RCI Bank and Services and ESCP Europe (MEB program) are launching a European competition focused on the auto-mobility of under-30s

RCI Bank and Services and ESCP Europe are joining forces to organise a match between 100 students in the marketing elective of the Master's in European Business (MEB) course on the topic of the automotive mobility of under-30s. The students from four business school campuses in Berlin, Paris, London and Madrid will be taking part in the competition, which starts today. The initiative is an opportunity for RCI Bank and Services to gain inspiration from new ideas from outside its ecosystem. For the students, it is an opportunity to enrich their careers with a consulting experience for an international group.

The competition will kick off at local level, with experts from RCI Bank and Services and its subsidiaries presenting the subject to students at each campus. In April, the students will get to clear up any queries they may have through question-and-answer sessions, after which they will submit their written entries, before May 22. Throughout this initial phase, the students will be coached in each country by their marketing professors.

The local finals will be held simultaneously at the end of May. The teams will attempt to convince the jury with a 90-second elevator pitch , followed by a ten-minute presentation. Each of the four juries will select a winning team to represent their campus at the European final on June 13 in Paris, in the presence of the Executive Committee and employees of RCI Bank and Services.

The students will be graded on the originality and feasibility of their offers as well as on the value created for the customer and RCI Bank and Services. The project is an integral part of the students' program and will be taken into account in the academic assessment of their MEB ESCP Europe marketing elective. The organisation of the competition has been made possible by Keymatch, a company that works to create relationships between higher education establishments and businesses.

Commenting, Hélène Tavier, Vice-President Human Resources for RCI Bank and Services, said: “Our ambition is to propose an auto-mobility solution adapted to the needs of each customer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance brands. This competition strengthens our customer-centric approach. Who better than students to imagine offers intended for under-30s? Through this initiative, we hope to show future graduates that we are a dynamic and agile company that is facing the challenges in today’s automotive mobility. It is also an opportunity to attract talented individuals with international backgrounds.”

Pascale Martin-Saint-Etienne, director of the program, said: “Who better than ESCP Europe to take on this challenge? Our business-school model is unique, with a school on six European campuses and multicultural classes composed of students from around the world with no dominant nationality.”

Véronique Tran, professor and academic director at MEB, said: “The project proposed by RCI Bank and Services is highly motivating for the MEB students, who will get (and relish) the chance to compete against each other. It is especially motivating because the proposed case concerns them directly, as their average age is 26. Thirty-five countries are represented in the Master's course. The cultural approach of each student will considerably enrich their debates and their proposed solutions. Mobility needs are not the same around the world – far from it.”

/ENDS

For more information please contact Kerry Ruffle at BlueSky PR - kerry@bluesky-pr.com or via +44(0)1582 790701

RCI Bank and Services press contacts

RCI Bank and Services
Sophie Guiot + 33(0) 1 76 88 86 44 sophie.guiot@rcibanque.com
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
+ 33(0) 1 41 05 44 70 rcibanquepressoffice@hkstrategies.com

ESCP Europe press contacts

Maud Autrechy +33 (1) 49 23 27 89 mautrechy@escpeurope.eu

About RCI Banque S.A.:

Created and wholly owned by Groupe Renault, RCI Banque is a French bank specialising 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 totalled €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).

About Keymatch

Keymatch works to build bridges between the worlds of business and academia. It does so by using the "Keymatch Method", inspired by the call for tender process and consisting in competitions between teams (of students, employees, customers, suppliers, etc.) on the same tender specifications. The spirit of competition generated by the initiative leads to the creation of innovative solutions by each of the competing teams. For the academic world, this educational approach is considered as leading-edge. For businesses, it serves both to resolve innovation problems and boost the employer brand.