QUT Business School's combined MBA and EMBA team has blitzed the Sasin mai Bangkok Business Challenge for the second consecutive year, taking the top prize for the best venture plan and presentation and accolades in other categories.
The team of Kerrie Muir, Barry Hankinson, Brandon Miller, Damian Seaton was coached by Dr Peter Beven and demonstrated their skills in business planning and persuasive presentations over a gruelling couple of days at the prestigious business school's annual business case competition.
Dr Beven, who coached QUT's 2013 winning team, said the team competed against 48 international business schools from 20 countries.
"The competition is backed by the Thai Stock Exchange and industry and is the showcase venture planning event across Asia," Dr Beven said.
"The team presented a plan for a proposed new venture, the Lemna Cropping System, an innovative real-world agribusiness which produces protein from an aquatic plant that is found around the world for use as a feed for intensive animal farming.
"The plant has the real potential to replace traditional crops in particular soybean using lower volumes of water, having the same, in fact, better nutritional qualities and is many times more productive.
"The team was able to cover and promote every aspect of the business and make presentations to a judging panel which included consultants, and venture capitalists from Asia, US and Europe, CEOs and board members of large global corporates led by the chair of Toshiba Asia.
"They faced very intense competition from the likes of Cornell and Rice universities in the US, Singapore's Nanyang University and INSEAD one of the world's largest business schools with a combined team from Singapore and Europe."
Team member Kerrie Muir, who was the team's director of operations, said it had been her first competition but she now "had a taste for it".
"It was quite daunting because of the calibre of the other universities but the feedback from the judges and the experience are just invaluable," Ms Muir said.
"To be judged by real business people and entrepreneurs who make their living by picking winners, was just amazing."
Dr Beven said the key to the team's success was their poise and cool heads, teamwork, and years of experience in their own businesses or working life.
"Their professionalism and experience stood out in the intensive Q&A session by the judging panel which was aimed at really testing their knowledge of the business under fire," he said.
"The QUT team also received the award for the best business plan and the best presentation in their group and they also were voted among one of three most professional teams alongside two US universities.
"All students in QUT's EMBA program are working in the real world and are business graduates so they bring a vast array of skills, expertise and experience to the table.
"The team was approached by some six or so investors to make this a reality showing they are onto a winner here."
"As we have moved the EMBA and MBA towards focusing on real ventures and projects the quality and experience of students is really allowed to flourish and its really heartening to show that QUT can not only compete with the 'big boys' but show how it's done."
Dr Beven said the team's success at Sasin had brought an invitation to participate in the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition in Austin, Texas to pitch the venture to US venture capitalists in April.
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Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
