The international panel of judges of The CFO Case Study Competition on 13th October, 2017, crowned Team UMCC from the University of Münster, Germany and Team Westville from Westville Boys High, KwaZulu Natal as The CharterQuest Future CFOs & Business Leaders 2017; and awarded hefty amounts of cash prizes (ZAR100,000 for the Global winners and ZAR50,000 for the Junior winners).  

It was their unquestionable hunger to thrive and learn that made the difference. Now, almost 1 month on, the winning teams share what they are planning to do with their cash prizes: the Global winners donated 25% back to Africa, to develop a Case Center, to foster the case study culture of learning. “Africa is still by far the only Continent that has not fully adopted the case method of learning and there is so much potential here”, says Team UMCC. The Junior Winners have donated 40% to build a school library to support collaborative learning and access to information - impressive!

How did the judges find the experience this year especially after a Junior Version was introduced?

During the Finals at the Finance Indaba Africa 2017, in an interview, the Deputy Chief Judge of The CFO Junior - Jo Pohl , Chair, Africa at Hansal International had this to say: 

“Welcome to an incredible proposition… I am privileged to be a Judge for this competition, last year for the senior version and this year for the junior version… I am Wowed! One, by the level of what the scholars have actually done; two, their bravery to go up on stage and present; and three, the ability to apply what they have learnt at school to a real-life case study. In fact, I’d probably hire any one of them any day.” 

The CFO Junior has proudly gone Continental and registrations have been flying in since they opened on the 1st of November 2017, promising an even bigger event for 2018! In case you couldn’t attend the 2017 event to witness history in the making you can now watch all the presentations and interviews on The CFO Case Study Competition Series due to come back on screen in January on DSTV, Mind-set, Channel 319. More details to follow, Stay Tuned!