28 — Ahead of the Curve
Impact — 29
WINNING
SOLUTIONS
TO BUSINESS
PROBLEMS
Business case club Cognitare has been doing
the university proud by doing well in major inter-
national business case competitions.
In February 2017, the team emerged as
runner-up in the Heavener International Case
Competition 2017 (HICC) organised by the Uni-
versity of Florida.
The Singapore Management University
(SMU) team comprising Ian Chua, Ho Bang
Ying, Raghvendra Narang and Tan Jing Han,
competed against 19 teams from top univer-
sities including the University of California,
Berkeley, Maastricht University, and the Univer-
sity of New South Wales.
The teams were tasked to develop strategies
for rail-freight solutions provider CSX Transpor-
tation and also analysed human resource issues
faced by aerospace and defence juggernaut
Northrop Grumman.
Team Cognitare also came in second at the
Audi Global Business Case Competition 2016
(GBCC) held in Japan’s Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University in October 2016 where they had to
develop solutions to tackle the talent shortage that
foreign companies operating in Japan were facing.
One member of the team, Ho Bang Ying,
was named the competition’s Best Speaker for
his presentation and performance during the
Question and Answer session.
The other three members of the team were
Bryan Lum, Jazelle Tan, and Sally Tan.
And just weeks before the competition in Japan,
a different group of four students came in fourth
place at the Thammasat Undergraduate Business
Challenge, one of the most established and presti-
gious business case competition in the world.
Team Cognitare, consisting of Josephine
Soh, Lim Keng Siang, Lim Shi Ying and Ragh-
vendra Narang, were up against 19 other teams
from universities such as the University of Penn-
sylvania and University of California, Berkeley.
During the 30-hour lockdown period, Team
Cognitare developed recommendations for PTT
Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest integrated
petrochemical and refinery company, in view of
the crash in oil prices and the increasing popu-
larity of electric vehicles.
Apart from taking part in international
competitions, Cognitare collaborated with Bain
& Company to organise the Bain & Co Case
Challenge in August 2016 for 500 students
from local universities. Members of Cognitare
also held workshops to share their experience
taking part in international competitions.
Cognitare is the business case club of
SMU. Each year, the club evaluates hundreds
of candidates, including the top students from
each of the university’s six schools, through a
rigorous selection process involving multiple
rounds of interviews. Candidates are screened
on the basis of their analytical ability, logical
reasoning, capacity for teamwork, and commu-
nication skills. The best-performing candidates
are then invited to join the club.
SINGAPORE
MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY
EMERGES AS ASIA
PACIFIC CHAMPS
IN FINANCIAL
ANALYSIS
COMPETITION
Singapore Management University’s (SMU)
Team Greystone Capital took home the grand
prize at the Asia Pacific regional champion-
ship of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
Institute Research Challenge that was held on
March 15, 2017 in Bangkok.
The team emerged victorious over 250
universities across the region and consisted of
undergraduates Haruki Chua, Ian Chua, John
Lim, Vedant Daga and Zhong Yingyi.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is
an annual global competition that provides
university students with hands-on mentoring
and intensive training in financial analysis.
Each team must research and analyse a given
publicly-traded company to write a research
report on the company with a buy, sell, or hold
recommendation. Thereafter, they are asked to
present and defend their analysis to a panel of
industry professionals.
THE SMU TEAM COMPRISING
OF HO BANG YING, TAN
JING HAN, IAN CHUA AND
RAGHVENDRA NARANG AT THE
HEAVENER INTERNATIONAL
CASE COMPETITION 2017.
For the competition, Team Greystone
Capital initiated a sell call on private cord blood
bank Cordlife with a target price of $0.70. The
target price, representing a downside of 34 per
cent, was derived from the team’s “S.E.L.L”
thesis; namely, a shaky core business, excessive
optimism in primary markets’ growth story, lack-
lustre investments, and low intrinsic value.
The SMU team secured the right to
represent Singapore following their success at
the national round a few weeks before where
they beat teams from six local institutions.
MARKETING
UNDERGRADUATES
WIN L’ORÉAL
BUSINESS
COMPETITION
Three final-year undergraduates majoring in
Marketing took first place in the L’Oréal Brand-
storm Campus National Final 2016.
Team Epicphany – made up of Jessica Lim,
Sharon Lim and Tan Li Tong – beat the teams
from the National University of Singapore (NUS)
and Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
in the national competition that was held in
March 2016. In addition, Li Tong also won the
MediaCorp Star Award for Best Presenter for her
outstanding performance and stage presence.
Brandstorm is a business competition by
L’Oréal for students to work on one of L’Oréal’s
international brands and distribution channels.
The students are coached by top L’Oréal execu-
tives. Since 1992, more than 80,000 students
worldwide have taken part in the competition.
The case study brand this year was La
Roche-Posay – a range of dermatological skin
care products. Teams had to come up with a
strategic marketing plan involving an integrated
marketing communications campaign that
incorporated active use of social media.
Following in-depth research on the purchas-
ing and usage behaviours of the target customer
segments, the trio developed a four-stage ‘#Be
Sensitive’ campaign that shows how customers
‘get in touch with their sensitive side’.
IMPACT/ SCHOOL
