Eligibility

The Challenge is open to Master, MBA and PhD students (full or part-time) from any university worldwide. Participants should have an interest in management, finance, strategy and risk management or similar subjects. Multiple teams representing the same university can join the Challenge.

Registration

This is a team challenge; each team should consist of 3-4 team members. Be sure to complete your team’s registration and enter the Challenge.

Registration deadline: 27 June 2021.

 Prizes

Winning team

  • Be invited to and present at a Zurich-sponsored event in Q1 2022
  • Cash prize of CHF 5’000

Top teams

  • Work with Zurich and selected multinational customers, such as CBRE, Mars and Nestlé, on current corporate challenges
  • Cash prize of CHF 5’000 for the winning team, CHF 2’000 for the runner-up
  • Earn a certificate highlighting your achievements

Learn more

  • What is the Zurich Enterprise Challenge?

    The Zurich Enterprise Challenge is a three-phase team competition designed to offer participating Masters, MBA or PhD students the opportunity to work directly with multinational corporations to provide real world solutions to existing corporate challenges.

      • Phase 1 – Qualification:
        By solving a generic case study your team will get the chance to compete for proceeding to Phase 2. Zurich will recognize and reward teams based on business relevance, applicability and creativity of the team’s solution. Other selection criteria are the quality of layout and design of the submission, and presentation skills.
      • Phase 2 – Collaboration:
        The top teams will collaborate with a selected Zurich multinational corporate customer to provide a solution for a real-world corporate challenge.
    • Phase 3 – Finalization:
      The winning team will be invited to and present at a Zurich-sponsored event in Q1 2022 and receive a cash prize of CHF 5’000.
  • Why should I take part in the Zurich Enterprise Challenge?
    • You will get the chance to solve real-world corporate risk management and strategy challenges.
    • You will have the opportunity to work with Zurich and one of their prestigious, multinational customers.  Companies, such as Syngenta, Kimberly-Clark, Lendlease, Philips, Sacyr, Coca-Cola HBC, Groupe Renault, Nestlé, Mars, CBRE and other Fortune 500 companies have participated in the Challenge so far.
    • You will have access to the Zurich Risk Room, an award-winning country risk assessment tool to support your risk analysis.
    • You could be invited to and present at a Zurich-sponsored event in Q1 2022.
    • Your team could win a cash prize worth CHF 5’000.
    • You could be invited for an interview with Zurich for a position.
  • Who should participate in the Zurich Enterprise Challenge?
    • The Challenge is designed exclusively for enrolled Masters, MBA or PhD students from any university worldwide. Students graduating in 2021 are also eligible for the Challenge. Any student, independently of his/her area of studies, interested in management, finance, strategy and risk management is encouraged to participate.
    • This is a team challenge for teams of 3-4 members. All participants are required to register a profile on the registration website. Multiple teams representing the same university can also join the Challenge.
  • How do I register for the Zurich Enterprise Challenge?
    • Registration for the Zurich Enterprise Challenge 2021 is now open and will close on 27 June 2021.
    • Select your team members (3-4) and assign a team captain. The duties of the team captain will be to manage the communication with Zurich and submit your presentation. The team captain is required to register the team. Should you encounter technical difficulties please send your team registration to riskroom@zurich.com including a list of all team members and university names indicating who the team captain is and your team name.
    • We encourage you to register as early as possible in order to receive any additional materials for Phase 1 as soon as possible.
  • How long will the Zurich Enterprise Challenge take?
    • Phase 1:
      Your team has time from the announcement of the topic on Monday, 22 March 2021 to Sunday, 27 June 2021 in order to submit your solution to the case.
    • Phase 2:
      If you qualify for Phase 2, your team will agree the overall duration of your project, including start and end-date, between July and October 2021 with your assigned partner company.
    • Phase 3:
      If you win the Zurich Enterprise Challenge 2021 and will be invited to present at a Zurich-sponsored event in Q1 2022, you should also account for sufficient time to prepare and travel in Q1 2022.
  • What should our team deliver in each Phase?
    • Phase 1:
      Submit a voice-over presentation that lasts a maximum of six minutes.
    • Phase 2:
      Submit a presentation containing the analysis undertaken and your recommendation(s) to your partner company’s case study, including any necessary explanations, additional information and appendices. Your team’s presentation should be:

      • Prepared for an audience at your partner company’s C-suite and Board level.
      • Appropriately structured so that it could be used in a 20-minutes presentation.
      • In English.

    Complete a live video conference which will include a 20-minute presentation and a 10-minute Q&A session with your partner company and Zurich. In exceptional circumstances, if the team is not able to attend a live video conference, they will be allowed to submit a pre-recorded video of their team presentation. However, in this case the teams will need to obtain prior approval from Zurich.

    • Phase 3:
      When being invited to the Zurich-sponsored event in Q1 2022 your team will be given the opportunity to present the most relevant aspects of your project.
  • What else should I know about Phase 1 of the Challenge?
    • You will have to create a voice-over presentation.
    • An email with Phase 1 results will be sent to the team captain by 9 July 2021. Please make sure to add the email riskroom@zurich.com to your contacts, so that the email doesn’t end up in the spam box.
  • What else should I know about Phase 2 of the Challenge?
    • The best teams from Phase 1 will be invited to Phase 2 in order to work with one of Zurich’s multinational customers on solving a customer-specific case study.
    • Your team will get full access to the Zurich Risk Room tool, used by risk and strategy management specialists around the world, in order to solve your case study.
  • Timing and matching of student teams and Zurich customers
    • Your team will agree the overall duration of your project, including start and end-date, between July and October 2021 with your assigned partner company.
    • The Zurich team will match student teams with Zurich customers. Each Zurich customer will work with 2 teams, both teams will receive the same challenge question. All decisions made by Zurich and their participating customers will be final and binding.
  • Phase 2 competition tools and materials
    • At the start of your collaboration period with your partner company you will be given the case study from your partner company and access to the full Zurich Risk Room tool and support materials.
    • Depending on the case provided by each Zurich customer, there may be additional material.
    • Zurich customers reserve the right to ask teams to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
  • Communication with Zurich customers
    • The Zurich team will oversee communications between student teams and their partner companies.
    • Teams will interact with their assigned partner company via conference calls, email correspondence and any other mode of remote / online communication as agreed with Zurich and the team’s partner company. No travelling or other expenses by the students will be required.
  • Phase 2 results
    • Phase 2 results will be communicated by the Zurich team by 6 December 2021 at the latest.

    For more information please open this link

    https://www.zurich.com/en/products-and-services/tools-for-business/zurich-risk-room/zurich-enterprise-challenge