Our students performed excellently at the International Case Competition in Madrid

Between February 23-27, 2026, the IE University Business Case Competition took place in Spain, organized by IE University, bringing together student teams from 12 universities, representing 4 continents and 12 countries. A student team representing the Department of Economics and Business Administration in Hungarian Language at Babeș-Bolyai University and the GTK, also participated in the competition, and according to the preliminary draw, our team competed in the qualifying round against teams from Germany, Norway, and Portugal, performing remarkably well in a highly competitive field.

Representing the department and the GTK were Fazakas Boglárka (Business Information Systems, 3rd year), Hadnagy Magor (Management, 3rd year), Ilyés Tamás (Management, 3rd year), and Izsák Adél (Finance and Banking, 2nd year), undergraduate students enrolled in the Hungarian-language programs. The team was coached by dr. Szász Levente, dr. Györfy Lehel-Zoltán, dr. Rácz Béla-Gergely and Székely Evelin, who accompanied the team to the on-site competition.

During the event, participating teams worked on two challenging cases: a 5-hour case and a 12-hour case. The company providing the 5-hour case was Alma Carraovejas, a premium Spanish wine and gastronomy group known for producing high-quality, terroir-driven wines. The challenge focused on how the company could achieve sustainable growth over the next five years while preserving its identity as a craft winery, strengthening its sustainability commitment, and deepening its relationship with younger wine consumers, while also addressing structural challenges such as climate change, shifting consumer habits, and attracting talent to rural areas.

In the 12-hour case, teams developed a strategic proposal for Amazon, designing a five-year strategy that would leverage the company’s $20 billion sustainability investment to create business value, rather than serving merely as environmental compliance.

Despite their excellent performance, the team advancing from this group was FEP – School of Economics and Management from Portugal, which ultimately went on to win the competition. The podium was completed by CUHK Business School from Hong Kong in second place and the host IE Business School in third place.

Congratulations to our students for their outstanding performance in such a strong international competition!