A team of undergraduate students from Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration took first place in the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) International Case Competition last week. Northeastern competed against teams from 11 leading international business schools, including the London School of Economics, New York University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and SSE.

Launched as a new initiative in conjunction with SSE’s 100th anniversary, the competition focused on DeLaval, a more-than-century-old Swedish multinational enterprise recognized for its dominant market position in high-tech robotic solutions for dairy farming.

The three-day event included a visit to a DeLaval farm, where students heard from a company executive and learned about the dairy farming business. Competition began on the second day, with 24 hours to prepare presentations for two rounds of competition.

The winning team of Northeastern students included Matthew Eaton, Brian Lindebaum, Cory Renzella and Claire Ryan.

Fifth consecutive win for another Northeastern team
The SSE win comes on the heels of Northeastern’s fifth consecutive victory in the B-School Beanpot Case Analysis Competition. Competing against teams from seven Boston-area business schools, Northeastern maintained its dominance, having now won six of the last seven and 10 of the competitions since the Beanpot tournament started in 1997.

The annual B-School Beanpot competition brings together teams of undergraduate business students to compete for top honors. During the intense, 12-hour event, students battle the clock and each other to develop the best solution to a current business challenge.

“Our repeated success in the Beanpot has given us the opportunity to compete in both national and international business school competitions,” said Ray Kinnunen, associate professor of international management and strategy and faculty coach of Northeastern’s case analysis teams. “Though four students competed, we could not have won the SSE International Case Competition without all 10 of the team members.”

This year’s competition focused on strategic decisions at eHarmony, as teams tried to craft the best approach to keep the company competitive. Northeastern’s winning team competed with teams from Babson College, Bentley University, Boston University School of Management, Bryant University College of Business, Merrimack College Girard School of Business and International Commerce, Suffolk University Sawyer Business School and University of Massachusetts Boston College of Management.

Team members from the College of Business Administration included Josef M. Alves, Jill Campaniello, Richard Collins, Matthew Eaton, Dana Lauro, Brian Lepley, Brian Lindenbaum, Cory Renzella, Claire Ryan and Michael Shafik.

Undergraduate business programs rank high
Northeastern’s undergraduate business program was recently ranked No. 27 in the U.S. by “BusinessWeek” magazine. The magazine also ranked Northeastern No. 1 in the internship category and gave it an A+ for job placement. This recognition follows a new ranking by “Entrepreneurship Magazine” and “The Princeton Review” that listed Northeastern’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program 14th in the country and 2nd in New England.