Impact Lab is an experiential learning course offered by HKU Business School, designing to nurture the next generation of socially conscious business leaders.
In its newly released 2021-22 Annual Report, it details how Impact Lab realises its vision – Internationlisation, Innovation, Interdisciplinarity, and hence creates Impact. It also displays achievements Impact Lab has made in the past decade, particularly highlighting how Impact Lab students, who gained valuable real-life experience by joining the course, helped partner companies to adapt and respond quickly to the changes brought by the pandemic.
Click here to learn more about the positive impacts brought by Impact Lab!
Congratulations! Two teams of our students won the Championship and 2nd Runner-up in The Hong Kong Joint University Case Competition (HKJUCC) 2022.
Background:
Organised by the HKU International Case Society (HICS), the HKJUCC is an external competition among 16 student teams from 4 top universities in Hong Kong, including The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong. The competition aims at facilitating mutual learning, networking, and a constant exchange of ideas among like-minded individuals. Students who participated in the competition are expected to strengthen their case competition techniques.
Two rounds of the competition were conducted online on April 10, 2022 due to the pandemic. Participating teams were given 48-hour to prepare for the presentation at the Division Round in the morning. Eventually, four finalist teams (one best team from each division) were selected to compete for the Championship in the afternoon.
Meet our talented students
Champion
Team Name: Meraki Consulting
Miss Hiu Lam HO (Team Leader)
BBA(IBGM), Year 1
Mr. Ho Ming CHEUNG
BBA(IBGM), Year 1
Mr. Hok Ching FUNG, Harold
BFin(AMPB), Year 1
Miss Hiu Yee LEE
BBA(IBGM), Year 1
2nd Runner-up
Team Name: Lighthouse Consulting
Mr. Hyunwook KIM (Team Leader)
BBA(IS), Year 1
Mr. Muk Yan CHUNG
BSc(QFin), Year 1
Miss Mina MOK
BBA(IBGM), Year 1
Mr. Jeonghwan PARK
BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 1
Students Sharing:
I am honoured to represent HKU Business School to compete in the HKJUCC 2022. Not only had HKJUCC sharpened my analytical skills, but more importantly, it had also polished my ability to work as a team. Solving a case within 48 hours was a new and challenging experience for me. I would like to express my gratitude to my teammates who have contributed according to our diverse talents. Together, we complemented each other and created a synergy that empowered us to crack the case in time. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Winnie Leung, Mr. Kenny Lam and HICS for their continuous support throughout the preparation process. HKJUCC was a valuable experience that I will never forget.
(by Hiu Lam HO)
I never thought about getting into the final round, let alone being the champion team. Thinking back, I really appreciate the training organized by HICS, which was well-structured and had transformed us from knowing nothing about case competition to acing it. My heartfelt thanks to our trainer Mr. Kenny Lam for his constructive feedback that allowed us to improve our slides making and presentation skills. I would also like to thank the judges in the preliminary round for their questions and comments, which guided us to think more deeply about our strategies and prepare us for the final presentation.
HKJUCC is the first case competition I have joined with a 48-hour time limit to work on the case. It was a challenging yet memorable experience. Although our team finalized the strategies pretty late, we were able to finish the presentation slides on time with the hard work of my teammates. I felt privileged to represent HKU in HKJUCC 2022! With my honed case cracking skills, I definitely look forward to joining more case competitions in the future!
(by Ho Ming CHEUNG)
HKJUCC is the fifth case our team has worked on together. As long-time teammates in HICS and the HKU-UMP Business Case Challenge 2021, we already had a rough consensus on each member’s role and responsibility before this competition, which definitely made our case cracking process more efficient. Still, this year’s case was a big challenge to all of us, considering the sheer volume of information provided and the technological nature of the case. We did work as hard as we could, and I could not be more grateful that our hard work paid off.
I gained a lot of insight into the tech industry’s operations and business model from the case. While the complicated and interconnected businesses of Xiaomi added an extra layer of difficulty to the case, it certainly enriched my knowledge in the tech and smartphone industry.
(by Hok Ching FUNG, Harold)
Competing in the HKJUCC was a challenging yet rewarding experience. From analysing the company’s complex business model to devising innovative and sensible solutions for it, this competition challenged us in various ways. We were able to develop more robust business knowledge as we approached the case from fresh perspectives. We have gained much valuable insight, not to mention the incisive feedback given by the panel of expert judges. Winning first place in this competition was more than just a recognition of our hard work, it was an encouragement for me to challenge myself further. Kudos to my teammates for all the amazing dedication and efforts, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without them. Last but not least, I would like to extend my gratitude to HICS, especially our trainer, Mr. Kenny Lam, for the continued support.
