School News

The inaugural HKU Business Case Challenge (HBCC) 2020, organised by HKU Business School, was successfully completed on November 7, 2020.

Aiming to provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to hone their case cracking, analytical and presentation skills for participating in future case competitions, HBCC was launched in September 2020. 28 teams of students from HKU Business School worked on the Ocean Park case and submitted video presentations in the Preliminary Round. Six best teams advanced to the Final Round and presented their solutions to the judging panel. Champion, 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up were identified. The Champion team will represent HKU Business School to compete with elite students from top universities around the globe in one of the international case competitions.

Dr. Winnie LEUNG, Assistant Dean (Undergraduate) of HKU Business School commented that both the School and the participating students had achieved their goals through this challenge. “The competition is very competitive this year. Throughout the process, students have practised a lot on their problem-solving skills, communication skills and leadership skills. The School has also achieved our goal for providing a platform to develop students’ soft skills as well as identifying candidates for overseas case competitions.” Dr. Leung said.

Mr. Jeroen VAN DEN BERG, Assistant Director of Asia Case Research Centre of HKU Business School said, “I am truly surprised by the quality of the presentations. All teams did very well.” Another judge, Mr. Jimmy WOO, Adjunct Associate Professor of HKU Business School, also mentioned that, “The case question was not an easy situation to resolve. I am impressed by all teams’ performance.”

Ms. Christina WONG, Accenture Managing Director for Strategy & Consulting in Greater China, who was also one of the judges, gave pieces of advice to the teams, “In today’s world, there is a new way of doing innovation and co-creation. Don’t focus too much on what you think. Instead, you should gather all the opinions from different people and try to come up with a solution that can incorporate different perspectives. This will help innovations, and making ideas to come true!”

Dr. Winnie LEUNG, Assistant Dean (Undergraduate) of HKU Business School (first from left), presents the award to the Champion team.

Team Members
Mr. KUA Mang Ting Daniel, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 1 (photo position: 1st from right)
Miss RYOU Soo Min, BBA, Year 2 (this student presented through Zoom as she was out of town on the presentation day)
Miss WIJAYA Swanny, BSc(QFin),Year 2 (photo position: 2nd from right)
Miss ZHANG Borui, BEcon&Fin, Year 2 (photo position: 2nd from left)

Students’ Sharing
“From HBCC, we have gained a lot of invaluable lessons, the biggest takeaway is the significance of teamwork. Despite having known each other for only one month, we learned to trust and be supportive to each other throughout the journey, which was reflected during the presentation and Q&A session and was valued by the judges. Besides that, we also got the opportunity to train our hard skills in case-cracking, such as constructing a sound business strategy and performing financial analysis. We still have a long way to go, and HBCC has made us excited for future case competitions!”

Mr. Jeroen VAN DEN BERG, Assistant Director of Asia Case Research Centre of HKU Business School (first from left), and Mr. Jimmy WOO, Adjunct Associate Professor of HKU Business School (first from right), present the award to the 1st Runner-up team.

Team Members
Mr. CHENG Ryan, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 (2nd from right)
Miss CHAN Ingrid Nga Yu, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2 (3rd from right)
Mr. CHAN Yin Tsung Lawrence, BBA(IBGM), Year 2 (3rd from left)
Miss LAM Hoi Ting Christy, BBA(IBGM), Year 2 (2nd from left)

Students’ Sharing
“This case was highly relevant to us: we grew up with Ocean Park and now as adults, we proposed solutions to save our childhood park. Throughout the preparation process, we enhanced our understanding and appreciation of our local history and culture. Although we participated in external case competitions before, we gained a lot from the HKU Business Case Challenge including all the new-found knowledge as well as advices given by the esteemed judges. We are confident that with all these valuable knowledge and advices, our performance in future case competitions will be more compelling and in-depth.”

Ms. Christina WONG, Accenture Managing Director for Strategy & Consulting in Greater China (first from right), presents the award to the 2nd Runner-up team.

Team Members
Miss FUNG Cheuk Lam, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 (2nd from left)
Miss LEE Chi Lam Esther, BEcon&Fin, Year 3 (3rd from left)
Miss LUI On Ni, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 4 (2nd from right)
Miss TANG Pui Lam, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 (1st from left)

Students’ Sharing
“HKU Business Case Challenge 2020 had been a fruitful journey to accelerate our learning curve, all the way from case cracking, identification of root causes, team cooperation to presentation and delivery. It was a perfect opportunity for our team to testify and apply the skill sets we acquired from the workshops organised by HKU International Case Society. It also strengthened our team bonding, especially when the case this time involved Ocean Park – a place of Collective Memories and the Legendary Risen Dead Miracle! We sincerely thank all distinguished judges for their detailed and astute advices!”

Learn more: https://www4.fbe.hku.hk/ug/enrichment/competitions/hbcc