo

2020

Canada-based Shopify provides tools for merchants to create e-commerce stores and to integrate e-commerce with other selling channels, including brick-and-mortar, mobile commerce, and social commerce. Shopify’s mission is “making commerce better for everyone.” Its merchant-focused philosophy is that Shopify will do well if its merchant customers do well. Students played the role of Shopify managers tasked with global strategy development for Shopify including:

• picking one target country outside North America for growing Shopify’s business
• proposing a three-year plan for increasing sales by Shopify’s North American merchants in said target country
• proposing a three-year plan for increasing the number of the target country’s merchants that use Shopify

Team 1: Adrian Fleuchaus, Dora Zhang, Crystal Le, and KT Nguyen
Team 2 (Runner Up): Mikaela Cagampan, Sam Kuo, and Natalia Villamil
Team 3 (Champions): Daniil Kaizer, Nicholas Haynie, Connor Weed, and Allison Harvey

2019

Students played the role of outside consultants who have been hired by Ooredoo, an international telecommunications company headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Teams analyzed both mobile financial service options (i.e., mobile wallet and OTC service) and recommended a future strategic direction for Ooredoo (given its most recent launch of a mobile wallet, M-Pitesan). Teams were tasked with analyzing the following uncertainties and opportunities:

• • Evaluate Ooredoo’s decision to launch a mobile wallet, M-Pitesan
  • Consider the impact of the decisions to launch M-Pitesan on key stakeholders
  • Analyze Ooredoo’s positioning vis-à-vis Telenor; specifically addressing the two competitors’ advantages in their respective spaces?
  • Make strategy recommendations for Ooredoo:
    • Ooredoo expansion into the financial services space
    • Focus on core business in mobile telecommunications

2018

Students played the role of outside consultants who were hired by the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), the marine cargo operating partnership of the ports of Tacoma and Seattle. NWSA was in the process of determining what it should be doing in the digital supply chain/blockchain space, and they asked participants to evaluate TradeLens. The teams were asked to address the following:

• • • Perform a SWOT analysis on TradeLens.
    • Describe the motivations of IBM and Maersk – what benefits do they get from TradeLens?
    • Recommend which of these options NWSA should choose:
      • Participate in TradeLens,
      • Participate in one of the other blockchain platforms being developed, or
      • Do nothing now and wait to see how trade digitization evolves (if so, how long should they wait?)

2017

Each of the participating teams spent 48 hours analyzing the 2017 case, Global Wine War 2015: New World Versus Old (Harvard Business School, March 2015).

Student team members played the role of consultants, hired by the Washington State Wine Commission. The Commission was looking for recommendations on how Washington State wineries should market their products to China. The teams were asked to address the following questions:

• • 1. What kinds of Washington State wines should be sold in China and why?
    2. What are the target market segments?
    3. What marketing strategies should be implemented?
    4. In particular, how should Washington State wines be marketed in China in order to compete against wines from Australia and France?

The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2016

Each of the participating teams spent 48 hours analyzing the 2016 case, Emirates Airline: Connecting the Unconnected (Harvard Business School, January 2014). Student teams played the role of outside consultants, and presented their recommendations to a panel of community member judges, who played the role of top management at Emirates Airline. The teams were asked to 1) consider the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Emirates and 2) present recommendations as to which route expansions Emirates should pursue over the next five years.

Read the student charge (pdf). The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2015

Each of the participating teams spent 48 hours analyzing a business case on the IMAX Corporation. Student teams played the role of a strategic planning group within IMAX Corporation, and presented their recommendations to a panel of community member judges, who played the role of IMAX CEO and upper management of the company. The teams were asked to, 1) determine how IMAX should allocate its future expansion into the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), 2) create specific recommendations for growth and risk mitigation, and 3) provide recommendations about how IMAX should invest in Research and Development going forward.

Read the student charge (PDF). The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2014

Teams played the role of outside consultants hired by the Munich Oktoberfest Organizing Committee to develop a strategy recommendation to increase profitability of Munich Oktoberfest, the world’s largest festival. Teams spent 48 hours developing their background analysis, and presented their recommendations to panels of community member judges.

Read the student charge (PDF). The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2013

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Maersk is a global conglomerate with large shipping and oil and gas businesses. As Maersk’s businesses become ever more international, the company wants to increase the geographic diversity of its work force. Competing student teams played the role of Maersk managers who were tasked with the following:

• • • Setting geographic diversity goals
    • Recommending recruitment and retention strategies designed to achieve the goals
    • Developing measures of progress towards these goals (key performance indicators)
    • Estimating the costs of the recommended strategies.

Read the student charge (PDF). The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.

2012

Each of the participating teams spent 48 hours analyzing a business case on Phase Separation Solutions (PS2). PS2 was offered two opportunities to bring its proprietary technology to China in collaboration with a government agency and a private company. Students were asked to recommend a course of action regarding PS2’s opportunities in China.

Read the case study on the Ivey Publishing website. Read the student charge (PDF). The champion and finalists’ presentations are compiled below.