A team of four UIC students seized top place as well as received the Best Performance Team award at the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) Business Case Competition 2019 Mainland China, which was held in Shenzhen on 30 November.

The HKICPA Business Case Competition is an inter-tertiary event aimed at developing university students’ business skills, cultivating their professional judgment and preparing themselves for the business environment.

(From left, back row) UIC's Programme Director of Accounting Mr Joseph Liang, Dean of DBM Prof Stella Cho, HKICPA’s President Mr Patrick Law, Vice Presidents Mr Johnson Kong and Mr Nelson Lam, UIC's Assistant Professor Dr Jianqun Xi with the champions

In the past 17 years, the competition has grown to a triumphant event drawing teams with diverse business backgrounds and has received accolades and support from eminent professionals and academics across the profession.

This year, around 400 teams from 59 universities in Mainland China enrolled in the competition. A total of 44 UIC teams from the Division of Business and Management (DBM) participated, 13 teams got into the second round and one team entered the final round.

The winning team were Year 3 students of DBM: Yifeng Zhong(Accouting), Yingying Zheng(Finance), Xiaomei Tong(Finance) and Jincheng Yu(Accouting), supervised by Assistant Professor Dr Jianqun Xi as well as advised by the Dean of DBM Prof Stella Cho, Associate Dean Dr Donna Chan and Programme Director of Accounting Mr Joseph Liang.

Leader of the winning team Yifeng Zhong explained how their final presentation analysed a luxury hotel in the hospitality industry. They used the balanced scorecard to measure the finance, cost management, internal operation, marketing, business ethics and more issues and put forward their solutions.

The champions as well as the Best Performance Team recipients were awarded cash prizes of HKD12,000 and QP (HKICPA Qualification Programme) fee waivers in addition to gaining internship opportunities.

(From left) Yifeng Zhong, Jincheng Yu, Xiaomei Tong and Yingying Zheng

Dean Stella Cho praised the students’ performance and said: “Our students can apply the accounting and management concepts and knowledge they have learnt in class to analyse the case problem which is a company in the hotel industry. Our team can provide practical and feasible solutions to address the business issues facing the company. Students are presentable and they are well prepared to address judges' questions in the Q&A session.”

“Students are confident as they have been rehearsed vigorously under advice from the team supervisor and the Division advisors before the competition. In addition, for all DBM students who participated in this year's competition, they were invited to attend two business case analysis training workshops organised by the Division and offered by former DBM teacher Mr Ben Wong,” she continued.

Supervisor Dr Jianqun Xi added, “My students performed very well during the competition due to the time and efforts spent during the past few weeks.”
 
“I believe cooperation among team members is quite critical,” Dr Xi mentioned. “Support and advice from other colleagues has also contributed to the team's success.”

Reporter: Deen He
Photographs supplied by DBM
Editor: Samuel Burgess
(from MPRO)