The question in the title is not only rhetorical. It has been asked numerous times by marketing and sales experts who wished to generate more income, and for a day also by enthusiastic and curious university students who were looking for an opportunity to deepen their business knowledge through practice.

At the end of November, a case solving day was organized by Unilever and Case Solvers during which university students got the opportunity to get familiar with the tricks and how-tos of case solving both in theory and in practice, while they could also find out more about one of the biggest FMCG companies. Among the participants were found both business and engineering students, experienced case solvers and complete beginners as well. I fell into the latter category, thus I applied to the training with big expectations.

The day began with a 2-hour-long theoretical introduction during which we learned about the CASE process, a methodology developed by Case Solvers in order to help the students work on case studies more effectively. The trainers provided us with useful advice on how to start reading through a case study, how much time to spend on each task and what are the little tricks of impressing the jury. After that we got familiar with the secrets of a successful presentation which are essential to get a good result in a competition. That is because a genius idea and a well thought-out strategy is worth nothing unless we are able to present them interestingly and with enough detail while also fitting into the time limit. Even these first two hours were completely different from what we usually experience in university lectures: we were expected to participate interactively throughout the training, we could try out the learned methodology in teams with the help of a short case study right away and all of the given information was illustrated with interesting examples.

Following the introduction, each team was given a seperate room where the actual work began. All the new information could be put into practice as we needed to solve a case concerning Lipton, one of the most widely-known brands of Unilever. To be more exact, we were expected to come up with solutions to make black tea more appealing to Millenials and present them to the representatives of Unilever and the trainers at the end of the day, for which we were provided lots of useful materials. It is easy to think this wasn’t a complicated task, because why wouldn’t four students know what would make their peers buy more black tea. I think I can speak for every participant when I say that choosing the suitable ones of the many occurring, sometimes genius, other times less easily-implementable ideas, working on them while paying attention to the most details possible, then putting them into a form which can be presented in only 12 minutes is not at all easy. Even though everyone tries to be perfect, there will always be suggestions which we have no other choice but to let go of, and mistakes which we only notice in the last minute and are not able to correct.

The most memorable experience undoubtedly came at the end of the day, when we finally got the chance to present our solution and get feedbacks. We waited impatiently to find out what those people think of our suggestions who have been working on similar problems for multiple years. Of course the perfect solution does not exist, yet every team managed to collect many compliments as well as constructive criticism and advice. To put an end to the tiring day, we spent some time networking with other participants and Unilever associates, and got the chance to ask some questions and find out more about how working at Unilever actually is.

I believe that solving a case study develops many skills which we do not get enough chance to work on in school. These skills include critical thinking, analysing and structuring complex problems and effective teamwork which can be taken advantage of in all aspects of life. That is why I can only advise to everyone without exception to make use of a similar opportunity and try themselves out in case solving, let that be of any topic.

Adrienn Tóth

Training participant