GLOVO, DANONE AND LA FAGEDA, PROTAGONISTS OF THIS YEAR’S BUSINESS CASES STUDIED BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Successful organisations change by the very nature of business practice. Consumers change their consumption habits, management trends are updated with new tools, and professionals must adapt accordingly. These changes, which were occurring gradually in the business world, have accelerated over the last year at a dizzying pace. Digitalisation, technology, globalisation; there are many elements that converge on the chessboard of businesses that want to be competitive. In this context, it is more urgent than ever for business training to be adapted to current needs. Otherwise, there is a risk of leaving academia with outdated training that is incapable of responding to the new challenges.

For this reason, the ESIC Barcelona University Campus promotes training that is closely linked to the current business reality, with practical teaching being one of the main values of the center. For this reason, several active professionals have visited us during the first term of the 2021-2022 academic year, with the aim of sharing their expertise and know-how in the classroom. Thus, students of the Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, the Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, the Higher Degree in Global Marketing Management and the Degree in Global Marketing Management have been able to learn first-hand about the challenges that several companies are currently facing, and discover the strategies they are developing to overcome them in an ecosystem of major disruptions. The students were also entrusted with solving real professional cases, for which they had to work on solutions based on the information provided by the company, implementing marketing and communication plans adapted to the circumstances.

For example, the 2nd year students of the Degree in Marketing were able to present their own solutions to the case presented by Danone, an important multinational company belonging to the food industry. Alexis Rodríguez, Senior Development Manager at the company, was present at the session and gave a briefing together with teachers Luca Dell'Oro and Jordi Fernández.

Another of the business case being studied this year by the students is the one presented by La Fageda, a social project whose mission is to improve the quality of life and promote the social integration of people at risk of social exclusion in La Garrotxa. The briefing on their case was carried out by ESIC Barcelona professor Javier Bustos and the director of communication at La Fageda Albert Riera.

The company Totgolf, a company from Sant Cugat dedicated to professional golf, has also starred with one of these real cases and has counted on Josep M. Calafell, professor at ESIC, and Marc Puig, creator of contents about golf and golfers.

Professor Roser Parejo and the coordinator of the network of socio-educational centres of the Pere Tarrés Foundation, Rebecca Alonso, were the professionals who told the students about the case of this foundation.

The last of the big names in this edition was the delivery company Glovo, based in Barcelona.  Professors Jordi Mundet and Shushanta Acharjee and Amparo Lara, Global Sales Manager Retail at the company, were in charge of giving the briefing to the students and presenting them with the case in question.

Thus, during the following phases of the study of these professional cases, the students of the ESIC Barcelona University Campus also have on their agenda the review of their achievements, the visit to some of these companies and the defence of their proposals. Through these challenges, the classrooms of the Campus are transformed into spaces where they debate and propose business solutions to match the current circumstances.