Final-year student takes part in international business competition

Posted on 12 May 2014

Third-year Economics & Politics student Erki Taube gained valuable experience at the three-day finals of the PeakTime contest, held in Latvia.

Although he narrowly missed out on victory, the event provided Erki with a valuable opportunity to gain key communication, negotiation and teamworking skills in a challenging international environment. "The final event lasted for three days and included three competition rounds, guest lecturers, a workshop and socials in the evening. There were 19 teams in total, 3 of them with individual participants. I was in one of the mixed individual teams.

The competition was structured in the same way as the preliminary rounds – a CESIM business simulation game and a case study presentation. Based on these rounds, the top 5 teams were chosen to compete in the final round for yet another case study. In order to succeed, teams had to be very well prepared and able to answer questions raised by the jury. Unfortunately, my team didn’t make the final round.

I can confidently say that this competition, especially the case study, was the most challenging thing I have ever done. Creating a thorough, well-supported presentation in 4 very short hours with 4 people who all have strong and divergent opinions is definitely a skill worth practising!"