Team of Business School Wins Bronze Prize

Recently, Beauties and Warrior, a cross-school team with teacher and students of the Business School as core members, won the fourth place and bronze prize in the 5th Global Student Challenge.

Started in 2013, the Global Student Challenge was jointly organized by the Netherlands Supply Chain Finance Community (SCFC) and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, aiming to narrow the gap between academia and the business community and to deepen the attention to the field of supply chain finance (SCF). Each year, the Competition attracts the participation of teams from top business schools around the world. Up to now, more than 10,000 contestants from over 600 universities of more than 100 countries have participated in the challenge. This year saw the participation of teams from over 50 universities in China, such as Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Fudan University.

The present contest asks the participants to simulate the actual operation of The Cool Connection, a company that is on the verge of collapse. The team consists of four members, the Procurement Director, the Sales Director, the Finance Director and the Supply Chain Director. The team makes a lot of analysis of the business situation to make up decisions leading to the normalization of operation and even the company becoming profitable. In round after round of competition, team members need to formulate and implement strategic and tactical decisions in time, optimize the company’s value chain and rationally apply relevant financing means, and ultimately enhance the company’s return on investment (ROI). The result of the competition shall be determined by the final ROI.

Under the guidance of He Wen, teacher of the Department of International Trade of the Business School, the members of the USST team, with close cooperation, eventually qualified for the finals in the China Competition and achieved good results.

In view of the excellent performance in the competition, during the Dutch Prime Minister’s visit to China this year, Professor Luo Fang, Dean of the Department of International Trade, and the team members were invited to participate in the Sino-Dutch Expert Forum on E-Commerce and Supply Chain, which was sponsored by the Dutch Delegation and the Dutch Logistics and Supply Chain Association, and hosted by the Dutch Consulate General in Shanghai. The theme of the conference was Dutch-Chinese E-Commerce, Supply Chain education, as well as industry-university-research cooperation. Delegates at the meeting analyzed the present education of the two countries and probed into the future of long-term cooperation.