(by Hiu Yee LEE)
Our team has been working together since the beginning of the academic year 2021-22 and it has been a long journey thus far. The HKJUCC was a good finale to our experiences at HICS. We were initially very worried because, unlike the other case competitions we’ve done so far, we only got 48 hours to work on the JUCC case. We faced a bit of communication problem on the first day because one of our members was not in Hong Kong. However, we managed to pull through in the end and came up with a presentation that we were satisfied with. Throughout this competition, we were able to reinforce how important teamwork is, especially when we got more tired as we progressed through our work. One of our biggest takeaways was how to divide work more efficiently. Before HKJUCC, we all assigned our roles to play during case cracking. However, such system didn’t work due to the limited time we had during this competition. To mitigate this, each of us adopted rotational positions. While we still focused on our main/primary role, we sometimes shifted roles to help other members with their work. This was especially helpful in the first few hours of the competition where the situation analysis and general research played a big part in creating a segway into our strategy.
(by Hyunwook KIM, Muk Yan CHUNG, Mina MOK and Jeonghwan PARK)
Facing off against 12 competitive teams across the globe, our students have come out on top and become the winner of the 32nd Annual Scotiabank International Case Competition! Let’s give them a round of applause!
Background:
The Scotiabank International Case Competition (SICC) 2022 was organised and hosted entirely by the Ivey Business School students. This year marks the 32nd edition of SICC which has attracted teams from the top business schools around the globe. As one of the most respected international case competitions, SICC has given students an unparalleled opportunity to be exposed to different cultures and gain real experience with international business.
The competition aims to provide a forum where undergraduate business students can experience real-world business problems through case preparations and learn from the diverse perspectives of the international competitors; to foster meaningful relationships among students and the business schools around the world; to provide an opportunity for industry and media to witness the future leaders of the business world, and to arouse public awareness of the growing importance of undergraduate business education.
Award: Winner
Team List:
Miss Jade Joyce NG, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 4
Mr. Chun Wai TSANG, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3
Miss Sharon WONG, BBA(IBGM), Year 2
Mr. Yui Pong YEUNG, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Winnie S.C. LEUNG, Assistant Dean (Undergraduate)
Students Sharing:
“The SICC 2022 was an unforgettable experience. Although I participated in various case competitions before, SICC is my first attempt at an international case competition. We had to come up with strategic solutions for the future of work of a company within 24 hours and it was not easy. Within the limited time frame, we conducted thorough research and analysed the impacts of hybrid working.
It was a tough, yet fruitful experience. Due to the pandemic, everything moved online and our team worked on a wholly virtual basis from preparations, discussions to presentations. Despite the physical limitations, our team was able to collaborate seamlessly. Working with James, Donald, and Sharon was a wonderful teamwork experience. We divided the work according to our strengths, and everyone was able to shine. Last but not least, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to our case coach Mr. Kenny Lam who equipped our team with the essential skills to ace a case competition. The achievement would not be possible without his guidance and support.”
– Jade Joyce NG, BBA(Law)&LLB
“First and foremost, I would like to thank HKU Business School for the splendid opportunity to participate in this prestigious competition. I would also like to express my gratitude to my teammates for their hard work and contribution. This was my first time joining an international case competition. Witnessing the caliber of other top business schools all over the world was exciting and rewarding. The judges asked thoughtful questions, which pushed us to analyse the case more comprehensively. Solving a case in 24 hours was also a new experience. It was challenging: research had to be completed and summarised swiftly to curate a coherent storyline, especially since the case — concerning the future of work — contained a lot of nuances that we have to consider.”
– TSANG Chun Wai, BBA(Law)&LLB
“I am glad and honoured to represent HKU in participating in the Scotiabank International Case Competition. As a Year 2 business student, I did not expect to have such an opportunity to join an international case competition due to my limited case competition experiences. Through this opportunity, I was able to meet some of the top professional business leaders and talented students all around the world and further developed my case cracking skills and analytical skills when solving real-life business cases with my teammates. At first, I lacked confidence and worried that I could not meet the high expectation. However, I was lucky enough to have my teammates and this year’s case coach, Mr. Kenny Lam, to support me and point out the areas that I should further improve on, which I value a lot. I am proud to be part of the team and achieved such success!”
– Sharon WONG, BBA(IBGM)
“The experience is eye-opening. It is fantastic to observe the variety of perspectives and approaches to resolving complicated business problems. I am especially inspired by the detailedness of strategies developed by other good-performing participating students. Besides, the judges have provided us with valuable comments which were constructive and helpful in further improving our business consulting skillsets. The virtual engagement and social events also allowed us to experience cultural diversity.”
Congratulations to Professor Tingjun Liu, Professor in Finance, on winning the Faculty Outstanding Researcher Award 2021-22.
Professor Tingjun Liu is a leading scholar specialises in auction theory. The recognition of his advancement in the understanding of a less understood topic in Finance, which is related to security-bid auctions, was evidenced by having five articles published in “A” journals over the past five years, including American Economic Review, Management Science, Journal of Economic Theory, and The Journal of Finance.
