During April 29th to May 4th, the 2012 APEX Biz-IT Global Case Challenge Competition, hosted by Singapore Management University, was held in Landmark Village hotel, Singapore. The Acceleration Consulting Team consisting of students Wenjia Lin (2009 Computer Science), Yiyang Wang (2010 Accounting) and Xian Yang (2010 Business Administration) from Business School participated the competition. Advised by Professor Qiang Zeng, the representative team competed against with 19 teams from top universities all around the world, including America, Canada, Denmark, Singapore, Qatar and Hong Kong.
The STU team not only learned a lot but also experienced different culture from the intense competition, campus tour, as well as social activities during their stay.
[Selection and preparation]
The 2012 APEX Biz-IT Global Case Challenge Competition had the rules that each university choose a representative team, consisting of three people. Since this competition focused on the ability of integrating business and IT, STU Business School started the selection 2 months before the competition. The selection applied the similar rule as the formal competition. Each candidate had 24 hours for preparation and presented their analysis and solutions to Associate Professor King Wu, the director of Shantou University Business School Case Center and other judges.
The finalists received business case competition training from Associate Professor King Wu, on Human Resource Management, Financial Analysis and case analysis methods. The training did help the finalists improve the ability of case analysis. Associate Professor King Wu and the team coach, Professor Qiang Zeng, tailored mock case competitions to improve the strength of representative team. This did improve the case analysis ability of the representative team and made them ready for the formal competition.
[Case analysis competition]
The representative team devoted into the preparation as soon as arrived Singapore. To help the team get ready quickly, Professor Zeng conducted a mock case competition analysis, using the Landmark Village hotel as the topic. After interviewing the hotel manager, the representative team had a deep understanding about the operation, finance and the information system of the hotel. The mock case analysis did contribute a lot for the wonderful performance of the STU team in the formal competition.
The topic of this APEX competition is Social Media Analytics, using the social media analysis tools to help a 5 star hotel conduct customer sentiment analysis, brand management and crisis management. The social media analysis was a new field and did challenge the representative team who lacked related experience.
The formal competition consisted of three rounds. In the first round, all teams were divided into four divisions and the STU team was in the 1st division with East China Normal University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Universitas Gadjah and MadaBina Nusantara University. After 24 hours preparation and presentation, the STU team successfully won the 2nd place and became one of the only two teams left from mainland China entering the second round.
In the second round, 12 team were divided into two groups. And the top two of each group would enter the final. As the interval with the first round was only two hours, and in the second round of case analysis presentation, the judges could interrupt the presentation to raise problems randomly, it increased the difficulty of the competition to some extent. Besides, it put forward higher requirements for language and speech skills as well. Moreover, in addition that my school was the first time to participate in this kind of competition, the experience was slightly less. Finally, after two-hour fierce competition, with the result of the third place in the group, our school unfortunately failed to enter the final. In the final, Simon Fraser University, HEC Montreal University, Kwantlen Polytechnic University from Canada and Bina Nusantara University from Indonesia after fierce competition competed in a tight race. The championship was won by Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
[Social Activities]
The STU participants shared with other teams about the motto of STU Business School, “enterprising achievement and global mindset”, and the education principle of creating an internationally recognized business education platform during the social events. In the meanwhile, the participants made friends from all over the world. During the competition, the team members also communicated with Professor Steven Miller, Dean of School of Information Systems in Singapore Management University, and Mr. Mario Jobbe, Co-founder/COO of Circos, the target company of competition case.
[Participants sentiments]
From the selection to the interview, to challenging but fruitful training, and then the final competition, each player experienced and learned a lot. And looking back to such an experience, the team members are all feeling exceptionally proud to have such an experience.
In this competition, even though our school moved into the final, this along the way, pain and gain of our team players are special. In just a few days, our teachers and students established a profound friendship with other team representatives. In the meantime, we also enrich the learning experience, broaden the international perspective, improve the ability to practice and deepen mastery of professional knowledge to not only enhance the English communication skills, but also to strengthen the exchange of the school with the international high level universities. This will also be a valuable experience of the constant progress in the international competition of the Shantou University Business School.
