Competition winner: TomTom: Mapping the Course from B2C to B2B

Steven Sweldens, Stefano Puntoni, Niela Kleinsmith, Tao Yue and Matthieu Campion

Steven, Stefano, Niela, Tao and Matthieu discuss their delight at winning the competition and how industry-change makes for a compelling case.

Plenty of competition

They said: “We the authors, as well as the school, are delighted! Although this is not the first time that an RSM case has won a Case Centre award, it is the first time that we have won the Outstanding Case Writer competition – a category that has many excellent case writers from all over the world competing for it. We are highly honoured.”

Topical choice

Explaining why the case proved so popular with the competition judges the authors commented: “First of all, the case is topical. It is about tech and disruption and how smaller firms can compete with giants like Google – a challenge that faces almost all technology firms regardless of the industry they are in.

"Secondly, the case is about B2B marketing and branding. While the majority of economic activity lies in the B2B sector, most marketing cases are about selling to consumers (B2C). The case fills that gap.

"Thirdly, the case provides counter-intuitive takeaways and several ‘Aha’ moments, which are well captured and explained in the teaching note.”

Changing industry

The team added: “The case kept evolving until the very end. Changes are taking place quickly in this industry, which explains why the case is so exciting. But it also posed a challenge when writing for a case discussion which should be interesting for a couple of years to come. That created a tension that was sometimes hard to put in to words.”

Pulling in the same direction

The authors concluded: “This case shows it is crucially important to have a close collaboration between faculty, case writer and company. The idea for this case came from an EMBA student in-company project. The faculties recognised its value, and together with a case writer, the student developed the case.

“Moreover, to have a good case, you need to have more than just a cool story. You have to put in a lot of additional effort to produce supporting materials such as videos and slides. That’s the best way to engage students.”

About the authors

Steven Sweldens is Professor of Consumer Behavior and Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
e sweldens@rsm.nl

Stefano Puntoni is Professor of Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
e spuntoni@rsm.nl

Niela Kleinsmith was a Senior Case Writer at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. when the case was written.
e kleinsmith_niela@hotmail.com

Tao Yue is Managing Editor at the Rotterdam School of Management Case Development Centre.
e tyue@rsm.nl
tw @yue_tao

Matthieu Campion is the former Head of Corporate Marketing Communications at TomTom. He is now General Manager – Electric Vehicle Business at Mitsubishi Motors Europe.
e matthieu_campion@hotmail.com