A team of four SMU students, three of whom are in their first year won first runner-up in the recently concluded KPMG Business Administration Paper 2013. Freshmen Samuel Tan, Han Meng Siew and Rodney Yap as well as second year Accountancy student Kenny Lee did the university proud by also winning the Global Round competition and “The Best Contingency Planner Award".

“I could not have been prouder of my team’s accomplishment! We were up against university students from other countries who are more senior and experienced but we rose to the challenge and claimed second spot in the competition,” said team leader Samuel Tan, who is in a double degree programme in Accountancy and Business Management.

Every year the Hong Kong-based competition attracts more than 200 teams from universities in Hong Kong and overseas.

The KPMG Business Administration Paper 2013 is a business plan writing competition organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Business Students. It aims to foster the interflow of ideas between the academic field and the business field, ultimately enhancing participants’ knowledge of the real business environment.

Participating teams were tasked to write a business plan for a feasible and successful joint venture between two specific companies from different industries to maximise profits. This year’s theme is “The Business Matchmaker”.

Out of the hundreds of participating teams, only nine from Hong Kong and three international ones were selected to enter the Semi-Final round.

One out of three international teams was then picked to be the winner of the Global Round.

“When we got through to the semi-finals, it came as a shock to me. I never expected that we would be selected out of over a hundred teams globally, much less win the Global Round! We are very pleased that our hard work paid off,” said Kenny Lee.

His teammate Tan, 21 said he and his team were grateful for the help they received from Dr Gary Pan, Associate Dean for Student Matters of the School of Accountancy who mentored the team during the last few rounds of the competition and Associate Professor of Accounting Dr Lim Chu Yeong who advised them on their proposal for the final round.

The SMU team pitted against the best four Hong Kong teams in the Grand Final.

They won a cash prize of about USD$1300 and an opportunity to be trained at the Peter F. Drucker Academy, a management institute named after the world renowned management guru Mr Peter F Drucker.