Deloitte OES Prize Awarded for Project on Family Business at EPFL
© 2015 EPFL
This year’s Deloitte OES Prize for the best student project in Prof. Weber’s graduate course “Operations: Economics and Strategy” was awarded to Marc Solsona Bernet, Thomas Guibentif, and Shubham Bansal (as seen in photo, flanked by the judges).
Their outstanding report, entitled “Le Négoce: Survival under Extreme Conditions” provides a careful analysis of several key strategic and tactical issues for a family grocery store on the EPFL campus in the face of massive competition by the 2014 opening of a commercial center on the north campus. The judges were impressed by the team’s excellent presentation of detailed model-based results, which included techniques to optimize prices and to better match supply with demand, as well as several well-reasoned actionable recommendations for operational changes.
The first runner-up project for the Deloitte OES Prize was “Optimizing Shelf Replenishment at Migros EPFL” by Emeline Andraud, Dorsaf Haouioui, and Marion Henry. The second runner-up was “Optimizing the Process and Inventory of Eric’s Peanuts” by Nils Bouchardon, Simon-Pierre Genot, and Quentin LeGuennec.
In total, 13 teams entered the Deloitte OES Prize competition. The projects’ aim was to identify potential operational improvements in mostly local companies, including LeShop, Resize Design (a Swedish furniture company), QoQa, CHUV, a German Bakery, a local pub, the Payot bookstore in Lausanne, the 1000 Feuilles pastry maker in Lausanne, and a major Swiss online electronics retailer. The jury was composed of Stefano Grioni, a senior consultant with Deloitte (left in photo), and Prof. Thomas Weber.
The members of the winning team each obtained an Apple iPad, sponsored by Deloitte, as first prize. Deloitte, which has 7 offices in Switzerland, was involved with Prof. Weber’s course throughout the fall, coordinated by Patrick Fluri, a business analyst. In November, Paul King, director of the CFO Operations practice at Deloitte delivered a guest lecture on “Performance Management.” He was accompanied by Esther Sapi, a consultant, who led a portion of the discussion and helped answer the students’ questions about the typical life of a consultant. The Deloitte OES Prize was first awarded in 2013.