On the evening of November 27, 2018, the final round of 2018 Tsinghua University Business Case Competition was solemnly held in Room 418 of Shunde Building at Tsinghua SEM. The case competition is hosted by Tsinghua SEM MBA Programs and academically supported by Tsinghua SEM China Business Case Center. Three companies of Yili GROUP, JD Group and Creditease Group participate in case cooperation of the competition.

The case competition, of large scale and wide coverage, attracts 40 teams of students to participate and to take the corresponding course with the total number of students reaching 192. Besides Tsinghua MBA students, participants also come from 11 schools and departments of Tsinghua University, such as the School of Law, School of Environment, Schwarzman College, PBC School of Finance, School of Mechanical Engineering, Academy of Arts and Design, and Department of Hydraulic Engineering. At the same time of competition, the course Management Case Research Practice is offered with credits. Before the final competition was held, the course offered two lectures on sharing experience of participating in the competition and on professional counseling in details. The course also organized three field trips to case enterprises in order to help these enterpresies solve practical problems by analying fresh cases. When the final competition was held, it also signifies completion of the course Management Case Research Practice for participants on site.

Attending the case competition final from the host side are Professor Xu Xin, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, Ma Jia, Director for Tsinghua MBA Programs, and Professor Gao Feng of Finance Department of Tsinghua SEM. The judges for the final competition includes Professor Yu Chunling of the Marketing Department of Tsinghua SEM, also the lecturer of the course, Jia Peilin, the managing partner of Creditease Wealth Private Equity FOF, Luo Yan, Vice President of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd, Tang Wei, Vice President of JD Group and also in charge of opening business for JD Logistics, Sun Jijun, the sales manager of corporate service department of Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd, Wang Xudong, senior partner of Chinaequity Group, and Gao Ping, Director for state-owned assets of Tus-Holdings Co. Ltd and also the Vice President of Tus-Clean Energy. Guests attending the competition include Zhu Hongyan, Director for Public Relations Department of JD Logistics, Feng Yuefeng, Manager for Public Affairs of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd, Zhang Liguo, Senior Director for Technical Solution of corporate service department of Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd, and Feng Wei, the senior investment manager of the strategic research center of Tus-Holdings Co. Ltd. Professor Yu Chunling served as the president of judges’ panel for the competition. Mengjue Wang from 17GMBA Class hosted the final competition.

Mengjue Wang from 17GMBA Class hosted the final round competition

Professor Xu Xin, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM delivered a speech before the final competition began. According to Xu, Tsinghua University Business Case Competition, starting from 2005 with Tsinghua MBA Corporate Case Competition as its predecessor, has been successfully held for 14 years. Since 2013, the competition has become a university-level competition that postgraduates from all schools and departments could participate in. Besides MBA students, postgraduates of various schools and departments at the university are invited to participate in the competition by teams. Students from different schools and departments could join the same team. Entrepreneurs, alumni and teachers are invited to be mentors. In 2014, the competition adopted bi-lingual model. Based on carrying on the tradition of past competitions, the case compitition this year, with the involvement of Management Case Research Practice course from beginning to end, reflects five new characteristics, that is, expanding macro perspective, cultivating sense of responsibility, stimulating in-depth thinking, inspiring diverse perspective, and focusing on details, Xu emphasized. Xu also pointed out that in the case competition this year, with experience of previous compititions and further exploration and innovation, some seemingly common problems have new connotation and are thus of greater significance. Participating in the case competition and course study could improve students’ thinking ability and strengthen their social responsibility and thus will be beneficial for them in the future path of launching innovative start-up and career development. Finally, Xu expressed his expectations for the final competition this year: don’t appraise a hero by success or failure but to strive for the best performance, self-expression and result.

Professor Xu Xin, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM delivered a speech

As the final competition started, nine participating teams contended with each other based on three cases, each of which led to sharp comments from judges after the presentation. Finally, the winning team of each case was selected. The first, second and third prizes for “FOF and Wealth Management Upgrading” case of Creditease Wealth are won separately by teams of  Xishanshui, Ruoshuisanqian and Xinfeng Strategy; the top three winners for Yili Group’s “Green Indutrial Chain and Sustainable Development” are teams of Tianxin Tiantuan, United Nations and Power Thirteen; and teams of SEED、Here4Case and 627 Consulting won the top three prizes of JD Group’s “Comprehensive Transition from Corporate Logistics to Logistics Corporate” case.

competition site 

        Comments by Jia Peilin, the managing partner of Creditease Wealth Private Equity FOF

        Comments by Luo Yan, Vice President of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd

Comments by Tang Wei, Vice President of JD Group and also in charge of opening business for JD Logistics

Before the competition results were published, judges made professional  comments. As Sun Jijun mentioned, the final competition this year reflected the comprehensive quality and performance of Tsinghua MBA students. From analyzing the case to setting forth arguments, participants displayed their clear thinking, rigorous logic, and persuasive data. Their performance was remarkable in analyzing the development potential for enterprises in a point-to-area and increasingly deep manner, or in exploring common issues from different perspectives, whether in talking about “acquiring customers by enabling technology”or “corporate culture essence reflected in public poverty alleviation”. He also pointed out that there were two main inadequate aspects: the first is inadequate consideration of “people-oriented”,and students should take customers’ perspective as the determinating factor for choice-making, and the second is inadequate consideration of “enabling technology”, and students need to make more analysis on making use of technology in lowering costs, improving efficiency and balancing input and output for enterprises.

