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As part of the School's 45th Anniversary Celebrations, NUS Business School Gives Back was held to celebrate the spirit of giving back to society and recognising the people who were involved in these efforts.

Over 90 guests attended the event and were inspired by the efforts of our students, faculty, staff and alumni as we showcased their projects. Among the guests were Mr Keith Chua, Chairman of the Board for Advisors for Centre for Social Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, its board members as well as representatives from YMCA, Gawad Kalinga and Global Village International.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of a cheque of $10,000 to NUS Shatian Hope School, made possible by Assoc Prof Ho Yew Kee, Vice-Dean of Finance & Administration and Executive Education. This gift will sponsor a Hope School staff for NUS Business School General Management Programme and other expenses.

Participants had to apply their business knowledge, experience and business acumen to devise exceptional yet realistic and implementable business expansion strategies. The Grand finale on 27 Mar was graced by Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Teo Ser Luck and judged by an eleven member grand jury comprising of sponsors top management and leaders from diverse industries. After grueling rounds of presentations, Team Integrative Thinkers from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto emerged as Grand Winners. Team Chicago Energy from Booth School of Business, University of Chicago was first runner-up and Team BLSB from London Business School was second runner-up.

The Open House Campus Tour gave the School an opportunity to share the brand new premise, the Mochtar Riady Building, with its state-of-the-art teaching facilities, seminar rooms, student corners, and cutting-edge architecture

The competition judges included Ms Lena Teoh, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Credit Suisse, Ms Cheah Yit-Mee, CFA, Managing Director, UBS Global Asset Management, Mr Simon Flood, Chief Investment Officer, Lion Global Investors, Mr Robert Lewis, CFA, Managing Director, Novatera Capital, Mr James Cheng, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Assoc Prof Srinivasan Sankaraguruswamy from the Department of Accounting.

Missing luggage, crashing computer, and tough competitors – these are just some of the hurdles four BBA students faced at the Scotiabank International Case Competition. Despite that, Low Kah Kee, Chan Fun Ruey, Meghna Desai and Ong Hock Choon Jonathan emerged victorious and was named champion. The last time the School won the competition was in 2001.

Besides facing last year winner – Thammasat University, and other strong competitors in the first round, the team had one of the toughest cases in the recent history for this competition. The case on General Motors tested a variety of elements from marketing, finance, operations as well as in depth business strategy. As no Internet or external research sources are allowed during the competition, the team had to rely on their existing knowledge and utilise their strong analytical skills. For the finals, teams had to face 14 judges. The judges were all top level managers of major Canadian companies including Ms Sylvia Chrominska, Group Head, Global Human Resources and Communications, Scotiabank Group and Mr John Kelleher, President of R. J. McCarthy, Canada's biggest uniform retailer.

The judges felt that the team had a deep understanding of the case and truly understood the strategic intent of GM as a company. They were also impressed by the team's confidence during the Q&A session and presentation. Mr Kelleher mentioned that the team came up with financial figures that were close to his own estimates. Dr Sai Yayavaram, from the Department of Strategy & Policy, was the team mentor.

Team Focal Consulting Group, consisting of Caroline Ng Shi Yun, Tobias Chen Zhaonan, Hong Dongsheng and Toh Yongrui emerged second runner-up at the USC Marshall International Case Competition. Thirty top-ranked international business schools were invited to participate with NUS Business School being the only Singaporean team to be placed in the finals. With Disney-Pixar as this year's case company, the team impressed the judges with their in-depth understanding of the case. Assoc Prof Jane Lu, from the Department of Strategy & Policy, was the team mentor.

At the recent Singapore International Foundation Young Social Entrepreneurs competition, Team Mosaic, consisting of Soh Si En, Sheena Wee, Claire Gu Lele and Lai Wai Kit, was awarded the category award, “The Big Leap”, for their flexibility and creativity in adapting their business plan based on feedback from the judges.

Their business plan involved a centralised laundry service that hires the intellectually disabled. It rides on strategic collaborations between various parties, including Metta School and SMRT. Only six teams were shortlisted for this five-day intensive in-residence programme, where they learn the fundamentals of setting up a social enterprise from social entrepreneurs, ambassadors, consultants and hedge fund managers. Assoc Prof Albert Teo, from our Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy, mentored the team throughout the preparation stage.

Five MBA students - Yeung Chia Li, Alex Freberg, Shaswat Dhakal, Arthur Leung and Jayson Huang Chung-En - have been crowned the Champion for Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), Asian region 2010 on 27 Feb at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, India.

Unlike business plan competitions in which participants pitch their own ideas to investors, at VCIC the participants play the role of an investor, seeking to identify firms with potential to generate high commercial returns at an early stage. Real entrepreneurs pitch their business plans to these participants. After evaluating the plans, it's the participants' turn to pitch to the judges.

The team impressed the judges with their thorough assessment of the risk, robust knowledge of the VC process and excellent presentation and teamwork. They will now proceed to compete with eight other winning teams from top MBA Programs in the world at the International Finals, which will be held in April 2010 at Kenan – Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina.

After the performance it was time for the event everyone waited for. There were colors of every kind, some of which took days to come off. Everyone joyously immersed themselves in the celebrations and got painted in red, green, blue, pink and what not by their batchmates.

No Indian celebration is complete without good food. And it was delicious as they ravenously gorged upon the Indian delicacies.

All in all, it was a very memorable event made even more special by the enthusiastic participation of batchmates from other countries as well.

The facilitator for the evening was Asst Prof Jayanth Narayanan, and the topic for discussion was “Client – Consultant Co-operation, coping with complexity and change”

After a welcome address by Vice –Dean, Assoc Prof Quek Ser Aik, the moderator introduced the panellists to the audience and started the discussion. The panellists brought forward different perspectives to various aspects of the client consultant relationship, owing to their diverse backgrounds. A bit of humour in the discussion made the event more enjoyable. The discussion lasted for almost 90 minutes and it was followed by a dinner where students got to interact with the panellists, NUS MBA Alumni, industry experts and gained insights into the consulting world, which they are aspiring to be a part of.

Consultant Unplugged 2010, sponsored by Deutsche Post DHL and NUS MBA Alumni and organised by NUS Business School ended in a positive note with good feedback from both panellists and participants, and remains as one of the biggest learning experiences of NUS MBA. The event was a huge success and the NUS MBA Consulting Club looks forward to hosting another successful round of the event in the coming year.

On 23 Mar, a dinner was held for the alumni based in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. At the dinner, members of the KL alumni chapter were updated on the development within the business school and the key events in conjunction with the 45th anniversary.

Such dinners are important as it serves as an avenue for the alumni chapter to come together to network and plan for future activities.

According to Dr Mohamed Sultan, BBA (Hons) 1968, “The ambience was great and it's good to meet new alumni members at this dinner. All thanks to the Global Alumni Network Office. They are instrumental in linking up alumni globally”