After five months of hard works and dedication, BBA students of Thammasat University are honored to bring the victory of the CFA Stock Analysis Challenge in the 2019 – 2020 CFA Institute Research Challenge in Thailand. This year, the competition started on 28th September 2019 and ended on 15th February 2020. In total 16 teams, including both undergraduate and graduate students from all over Thailand, competed for the chance to represent Thailand, having “WHA Corporation PCL” as the subject company. After a kick-off meeting and company visit, eight teams were selected as semi-finalist teams according to score ranking of the 10-page research report. Semi-finalist teams were given the challenge to deliver a ten-minute presentation to the panel of judges about the subject company analysis and the stock trading recommendation, as well as a challenging 10-minute Q&A session. Then the four finalists face a more challenging challenge to be named the winner.
The students’ team comprised of Bhan Janejarassakul, Natthasak Inthasaeng, Palita Varojpiputhn, Praweena Manop, and Sanipat Kosiyaporn from BBA #25. The students express appreciation to Dr. Worapong, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pantisa, Asst. