Written by Parit Keeratiyothin (BBA#24) and
Siwawong Wongsophanakul (BBA#22)
Belgrade Business International Case Competition 2017 (BBICC) is held by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, for the fifth time in Belgrade, Serbia during 3rd – 8th of April. As one of the leading of its kind, this year BBICC has welcomed 16 elite business schools from all over the world. The competition consists of two cases- short and long cases, where short 5-hour case weighs 30% and the long 24-hour case 70%. Initially, teams are randomly drawn and allocated into four divisions, with each division consisting of four teams. To ensure fair judgment, teams were not able to present under their university’s name and were not allowed to reveal their respective university throughout the competition. This year, Team Thammasat goes by the name ‘The Wild Martini!’
Team representative consists of Siwawong Wongsophanakul (BBA#22), Pitikarn Suriyamongkol (BBA#22), Parit Keeratiyothin (BBA#24), and Thitipong Sae-Cai (BBA#24). Our team advisor is Asst. Prof. Dr. Orapan Yolrabil.
Throughout the week, our team came to find that this year’s BBICC was not just an ordinary case competition, rather a journey that would foster the essence of a long-lasting friendship. Since the beginning, the entire event was extremely well organized with exceptional hospitality from our team host and organizing committee. The week was packed with great activities, from quiz games at a bar to adventure day around Belgrade where all teams were mixed so all participants got to know each other better.
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Then came the main course; case cracking. We started off with an intense short case provided by a leading mobile game developer based in Serbia, Nordeus. Given an NDA, we are not able to point out the task given. Having handed in the case in the very last minute, we entered the presentation room with almost no time to prepare. Nevertheless, we gave it our best and handled Q&A in the best way we could. Another twist this year was the result of short case was not to be revealed, and that we would know if we made the final cut after the long case presentation. Left with endless speculation, the show must go on.
The next day marked the beginning of the 24-hour long case. Stakes were high, but we were confident and very optimistic that we would, as a team, give it our best regardless of what lies ahead. The long case provider of this year’s BBICC is the Government of the Republic of Serbia. We were given two tasks where the overarching goal is to drive economic growth; through inducing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by making Serbia an attractive business hub; and positioning Serbia as a leading tourism destination in Eastern Europe. After hours of relentless idea generation, arguments, and validation, we came up with our Vision for Serbia, and presented our deliverables in the preliminary on the following day.
Despite what we believed to be a notable performance, with several compliments from the jury and audience, we were somewhat uncertain on the preliminary results as this was a very challenging case. But luck was in our favor as Wild Martini was announced Finalist. The afternoon jury consisted of several Ministers, senior government officials and thought leaders in private sectors. We delivered our solution with brimmed confidence, and at the end of the day, Team ‘Wild Martini’ (Thammasat University) placed 2nd out of 16 teams!
Our team achievement owes duly to our advisors’ relentless hours of training, nurturing and supporting us throughout the preparation. We would also like to express our gratitude for the BBICC committee, especially to Vesna, Andrea and our amazing ambassador Nikola, for organizing such an event that offers a truly unforgettable experience in Serbia. We would like to extend this to Nemanja and his family for showing us what Real Serbia is. We can boldly say that it is not only knowledge we gain, but also multi-cultural friendship and memory that last a lifetime.
Posted on April 24, 2017 by Sirakalya A. |
