One team, with Delphine Varin, Roxane Durousset, Vera Deininghaus and Oliver Kallion, was given the award of SEK 10,000 for their work with Callo Sintermetall AB, a local company that already exports to several countries in Europe, but now wanted help to get into the French market.
“We are surprised and very happy,” said the winning team. “The market was very specific and we had to be really persistent in order to build a network of producers and dealers in France. It was a challenge, but now it feels great.”
Honorary mentions were given to two other teams. One consisted of Alexandra Danner, Tim Kromwijk, Yuan Fang and Anna Mezhova. The members of the second team were Karolin Beurer, Miriam Bustamentet Ponce de Leon, Maikel Van Huet and William Lehmus.
“This course is an exciting bridge between the business world and the academic world,” said project manager Bo Leander at the award ceremony. He also noted that it was hard to choose a winner, since all 15 groups, engaged in different projects, had performed so well.
The master course “Advanced International Marketing, Trade and Export Management” aims to give students a better understanding of how international business can be conducted in practice. The course is a collaboration between JIBS and Business Sweden, The Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN), The Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK), Swedfund and ALMI.
“The quality of the results from all groups has been amazing. These are difficult assignments, and they are not made easier by the time limit and the fact that the members of the groups haven’t previously worked together,” said Per Åkerlind from SEK.
“This is not your usual school work; all groups have presented something that the companies can actually use,” said Håkan Bäckström from EKN.
56 students from 19 countries have been working directly with Swedish companies to assess the marketing of their products to different markets. On March 12 to 13, all groups presented their solutions to a “board”, with representatives from the export promotion organizations and JIBS. Business Sweden, EKN, SEK, Swedfund and ALMI sponsor the Expanding Markets Award and a jury composed of these five organizations chose the winners.
