MBA Blog: A Poster Team for Diversity

Current MBA student Monica Dee writes in her blog in Financial Times that it is vital for any professional in the corporate world, wherein you are often pushed out of your comfort zone to deal with countless individuals and difficult personalities.

Current MBA student Monica Dee writes in her blog in Financial Times that she learned a lot from the group meetings and discussions with her teammates, as well as panel discussion and presentations by other competing teams in the Hult Prize annual business case challenge.

The theme of the challenge this year was to address the early childhood education gap in urban slums. To compete with more than 20,000 teams worldwide, Dee took part in the Hult Prize business case challenge along with her another four teammates from CUHK MBA, including Dheerja Arora, Ixcoy Gabriela Angelika Groos, Lukas Schier and Pei Yao Candy Chiu.

From left to right: Dheerja Arora, Ixcoy Gabriela Angelika Groos, Lukas Schier, Pei Yao Candy Chiu and Monica Dee

Dee referred to her team as the Hult Prize ‘poster team’ due to their diverse set of backgrounds. Her team members came from five different countries including Taiwan, Guatemala, Germany, India, and the Philippines and had a variety of professional expertise, such as banking and finance, sales and marketing, operations, technology and education.

Dee pointed out that most of the team members she had never worked with before. This opportunity to mix is another benefit of the MBA. Since a natural tendency of people is to stick with a group they are used to or one that is similar to them, CUHK MBA provides students with extracurricular projects and competitions that create additional chances to meet and build lasting friendships with people outside one’s typical circle and the classroom setting. Dee feels that it is vital for any professional in the corporate world, wherein you are often pushed out of your comfort zone to deal with countless individuals and difficult personalities.

Dee indicated that a diverse team enabled them to cover a lot of ground due to our range of backgrounds. She also learned a lot from the constant group meetings and discussions with my teammates, regarding the case and how to polish our business model. Her team was given a chance to participate in a panel discussion and watch presentations by the other competing teams, which was a good way to exercise their brains and engage in intellectual interactions with other students from all over the world… Read More (PDF)

Source: Financial Times
Date published: 16 April, 2015