CityU students shine at HSBC/HKU Hong Kong Business Case Competition 2020
A team of four undergraduate students Janice Poon, Charlotte Fung, Reese Wang and Gerry Christopher represented CityU to take part in the HSBC/HKU Hong Kong Business Case Competition 2020 in March. After a recorded presentation and a live video Q&A session, the team was awarded the second runner-up in the Hong Kong Competition.
HSBC/HKU Business Case Competition is an annual competition organised by the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Asia Case Research Center of the University of Hong Kong. In response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the competition went online this year. Students were given six hours to prepare a case about how Walmart China should respond to the intense competition in the retail industry, particularly from Alibaba’s “new retail”. The team recorded a 20-minute video presentation on 8 March and meet the judges in a 15-minute online Q&A session on 16 March.
Before the competition, the team met every weekend and went through trainings conducted by main coach Dr Zachary Leung from the Department of Management Sciences. They also learnt from the sharing by Dr Huazhong Zhao from the Department of Marketing and Dr Chak-fu Lam from the Department of Management.
Dr Zachary Leung commended that the students are smart and creative, and also motivated and hard-working, he said, “They showed great improvement from the first training session to the presentation during the competition, in terms of their presentation skills, answering questions, and structuring their ideas.”
Team member Charlotte thanked Dr Leung and her teammates for being cooperative and dedicated. She said, “I believe the competition was a perfect opportunity to develop business acumen by enhancing our analytical capabilities and improving our logical thinking. During the preparation stage, we were also encouraged to do more extensive readings and this habit has enriched my knowledge in a wide range of industries.”
Another team member Gerry said, “Throughout the training, I can see improvement in my presentation structure. This competition showed me how to break down a business problem and present it in the simplest, most rational way possible. While I have done numerous presentations before, one thing that certainly lacked was conciseness, and this competition taught me exactly that. As I am also coincidentally working in HSBC, this has tremendously helped me in my presentations to my colleagues and work stakeholders, whether it is a case study or in-depth analysis or a performance review.”
Janice shared that she valued the opportunity of developing case-solving skills, recognising weaknesses, and learning to work with different people. “During training, we were exposed to a lot of cases, and many of them required extensive research of industry knowledge, new retail trends and technology. From analysing cases, identifying important details, brainstorming tactics, to telling a high level story, the skill sets we learnt are not only applicable to coursework, but also useful at work. It usually takes a lot of determination for me to be devoted, and this was definitely the one time which I have tried my best,” she added.
Reese said the competition helped them improved ability to brush out key insights from massive information, and to utilise them to develop a clear yet concise presentation under immense time pressure. She also expressed thanks to the three trainers. “I also want to thank my teammates for always being collaborative. The positive atmosphere within the team was incredibly influential, as it empowered each of us, brought about a fruitful journey and eventually a remarkable finale,” she added.