Focus on Credit Decisions:

How can account managers take lending decisions that are profitable for the bank, keep risk manageable, and give clients the necessary financial flexibility? This question was the focus of the first Case Sprint, for which students at the Frankfurt School developed solutions on September 9–10. Host and organizer: Commerzbank Mittelstandsinistitut.

Commerzbank provided an actual case study from its “Mittelstandsbank.” The challenges: Various variables had to be balanced within the context of corporate lending. Factors such as profitability, adherence to the bank’s values, as well as complex political and economic conditions also had to be taken into account.

Four Frankfurt School student teams competed against each other to develop the best possible strategy. They are enrolled in all programs and classes. Thursday morning began with a case presentation by Professor Dr. Jonathan Marks, Frankfurt School. The task was to develop a complete strategy by 10 p.m., to define its financing, marketing, and implementation. Students were able to clarify any questions that arose during the exercise directly with representatives from Commerzbank during a Q&A session.

The students presented their results on Friday morning at Commerzbank in a. The jury included: Frankfurt School alumnus Fabian Aymanns, a strategy consultant at Porsche Consulting; Patrick Klasen, Bereichsleiter Lending Process and Digital Transformation, Commerzbank; Heidelinde von Lohr – Leiterin Bereichsvorstandsoffice / Managing Director COO Mittelstandsbank, Nord/West, Commerzbank; Professor Dr. Jonathan Marks, who holds a professorship in Entrepreneurship Education at Frankfurt School; and Benjamin Müller, Abteilungsleiter Lending Product and Process Governance, Commerzbank. 

During question-and-answer sessions between the student teams and jury members, the teams’ approaches were put to the test.

In the end, the team with the most compelling strategy prevailed and emerged as the winner of the first Case Sprint. By analyzing the bank’s diverse range of industries, business models, and loan portfolio, the winning team arrived at the best solution. As a memento and in recognition of their achievement, they received a tombstone and were invited to an exclusive dinner hosted by the Commerzbank Mittelstandsinstitut for Commerzbank’s corporate clients.

But the jury was unanimous: All teams had developed excellent approaches in a short amount of time. The students’ conclusion during the debriefing: the Case Sprint was a very important learning experience, as they had to analyze an enormous amount of data and formulate strategic, plausible courses of action in a very short time. Doing this with fellow students they had not previously worked with was an additional, valuable learning experience.