In September, four students from four countries, each with distinctly different academic and professional backgrounds, came together to tackle a global strategy challenge. By November, they weren’t just participating. They were winning, taking 1st place in the Graduate Track of the think-cell 2025 Global Case Competition, outperforming: 

This is the story of Team ATG Consulting, and how two Macedonian economists, a South African entrepreneur, and a Jordanian communication specialist turned late-night work sessions at the Gellért Data Lab into a world-class strategic solution. 

Four Minds, four Disciplines, one Ambition: Impact. 

Jakov Velkovski — BA in PPE (North Macedonia) 
Political Economy • Analytical Reasoning • Systems Thinking 
Jakov provided the intellectual connective tissue—linking economic, political, and strategic reasoning. 

Daniela Toth — MBA (South Africa) 
Entrepreneurship • Operations • Strategy Execution 
A startup veteran with a decade of company-building behind her, Daniela brought structure, clarity, and execution discipline. 

Tala Salman — MBA (Jordan) 
Public Relations • International Relations • Strategic Communication & Research 
With expertise in research, market analysis, and strategic communications, Tala shaped the narrative and external logic of the solution. 

Nikola Meshkovski — BSc in Applied Economics (North Macedonia) 
Modeling • Quantitative Analysis • Strategic Logic 
Nikola’s analytical rigor and data-driven thinking formed the backbone of the final strategic model. 

Where the Real Work Happened: The Gellért Data Lab 

ATG wasn’t built through polished meetings or neat agendas. It was built in the Corvinus Gellért Data Lab, surrounded by empty coffee cups, glowing laptop screens, and Haribo packets scavenged from the vending machine. 

These weren’t symbolic late nights. They were real consulting-style sprints: 

Those nights forged a team dynamic that blended discipline, curiosity, and controlled chaos, the exact chemistry that great strategy demands. 

The Challenge: Building a Full Growth Strategy for a Real Company 

The think-cell case tasked teams with crafting a multi-layered growth strategy for Netflix: 

And they had only PowerPoint and Think-Cell to do it. 

“We learned Think-Cell from scratch while building our strategy. Its collaboration limitations challenged us, but it also showed how powerful the tool is for transforming data into clear storytelling, especially when you have only 12 slides to communicate an entire strategic journey.” 

Every slide was intentional, structured, consulting-grade. 

A Competition of Global Scale 

The think-cell Global Case Competition is one of the world’s largest and most rigorous strategy challenges, bringing together over 1,000 participants from more than 150 universities across 36 countries, including finalists from: 

Powered by think-cell, the industry-standard visualization tool used by leading consulting firms the competition pushes students to translate deep research into crisp, executive-ready insights. 

Winning first place isn’t just a title, it’s evidence of strategic clarity, analytical rigor, and world-class competitive ability. 

What the Experience Meant to the Team 

“This competition reminded us why strategy captivates us, it’s creative, demanding, and forward-looking. But what made this truly special was the team. It’s rare to find a group that operates at the same pace, fights for precision, and holds the same standard of excellence. Our different backgrounds made us stronger, and the alignment we found in how we think, challenge, and build is something we deeply value.” 

A Win for the Team, for Corvinus, for Global Strategy. 

Against teams from world-leading universities, including Ivy League institutions, elite business schools, and top technical programs, Team ATG proved that Corvinus students can compete globally, think globally, and win globally. 

Their journey demonstrates: