A team of MBA students from the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology School of Business and Management (HKUST Business School) finished second after winning though to the final round of the Wake Forest Marketing Summit held from February 8 to 11 in the US.
HKUST was the only business school out of 42 entrants from outside the US to take part in the competition. In the finals, it beat teams from University of Dartmouth, University of Indiana, Michigan State (Broad), University of California at Berkeley, University of Washington and the local host team, Wake Forest University. The championship went to the University of Virginia.
The Hong Kong team comprised six first-year MBA students, Alice Yi Jue Luo, Fedrik Tsung Chang King, Jane Jie Hao, Mauricio Ferreira M. Ribeiro, Peter Blake Crawley and Zong Hui Cui.
Professor Stephen Nason, the HKUST team advisor, said: "We are very excited about the outcome. It was a good experience for the students. They were given the opportunity not only to exchange views and share experiences with business schools in the US, but also to learn from experienced business executives who attended the competition as judges. The outcome shows once again that our MBA program is comparable with any of the elite business schools from the States."
This was the first time that an international team had been invited to join the competition which aims to expose students to realistic career challenges and provides employers with an opportunity to gauge their marketing skills. This time, the team was given 36 hours to prepare a strategic and innovative solution to a case involving the new Moto Q's launch in the SME sector presented to a panel of expert judges and representatives from Motorola itself.
Panel of Judges
Patty Morrison, CIO, Motorola
Ken Bond, Director of Strategy, Motorola
Bruce Hawver, Corporate Vice President of Enterprise Devices, Motorola
Russ Hammer, Division CFO, Motorola
Alan Buddendeck, Director of Global Business & Financial Communications, Motorola
Steve Jones, CEO, Denneen & Jones (Former CMO of Coca-Cola)
Mike Gannaway, Vice-President of Marketing, VF Corporation
William Pate, CMO of Retail Markets, Bell South
Bob Gfeller, Senior VP of Advertising & Communications, Lowe
Rick Harriman, Managing Director, Synectics
Frank O'Mara, Executive Vice-President of Marketing, Alltel
