Students study NAM cases for business solutions and career preparation

Twenty-five economics and business students of the FEB started to work on a six-week case study for the NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij bv). This is the result of collaboration between the NAM and the recently established Careers Company of the Faculty Economics and Business and the Economics and Business student Faculty association (EBF). The objective of the business challenge is to introduce students to trade and industry and complex organizational issues. For its part the NAM likes to makes use of the fresh and creative ideas of the students.

In the business challenge of the NAM and the Careers Company five teams of five chosen students will work on a challenging business question. “People were very enthusiastic, there were 118 applications, and we had to make a selection. The student group represents a nice mixture of international and Dutch students, all with their own specialty ”, according to Harry Garretsen, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business.

The Cases

This year the students will conduct research into how the NAM, in choosing the right projects, can take non-technical risks into account; these are risks unrelated to technical questions. These are, for instance, risks at the economic, political or social level. Students apply this concept to a fictitious but realistic portfolio of projects and advise the NAM on the best projects to choose when taking into account these non-technical risks.

Collaboration

The 25 students are supervised by mentors of the University and the NAM. As the result of a joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil the NAM is a member of the Shell group. The business sector tends to think in a practice-based manner. Due to the input of the group of students in such cases and the lectures they will attend, companies will get specific new insights on an academic basis. And that is also important for the NAM and Shell. After six weeks the groups will present their results. A winning team will be chosen from these groups during the finals in Het Drents Museum in Assen on 17 December 2013. “This project has great added value for our business programmes. The good thing is that the collaboration of the NAM and the Careers Company is not a one-off, but will run for a number of years”, according to Garretsen.