Swiss-African Business Case Challenge Work in a Swiss-African team to manage a complex business challenge at the intersection of international trade and sustainability

The Lucerne Business School and the African Leadership University co-host this unique summer school, which brings together students from both institutions for an intensive week in Lucerne on the topic of sustainability, leadership, and communication.

Overview

The core learning experience is an immersive business case challenge. Students will be split into small teams (with diverse representations in terms of gender, academic background and institutional affiliation) that will work together to develop solutions to real-world cases. Each of the five days will have mini-inputs around relevant academic topics (ethical decision making, negotiation, data and decision making, multi-stakeholder analysis, ESG in fragile environments, communication and leadership etc.). The main focus, however, will be on a daily deliverable that the teams need to produce in relation to the case. The module will be taught in English. Read the blog-post from the Swiss-African Business Case Challenge 2022.

Facts

Semester

Takes place in the autumn semester. Next start: 2025 autumn semester

Anmeldeschluss

15.05.2025

Unterrichtssprache
  • Englisch
Zeitmodell

Block week
23.06.2025 - 27.06.2025
08:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m.

  • With preparatory phase (20 - 25 hours total starting April)
  • Finish documentation as a written assignment by the end of October (30-35 hours)
  • The timing of the pre- and post-work is flexible because it is group based on individual agreement

Venue: Lucerne, a few online sessions before the business challenge

ECTS/Anerkennung

See: ISA-Programm/ECTS-Punkte

Anbieter
Wirtschaft
Leistungsnachweis
  • short assignments (2-3 oral presentations and management summaries) during the study week (pitches, delivery of milestones)
  • written assignment by the end of October
Modulleitung
Modulleitung (extern)

Stephen Naicken, Ph.D., Academic Director, African Leadership College, Mauritius

Dozent/in
Dozent/in (extern)

Stephen Naicken, Ph.D., others

 
Teilnahmeberechtigung

Interest in: Swiss-African relations, business in Africa, international relations, global issues, intercultural issues, sustainability, leadership, communication

Application by email with a short statement about the motivation to participate in Business Case Challenge. Apply regularly to ISA office and send statement to oliver.kessler@hslu.ch.

 
Eingangskompetenzen

Basic interest in economics, business, leadership (preparatory reading will be required depending on previous expertise)

Zielkompetenzen

 

Lehr- und Lernmethoden

Case study challenge, problem-/solution-based learning, lectures, self-regulated learning, project learning

Lehrmittel

Will be provided before the summer school.

Programmart
ISA Modul
Durchführungsort

Luzern

Bemerkungen

With Africa representing a growing market and an increasing area of interest for Swiss for-profit, nonprofit and governmental organizations, students will gain a critical introduction to working with and on the continent and thereby strengthen their employability. The business case challenge provides a practical application of many of the key competencies covered in Bachelor programs, including ethical decision making, analyzing strategic and operational issues, communicating negotiating and working in teams across cultures and leading.

The business case challenge is designed as interdisciplinary as evidenced both by the case-study nature and by the broad range of faculty member profiles (from HSLU both IKM and IBR are represented / the ALU faculty members have backgrounds in Management, Communication, Data Analysis and Leadership).

On the Saturday following the program there will be an optional field trip with the students from Africa. Swiss-students may have to partially or fully finance their own field trip costs if they choose to participate.