Despite the uncertainties and inconvenience caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, a Fudan MBA team has stood out from 208 teams around the world and entered the semi-final round of the 2020 SCG Bangkok Business Challenge.
As one of the most influential business school events in the world, the SCG Bangkok Business Challenge was created in 2002 by Sasin School of Management, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. The Challenge seeks to encourage students across the globe to become more entrepreneurial, to provide an international business matching platform for start-ups, potential partners and investors, as well as to bring sustainability concerns to the mainstream commercial ventures.
19 teams were selected into the semi-final round by submitting a pitch deck and a 60-second video pitch for an independent and scalable seed-stage startup. The judging committee received submissions from 208 teams representing 83 schools and institutions from 24 countries/regions, including Cornell University from the U.S., ESSEC Business School from France, IE Business School from Spain, Tsinghua University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, etc.
The Fudan MBA program is represented by a team formed by Wu Manhong, Chen Ting, Zhang Can, Kang Zhijun from the 2019 IMBA program and a MBA alumnus Zhang Bin. The team members boast experiences as senior technician, financial analyst, corporate strategy planner, venture capitalist and participant in numerous international competitions, and were tutored by Professor Lu Xianghua, who is extinguished in both academic capability and experience.
The team pitched a pharmaceutical R&D outsourcing project. In the semi-final round, they will be evaluated on a complete written business plan and the overall business viability, as expressed in their formal oral presentation and venture showcase.
Wu Manhong, one of the team members, expressed his gratitude for this opportunity: "Everyone has gained a deeper understanding of corporate strategy development, target market research, financial model construction and so on when writing the business plan; while making the 60-second video pitch is such an extreme challenge of our marketing skills… There are many opportunities like this available during the two years in the Fudan MBA program, developing our global vision and motivating us to innovate.”
Although the semi-final round of the SCG Bangkok Business Challenge has been postponed from February to May due to concerns for the epidemic, members of the Fudan MBA team remain optimistic about the situation and are sparing no effort in making preparations.
