On Tuesday, June 13, the competition involving one hundred students from the Master in European Business (MEB) program on the Berlin, London, Madrid, and Paris campuses came to an end. The four campuses were able to compete in the international final hosted at the RCI Bank and Services headquarters in Noisy-le-Grand, in the presence of the Executive Committee. The competition, giving the students genuine consulting experience for an international group, was beneficial for RCI Bank and Services, as well. Their pertinent recommendations confirmed the importance of developing digital, flexible, eco-friendly mobility options to win over the under-30 segment.
One final, twenty students, eight nationalities, four teams, and two winning teams. The London team was recognized by the RCI Bank and Services Executive Committee for its “Turnkey” project, a mobile application for medium-term car-sharing, from three months to a year, territory that remains unexplored on the market. The Paris team won the “Coup de Coeur” audience award, having persuasively presented a unique platform that can offer wide-ranging services: car-sharing, sales of used cars between private individuals, and even insurances. Through an interactive voting system, the audience, composed of employees from marketing, sales, and innovation at RCI Bank and Services, as well as from Renault and Nissan, was able to cast ballots to choose its favorite project.
Car-sharing, carpooling, pay as you drive[1], pay how you drive[2], etc.: all the projects the students presented gave pride of place to new forms of mobility. The qualitative and quantitative studies carried out by the scholars showed that young drivers want digital options that are flexible and eco-friendly.
The competition kick-off took place in late March on the four campuses. The students, coached by their marketing professors, were given two months to come up with an innovative, relevant, and high-added-value product or service for the customer and RCI Bank and Services. The local finals, held in late May, resulted in one winning team being chosen per campus. At the June 13 international final, the four finalist teams presented their projects in a 90-second elevator pitch[3] and a fifteen-minute presentation.
“I would like to congratulate the two winning teams: London and Paris. I would also like to thank all the students for the quality of their presentations and the great many ideas they brought to the event. This competition dovetails perfectly with our policy of corporate transformation. What’s more, the students’ interest in both our challenges and the career opportunities offered by RCI Bank and Services shows that collaborative undertakings like these help develop our reputation among young talents,” explains Hélène Tavier, VP Human Resources at RCI Bank and Services.
“We are not only very proud of our finalists and all the students who took part in the challenge, but also of this partnership with RCI Bank and Services. It’s a superb example of the collaboration between the company and the business school to promote an integrated, relevant educational curriculum,” concludes Véronique Tran, Associate Dean, Master in European Business, ESCP Europe.
[1] A form of automobile insurance in which insurance rates are determined based on actual vehicle use
[2] A form of insurance in which rates are determined by driver behavior
[3] A succinct, vivid presentation to sell one’s idea to a potential investor or partner, as though in the space of a shared elevator ride
About RCI Banque S.A.:
Created and wholly owned by Groupe Renault, RCI Banque is a French bank specializing in automotive financing and services for Groupe Renault customers and dealer networks (Renault, Renault Samsung Motors and Dacia) throughout the world, and for the Nissan Group (Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun), mainly in Europe, Russia, South America, South Korea and India.
RCI Bank and Services is the new commercial identity of RCI Banque as of February 2016.
With over 3,100 employees in 36 countries, RCI Bank and Services financed over 1.56 million contracts (new and used vehicles) in 2016 and sold more than 3.4 million services.
APAs totaled €33.3 billion in financing at end-December 2016, and pre-tax income was €912 million at end-December 2016.
Since 2012, RCI Bank and Services has been collecting retail deposits in four countries. At end-December 2016, the net amount of deposits collected came to €12.6 billion, or 33% of the company’s assets.
Find out more about RCI Bank and Services at www.rcibs.com
About ESCP Europe:
Established in 1819, ESCP Europe has educated generations of leaders and entrepreneurs. With its six urban campuses in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Turin and Warsaw, ESCP Europe's true European identity enables the provision of a unique style of cross-cultural business education and a global perspective on international management issues. ESCP Europe welcomes 4,600 students and 5,000 executives from 102 different nations every year, offering them a wide range of general management and specialised programmes (Bachelor, Masters, MBA, Executive MBA, PhD and Executive Education).
