BBA Quartet Tops the NUS Business Hackathon 2022

Team BVNK Partners (Vincent Wong, BBA Year 3; Lee Wei Ren, BBA Year 4; Teo Jun Li; BBA Year 3 and Yuan Khai Qi; BBA Year 3) has won the inaugural NUS Business Hackathon 2022, pocketing a cool $8,000 in prize money.

Sponsored by H Group, the Hackathon had some 40 undergraduate and postgraduate teams from NUS Biz conducting market research and identifying effective customer acquisition strategies in the preventive health market. Students are judged on their depth of analysis, clarity of thought, creative and effective strategy, and communication skills. H Group innovates healthcare with an interdisciplinary team of experts in medicine, medical and diagnostic technologies, behavioural science, artificial intelligence, and hospitality.

The teams submitted their analysis of the preventive health market in Singapore from February to March for the first round. In the second round, five finalist teams presented their marketing plan for a preventive healthcare centre in Singapore in early April.

“We were interested in the competition as we felt that it was an opportunity for us as students to practice our business acumen,” said Vincent, the team leader. “We also thought that the preventive health space is exciting as it was something that all of us never really had exposure to,” he added.

Vincent’s team did not let themselves get overwhelmed by their unfamiliarity with the preventive health market.

“We utilised what we learned about the marketing strategies of companies from other industries or countries and assessed the applicability of these strategies to the case’s context. That is also why our presentation had many more case studies than other teams,” he said.

“The winning team impressed us with how they conceptualised a novel business model that is scalable and effective quickly. They were also extremely creative with coming up with catchy brand names for different services,” commented Professor Noah Lim (Dept of Marketing), a member of the three-person judging panel during the second round. The other two members include Veronica Chew, CEO at healthcare company H Group, and Dr Tang Yew Chung, Vice President and Head of Early Detection at biotech firm MiRXES.

Real ideas for businesses

The judging panel were not only impressed by the winning team but also praised the quality of the finalist teams.

“It was a joy hearing from our finalists. There’s no question a lot of time and brainwork went behind each presentation. I’m especially impressed with how each team has come up with unique business models and publicity measures to take preventive healthcare to new heights,” said Veronica.

“What a range of creativity, innovation, and hard work on display from these students! The audience was delighted by polished presentations, animated doodles, videos, and even a magic show,” said Dr Tang.

While Vincent’s team won $8,000 as the winners, the second and third-placed teams took home $5,000 and $3,000.

The teams may have won the monetary prizes. Still, there might be a bigger reward of seeing their proposals used in a business context, as Veronica and Dr Tang said they are keen to work with the students to implement their ideas in their organisations.

“Students get to design new products and service plans and implement a go-to-market action plan for a completely new market, in a context where only the best proposals win,” said Prof Noah.

But perhaps the biggest reward for participating in the Hackathon is the personal experience that the students gained.

“I learnt that proposing novel ideas for a company is not an easy task as we have to consider the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including regulators, competitors and customers, among others. I find the process enjoyable, and it has made me realise that I would like to pursue a career that requires me to solve problems creatively,” said Vincent.