MSc student talks about her experience in international business competition

Last month, Maria Raposo de Lima (MSc Advanced Mechanical Engineering student) participated in the HEC Business Game 2019 in Paris.

The event is an international and selective real-life case competition, with Bain & Company as the main partner. 180 students from different universities around the world were selected and invited to the HEC Paris campus to participate in a two-day intense competition to solve real world cases.

Maria said: “Participating in the HBG 2019 was a great experience and a fantastic opportunity to apply and expand my problem-solving skills by solving interesting, challenging, real-world case studies, while working alongside talented students with different academic backgrounds, mainly studying Engineering, Business and Computer Science related courses.

There was a very international and multidisciplinary environment during the competition. Challenges covered different aspects of business, including strategy, digitalisation, entrepreneurship, marketing and finance. For each challenge I had a different team to work with (six students per team), which was a great opportunity to promote our ability of working effectively as a team, as quick as possible.

Each challenge had a duration of around three hours. After solving the cases each team had to pitch their solution in a very professional environment to a panel of juries composed of representatives or seniors of the firm. This created a stressful but exciting environment during the competition, so time management, organisation and coordination as a team were key factors to perform successfully.

Additionally, there were several opportunities to network with participants representing different universities across the world, as well as with representatives from corporate partners like Bain & Company.

Furthermore, it was a great challenge to face and solve different problems in a more business-related domain, which enabled me to apply analytical and problem-solving skills acquired with my academic path in Mechanical Engineering. I believe our engineering contribution solving these real-life cases can add significant value to find practical and goal-oriented solutions.

I would encourage any student interested in new challenges of problem solving and teamwork to apply for next year’s edition! “