Guanghua School of Management has taken out the top prize in the inaugural Asia-Pacific Challenge hosted by the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of New South Wales.
The MBA case competition took place in December with 12 teams from different MBA schools vying for the top prize.
Emerging as finalists behind Ammar Jilani, Clelia Schwing and Kevin Andrew Nanakdewa, who were the team for Guanghua School of Management were the teams from Nanyang Business School and Macquarie Graduate School of Management.
Making up Nanyang Business School’s squad was Christoph Buehler, Martin Ettling and Narendra Pingal, while Macquarie Graduate School of Management’s team consisted of Jieni Xu, John Addicott and Seho Top.
The Asia-Pacific Challenge was a relatively new concept in 2016, with the theme centred around ‘engagement in Asia’.
According to UNSW Business School, the challenge and its theme was in acknowledgment of the fast growing rate of Asia-Pacific as an economic region.
The MBA world is aware that this growth brings prosperity but also complex business challenges. The aim of the Asia-Pacific Challenge was for the 12 teams to simulate a consultancy firm to present solutions to a real business problem faced by an organisation seeking to start or grow business in Asia.
The teams received actual case problems on the day of competition and were given a short amount of time to prepare a presentation and proposal that would be delivered to a panel of judges, which would then be followed by a Q&A session.
The team from Guanghua School of Management, as the winners of the challenge, received their prize of $5,000 AUD.
Aside from the competition of it all, the challenge presented an opportunity for MBA students to apply their skills with vision and leadership, as well as meet MBA colleagues, network with future business leaders and discover Sydney during summer.
MBA schools will no doubt be preparing for next year’s challenge, as registrations for the 2017 competition are already open.
The Asia-Pacific Challenge was sponsored by MasterCard, who provided a real business case for teams to respond to during the final round.
The panel of judges consisted of a mix of consultants from top-tier strategy houses, AGSM fellows, and MasterCard executives.
