The innovative teaching format "Case Competition" by Prof. Dr. Jan-Philipp Büchler in the business management specialization at Fachhochschule Dortmund shows how research-based teaching can work in practice. This time, student teams presented their concepts for smart service development in the pump monitoring market at hidden champion Wilo.
"A case competition is an exciting and competitive way to come up with particularly imaginative and often unexpected ideas and solutions for a current business issue," says Jan-Philipp Büchler from the Faculty of Business Studies, describing the teaching concept. Every six months, he organizes such case competitions for his students together with leading SMEs from the region.
Potential of the pump industry
The question posed by Wilo, the world's leading premium supplier of pumps and pump systems, was: What potential do smart monitoring systems and services offer in the pump industry? The students had one semester to answer this question and develop suitable concepts. The first project phase focused on analyzing the market, technology and competition. The students evaluated self-conducted interviews with experts and customers. The results were submitted as a seminar paper and also served as the basis for the second project phase, in which nine teams of four students each developed their own smart service approaches.
Pitch with solution concepts
At the final presentation on a stage in Wilopark, the students pitched their ideas in ten-minute presentations and answered questions from the jury. "It's always exciting to get new perspectives on the market and products. The winners of the case competition were able to surprise us with their elaborated solution concept," says Dr. Martin Oettmeier, Head of Technology Monitoring & Evaluation at Wilo.
Training for international competition
The winning team of Alina Bär, Leonie Redeker, Lara Schwirkus and Vanessa Mey has also qualified to take part in the Rotterdam International Case Competition in the winter semester. They will now receive intensive training from Jan-Philipp Büchler and his research assistant Anna Weiland, as they will be competing against the best teams in the world under even greater time pressure and in English.