McDonough hilltop business strategy challenge, held at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Was another exiting and world class case competition BBA Thammasat sent a team of students to this year. The competition was help over the period from 3^th Feb to the 9^th Feb, and the team consisted of Nicholas (BBA#19), Thanchanok (BBA#19), Nanthinee (BBA#19), and Pakapol (BBA#21).

The competition opened with a chance to get to know the other participants from universities all over the world. The opening ceremony was held in The City Tavern Club, a club over 200 years old, whose past regulars have been former presidents such as Ronald Regan and George Bush. The case cracking began the next day. The competition was a little different from other competitions in that there was a ?live case presentation?, followed by reading the case, then a Q&A session where the participants had the chance to clarify any uncertainties they had about the case with the company?s management team, and finally the 36 hour case cracking period.

The case was a non-profit organization, National Industries for the Blind (NIB), whose mission was; to enhance opportunities for the blind through creating and sustaining employment. The organization had an exclusive contract with the US government (the main customer of NIB), which stated certain products such as stationary and sanitary equipment must be bought through National Industries for the Blind. The organization had limited presence in the private market, thus with government spending cuts and digitalization NIB had seen little growth in creating jobs for the blind.

After our presentation we felt as if our recommendations were optimal for NIB, however the results didn?t sway in our favour. The judges were academics, professional business people, and members of the management team from NIB. We hope our recommendations will be considered in the next management meeting at NIB and see our work make a real impact on the blind society. 

All in all, by participating in this competition, not only that we have developed ourselves intellectually, exposed ourselves to different cultures, and had much fun in doing so, but also gained lifelong friends from universities from around the world.

All of this would not be possible without the support from the BBA program, thus we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the BBA program for the support. A special thanks to our advisor P?A who helped the team emotionally and intellectually through every step of the competition!

Written by Nicholas Miron (BBA#19)

Posted date: February 24, 2014 ? 13:35 Hrs.