The Sunway University team emerged 3rd runner-up at the regional challenge of the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition 2020 – Online Edition. Silas Roberts led the team of four with group members Nikolas Adiprasetya, Bernice Chia Shi Le and Darryl Lim Boon Toong. “My team members each had different leadership qualities and upheld the attitude where the team comes first above individualism. Pooling our individual strengths and working together as a group was the key to our success. Many judges saw it and complimented us on the overall coherence of our team,” Silas said.

The team took home the champion title and RM15,000 cash prize for the nationals win which brought them to the regionals. In regionals, they were drawn in the same grouping with the University of Hong Kong (HKU), who were the defending champions.

“We wanted to make Sunway and Malaysia proud by being the first Malaysian team at the finals. We were sad that we did not manage to get the number one spot, but in retrospect, we are more than happy with our accomplishment.” Silas shared that the team was set out to prove they could compete with the best.

Nikolas Adiprasetya waited to join the competition since the beginning of his second year at Sunway University. “Fortunate enough to be selected and drafted, I was placed in a team with strangers. Little did I know then it was the beginning of what would be one of the best experiences in my life. Amid studies and internship, we put in close to 40 hours a week for preparation alone. Competing alongside another Sunway Team was a huge morale boost, we bounced ideas off one another as well as learn from each other,” Nikolas said.

Bernice was initially reluctant but Mr David and her teammates gave her the boost she needed to participate in her first business competition. “The competition levelled up my presentation skills. There are talented people everywhere and this has pushed me to be better. Now that I have tasted a bit of victory, I look forward to more,” Bernice shared.

“We got to meet and network with competitors from other local and private universities. Having benchmarked our team against past year winners, our main objective was to be equal or better than they were. We restructured our team’s approach towards the competition after every round, taking into consideration the judges’ feedback,” Darryl said. The team is especially grateful to their mentor David Chong Boon Hean, and Sunway University Business School (SUBS) lecturers who sacrificed many of their weekends to provide valuable feedback for the team’s practice presentations.

“Our journey has just started. We did it as a team, and we hope to inspire, mould and develop better business graduates,” said David, Senior Teaching Fellow at the Department of Management, SUBS of his students’ achievement.

The HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition 2020 was designed for Malaysian undergraduates to enhance and apply their business knowledge and skills to real-life business scenarios. Using business cases as a learning tool develops their analytical thinking, creativity, innovation and enhances their communication skills, which are essential elements to increase their employability.

This article appeared in Blaze (Issue 53).