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Star Search Project
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By Miss Paparwee Assavadakorn (Yeepoon), BBA16
Oh my god! It’s 12 o’clock on Thursday 10th, 2008, when we headed to the BBA office to get the case. What we got were four copies of thick cases about Puma, but what worried us as equally is our division. This is a very tough and fierce competition, indeed. Our team name is “Ignition” consisting of (from left to right) myself Miss Paparwee Assavadakorn (Yeepoon), Mr.Woraphot Kingkawkantong (Ping), Miss Yi-Jiun Chen (June) and Miss Vorawan Wangpanitkul (Michelle) who all come from section two so we have not yet taken any Management, Accounting or Financing classes. So we were worried about not being able to analyze the numbers and financial statements from the case and understand about its managerial roles.
After having got the case, we went to read them up in a coffee shop on Kao Sarn road and then to one of our teammate’s houses where we finally finished reading (sign). Then, we started to note down all the elements of SWOT and followed the steps in the case format. Not as simple as it looks, we did not really have any ideas about what to do first and how to do them as we were still confused about the case. So it was a very hectic moment and we started to get worried and think about all the stuffs, like what are our friends doing now? (lol). What’s more, we were really focusing on Puma’s new market in Latin America because we have spotted that Puma still does not have a headquarter there so we did spend a lot of time and effort on R&D in Latin America’s countries, such as its economy and standard of living. However, after one and a half hours, we started to argue and think that this idea does not really work and the more we consider about it, the less reasonable it sounded. That makes us feel ever so aimless and jittery, nevertheless, we started brainstorming new ideas. In the mean time, Thanks to Yeepoon, who has some background knowledge of accounting and financial ratios, was calculating and analyzing the numbers. An hour later, Michelle came up with an excellent slogan “I am Puma, Puma is me” and also the idea of product line extension into Thai boxing market and the Contender program. Thus we were very encouraged and start looking them up again. At around 3.30 a.m., after proofreading the case for at least three times each and take in turn spot another element of SWOT analysis, things seem to look a bit better as we now have a brief notes on Situation Analysis, company’s objective and some problem statements and ideas of Thai-boxing market. At that time, we were really tired and planned to finish all the financial ratios, alternatives and recommendations and then start to do the presentations tomorrow (Oh! Actually it’s today) and we went to sleep at 4 a.m.! (Never this late before in my life)
We woke up at 10 o’clock the next day, had breakfast and buried our heads again into the cracking-case mood. Two of us finished off the financial ratios and the other two continued discussing about the case. Soon, it was time to go to the lectures. Luckily one of the classed has been cancelled and the other class did not last very long, we went, as fast as we could, straight back home again. Michelle, thanks to her creative ideas, had frequently came up with many out-of-the-box alternatives like Puma’s cat walk, Puma’s new slogan and new exclusive Thai-boxing sportswear collection and put these ideas forward to two recommendations. Also, thanks to June, with an unexpected alternative that make all of us turn to say “What!” and that is “Puma’s case competition” and Ping even added the examples of “Toyota Yaris” and “Body Glove” (TUBC) case competition! (I don’t think that I would ever come up with such idea – lol). After most of the tasks written down, we started to make the slides. Thanks to Ping’s outstanding computer skill, he managed to make a very elegant and professional looking PowerPoint presentation. After several long hours, we finished the presentation including putting all the financial ratios as a back-ups onto the slides. Soon, we were writing up the speech and practicing them for four times until 4 a.m. [again]. PS: I think we had about five meals on that day. Then we slept. And we suppose to wake up at 7.00a.m. the next morning to be at Queen Sirikit Convention centre by 8 o’clock.
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“It’s 7.30!!” and we were still at Don-Muang! Ping hurried to come and woke us; obviously we did not seem to hear the alarm clock. The funny thing is we took a few minutes to be conscious and realize that we were late. (lol) Luckily, there was no traffic. Once we were up there, we signed in and just kept learning our speeches by heart and did the whole presentation all over again for several times. Until, it’s the time. OK. Don’t Panic. Don’t Panic – we were telling ourselves. We did exactly what we had planned, yet we were a bit shaky, but overall it went OK. Now, we have to wait for the result. In the mean times, we discussed about what we needed to improve and what questions could arise in case we made it to the final round. An hour later, the result is announced – WE GOT IN!
Now, our next moves were more preparations and more practices in our speech and responses to the judges until we were perfect at it. The odd fortunate thing was that we were no longer nervous. Then it was time. Everything went fine and we were very happy that it was all over, although we did not have any ideas how good the other two groups’ presentation were as we were the third group to present and therefore not able to watch them but we overheard from the audiences during the break that they are real nerds and could answer every questions with confidence. So our best hope was that we will get the second place. THEN! Ajarn James was announcing the runners-up one by one until the second place when I was preparing to stand up to get the prize. BUT then, he said “Star Fish” which was the other group’s name. I slowly take in the atmosphere and digest the words when I ultimately turn to look at my teammates’ equal astonishment. That means we got the first place! OMG! OMG! We were so blessed and delightful, and we all have Julia Robert’s wide smile on our faces. I could not fit all the words on this page to describe that moment. It was such a huge success and we no longer felt exhausted.
For me and I am sure others would also agree that this Star Search Project is really an invaluable experience and it has taught us many things. We learnt to work as a team and managed our scarce time. We now start to know what we did wrong and hopefully will not let history repeats itself. We are now really eager to learn more and hope that our analytical and presentation skills will be improved. In addition, we definitely look forward to getting more knowledge from Ajarn James and hope that this project will be continued forever and that Ajarn James will stay with us and the next generations until BBA#100s!
Now, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of my teammates and others, to thank all of the people involve into making this day happens. Thank to BBA office and Ajarn James Paul Fitzpatrick to organize such a wonderful event. Thank all “Roon Pees” for your all-day-long attention. Thank to audiences and everyone for sacrificing your time and effort. Last but not least, thank you for our prize at Tony Roma’s, WE LOVE IT!
Posted date: January 24, 2007 – 10:15 hrs. |
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