CityU students triumph in HSBC/HKU Hong Kong Business Case Competition 2019

A team of four undergraduate students, Martyna Chmielewska, Holly Kong, Belle Chan and Ella Xu represented CityU to take part in the HSBC/HKU Hong Kong Business Case Competition 2019 on 30 May. After two rounds of competition, the group beat teams from seven local universities and won the Championship.

“I am very proud as I saw how they have developed their case solving and teamwork skills this past semester. I also feel a great sense of accomplishment that they were able to win the Hong Kong competition by defeating very good teams from other universities,” said the team's coach and trainer Dr Zachary Leung, Assistant Professor of the Department of Management Sciences.

Member Holly said it had been an excellent learning experience equipping participants with various skill sets useful in future career, including critical thinking skills that involve acute observation, analysis, reasoning and communication, as well as perspective-taking. She said, “The cases we tackled, both in the competition and during training sessions were different and required the application of these skill sets in a distinctive context. In light of this, I have broadened my business knowledge across industries and polished my hard and soft skills.”

“Students from different teams, universities or even countries bond and learn from each other. It was a once in a lifetime experience!” said Belle.

Another member Ella said, “It showed me cases related to different industries and gave me a deeper insight to the business. Working under pressure was really challenging but also exciting.”

Martyna said the competition started when the team kicked off training with the help of the amazing professors at CityU. It was great to be advised by Dr Zachary Leung and learn from the experience he has had with other teams previously representing CityU. “I would recommend students of various disciplines to take up case analysis practice as it has been one of the most enriching experiences for me and I think it will help anyone in future career life. Not only have we learned how to deal with time pressure but also how to stay creative and open-minded when facing business problems we have never encountered before,” She added.

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. It aims to enhance students’ business skills and global perspectives, and nurture them to be future business leaders. As the Hong Kong winner, CityU team was invited to join the Asia Pacific competition on 3-6 June to compete with another 23 teams from other renowned universities in the Asia Pacific region.

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