Unravelling business challenges
ANALYSING the future of a global automated investment service company, the competition between industry giant Facebook against budding Tencent and the innovative growth of China Starbucks – these are just some prominent business case studies in today’s dynamic and increasingly disruptive business environment.
Eric Ling Kai Yue, Kelvin Wong Chun Weng, Sandra Ooi Ping Nyee and Shia Siaw Hui from UCSI University’s Faculty of Business and Information Science (FOBIS) analysed and presented these very same cases at the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition and made it to the top eight teams, beating prestigious universities such as Tsinghua University.
This leading global business case competition, organised by the Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) of The University of Hong Kong, and sponsored by founding member, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), is a platform for young students to apply their practical business knowledge and skills to real-life business scenarios.
Boasting a multidisciplinary line-up of diverse backgrounds such as logistics management, financial economics and actuarial science, UCSI’s team represented Malaysia after edging out 24 universities to win the national championship.
The competition allows business students to hone their business strategy-making and presentation skills. Each team is required to analyse a particular business challenge, provide pioneering ideas/solutions for that challenge and present to a distinguished panel of judges made up of senior business leaders – all done with no access to the web.
“This would also be useful in building global business insights among students while sharpening their business acumen and analytical skills which are critical when entering the business world,” said HSBC Bank Malaysia chief executive officer Mukhtar Hussain.
Case studies are a staple resource in business courses and used by academics to show students why some businesses fail and why some succeed.
Classic ones include why Apple changed its name and how Ryanair beat two established giants.
Competing with elite teams to solve business challenges in the most innovative and cost-efficient way, helps business students improve their business acumen and learn vital skills such as communication, problem solving, prioritisation, creativity and public speaking techniques, which would prove valuable in their line of work.
In addition, competitors also obtain a myriad of benefits by networking with other international business students, travel and see other cultures, gaining valuable experience in various business topics, enhancing their prospects for jobs/internships, win attractive prizes, and making an immediate impact because many of the competition cases are real-world business challenges.
As part of its philosophy in effecting positive change through transformative education, FOBIS strives to ensure that its programmes have been specifically crafted to cultivate an authentic learning environment for its students – one that fuses innovative teaching and learning practices with exposure to industry via competitions and projects as well as strategic partnerships and research.
■ To find out more about
UCSI University’s Faculty of Business and Information Science, call 03-9101 8882 or e-mail www. ucsiuniversity.edu.my/onlineenquiry.
The KL campus is open daily, including on weekends and public holidays, for extended counselling sessions.