Written by Nithid Pongcharoen, BBA#28

Scotiabank International Case Competition (SICC), one of the prestigious case competitions by Ivey Business School, is now on their 31^st year with 21^st year of sponsorship by Scotiabank. It is one of the most respected competitions which provides an opportunity to share an idea of business solutions from undergraduate students across the world. The competition is organized and managed mainly by Ivey students. The competition not only brings together the undergraduate students to be exposed to various industry, but also to joyfulness and different cultures from 17 teams across the globe.

Thammasat University was invited to be part of the competition and the team representing Thammasat Business School consisted of Akkhaphob Kanchanabandhu (BBA#26), Jisirin Poomsiri (BBA#26), Tanadol Sirichantakul (BBA#27), and myself, Nithid Pongcharoen (BBA#28). Our team is accompanied by our advisor, Ajarn Supawat Likittanawong.

Despite the compliance with government agencies? directives to prevent spreading COVID-19 pandemic and for the safety of the general public, SICC never compromises on their standards. Even the event is held online, we have a very warm welcome. SICC has a several ice breaking activities to strengthen the relationship and expose us to the differences in culture. These activities will give us a ?Spririt Cup points? that we have to accumulate and win the Spirit cup challenges. The first activity is the team introduction, where we post the Facebook to introduce ourselves and Thailand. Also, we share our quarantine activities and the fun facts. We get to know each other from the competition through this activity. Moreover, there are many activities that makes us feel like we really see each other on site such as Bingo, escape room, and trivia.

After several ice breaking activities, we are now in the case competition. On the case cracking session, we were briefed about the competition rules and format which consist of a 24-hours long case. It was an honor to solve the case of one of the most famous company in the banking industry, JPMorgan Chase &Co. The case is about how to come up with the technology or business model to capture the opportunity and eliminate threat of the upcoming tread, open banking. We spend 24 hours to analyze and come up with the business model that will align with the company?s vision and be able to retain the leader position in the industry.

Fortunately, the case format allows us to have 24 hours before presentation. After so many debates and slide production, we now have sometimes to sleep and prepare for the Q&A session. We list out the potential question and practicing the presentation with our best effort. Due to the time zone difference, we conduct a presentation at 8PM, but that does not limit our commitment. The presentation is delivered in a very clear manner. We did our best in the presentation and it is as perfect as it is designed to be. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the final round.

My first international case competition with case team members was a very memorable one as I learn from it and take a step further to my BBA life. This will not happen if there are no tremendous support from my team members and also our advisor Ajarn Supawat Likittanawong, and Dr. Worapong Janyangyuen who help us prepared for the case competition. Also, we would like to thank you P?Job who support and guiding us throughout this journey. Lastly, thank you BBA office who accompany us the entire event. We are blessed to have such a great opportunity.

Posted on April 2, 2021