2 March 2009
The Kogod Gartenhaus Financial Case Competition 2009 was held in Washington D.C. on 7 February 2009. It was the first time the Faculty of Business Administration at CUHK sent students to this largest case competition hosted by the Kogod School of Business, American University. There were 198 undergraduate participants, forming 48 teams, including a team of four GBS Year-2 students (Arnold Chan, Kelvin Chan, Helen Mak and Junes Shek).
The CUHK team worked on a case about a South African Upholstery in Johannesburg struggling to continue its business with insufficient capital, a problem with receivables and other management challenges. They were asked to formulate strategies for the upholstery to revive its business and to leverage its capabilities to develop in the long term, given information about its financial condition, production process, product costs and so on. The CUHK team, by making innovative suggestions in terms of expanding its distribution and improving its financing to bring the company to a new level of prosperity, defeated the other 47 teams, winning first place.
From left: Helen Mak, Junes Shek, Professor Richard M. Durand (Dean of Kogod School of Business), Kelvin Chan and Arnold Chan
One of the team members, Helen Mak, said, “Our commitment to the competition and team dynamics allowed us to stand out among our competitors. It was an incredible experience for all of us and we learnt a lot from the exchange of ideas, observing our competitors, and the valuable feedback we obtained from a pool of over 60 prestigious judges. The networking events of the American University throughout the competition brought us new insights about western business culture.”
Congratulations!