Four business undergraduate students of The Chinese University of Hong Kong beat their opponents from top universities worldwide to win The International Business Challenge 2006 with their 'Blue Ocean Strategy'. The International Business Challenge is a large-scale business case competition for undergraduate students worldwide. Founded in 1995 by the Undergraduate Management Consulting Association, the event was initially open to universities in the US. In 1997, it was expanded to include top schools around the world.
This year's participants came from top universities including CUHK, Indiana University, the University of British Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Hong Kong and the University of Science and Technology. Participants were requested to develop a marketing strategy to help Netcast HD, a newly developed Internet-based entertainment network that delivers high-definition multi-media solutions, to promote itself and increase its market share.
The winning team consists of four members: Chan Yeung Yun Grace (Year 3 Integrated BBA - General Finance), Lui Chung Yan Jacky (Year 2, Global Business Studies), Yeung Wing Lam Winnie (Year 4, Integrated BBA - Marketing), and Hung Tik Yuen Raymond (Year 3, Quantitative Finance). Their proposal, the 'Blue Ocean Strategy', was essentially a strategic management concept which advised Netcast HD to develop innovative ideas for capturing untapped markets with huge potential, rather than wasting its resources on competition in highly contended markets.
Chan Yeung Yun Grace, a team members said, 'We faced a panel of more than 10 judges comprising experts from Dell, founders of Netcast HD and professors from the University of Texas at Austin. The case involved an industry and products (high-definition video technology, online HD video downloads and storage) that are not that popular in Hong Kong. However, we were able to provide in-depth analysis of the feasibility, profitability and substantiality of our plan as well as creative ideas supported by sound evidence. For instance, we suggested the company to form a strategic alliance with a surveillance company in our B2B business model. Judges were convinced by our ideas and were surprised by our ability to resolve a case that was unfamiliar to us. In the end, we outperformed our North American competitors.'
The winning students said the experience was unforgettable: 'It was definitely a new challenge for us. It had nothing in common with the presentations we had done in the past wherein the judges would patiently wait until we finished the presentation before criticizing our ideas. In this contest, they could interrupt the presentation at any time with questions. It reminded us of the television programme 'The Apprentice'. We were happy that our analysis of the industry, creative ideas and teamwork managed to see us through the challenge.'
'The 20 participating teams were divided into four divisions with five universities in each. We happened to be in the same division as the other Hong Kong universities. We were excited to win in our division but then we also felt a greater pressure to win glory for Hong Kong in the finals.'