Students from National University of Singapore Business School win the prestigious 2018 BOC-NUS Case Competition’s international segment

Nanyang Technological University students win the national segment

Bank of China (BOC) Singapore Branch and National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School today announced the winners of the BOC–NUS Case Competition for national and international segments.

In the finals, Team Swift Associates from NUS Business School defeated four other teams to emerge the winner of the international segment. Team Accendo Consulting from Nanyang Technological University beat three other teams to clinch the top prize for the national segment. The winning team of the national segment took home $2,500.  Prizes were also awarded to the best speakers from each segment. Judges were not privy to the teams’ universities during the assessment. A full list of the winners can be found in Annex A.

This year, the national segment was open to all six autonomous universities in Singapore for the first time and saw a registration of over 450 students. For the international segment, 80 participants from 20 schools in 12 countries and regions took part, including Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Thammasat University and University of Southern California.

At the recent FutureChina Global Forum and Singapore Regional Business Forum 2018, BOC Singapore Branch and NUS Business School signed an agreement to advance Fintech innovations, and the signing ceremony was witnessed by Singapore Minister for Education, Mr Ong Ye Kung. BOC Singapore Branch is the sponsor of this year’s competition.

“Given the rise of fintech, we hope to challenge young minds to create viable solutions for traditional banking services. The quality of the presentations hold a lot of promises, reflecting the innovativeness and creativity of our youth,” said Mr Wang Fang, Deputy General Manager & Deputy Country Head of BOC Singapore Branch.

Meeting the needs of bank service with fintech

This year’s finals centred on the theme of fintech and e-payments in the context of a Smart Nation. Besides providing strategies for adopting future payment methods, students had 24 hours to recommend plans to enhance BOC’s branding and customer acquisition vis-à-vis future market trends for banking services.

Ahead of preparing for the business challenge, this year’s participating teams had the opportunity to visit BOC Singapore Branch to better understand the organisation’s history, business developments and strategic goals.

This competition demonstrates the latest effort of BOC in digital innovation and product development that will enhance customer experience and to build an “Internet Thinking” culture which involves customer centricity, internet technology and a digital transformation mindset.”

The panel of judges for both national and international segments consisted of NUS Business School academics and industry practitioners, including:

1. Professor Andrew Delios, Head, Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School
2. Mr David Wang, Founder and Managing Partner, 33 Capital
3. Mr Irza Fauzan Suprapto, CEO, Asia IoT Business Platform
4. Associate Professor Nitin Pangarkar, Academic Director, NUS MBA and NUS – HEC Paris MBA programmes, NUS Business School
5. Mr Richard Hayler, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Prominent guests who attended the award presentation ceremony included Mr Foong Sew Bun, Deputy Chief Executive, Government Technology Agency; Mr Roy Teo, Executive Director, Financial Centre Development Department, and FinTech and Innovation Group, Monetary Authority of Singapore; and Mr Cao Shihai, Counsellor (Education), Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

The BOC-NUS Case Competition

Launched in 2009, the NUS Case Competition is the longest-running student-led undergraduate business case competition in Singapore that includes national and international segments.

Semi-finalists of the national segment had the opportunity to witness peers of the international segment present their warm-up case to judges. This platform allows local students to be exposed to diverse presentation styles and cultural perspectives from around the globe when dealing with business challenges.

This year’s edition of the case competition also features a hackathon segment where the outcomes of the earlier case competition will be used to develop a separate case. Undergraduates from Singapore will go through a 48-hour hackathon to help BOC gather ideas for application architecture and design flow.

“On behalf of the organising committee, I would like to thank the Bank of China for their generous support.  Besides sharpening our teamwork, analytical skills and ability to delivery outcomes under pressure, we have also built strong friendships with peers from all over the world. We hope the participants enjoyed this year’s event as much as we enjoyed putting it together for them,” said Mr Ryan Cheng, Co-chair, BOC-NUS Case Competition Committee.

Professor Bernard Yeung, Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor at NUS Business School, said, “We are most grateful to Bank of China for sponsoring this event. The bank’s support has helped us to grow and nurture the next generation of business leaders. I am also thankful to the student leaders who have taken the time to organise this event. I firmly believe that the competition will provide great stimulation to all the student participants and foster the development of strong friendships.”

For more information on the BOC-NUS Case Competition, please visit: facebook.com/NUSCaseCompetition.

Annex A

National segment

Best speaker:

• Mr Chow Kai Jin, Team Accendo Consulting, Nanyang Technological University

International Segment

Best speakers:

• Ms Caitlyn Huang, Team YRN Consulting, University of Southern California
• Mr Jamie Williams, Team Apex Consulting, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology