Companies ánd students benefit from successful Shell business challenge | Careers Company

During the finals on 17 December, Shell, NAM and the Careers Company of the University of Groningen chose which students had come up with the best business solution at the end of their six-week business challenge. “A successful event for all parties concerned”, according to Careers Company Director Wijnand Aalderink. “Without exception, the students were positive about this extra experience for their cv. We will certainly repeat this event with Shell and also other organisations have expressed an interest in a business case”.

“By organising this challenge we, Shell and NAM, were able to present ourselves as future employers,” says Kees Nieuwkamp, Finance Manager at NAM in Assen. “In addition, it provides us with an opportunity to create a solid basis for our collaboration with the University”.

"Outside the comfort zone"

The jury found that the winning team, consisting of Roderik Jongbloed, Liselle Lobo, Natasja Massink, Cristina Popescu and Ward Wolters, had drawn up a project portfolio with the best scientific basis for Shell.
“It certainly was a challenge”, explains Natasja, Research Master student Global Economics & Management.

“As students we were partly taken out of our comfort zone, but especially because of that we learned a lot in a very short period of time about, for instance, project evaluation, the oil & gas industry and of course about Shell itself.”

Realistic assignment

The business challenge is an initiative of the Careers Company of the Faculty Economics and Business (FEB) and the Faculty Association (EBF). Together with Shell and NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) a realistic business assignment was developed, and 25 selected Economics and Business students worked on it in teams. They were coached by Shell professionals and lecturers of the Faculty Economics and Business (Auke Plantinga, Mark Kramer en Boudewijn de Bruin) .

In the past 6 weeks the teams have drafted their own valuation model for projects in the oil and gas industry. In doing this, non-technical risks, such as for instance, political and commercial risks had to be included also. This resulted for Shell in a project portfolio as optimal as possible and with a scientific basis.

Exciting finals

“The finals were exciting”, says Wijnand Aalderink. “ In a business battle the students presented their results to the audience and the jury; Kees Nieuwenkamp, Shell senior executive and Gjalt de Jong, FEB associate professor. The jury commended the winning team on the clarity and transparency of their solution”. All participants received a fine certificate of participation from Shell and also an ammonite as a memento; and all students of the winning team received an iPad.

“Impressed by the quality”

Kees Nieuwenkamp of NAM: “I was very impressed by the quality of the students and by the ideas and concepts they had developed. It was inspiring to see with how much energy and ambition they worked together and that they were thus able to achieve exceptional results.”

Potential employer

Student Natasja Massink is very pleased with the event. “I think this is a good initiative, especially because projects such as these build a bridge between the ‘academic world’ and the corporate world. An experience like this one is useful because it give you a better picture of a company and the industry within which the company operates.”

Natasja looks upon her motived and diverse team also as an advantage: “The diversity led to quite a number of interesting and lively discussions and besides that it ensured that the issue was approached from difference perspectives. In addition, this Challenge has given me in particular, through meeting and working with various Shell employees, a good picture of Shell as a potential employer.”

More business challenges are planned

Wijnand Aalderink adds: “Due to the positive experiences we are certainly going to repeat this with Shell and also other organisations have expressed an interest. Similarly, we will again organise the Spring School in May and we are preparing a Student Consultancy for students to get to work on assignments from companies and public bodies both inside and outside education. To put it briefly: the Careers Company has come to like this and will continue to work on these types of themes.”

Note for the press

More information:

• Wijnand Aalderink, Careers Company RUG
• Chiel Seinen, NAM, Chiel.seinen@shell.com / nam-media@shell.com, Tel. + 31 (0)592 368222