Annabelle Low, GMBA Class of 2018 (and many other members of the GMBA family)

This is the first installment in a new series of columns entitled Yay or Nay. Each issue, the Gateway Team will speak to current students to understand their perspectives on various opportunities related to the GMBA program.

To kick off this series, we will delve into competitions. Given the existing workload, should MBA students join competitions? Do you really learn anything from them? Are competitions really useful in furthering an MBA student’s career? What are the opportunity costs to keep in mind? We asked our classmates for their views on competitions in Tsinghua SEM:

Yay

I’ve taken part in two local business case competitions – one team comprised locals and internationals; the other was a purely international team. While I am mindful it is unrealistic to compete with locals when it comes to domain knowledge, I chose to participate as I wanted to gain experience with the consulting process, work with local students, learn practical insights into how Chinese businesses operate, and get to know the Chinese market better. An intermediate knowledge of Chinese is an advantage, as while some competitions allow you to submit your proposals in English, most of the case materials are in Chinese. My business Chinese has improved! I’ve learned it is critical to understand local tastes and consumer habits, because what works overseas may not work for the Chinese.

Annabelle Low, Class of 2018 (Malaysia)

I’ve taken part in three competitions so far – CreditEase, an intervarsity VC one, and the Tsinghua Business Case competition. My teams placed first, third, and first, respectively. I think I may have joined too many competitions in my first semester, but I’ve made a lot of good friends during the process. The experience was rewarding, but it was also very tiring and time-consuming! For example, the VC competition occurred during our mid-term examinations. So I’d suggest joining only if you are able to manage your time well. The most important thing to keep in mind is to choose your teammates wisely. If you can, form a team with the part-time MBA students, as they have vast experiences to learn from.

The allocation of work is also critical – take on a part that is in line with your skill set, knowledge and experience – don’t commit to something that you can’t do. I’d also recommend being strategic in choosing which competition to join – pick something that you are interested in or think would help you in your career. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for someone who was interested in venture capital to join a consulting competition. Also, pick a good team name for good Feng Shui!

Di Bao, Class of 2018 (China)

I participated in the CreditEase and Tsinghua Business Case competitions, where my teams placed third and first, respectively. I was team leader for both. For me, I learned the most about how to unite a team in a common vision. We do not have to win, but I learned how to set internal, achievable goals and work together with my team towards those goals. As long as you have a reasonable direction for the case and you’ve done your due diligence, you can’t be too far off. It is important to pick a holistic strategy that is practical and executable, rather than something conceptual.

These cases are absolutely doable, as the competitions are open to the entire School of Economics & Management. I recommend that MBA students take part in one to two competitions. Some students may come from relatively more specialized roles that may not be directly related to business, but these competitions are quite dynamic and require you to learn about working as a team and supporting each other to reach a common goal under tight deadlines.

Raymond Lv, Class of 2018 (China)

Nay

I participated in one business case competition at the very beginning of the semester. Although it was a very interesting experience, it made me realize that, on top of the classes, competitions consume a lot of time and effort. This is something you have to consider because, to put it simply, Tsinghua life in general and the MBA program in particular offer you a fantastic variety of events, lectures, and activities. Even though you would love to do everything, you can’t, because your time is limited and you will have to prioritize. In other words, it’s all about tradeoffs. In my case, most of the first semester courses were brand new subjects I needed to spend time on. On top of that, it was quite clear that my priority was (and still is) to learn Chinese. I also needed time for socializing and attending additional lectures and classes about China and world politics (it’s amazing what Tsinghua has to offer). As a result, I decided not to participate in any more business competitions and to focus mostly on Chinese and coursework (preparing for class, attending class, reading the course material every week, doing homework, regularly contributing to group projects, and preparing for mid-terms and/or finals). Of course it’s not a general rule, and everybody decides what to do according to his or her priorities. But if you are a foreigner looking forward to learning Chinese and to getting the most out of the MBA classes, there is a good chance that participating in business case competitions will not be your priority, especially in the first semester.

Paolo Scroccu, Class of 2018 (Italy)

Generally, I think that competitions are a positive experience because they help develop skills and suit the diverse needs of students, as people have different goals in the MBA program. I participated in a CreditEase competition, which took place before the first semester started. I might have benefited more, however, if I could have participated in this at the start of the second year instead, after we have actually learned some business knowledge, as participating in a consulting competition with almost zero business knowledge is a daunting task. Former consultants and those with business analysis backgrounds have an advantage here. After a while, it was clear the competition was not the most effective use of my time and skills at that moment, so I dropped out of the competition halfway through.

There is also the danger of students jumping onto the bandwagon and joining as many competitions as possible. While it is good that they want to make the most of the opportunities Tsinghua offers, this means that less time is devoted to actual graded courses required for graduation or other extracurricular options that may in some cases be more individually valuable. If the student is confident he can participate in these competitions without compromising the quality of his contributions to team projects or sacrificing other critical time investments, then I’d say go for it.

Meng Zhang, Class of 2018 (China)

In addition to intervarsity and international competitions, Tsinghua SEM offers several competitions open to local and international MBA students in the fall semester:

Tsinghua MBA-CreditEase SME Business Case Competition

Students are tasked with forming teams and providing external consultancy services for participating small and medium enterprises (“SMEs”). The competition aims to help MBA students gain an understanding of the challenges SMEs face in their development.

Annual Tsinghua Business Case Competition

A staple of the Tsinghua MBA calendar, this bilingual competition has been offered to MBA students since 2005. Teams are tasked with analyzing real cases from participating Chinese businesses and offering solutions.

Flextronics Business Ethics Case Writing Competition

This competition requires participants to conduct in-depth research and analysis and to write an original case study on business ethics within a Chinese context.