Thammasat undergraduate students scored the 1st prize for the fourth time under Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge, of which result of the 2010 version was unveiled on Saturday.
Hosted by Thammasat University together with PTT Chemical, the TUBC 2010 competition named the teams from Mahidol University and University of Melbourne as the runnersup.
This competition involved 15 teams of undergraduate university students from top universities around the world, each team consisting four students. During the competition only 40 hours were given to each team to solve a case study regarding Asean Materials Conglomerate (AMC), a company that deals with petrochemical materials, construction materials and paper materials. The big question was "How can AMC become the leading company in Asean?".
During those 40 hours, they were not allowed to contact the outside world. What they had was a computer where they can search for information. Certain websites such as Facebook and Hotmail were blocked.
"The 40 hours were tough. During the period, we had only 3 hours of sleep as we had to make the most of the given time," said Vorawan Wangpanitkul, a member of the winning team. Vorawan found that the key success to this competition was new ideas. The students need to be innovative and creative.
Joining the winning team were Sasirat Kittichungchit, Karanvir Singh Thakral and Tamonwan Chen, who said that during the competition they learnt about teamwork, how to work under pressure and not to give up and that the most important thing is encouragement and professionalism.
They were four from 15 teams shortlisted for the final round. The others were teams from University of Washington, University of Melbourne and Mahidol University International College. In this round, they were asked questions by six executive judges who disguised as AMC directors. They must do their best in answering the questions with proper analysis.
Judges Puntip Oungpasuk, executive vice president of PTT Chemical, and Oranuch Apisaksirikul, president of Tisco Financial Group, said that there were no "right" or "wrong" answers to the questions, as judges expected more in witnessing the teamwork, preparation in the presentation, and clarity in their answers.
From their observation, foreign students were good in persuasion, but their answers during the Q&A session were not convincing with poor presentation. Thai students were the opposite. They were poor at persuasion, but they excelled in analytical quality reflecting through the application of theories to the case.
They praised that the Thai students did their best in the Englishlanguage competition, though English is not their mother tongue.
"Whatever, this competition is designed to encourage students to express their thoughts in front of other people. Thai students have been shy of doing so, always sitting at the back and avoiding eye contacts with teachers."
James Paul Fitzpatrick, senior lecturer executive board member of Thammasat University, said that 13 years ago, a TU team enrolled into a competition in Texas. Such motivated students and encouraged the university to start TUBC. Aside from TUBC, the students have also been encouraged to join similar competitions hosted by other universities, and over the past 10 years, they have bagged the first prize from 12 contests.