The Selection Committee acknowledges the high quality and quantity of Professor Liu’s research publications, and his important contributions through novel research.
Established in 2013, the Faculty Outstanding Researcher Award aims to honour and reward faculty members for having done excellent research and achieved international recognition in the field of business and economics.
HKU recently signed an agreement with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for “The CGMA® Finance Leadership Program (FLP)” – a new remote, digital self-paced learning program for aspiring business and finance leaders.
The partnership is developed for HKU Business School’s students of all Business Undergraduate programmes, Master of Accounting programme and to alumni who graduated within two years of these programmes. With the help of real-life case simulations, FLP offers a mix of finance, accounting, business, people, leadership and digital skills that empower students and alumni to build successful careers and become a CIMA Member and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).
Fascinated by the idea of exploring the frontiers of human knowledge with quantitative methodologies, Dr. Yu has officially joined us at July 2021 as an Assistant Professor in Economics after completing her doctoral studies.
One percent inspiration 99 percent perspiration
Endowed with superb numerical reasoning skills and a deep interest in analysing human behaviours, Dr. Yu knows that it takes more hard work to become an economist. She said, “Among my peers, I have exhibited the a rather strong sense of curiosity, so I have always felt the responsibility to become an explorer, pushing at the frontiers of the human cognitive boundaries. It is not an easy process, it takes massive reading and countless discussions to inspire.” What economics attract Dr. Yu, is its omnipresence in our society and its endless potential in incorporating multidisciplinary knowledge. For example, political science and psychology knowledge are often used to explain policy incentives and consumer behaviours, while historiography skills are needed when mapping out economic history.
Interested in exploring the decision-making process of firms, the primary research interest of Dr. Yu focuses on organisational economics, a study that analyse the complex dynamics between consumers and firms, so as the interrelationships among firms within the same industry. Organisational economists observe and analyse the behaviours of practitioners to provide scientific guidance to decision makers on market design.
To model the learning process of firms with Chilean data
Having the serendipity to access exclusive data from Chile, Dr. Yu had developed a model in her job market paper in 2020 to explain how competing firms form price cartels. In the 2000s, 92% the Chilean pharmaceutical retail market was divided among Cruz Verde, FASA and Salcobrand. As drug prices are not controlled or regulated by the authorities back then, a price war had erupted among the oligarchs in late 2006. However, the year 2007 had become a turning point of the price war as the ownership of Salcobrand was transferred. The new management of Salcobrand had hired executives from the two other oligarchs and a series of clandestine conversations was initiated. When sufficient trust was established, a price cartel was formed. From November 2007 to April 2008, the cartel had manipulated the price of 222 branded drugs before being investigated. Till today, the three firms are still managing earning abnormal profit on some drugs. We have the reason to believe, during the process of establishing the trust, the firms have learned how to coordinate.
This paper produced during her doctoral years is a ground-breaking work, as Dr. Yu had designed a learning-to-coordination process model to offer a scientific explanation on how price collusion works – how likely firms are incentivised to collude, and how likely they will succeed. This mathematical model can greatly assist the authorities in predicting anti-competition activities. As existing literatures on collusion are mostly focused on the implementation side, the contribution of Dr. Yu is gargantuan. As a result, she was awarded the Bank of Canada Graduate Student Paper Award 2020..
“The most interesting thing that I have learned in this research journey, is that collusion is a gradual process. Participators are constantly learning how to improve and adjusting their expectations on their partners. Traditional business theories depict firms as rational actors that can only react passively, but I observed that they are actually very human when it comes to learning,” said Dr. Yu.
Traversing half the globe to alight on HKU Business School
Graduating from her PhD studies with such magnificent credentials, Dr. Yu seeks to continue researching on the behaviours of pharmaceutical companies. Setting her eyes on the Mainland China pharmaceutical market, Dr. Yu had returned to Asia and joined HKU Business School. She explained that, “There are a lot of top business schools in Asia, but HKU Business School as a young, open-minded, and expanding juggernaut in the regional academic landscape has really caught my attention as a young, inquisitive, and exploring scholar. Moreover, the location of Hong Kong has enabled local researchers to access valuable data from both the Mainland China and the overseas markets. I look forward to commence my research work ASAP!”
Dr. Yu is currently teaching applied economics in the School’s Master of Economics programme. But instead of teaching textbook theories, Dr. Yu plans to upskill the computer language literacy of her students. “Due to time constraints, I am unable to teach them the full set of toolkit of econometric analysis, so I have opted to teach them some preliminary programming skills instead. While computer languages may sound alien to economics, I aim to showcase that good programming skills are conducive not limited to economic research, it can also open up endless career possibilities for you in the business world.” added Dr. Yu.
