By Megan Goh (BBA Year 1, BizCare, Bizad Club)
Organising a student competition like the SGX Group-NUS Sustainability Challenge may have been a first for most of my teammates from the Business Career Development Committee (BizCare). Still, we worked tirelessly to execute the competition and are proud to say the Challenge was a success!
“Planning and organising the Challenge was an eye-opening experience. Being the first physical competition in three years, I learnt a lot about the nuances of planning an event of this scale,” said Phoebe Wong, the Head of Case Competitions committee, BizCare.
It was also an honour for BizCare to partner with Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) to host this event. It was a memorable experience for us, and the knowledge from working with industry professionals would be helpful for our future endeavours.
SGX Group-NUS Sustainability Challenge 2023
Team Two Hectares, with students from the Faculty of Science and NUS BIZ, won against five teams during the Finals stage and took home the champion trophy after two months of preparation and presentation. In addition, teams Earth Consult and JCFD clinched the 1st and 2nd runner-up positions, respectively.
This competition, aimed at promoting transitions to more sustainable climate solutions amongst heavily carbon-based industries, attracted an extensive participant pool compared to the previous year. It saw an overwhelming number of sign-ups from 75 teams, composed of students from NUS, Nanyang Technological University, and Singapore Management University, all bringing forth their distinct ideas to the table.
Based on the merits of their executive summaries and presentations, 12 teams qualified for the semi-finals. Their noteworthy submissions made it difficult for the judges to shortlist the finalists.
The judges were Michael Tang, Executive Director, Head, Listing Policy & Product Admission, SGX Group; Matt Dearth, Finance Instructor at SMU and Managing Director, Silvercrest Asset Management; and Professor Lawrence Loh, Director, Centre for Governance and Sustainability at NUS Business School.
“The students had good knowledge, application and grasp of the concept of sustainability. This was a timely case competition organised by NUS BizCare as companies are looking to move towards more sustainable practices,” said Prof Loh.
“Each team’s presentation showcased their in-depth research on SGX. The proposed solutions were insightful and relevant to the topic of sustainability,” said Mr Tang.
Students share their experience
Team Two Hectares’ Johnathon Tan (BBA Year 2) and Tee Xin Ying (Science Year 4) discussed their winning approach.
“Our team researched the nature of SGX as an exchange – what it does and can do – to fully understand the case competition and develop good recommendations,” said Xin Ying.
Johnathon credited his team’s success to teamwork. “A major contributor to our success was how we worked together as a team. Our skill sets complemented each other, which played a huge role in this case competition. For example, Xin Ying was good at research; Yi Zhen and Jann provided good recommendations and ensured our presentation came together nicely,” he said.
Meanwhile, the participating students say the competition gave them exposure to an experience beyond the classroom.
“Joining this case competition was a good learning opportunity for me as I had to step outside my comfort zone and delve into extensive research on sustainability in Singapore,” shared Eunice Tay from Team FutureForward.
“In class, we learn a lot of theory and concepts but never really get to apply and put this knowledge to use. I joined this case competition to go beyond the classroom and apply my learning,” said Eugene Yap, also from Team FutureForward.
The BIZCare team would like to thank the teams for developing ideas in hopes of promoting sustainability in the financial environment.
