UF undergraduates take top spot in Singapore competition

October 25, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A team comprised of four of Warrington’s top business students took the top prize at the Asian Business Case Challenge, an international, invitation-only business case competition recently held in Singapore. The Oct. 8-13 event, hosted by the Nanyang School of Business (Nanyang Technological University), was the first international case competition in which Warrington undergraduates have ever participated. The team members were Shae Ferguson, Montana Massa, Caroline Etter, and Seth Mollitt, team captain.

Competing schools included: Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand), the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of South Carolina, Erasmus University (the Netherlands), Thammasat University (Thailand), the University of British Columbia (Canada), the University of Otago (New Zealand), the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Washington.

The case focused on Keppel Offshore and Marine, a Singapore-based firm since 1968 and one of the most successful builders of oil rigs in Asia. The teams acted as strategic consultants and had the task of formulating a strategy for sustainable growth through prosperous times and during economic downturns. They were asked to implement the client’s growth strategy, to identify the contingent factors relevant to the strategy, and to prepare and present their recommendations at the next management Committee meeting.

Following the initial round, three schools, in addition to Warrington, were named finalists: University of South Carolina, Nanyang School of Business and Erasmus University.

The Warrington team’s trip was sponsored by UF’s Undergraduate Programs in Business. In addition to the case competition, the students participated in roundtables with executives from Ernst and Young, Asia-Pacific Bloomberg, Singapore Airlines and others during their visit. They also took time to tour the city and sample all the amenities the Pacific Rim business capital has to offer.