SINGAPORE--(Marketwired - Sep 11, 2014) -
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Participants in international competition hail from North America, Europe, South America and Asia
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Solutions proposed for Malaysia Airlines, SBS Transit, Inverted Edge
Students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School have emerged as champions in both the international and national categories of this year's United Overseas Bank-National University of Singapore (UOB-NUS) Case Competition after impressing an independent panel of experts in several gruelling rounds.
Organised entirely by NUS Business School's undergraduates, the annual event is in its sixth edition. This year's competition was held from 1-5 September 2014.
UOB-NUS National Case Competition
In the National competition, Team Uni Consulting, consisting of NUS Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students Shawn Ng Jing Jie, Lee Po Xian, Kristel Tey Hui Shi and Joshia Kwa Jing Le, finished ahead of some 600 undergraduates from Singapore's universities.
Participants were required to propose a business strategy for Inverted Edge, a Singapore fashion and design start-up firm in the preliminary round, and a strategy for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to boost revenues and cut costs in the semi-final and final.
Teams had 24 hours in the semi-final and final to formulate their recommendations before presenting their proposed solutions to a panel of judges that included representatives from Channel NewsAsia, UOB and L'Oreal.
Team Uni Consulting recommended a three-part strategy to mitigate the impact of the recent MAS disasters, cut costs and raise revenues. The proposals included replacing the airline's senior management to signal MAS's intention to address structural problems, thereby reassuring customers and controlling the damage to the brand. The team also proposed to cut costs by reducing the airline's headcount and unprofitable routes, while leasing excess aircraft and crew to other partner airlines. The strategy included focusing on the meetings, incentives, conferencing, and exhibitions (MICE) sector and business travel in Asia for greater revenue growth.
Said Kristel Tey, a third-year NUS BBA undergraduate: "This NUS-UOB Case challenge was a really unique and challenging one. We first had to solve a market entry case involving Inverted Edge going into China in the preliminaries, and in the semi-finals we had to devise a plan to revive MAS within 24 hours. It was a long, tough climb to the top with 150 teams vying for the title. Through all the sleepless nights from the preliminaries to the semi-finals, our team experienced consensus building but also many disagreements. That, however, pushed us to our limits and helped us see the value of teamwork, which was critical in helping us clinch the title. The best takeaway from this case was not the title or the prizes, but the amazing rapport and teamwork that we have built up."