The international ICC@M case competition organised by the Maastricht School of Business and Economics for the first time this week, suffered great disruption as a result of the Iceland volcanic ash cloud. Only a handful of teams from a total of sixteen managed to reach Maastricht. Several teams were stranded along the way, in places such as Singapore and Chicago.
Nevertheless, the competition, with participants from renowned universities and business schools from Florida to Hong Kong, will go on, albeit in a trimmed-down form. Bas van Diepen, head of the organisation announced this last Monday during the opening. “At the moment we are in the process of creating stand-in teams. In Maastricht, for example, there are ten students from the participating university in Singapore. We will ask them to take over.”
A few teams, like the one from Copenhagen, arrived by car later. The two minor cases that had been planned for Tuesday and Wednesday will therefore not count for the final results. This will not affect the Maastricht competition’s standing, says Julienne Erckens, member of the organising committee. “In other editions, the minor cases are not even part of the programme.”
The case that is most important, is on Friday. The students, who are locked in a hotel room, have to come up with a solution for a real-life problem for businesses. Saturday, during the finals, they will present their conclusions.
Maurice Timmermans
An elaborate report of the competition will follow next week