Two teams of students won four awards at the HKCGI Corporate Governance Paper Competition and Presentation Awards including 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up for Paper Writing Competition as well as Best Presentation Award and Audience’s Favourite Team Award for Paper Presentation Competition.
The Annual Corporate Governance Paper Competition and Presentation Awards organised by the Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute (HKCGI), launched in 2006, aims at promoting the importance of good governance among undergraduates of local universities and providing them with an opportunity to research, write and present their findings and opinions on the selected theme.The theme for 2021 was “Is it possible to tie governance with a sense of purpose given the myriad of stakeholders’ interests?’. Teams of undergraduate students in any disciplines in Hong Kong were required to submit papers with no more than 5,000 words on the theme.
Six finalist teams were selected and invited to make presentations to the panel judges at the HKCGI Corporate Governance Paper Competition and Presentation Awards 2021.
Awardee(s):
Paper Writing Competition: 2nd Runner up
Paper Presentation Competition: Best Presentation Award & Audience’s Favourite Team Award
(From left) Lau Pak Hei, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 and Man Lok Yiu Alanis Morissette, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2
Paper Writing Competition: 1st Runner up
Kwong Siu Lun, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3 (1st from left) and Wu Pui Lam, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3 (middle)
(This team comprises 2 other team members from other HKU faculties.)
Students Sharing:
The HKCGI Corporate Governance Paper Competition and Presentation Awards 2021 was a memorable experience for both of us. We based our paper on how the lingering impacts of covid-19 have made corporations reflect on their core reason for being and how they can implement a purpose-tied governance model. As both of us neither had prior knowledge of corporate governance nor business ethics, we had to conduct thorough research on these subjects. Furthermore, we would also like to thank the official speech coach Mr. Oliver Williams for coaching our team for the presentation competition. Having a corporate purpose allows corporations to better respond to stakeholders’ needs. Having a life purpose allows us, as future pillars of society, to inspire, empower and lead.
(by Lau Pak Hei, Man Lok Yiu Alanis Morissette)
Our team is very grateful to be given an opportunity in the competition to share our views regarding corporate governance in Hong Kong.
When we wrote the paper, our team conducted comprehensive research in the field of corporate governance. This was an area we were not that familiar with. We made endeavours to compare the codes and regulations in different countries, studied real-life cases and analysed the topic from different perspectives.
The competition was a tough yet rewarding experience. We understood the roles that different stakeholders are playing in promoting good corporate governance practices, and how the law may help maintain and encourage such practices.
Lastly, we would like to thank our teammates for their strong support throughout the competition!
FBE Student Leadership Award aims to recognise and reward HKU Business School undergraduate students who have demonstrated leadership within the University and the wider community; and to promote informal learning through students’ participation in extra-curricular activities, involvement in community service and student leadership.
Five FBE students have won the Award in 2021/22, the award winners are:
Bhatnagar Pradyut, BEcon, Year 4
“I am extremely humbled to have been chosen as a recipient of the prestigious FBE Leadership Award for the academic year 2021-22. Hong Kong has been a consistent source of wonderful opportunities for me to chase, providing me with a very fulfilling environment. The support from the HKU Business School and the University means a lot and has played a strong role in my journey so far. In my capacity, I would like to allow the availability of a pathway for non-local students to step forward and take more initiative by setting up monthly small-talk circles wherein people can network in an effort to gain more knowledge and understanding in this city. I believe the next big thing is just one step away for a student, and HKU has been very supportive in all our journeys.”
Chai Nok Ming, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2
“I am honoured to receive the FBE Leadership Award 2021 – 22 from HKU Business School. It is a remarkable recognition and encouragement for my effort in the past year, such as being the Chairman of the Business and Economics Association. It is also a tremendous motivation, inspiring me to utilise my ability to make an influential impact on society constantly.”
Chen Ying Hei Helena, BBA(IBGM), Year 3
“It is my honour to receive the FBE Student Leadership Award, I am immensely grateful for the recognition. This would not have been possible without the support from my fellow teammates and the amazing people I have worked with, alongside the diversified enrichment opportunities provided by the HKU Business School. I will continue giving back to my community through various leadership and social initiatives in the future”
Ngan Hoi Ying, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3
“I am grateful to be awarded the FBE Leadership Award in recognition of my achievements in student-led activities. The honour motivates me to further on creating positive impacts for the community when pursuing my passion for social entrepreneurship. It also inspires me to further polish my skills and strive for continuous improvements.”
Yeung Yui Pong, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3
“I sincerely appreciate the support provided by the HKU Business School. It is my honor to receive the FBE Student Leadership Award. Realising one’s potential by demonstrating leadership in reality is definitely not an easy thing to do. Yet, this recognition has encouraged and motivated me to carry on, making solid contributions to our community, with passion and belief upheld.”
