On Friday 11 July, The University of Queensland competed in the regional round of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Business Strategy Competition conducted at QUT Gardens Point. As in previous years, UQ had great success with the undergraduate team taking out first place and the postgraduate team third.
This year, the hotly contested regional competition saw undergraduate and postgraduate students from UQ's Faculty of Business, Economics and Law pit themselves against teams from the Australian Catholic University, Bond University, Central Queensland University, QUT, Southern Cross University (northern NSW), and the Universities of Southern Queensland and the Sunshine Coast.
The competition, in its thirteenth year, aims to introduce an innovative approach to business and education and broaden the spectrum of management studies. Within their teams, students take on the role of strategy consultants to develop solutions to a case study and then present their recommendations to a judging panel comprising business people and academics.
Under the watchful eyes of UQ Business School lecturers, Dr John Steen and Mr Peter Innes, the undergraduate team of Sam Churchill (enrolled BCom/BEcon), Israel Cooper (enrolled BBusMan/BCom), Gabriel Ho (enrolled BCom/BInfTech), Ravi Jeyaraj (enrolled BCom/BEcon), Tim Lucas (enrolled BCom Hons) and Meagan Smart (enrolled BCom) and the postgraduate team of Abby Kamalakanthan (enrolled MIEF), Tim Kastelle (enrolled MBA), Frank Klein (enrolled MCom), Adrian Leung (enrolled JD), Melissa Milgate (enrolled MBA) and Shirley Wong (enrolled MBus) attended weekly training sessions during the semester break in a tremendous effort to ensure their teams had "gelled". According to Mr Innes, both teams "were looking good" leading up to the Queensland competition.
Mr Tony Massaro from BCG announced the winners and placegetters at a cocktail function at the conclusion of a long day for all teams. The national competition will be conducted at the University of New South Wales on Friday 3 October.
Sam Churchill, a member of the winning undergraduate team, said theirs was a "one-of-a-kind" team.
"Everyone played a vital role in our success," Mr Churchill said, "and we're looking forward to improving our performance in Sydney."
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law Professor Ian Zimmer said that the undergraduate students' efforts continued the tradition of wins for UQ teams and wished them every success at the National competition. Members of the undergraduate team will be guests of honour at a function to be hosted by Professor Zimmer, prior to the team’s departure for Sydney in October.
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