RMIT Vietnam takes the First Runner-up in the 2018 HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition

Tiếng Việt

RMIT Vietnam takes the First Runner-up in the 2018 HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition

RMIT Vietnam students were awarded the first runner-up in the final round of the 2018 HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition in Hong Kong from 5-8 June 2018, taking home $5000.

In its 11th year in 2018, the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition brought together 24 elite university teams from Asia Pacific and beyond to compete the championship in Hong Kong. Top teams were titleholders from local competition in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand as well as other university teams from Canada, France, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macao, Singapore, South Korea, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the USA.

Twenty-four elite university teams from Asia Pacific joins the HSBCHKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition 2018

During the four rounds of intense competition during four days, the students were given a real business case in each round including healthcare, retail and aviation industry. The team had three hours to prepare and analyse the case and to propose a strategic plan to solve the problems, followed by a 20-minute presentation to a panel of judges.

The Vietnam Business Case Competition champion members including students Nguyen Hoang Yen Khanh, Luu Thai Quang Khai, Tran Vo Thanh Tu and Rahul Ravindranath demonstrated their understanding of business strategies by arriving at creative management solutions, as well as fluent presentation skills and quick-wittedness when responding to questions from the panel judges. The champion was the Yonsei University, South Korea while the Second Runner-up was McGill University and the Third Runner-up was the University of Alberta, both coming from Canada.

Four RMIT Vietnam students has won the first runner-up of the 2018 HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition in Hong Kong.

Associate Professor Mathews Nkhoma, Head of RMIT Vietnam’s School of Business & Management, congratulated the team and noted the importance of industry contests such as the HSBC Business Plan Competition.

“RMIT Vietnam strives to create transformative experiences for our students. And through competitions like this, students learn real-world skills that prepare them for life and work,” Associate Professor Nkhoma said.

“I’m very happy for the team and proud that they represented Vietnam and the region in the finals.”

The team analysed the business case and proposed a strategic plan to solve the problems.

Mr. Pham Hong Hai – CEO and Chairman of the Corporate Sustainability Committee of HSBC Vietnam, which organised the local competition in Vietnam, said: “I feel very fortunate to work with the four smart and passionate students during the local competition and before the regional rounds. I was inspired by their incredible commitment and transformation throughout the training and competition.”

“This competition provides invaluable opportunities for university students to learn to apply theoretical business knowledge into real business cases and to collaborate with each other. The skill to collaborate is very critical to succeed in business world and I’m very glad our students are able to do it well. I believe all participating students had a chance to foster their cross-cultural knowledge and gain business exposure through this international event,” said Pham Hong Hai.

The team presented at the final round of the competition.

RMIT Vietnam’s School of Business & Management student Luu Thai Quang Khai said that one of the biggest challenges for his team was to manage to come up with a well-developed strategy within a very limited time.

“We then had to deliver that strategy appropriately and comprehensively to the judges,” said Khai.

“Our team was always very well-aware of how much harder we had to try to be able to compete at the international level. Therefore we always put all we have into the competition, work hard, and collaborate well with each other.”

Since 2015, RMIT Vietnam has represented Vietnam competing in Asia Pacific competition and this year they won the First Runner-up title for the very first time. This achievement demonstrates great progress of Vietnamese students in general and RMIT students in particular. Additionally, this attributes to tremendous efforts of experts in various industries coming from HSBC Vietnam and its corporate clients in coaching the team.

The HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition is the world’s largest business case competition for undergraduate students, aiming to enhance business literacy of the students by challenging them to come up with creative and feasible solutions to solve real-life business cases. It is sponsored by founding member The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporate Limited (HSBC) and organised by the Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) of the University of Hong Kong.