Three students Hng Jia Ming (School of Civil Engineering), Teh Yee Bryan (School of Electrical Engineering) and Chin Chia Yuan (Azman Hashim International Business School) have emerged as First Runner-up in the Nordic Business and Design Case Competition (NBDC 2019). The competition was organized by Design Finland 100, an innovative platform bridging the Nordic region and Southeast Asia through intelligent design and technology solutions. The award ceremony was held at Aalto Executive Education Academy, Singapore.
In this competition, participants have to conduct in-depth case study on the given Nordic company and design a business proposal that contains vital elements such as market identification, key industry players, competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, customer profile, Go-to-market strategies and communication plan. This business proposal will enable the Nordic companies to identify new growth strategies and partners in Asian market and recognise the challenges as well as opportunities that the Asian growth engine provides.
Jia Ming, Bryan and Chia Yuan were given a task to design business proposals for Filippa K and Finland Consulting Group (FCG). Filippa K is one of the strongest fashion brands in Sweden and the company has been working towards a more sustainable business through development of long lasting simplicity, circular design and curated wardrobe concepts. As for FCG, they provide customers with consultation, training, multi-field infrastructural, environmental and urban design and software business services both domestically and abroad. The team was tasked to identify which Asian market should Filippa K invest in to expand its influence and which market in the Sub-Saharan Africa should the FCG venture into in order to be the leading consulting firm from the Nordic.
To make the whole thing worth celebrating, they were the only team from Malaysia universities who made it to the final and received an award. The fact that two of them are not from business and finance background and yet excelled in a business-centric competition is very inspiring indeed it ought to be an example for other UTM students to not limit themselves and always be eager to learn new things out of their field of study. Thank you for making Malaysia and UTM proud !