MANILA, Philippines - In rapidly changing business environments, together with various global economies facing serious challenges both internally as well externally, the International Institute for Business Development initiated the HKBU-IIBD business case competition in 2006.
In its first two years, their focus was on emerging and innovative business enterprises. Since 2008, the cases evolved from information technology, finance, ethical governance, value creation, sustainability and this year’s theme on Sustaining Social Enterprises.
The mission of this competition has always been to strengthen student and faculty networks through social as well as professional interaction. The centerpiece theme revolves around the strategic challenges and managerial dilemmas faced by global business leaders.
Working under pressure, the five finalists this year came well prepared. Moreover, the five teams were subjected to the same pressure and simulated business condition through a real life challenge in sustaining Green Ladies, a Hong Kong-based social enterprise selling used clothes!
Facing the company’s CEO, they were tasked to formulate workable and action oriented recommendations for the next five years. Rounding off this year’s grueling competition, were the five judges’ questions surrounding the integrity of each group’s formulated solutions.
This major win coming in three years in a row, embodies the global quality of the Ateneo education as well as their students today. Eight months of preparation and training was undertaken carried by the team going into the contest. Discipline and focus sustained them throughout the entire day beginning their case preparation early in the morning and finishing off their presentation by the end of the afternoon. Not only getting admiration and respect from the panel of judges, the Ateneo team was greatly admired by the coaches and mentors from Canada and the United Kingdom. They built a school reputation around evidence based recommendations as well as critically thought out innovations capped by a realistic five year financial projection.