2023 Case Centre Awards: Huge Variety Of Topics, But The Covid Factor Remains

Last year, cases receiving top honors from the annual Case Centre’s Awards and Competitions focused, understandably, on how companies were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The awards this year, for which the winners were announced February 27, widen the spotlight to include not only ongoing pandemic fallout but a wide variety of issues representing much of the diverse and ever-changing landscape the business world is dealing with today.

The Case Centre’s 35 winners represented 24 organizations from nine different countries. Cases covered digital transformation, supply chains, disruptive modeling and issues of diversity and inclusion in relation to popular brands your average consumer is acquainted with like Nike, IKEA, Starbucks, Domino’s.

But Covid-19 is still with us, and still a dominating factor in global business — a fact reflected by the overall case winner award which went to material on Covid-related strategies. Hadiya Faheem and Debapratim Purkayastha’s case Domino’s Pizza: Business Continuity Strategy During the COVID-19 Pandemic for ICFAI Business School in Hyderabad, India took home the top honor. Faheem, alongside author Sanjib Dutta, won another award in the category of Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems Management for a case entailing another familiar brand, Digital Transformation at Starbucks.

NEW TALENT CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE AWARDS

The Case Centre awards annually in 11 categories to writers and teachers across the globe, as well as hosts six competitions, aiming to recognize the work both by organizations and educators to bring the latest business topics to classrooms.

Harvard Business School (HBS) took home top prizes in three categories. China Europe International Business School won two separate competitions, the Outstanding Case Writer and Outstanding Case Writer: Hot Topic, which focused on business, social media and society. INSEAD won in the Marketing category and Copenhagen Business School won the Free Case category for the third time.

Eighty percent of this year’s case winners included at least one female educator. Natasha Katula Mwila was awarded Outstanding Case Teacher. Gina Vega won Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method. And in 2023, a Case Centre news release writes, many of the cases’ followed an increasing number of female protagonists, whereas the majority of protagonist characters usually are men.

Two of the solely single-author case winners – in the Economics, Politics and Business Environment and Entrepreneurship categories – were women. Additionally, new talent emerged in the awards – 30 of the 35 winners The Case Centre named won for the first time.

TAKEAWAYS FROM WINNING CASES

Faheem and Purkayastha’s case remarked on the American pizza giant’s ability to distribute its services productively during the COVID-19 pandemic using “contactless” delivery.

Now, as it appears this form of delivery is here to stay, Faheem and Purkayastha’s case asks: What’s next for Domino’s? Domino’s wasn’t without faults during the pandemic, the case notes, many employees felt at risk when people were asked to stay indoors, and several incidents of a dissatisfactory work environment later came to light.

Purkayastha, who passed away from COVID-19 in May 2021, told The Case Centre the case is a model for business continuity.

“The key takeaway from this case is how Domino’s banked on its core competencies and strategies capabilities to weather the public health crisis with limited disruption to its operations,” he says.

The case discusses other initiatives led by Domino’s that included Indian customers being able to order groceries from its app. ICFAI Business School is located in Hyderabad, India.

“Not only did it have to adapt its business model, but also balance the need for providing services to customers, as well as keeping its employees and customers safe,” he says.

A case authored by Kasra Ferdows of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and Jan Olhager of Lund University inspected implications for IKEA’s move to online retailing. In, IKEA Goes Online: Implications for Its Manufacturing, the furniture retailer’s vast change from its usual brick-and-mortar stores meant a large overhaul was needed to its supply chain and operations, but how?

Ferdows and Olhager both note they feel many relate to the subject based on personal experience, some may even have strong opinions about the company.

For Harvard Business School, authors Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Toffel and Olivia Hull won for their case on Nike’s mission to improve working conditions at its supply factories in the B-school’s second win in the Ethics and Social Responsibility category.

“Our case describes Nike’s decades-long journey to understand and respond to problematic working conditions in their supply chains,” Toffel tells The Case Centre.

OTHER CASES THAT WON AWARDS

In the category of Economics, Politics, and Business Environment, author Suchitra Mohanty of Amity Research Centers at Amity University won for the case NFTs: The Booming World of Digital Assets.

In the category of Entrepreneurship, author Sophie Manigart of Vlerick Business School won for the case Ovinto: Preparing for a Series A Venture Capitalist Investment Round.

In the category of Finance, Accounting and Control, authors Marco Di Maggio, Benjamin Esty and Greg Saldutte of Harvard Business School won for the case Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period (A).

In the category of Human Resource Mangement/Organizational Behavior, authors Michelle Mielly and Naida Culshaw of the Grenoble Ecole de Management won for the case Unpacking the Layers of Diversity & Inclusion in Multicultural Teams.

In Marketing, authors Laura Heely, Wolfgang Ulaga and Ziv Carmon of INSEAD won for the case Lemonade: Delighting Insurance Customers with AI and Behavioural Economics: A Disruptive InsurTech Business Model for Outstanding Customer Experience and Cost-effective Service Excellence.

In the category Strategy and General Management, authors Rosabeth Kanter and Nancy Hau Dai of HBS won for the case Haier: Incubating Entrepreneurs in a Chinese Giant.

In the Free Case category, authors Attila Márton and Whitney Byrn of the Copenhagen Business School won for the case LookOut: Visionary Entrepreneurship in a Digital World.

In the case competition Outstanding Compact Case, authors John Varlaro and Nicole Amos of Johnson & Wales University won for the case Alice’s Maternity Leave: Beneficial Leave or Left Behind?

In the case competition Outstanding New Case Writer, authors Kai Schaumann and Simon Jeurissen of University of Münster won for the case Lytt: Determining a Go-to-Market Strategy.