Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

The Faculty of Economics and Business University of Gadjah Mada((FEB UGM) is proud again. The 'Critical One', the FEB UGM Student team, succeeded in making UGM and Indonesia proud in the international world. The FEB UGM student team won 1st runner up in the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition 2021. The Business Case Competition organized by HKU Business School together with HSBC Bank aims to increase the strength of the traditional case teaching method by transferring business cases from class to competition format globally and make a valuable contribution to the global economy. The competition held virtually from 30 May to 3 June 2021 by The University of Hong Kong (HKU).

The student team from the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) UGM won 1st Runner Up in the HSBC/HKU Asia Pacific Business Case Competition 2021. The competition was held virtually from 30 May to 3 June 2021 by The University of Hong Kong (HKU). The 'Critical One' team consisted of Alexander (IUP Management 2018), Erica Lesmana (Accounting 2017), Shania Angelina (Management 2018), Moh. Andhika Satria Perdana (Accounting 2017) won 1st Runner Up after completing a business case in 6 hours regarding “Puma's Maya: South East Asia's First Virtual Influencers”. In addition, they also participated in the first and second round of selection by solving the Finvolution case where participants had to develop an entry strategy for a leading P2P lending fintech in China to enter the Indonesian market & the case of the Fair Employment Agency - an agency for foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong to replicate its business model in various countries.

In this annual international business case competition, the UGM team had to compete with 24 teams from 19 different countries. Besides FEB UGM, this competition was also participated in by world's leading business schools such as Yonsei University, Thammasat University, National Taiwan University, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Ateneo de Manila University, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, RMIT University, Singapore Management University, University of Belgrade, University of Toronto, The Open University of Hong Kong, and others.

In the final round, the UGM team competed with teams from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Alberta, and University of Toronto. There were 3 judges who assessed the presentation, namely Amit Sutha (EVP, Executive Director of Global Business at Mediabrands Content Studio), Suresh Balaji (Chief Marketing Officer-Asia Pacific), and Stuart Milne (Chief Executive Officer at HSBC Malaysia). The team from UGM presented a strategy entitled "Embrace and Engage: Maya's Travel Diary and HelloMaya!". With this topic, The Critical One team successfully got 1st runner up and beat the University of Alberta, and the University of Toronto in this final round.

In order to participate in this year's competition, the UGM team has gone through the national selection round held by HSBC Indonesia in February 2021. Until the competition at the Asia Pacific level, the Critical One team was guided by coaches from faculties and HSBC Indonesia and practiced every week.

"Of course the support from the Faculty of Economics and Business UGM during preparation and during the competition is also the main motivation for the team to give the best performance to make Indonesia and University of Gadjah Mada proud." said Erica Lesmana.

Met separately, Prof. Mahfud Sholihin, Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs FEB UGM, said that this achievement was something that very inspiring. “We are very proud of the achievements of the Critical One FEB UGM Team in making UGM and Indonesia proud. This is proof that even though we are currently in the middle of a pandemic, it does not dampen the courage and enthusiasm of our students to got achievements. Hopefully this achievement will inspire other FEB UGM students," said Prof. Mahfud Sholihin.

We congratulate the Critical One Team!

Reportage: Sony Budiarso/Kirana Lalita Pristy