About the teaching case

The COVID-19 crisis is disrupting global supply chains, financial markets and the day-to-day operations of businesses all over the world. Now more than ever, a company’s need for capital can come quickly and unpredictably. As a result, there is a real risk for otherwise healthy companies to run out of cash. What can businesses do to safeguard their cash flow, working capital and ultimately their company?

Take your students into the simulation game ‘The Cool Connection’ for an immersed case study on Working Capital Management during COVID-19.

In ‘The Cool Connection’, students take on the role of consultant and are asked to deal with urgent cash flow problems at a multinational cosmetics company. Accompanied by a Harvard-style Teaching Case, students are asked to understand and measure the impact of the crisis on the company’s supply chains. Based on their findings, students make policy recommendations to face the disruptions.

WHAT WILL STUDENT LEARN?

This teaching case is designed for Working Capital Management courses. With this teaching case, students are challenged to learn and practice:

  • how to analyze a company’s supply chain through flowchart mapping
  • how to develop mitigation strategies for both short- and long-term supply chain risks
  • how to analyze short-term supply chain risks and changes in customer demand
WHAT'S INCLUDED?

What’s included in this FREE online teaching case?

  • Harvard-style teaching case on Working Capital Management and COVID-19
  • Class discussion points
  • Introduction video about ‘The Cool Connection’
  • Access for educators and students to online business game ‘The Cool Connection’
  • Comprehensive teaching notes

Meet the authors

Ed Weenk, EngD

Freelance professional: Supply Chain | Consulting | Business Gaming | Training

QuSL

Senior Lecturer

Maastricht School of Management

Senior associate professor

EADA Business School Barcelona

My professional passions are sustainable operations & supply chain, managers & management, projects & project management, training & teaching and business simulations & experiential learning.

My latest book, “Mastering the circular economy. A practical approach to the circular business model transformation”, was published in May 2021 by Kogan Page. Previous books are “Mastering the Supply Chain. Principles, practice and real-life applications” from 2019, available in English and Dutch and “The Perfect Pass. What the manager can learn from the football trainer”, from 2012, published in Dutch, English and Spanish.

Luca Gelsomino PhD

Assistant Professor

University of Groningen

Academic Director

Supply Chain Finance Community

Senior Researcher

Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Luca Gelsomino is an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen, as well as the Academic Director of the Supply Chain Finance Community and a Senior Researcher at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (all in the Netherlands). His research interests include Supply Chain Finance, the interface of finance and operations and Circular Economy. He teaches in the field of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, as well as Managerial Accounting and Financial Analysis. He received his PhD from the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the impact of Supply Chain Finance on the financial performance of supply chains.

Christiaan de Groeij MSc

Project Manager / Researcher and Lecturer Supply Chain Finance

Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Christiaan de Goeij is a project manager and researcher in the field of Supply Chain Finance at the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands, and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. He started his career as a policy advisor in Economic Affairs and worked at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and the Province of South Holland. After that he became a researcher and lecturer at Utrecht University and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the field of Airport/Seaport Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

At Windesheim he is teaching supply chain courses using business simulation gaming and managing large-scale research projects on Supply Chain Finance with corporates, SMEs and industry associations in The Netherlands. Furthermore, he is writing project proposals for grants. In 2017 he won the RAAK-award for best applied research project in The Netherlands.