Comments by Sun Jijun, the sales manager of corporate service department of Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd

Gao Ping firstly made an introduction to Tus-Holdings Co. Ltd., Tus-Clean Energy and Tsinghua alumni who work for Tus-Holdings. As she mentioned, among hundreds of Tsinghua alumni working for Tus-Holdings, one third of them are Tsinghua MBA alumni. Wang Jiwu, Chairman of the Board of Tus-Holdings, currently serves as the President of Tsinghua SEM MBA Alumni Association. There are also dozens of colleagues proactively participating in work for MBA Alumni Association. As for the competition, she believes that different enterprises in different development phases encounter various kinds of problems, which are very much the same, and she enjoys learning new things in partipating the competition. Compared with cases in the time of herself as an MBA student of 1996, the competition cases now are more vivid. As for students’ performance, she is impressed by their informative and distinctive presentation. When they displayed themselves on the site, they could do even better if they focused on the vital point and penetrated in-depth to the essence. As a professional judge, she said she has gained a lot from the competition, including some potential cooperation opportunities. 

Comments by Gao Ping, Director for state-owned assets of Tus-Holdings Co. Ltd and also the Vice President of Tus-Clean Energy

Wang Xudong mentioned in his comments that as he had invested in some case enterprises of the competition, he had a strong feeling that the selected case enterprises this year were all of outstanding representatives in their industries and could stimulate MBA students to think deeply about cases. Students have made excellent presentation and performance in the final competition. He also explained about the three characteristics of the competition winners: the first is to have rich experience in the industry and to select the best way to analyze the problem; the second is to focus on corporate development and to set the direction of presention based on the trend of technology, policy and environment; the third is to emphasize on solving problems and to offer the best solution. He expected that students would pay more attention to medium and small-sized enterprises and provide relevant case support.

Comments by Wang Xudong, senior partner of Chinaequity Group

Professor Yu Chunling, president of the judging panel made a summary of this case competition and of the performance of participating teams. She expressed four special thanks. The first thanks goes to case enterprises for providing the most fresh cases frankly, which encourages students to explore the unknown field and to practise themselves in the real world. The second thanks goes to professors of Tsinghua SEM and teachers of the case centre for their efforts and devotion in the midst of pressing affairs, as well as to Sun Xiaoran and teaching assistants of the MBA Programs for their organization work. The third thanks goes to specialist judges for their whole-heartedly efforts and devotion. The fourth thanks goes to students for their striving for perfection and advancement. She raised three expectations for students, that is, to focus on cultivating practice-oriented thinking in study, to increase the sense of decision-maker with the transition from being“resourceful” to “decisive”, and to guide practice with theory and build one’s “insight” accordingly. She quoted three sentences as conclusion of her remarks, “to learn from theories to possess a clear mindset; to learn from practice to walk on smooth path; to learn from companions to have teams around” .

Summary by Professor Yu Chunling of the Marketing Department of Tsinghua SEM on the case competition this year

The case competition this year has concluded successfully. The competition, characterized by diversity, fully reflects the interdisciplinary, inter-college and departmental, and cross-cultural purpose of the competition. Among the 40 participating teams, the number of non-SEM teams have totalled 12. The 9 teams that have entered the final competition also include non-MBA student team, inter-college and departmental team and even international student team. Team SEED as the top prize winner is composed of five postgraduates of Department of Industrial Engineering of Tsinghua; the two second prize winners are Team Here4Case composed of four first-year postgraduates of Tsinghua SEM MiM , and Team United Nations as its name suggests composed of five Class G students of 2018 from five countries like the US, Canada and Venezuela. Being graceful on the stage and well mannered under the stage, students participating in the competition this year impressed the audience with their demeanour of “junzi”as said in Confucius that “He bows complaisantly to his competitors; thus he ascends the hall, descends, and exacts the forfeit of drinking. In his contention, he is still the Chün-tsze.”

Written by Ma Jun & Ma Jia

Appendix

Name list for winners of 2018 Tsinghua University Business Administration Case Competition

Tsinghua University Business Case Competition

Tsinghua University Business Case Competition (hereinafter called the “Case Competition”), as one of the traditional competitions of Tsinghua University, is hosted by Tsinghua SEM MBA Programs and academically supported by Tsinghua SEM China Business Case Centre.

The case competition started from 2005 and has been successfully held for 14 years. Over the past years, the case competition aims for innovation and active exploration of effective combination with real management problems encountered by enterprises. By building a brand new practice learning model and university-enterprise cooperation model, the competition achieves the integration of production and learning in the process of sharing education resources. Since 2016, the course Management Case Research Practice was launched at the same time of the competition, with the aim to promote the integration of teaching guidance and practice learning as well as the combination of field trip sharing and questioning exploration.

Management Case Research Practice Course

The course, launched specifically for students participating in Tsinghua University Business Case Competition, adopts brand new practice teaching model, organizes students for field trips to case enterprises, and invites specialists in the industry and consulting personnel to offer professional training on case study methodologies, with the aim to build a bridge between students and the industry for exchange and learning and to facilitate students with a better understanding of case study methods in the competition.