If the task doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. Your future is created by what you do today. That is what our team always believed in to go through this intensive business challenge.
The Challenger 2017 was a business case competition which was held from July 22nd to August 5th at Thammasat University (Thaprachan Campus). This year, there were 113 teams who competed in this competition. The top 14 teams, and 2 university representative teams, were selected to advance to the presentation round and were later divided into four divisions. Only the top teams from each of the four divisions would be finalists in the Challenger 2017, and would later proceed to the next competition – the Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge (TUBC).
Our team comprised of Napatsorn Jiravipapan (BBA#24), Nitchanun Soontornpimon (BBA#23), Oranich Boondiskulchok (BBA#23) and myself, Thanawut Lertsakornsiri (BBA#23). We underwent an intense 30 hours of business case cracking for this year’s case.
The case company for this year was Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited (SCB). In order to be the top team, we knew that preparation was the key to success. We kick-offed by analyzing the Thai banking sector two days before the competition date. Our research gave us many insights and a deep sense of business acumen. When the case was released, it was the complete opposite of what we had researched and expected the case to be. The case was a Human Resources case about attracting young talent to SCB. It surprised us a lot, but that was where the fun part began. We began our 30 hour case by using various skills, including time management, team work and commercial analysis. As time passed with each hour, we were under greater stress due to several dead leads in our analysis and strategies. However, there was one thing that we truly believed in while we were working, namely that “no one would create a lock without a key”. The dead leads in our analysis weren’t truly unsurmountable. It is either that we find the right key to unlock the latch, or we find a good hammer to smash the lock. The point is not about the lock in front of us, but it is the other side of the gate where it has been locked. We just need to find one of the many possible ways to get there. This philosophy was possibly one of the reasons why we passed through the first round and won the presentation round, what with the tough 20 minute presentation and 15 minutes of Q&A before the judges.
Finally, all our work has paid off. We are the winners in our division, and now advance as finalists of the Challenger 2017 to the subsequent Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge (TUBC).
Posted date: November 15, 2017 by Sochaya T.
