Ateneo bags silver in HKG competition

MANILA, Philippines - The team from the Ateneo de Manila University’s John Gokongwei School of Management impressed judges and coaches to bag the silver award at the 2013 Hong Kong Baptist University-International Institute for Business Development (HKBU-IIBD) case competition last Nov. 8 in Hong Kong.

This year’s theme was on sustaining social enterprises, and the mission of this competition was sustaining Green Ladies, a Hong Kong based social enterprise selling used clothes. Facing the company’s CEO, the team – composed of Allan Cabrera (captain), Billie Crystal Dumaliang, Nico Reyes and Jen Conlu – was tasked to formulate workable and action oriented recommendations for the next five years.

The centerpiece theme revolves around the strategic challenges and managerial dilemmas faced by global business leaders.  Working under pressure, the five finalists also had to face the five judges’ questions regarding the integrity of each group’s solutions.

The gold award went to Simon Fraser University of Canada. Hong Kong Baptist University took third place. Other teams in the finals were Bowling Green State University of Ohio and University of Westminster in the United Kingdom. The finalists were chosen from 29 applicants.

“Ateneo has been in the finals five out of the eight years the competition has been going on,” Prof. Johnny Filart, coach of the team, told The STAR.

The team prepared intensively for eight months. “Discipline and focus sustained them throughout the entire day, beginning their case preparation early in the morning and finishing off their presentation by the end of the afternoon,” Filart said, adding that the team “not only won admiration and respect from the panel of judges, they were greatly admired by the coaches and mentors from Canada and the UK.”