Last weekend our team from Renmin Business School IMBA program participated in the 5th International Finance Competition organized by the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy. This was the first time Renmin Business School took part in this event where 11 business schools around the world competed together on the highest professional level.

The preliminary round consisted of Part A in which the teams had to analyze a financial case given a week before about an oil company planning to invest into solar energy sector. We had to submit an executive presentation with a business plan evaluating the investment project using various financial tools. In the semi-finals, we were divided into three subgroups and made a BoD style presentation with an integrated business plan considering both the potential value and risk involved in the investment. Team INSEAD from our group entered into the final round of 3, while the team from the University of St. Gallen won the overall competition. We are very proud and honored to have represented Asia with the Renmin University of China and made it through the Semi-Finals of this prestigious competition.

The MBA Program Center and the Student Activity Department have provided us with an amazing platform to showcase our skills by conducting an internal competition focused on a financial case study to select the best members from the competing teams to represent RMBS. We received special coaching and continuous supervision from school management and would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Mr Vance Longjun Gong, an alumnus of RMBS, CFO of U Pie (China), Professor Majid Ghorbani, IMBA academic director and Ms Susan Zhang Jingbo from the Student Activity Department for insightful discussions and resource support.

As a member of the Global Network for Advanced Management, Renmin Business School actively participates in various events focused for the affiliated members such as the GNAM Investment competition, Yale Integrated Leadership Case Competition and others. Despite participating in the International Finance Competition for the first time, our team was able to convince the jury comprising professionals from the Energy, Consulting and Financial Services Industry as well as SDA Bocconi Professors. They praised our IMBA team for incorporating professionalism and having a top-notch quality in our presentation. What we could have done better was talked to more industry experts of the topic provided, (as other experienced teams of this competition did) as well as prepared more relevant project financing toolkits beforehand given the time limitation in the final rounds. Nevertheless, this competition provided an opportunity beyond the classroom for us as an MBA student to bring the academical knowledge into practical front and showcase the very tangible skills of management and finance, we have been able to develop through our courses in school.

The warm hospitality of the organizers allowed us to sample special Italian cuisine with a Milan-style Aperitivo and a beautiful view of Milan’s famous Duomo cathedral. Despite a short time, span, we got ample opportunities to learn about the culture, beautiful monuments, and make new friends from a similar background.

Above all, our visit to Italy got very special when we organized a Renmin reunion with the past exchange students from Europe. The Renmin International Alumni Society that we created since 2016 to connect with all the international students who studied in Renmin, was revitalized in Milan, Italy where friends from 7 different semester exchange batches came together and spent the time with us. Meeting them made our visit to Italy even more meaningful and those memories will be treasured forever.

Going to Italy with a special occasion to represent RMBS was an incredible experience and we cherish every memory we had from the competition as well as from the visits to the city. The platform was huge for cross-learning and networking with MBA students around the globe. I personally learned a lot throughout the process and will forever be using this experience to leverage myself and contribute to the school's reputation.

The experience from this competition has triggered a new perspective for us as MBA students in making both proactive and reliable business decisions for the future. We would once again like to congratulate the winning team for their spectacular performance and extend gratitude to the organizers SDA Bocconi for the invitation as well as to RMBS for providing this exposure for a lifetime. Collaboration like these shall always create synergistic value both for the school, the students and the alumni. 

The End.

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