On the 11th October 2018, the inaugural SGX-NUS Case Competition Finals Presentation was held at NUS Business School. It witnessed five finalist teams pitch their case about sustainable investing to a distinguished panel of judges. It was Team Sober who finally emerged as the winner of the case competition, with Team SYNT and Team GreenVenture taking the 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up places respectively.
Team Sober receiving the Grand Champion prize of $2,000
For the finalists, the two-month journey in this case competition had come to a resounding end.
From the preliminary round, which garnered over 200 participants, they quickly got to work to produce an executive summary and slide deck of their strategy. The quality of work received from all the groups was extremely commendable, and the judges faced a hard time narrowing down to the top 15 semi-finalists. Then, for the semi-finals, teams had only one week to create a short publicity video about sustainable investing.
And finally, after a grueling round of selection, five finalist teams were chosen to present their case. Set in the HSSML Auditorium, the finalists gave their most compelling pitches to the distinguished panel of judges which comprised Mr. Tan Boon Jin (CEO of SGX RegCo), Mr Ang Hao Yao (Management Committee Member of SIAS), Professor Lawrence Loh (Director of CGIO), and Dr Qi Mei (Senior Lecturer at NUS Business School).
Dr Helen Chai presenting tokens of appreciation to distinguished guests
NUS Bizad Club’s Business Career Development Committee (BizCare) is honoured to have partnered with Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) to organize this case competition which was aimed at raising awareness about sustainable investing.
This is the first ever case competition BizCare has undertaken since its creation in 2016. Despite this, the event was a success, achieving BizCare’s aim to provide opportunities for Business students to learn, network and achieve their career goals.
Germaine Tyo, who was awarded the Best Speaker Award, described her experience:
“A great learning journey for my team and myself. From analysing the case and coming up with creative solutions, we learnt so much more about sustainable investments. Most importantly, it provided me a platform to gain exposure to ESG indices. I learnt how I can make a social impact with my investments, without compromising my financial returns.”
Great team spirit and camaraderie are equally important in achieving success. Germaine’s team had an obvious rapport with one another as she shared:
“My greatest takeaway is getting so much closer to my team mates (Henry, Chin Keong and Joey). This has been a long journey for us, from preparing our pitch deck, to making the video and finally, our presentation. Knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses helped us allocate various tasks accordingly. On top of all our exams and assignments, it was a challenging task for us to juggle our workload. Perseverance and team work are keys in helping us push each other to work towards our goal.”
1st Runner-Up: Team SYNT
A member of the 1st runner-up Team SYNT, Yeo Ming Han Nicholas, also shared:
“SGX-NUS Case competition, being my very first competition, was a real eye-opener. The intensity of the competition wasn’t too heavy but it was challenging. Through this case competition, I have gained valuable insight into issues and industries that I would otherwise not have known. Furthermore, the change in the pace and style of ‘learning’ through the case competition was greatly welcomed by myself. I felt that it reflected real world projects accurately and it made me think deeper and broader on the issue at hand.”
When asked about his advice on case competitions, he shared:
“I would say join as many as you can! It really does provide a whole new dimension to your learning experience in NUS. My advice to you would be to keep an open mind throughout the entire process, as there are always new perspectives and skills to pick up along the way.”
The BizCare committee, who worked tirelessly in the weeks leading up to the competition, had an eye-opening experience themselves. Said Austin Khong, Director of Bizcare:
“Just like the participants, the journey of breaking down the organising process is equally challenging and enriching. But it is through such opportunities where we get to expand our horizons and solve real life business problems. Moreover, such an event gave BizCare the opportunity to provide a platform for our students to explore and discover.”
Glennis Ang, Head of Events (Development), adds:
“It was our first time planning a case competition thus we do not really know what to expect. But we are grateful for the support from CSO who have been guiding us and helping us whenever. We were also able to witness the finalists perform which was an eye-opener, and also had to thoroughly plan roles allocation, event timeline internally and externally to ensure everything goes well without hiccups.”
The exposure when dealing with external professional bodies such as SGX is definitely something unique and invaluable. “It provided us with greater insight into the retail investment landscape and especially with SGX RegCo in the critical roles that it plays in this ecosystem of sustainability investment. This is something that we don’t get from the textbook.” Austin shared.
And with that, the SGX-NUS Case Competition 2018 has come to a successful end. For the participants and organizing committee, it was an invaluable experience that was surely a highlight in their journey in NUS Business School.
Once again, congratulations to Team Sober for clinching first place, and a job well done to the rest of the participants for all their hard work!