Our very own team Fintastic Four beat six teams from other Singapore tertiary institutions to take home the 2020 Experience Goldman Sachs – Case Study Challenge trophy.
The team from The NUS MSc in Finance is made up of Liu Xiaowei, Mcrid Wang, Thomas Wilopo and Melissa Wong. Held between February and March, the virtual competition required them to craft a personal investment plan and come up with a stock-picking strategy based on two confidential cases. They then present their recommendations to a judging panel of Goldman Sachs executives.
Team Fantastic Four: (From left) Liu Xiaowei, Melissa Wong, faculty advisor Assoc Prof Johan Sulaeman, Thomas Wilopo, Mcrid Wang
With the online format, the team needed to consider how to capture the attention of their judges, especially since their attention would be focused on the presenting student. The solution was to have a smooth delivery style to engage the judges.
“During the rehearsals, we got feedback from each other and Associate Professor Johan Sulaeman on things like intonation and timing. We basically tried to ‘engineer’ our presentations,” said Mcrid.
The team also rehearsed in front of a camera to recreate the actual conditions of the presentation. This helped the students to be comfortable talking in front of a camera.
“The team’s strength in preparation was also evident in the Q&A session”, said Associate Professor Sulaeman, who was the team’s faculty advisor. “They could readily answer the questions and the judges were impressed by their knowledge.”
The students also had a strong team spirit. “The team is very cohesive and complement each other well. Even when they didn’t agree on how to approach the problem, they always discussed the situation and came up with a solution that everybody agreed with,” observed Associate Professor Sulaeman.
The students were unfortunately unable to collect their trophy due to the COVID-19 situation. “We will get to meet the Goldman Sachs team once things calm down, but we are proud that we could stick together and make the best out of this situation,” said Mcrid.
