RMIT students win top prize in national business plan competition for the fifth time in a row

Tiếng Việt

RMIT students win top prize in national business plan competition for the fifth time in a row

An RMIT Vietnam team of four undergraduate students are the winners of the first virtual HSBC Business Case Competition 2021 and will represent Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific round in late May.

The winning team, named The Extraordinary, includes RMIT School of Business and Management students Mai Hoang My Hao, Nguyen Truong Thinh, Do Nguyen Anh Thu, and Nguyen Hoang Hai.

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Team The Extraordinary at RMIT’s Saigon South won top prize in HSBC Business Case Competition 2021

The team beat out 20 outstanding students of five teams to receive VND50 million in cash by creating solutions for an international social enterprise to refine its business model toward a plastic-free lifestyle.

According to The Extraordinary, the solution not only helped the business to survive its initial stage of growth, but also laid the foundation for the social enterprise to amplify its contribution and impacts to the society, aligning its values with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 12: Sustainable Consumption and Production.

With the new online competition format, the team spent six hours working in a group to devise a strategic solution and map out an implementation plan, which they presented and defended in front of a panel of judges comprised of business leaders and professionals.

Bachelor of Business (Economics and Finance) student and team member Mai Hoang My Hao revealed how their response to challenges helped the team become the winner.

“Although the online format of the competition did pose a challenge, we were quite adaptable and comfortable thanks to our preparation and practice,” Hao said.

"We strongly believe that our resilience gave us a competitive advantage, as it enabled us to turn pressure into motivation during the competition.”

The Extraordinary got together to brainstorm ideas, crack business cases, make slides and practice presentations during many midnight sessions four months before the competition.

“By practicing, our teamwork has improved significantly, thus enabling us to smoothen and enhance our communication as well as better understand each other,” said Bachelor of International Business student Nguyen Hoang Hai.

“What racks our brains the most is how to reach a consensus within a defined amount of time."

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Team Gold at RMIT’s Hanoi City campus won third prize at the competition.

RMIT Hanoi’s Gold team, meanwhile, won the third prize and VND20 million. The second runner-up was a team from a local university.

This year, the participants have had to adapt to a tougher reality and new challenges that the whole world is experiencing, given the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition also has the added advantage that it will allow Vietnamese students to highlight their ability to think creatively and develop new ideas and solutions while developing their business mindset.

The international round of the HSBC/HKU Asia - Pacific Business Case Competition will gather teams from the top universities in Asia - Pacific and beyond. The winner will receive the prize of US$10,000.

HSBC Vietnam partnered with VietSeeds Foundation to organise the HSBC Business Case Competition in Vietnam, which is the local round of the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition. Since its start in Vietnam in 2016, the competition has used the business cases developed by the renowned Asia Case Research Center of the Faculty of Business and Economics, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), one of the region’s premier institutes.

Story: Thuy Le

Communication and design

24 May 2021