Mr Gibb is in Norway this week as part of the Team Universities of New Zealand (TUNZ) team representing New Zealand in the BIICC 2023 International Business Case Competition in Oslo which starts on Friday, hosted by the BI Norwegian Business School.
Case competitions involve teams of students being given a business situation and a time frame in which to come up with a solution to be presented to a judging panel.
Mr Gibb, who will be competing alongside students from the University of Waikato and Victoria University, said it was an honour to represent the University of Otago.
Chef de mission Dr John Guthrie, of Dunedin, who started the programme at the University of Otago, said it was an exciting opportunity for the New Zealand students to compete against the best universities in the world.
TUNZ would compete with students from 11 universities from around the world, including HEC Montreal, Copenhagen Business School, FEP Porto and UNSW Sydney.
Although the organisation on which the competition would be based was unknown in advance, previous BI competitions had an energy or food sustainability focus, Dr Guthrie said.
The competition comprised two cases. The first was online earlier this month, while the team was in New Zealand, and was on Mesta, part of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry & Fisheries and its construction business.
For the second case, the teams in Oslo would have 30 hours to prepare, present, and defend their proposal to a panel of judges.
Dr Guthrie said Otago students had a proud record of involvement in business case competitions, both as Otago teams and in New Zealand teams. There was clear evidence of the benefits the case students gained in strategic thinking and presentation skills.
Case involvement was an excellent tool to combat AI tools such as chatbot software ChatGPT.
“There’s nowhere to hide when you are presenting a solution to judges,’’ he said.
