University teams test their analytical and creative skills at the KPMG International Case Competition

“So I could get an idea of what’s out there in the job market” was the objective of Antonio de la Torre, student on the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management at the URV, when he decided to sign up for the KPMG International Case Competition, in which teams of university students use their strategic skills and business vision to solve business cases. On 8 February, the student, together with three of his classmates from the ESADE Business School, won the Catalan heat of the competition organised by KPMG Management Consultants, which means they now go through to the national final in Madrid from 21 to 23 February.

Antonio de la Torre’s team competed against five other student teams to solve a business case from the field of auditing, the sector in which he wants to work once he has completed his degree. “We had to imagine that we were auditors and that one of our clients was a theme park in Dubai that had discovered that 30% of its facilities were built with defective materials” he explained. During the knock-out round, they had to come up with recommendations that were “innovative but feasible” and defend these in English before a panel of experts.

Providing solutions for these case studies requires students to use their analytical capacities, their communications skills, their creativity and their ability to work in a team. The panel of experts decided that the solution put forward by the URV and ESADE team was the best, which means that they will now face six teams in the national final in Madrid. The winning team will go through to the international final in Kuala Lumpur.