During Feb 15th to Feb 18th, Shantou University representative team participated 2012 McDonough-Hilltop Business Strategy Challenge (MHBSC) in Washington D.C., U.S. It was the first time for Shantou University to be awarded with Consulting Without Borders Certificate. The representative team consists of Laya Liu (2008 Journalism), Ye Yang (2009 International Trade), Jiayun Wen (2010 Accounting) and Lichuan Guan (2010 international Trade). Advised by Professor Guang Tian, the representative team performed well and stably. STU team’s marketing solution was appreciated and complimented by most judges. Specifically, their recommendation strategy was highly identical with the champion’s.
The 2012 MHBSC set up five prizes for participants to compete, including first prize, second prize, third prize, best candidate prize and Consulting without Borders Certificate. STU team won Consulting without Borders Certificate with their creativity in proposing marketing strategy. STU team is the first Asian team invited by MHBSC, which is established by Georgetown University, one of the oldest Universities in U.S. In the past 8 years, MHBSC has attracted a number of top Universities in the North America, Europe and Australia, including Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Western Ontario, University of Michigan, University of South California, George Washington University, McGill University, New York University and so on. Moreover, this competition provides not only a platform for undergraduates to demonstrate their business talent, but also stratagem consulting service for non-profit organization in Washington, D.C, U.S.
When the STU team (Phoenix Consulting) stepped on the competition stage, their creative marketing strategy caught judges’ eyes even though their spoken skills in English were not as good as other teams whose native languages are English. After the competition, Charlie M. Tierney, HR of Deloitte Consulting, one of the judges, gave his recommendations to STU team, “your analyses and strategic decisions are excellent. However, your speech skills need to be improved.” Besides, in the social activities, STU team members communicated actively with judges who mainly came from US top companies, as well as shared with other participants business management, future study plan, life experience and so on.
A minute's good performance on the stage demands ten years' hard work off the stage.. The representatives of this STU team were from the STUBS case competition team. The STUBS case competition team is organized by Professor King Wu and instructed by Professor Guang Tian, Professor Dan Trotter, Professor Lin Zhang, Professor Yi Wang, Professor Kun Tan, Professor Guanyao Qiu, Professor Collin Than and Professor King Wu from Business School. Surviving after intensive and extensive trainings, students not only represent Shantou University to gain awards at international competitions, but improve their academic capabilities and expand global insights.
(Reporter, Laya Liu)
