Monday 25 September 2023 Vlerick Business School, Belgium
The Case Centre’s CEO Vicky Lester presented the Entrepreneurship award to Sophie Manigart at Vlerick Business School’s Ghent Campus on Monday 25 September.
Sophie received the trophy at a presentation attended by Vlerick Dean Marion Debruyne, DBA Manager and Research Manager, Eva Cools, and faculty and staff.
A Full Professor of Corporate Finance, Sophie was well placed to write the winning case on a company and protagonist she knows well.
Sophie said: “I am very happy and honoured to receive this award in the Entrepreneurship category.
“The case is about Ovinto, which is an entrepreneurial scale-up company founded by a former Vlerick student, who is the protagonist.
“Ovinto started as a track and trace company in rail cargo, a sector in which freight easily gets lost. They produced sensors to go on the rail cars to track their location, temperate and pressure. Now they’re a data company collecting all the information from the sensors and turning that into intelligence for the rail car owners. Ovinto are trying to optimise rail transportation.”
Sitting on Ovinto’s Board of Directors, Sophie knew the company inside out and was aware that the dilemma they faced of what percentage of shares to sell in exchange for €5 million investment would translate well to the classroom as a case.
She added: “This is a very difficult question (Ovinto’s dilemma) that almost all scale-up entrepreneurs will be confronted with at some point.
“When looking for cases, the US valuations for European scale-ups didn’t work well. The Ovinto story came up about a company that I knew with a real dilemma, so I decided to write the case.”
On presenting the award Vicky said: “I am delighted to present this award for a great case that has engaged students around the world.”
Hear from the winner
Sophie shares her insight into what winning the award means to her, why she thinks her winning case is popular, and her top case writing tips.
