Four undergraduates in Team Cognitare took third place at the 2016 Chulalongkorn International Business Case Competition (CIBCC) held in Krabi, Thailand, last week.  Second-year undergraduate Josephine Soh also stood out with her superb presentation and was named the competition’s Best Speaker.

The CIBCC, which is into its third edition, is a renowned case competition that aims to showcase the analytical capabilities of undergraduates.  This year, the SMU team comprising first-year students Ho Bang Ying (BBM & BSc Econs) and Lim Shi Ying (BAcc & BBM), and second-year students Vipara Rasphone (BSc Econs) and Josephine Soh (BAcc & BBM), faced 11 other teams from top universities which hailed from four continents.  In the end, they managed to beat teams including Copenhagen Business School, Chulalongkorn University, University of New South Wales, Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore, to secure the second runner-up position.

The honour came after Team Cognitare overcame strong competition and a gruelling 24-hour final on the last day, where teams were presented with a problem related to Big C Supercenter, Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator.  Teams were to propose recommendations to help the company recover from declining top-line sales and reclaim growth in the competitive supermarket landscape in Thailand. 

To this, Team Cognitare proposed a ‘Big C Buy-back programme’ to reclaim losses in the non-food sales segment, and also suggested connecting Big C hypermarkets to convenient stores around the country through the use of ‘Uber for logistics’.  Their vision was to reclaim sales growth with a 2.5% compound annual growth rate by 2020.

Their innovative strategies and engaging presentation clearly struck a chord with the judging panel which consisted of local business leaders.  The team’s achievement in the competition also once again showcases of the quality of SMU undergraduates and their resilience in the international competition arena.  Well done!

[Featured photo: Team Cognitare is second runner-up at the Chulalongkorn International Business Case Competition 2016.  L-R: Vipara Rasphone (2^nd year, Bsc Econs), Ho Bang Ying (1^st year, BBM & Bsc Econ), Senior Lecturer Ma Kheng Min (Faculty Advisor), Josephine Soh (2^nd year, BAcc & BBM), Lim Shi Ying (1^st year, BAcc & BBM).]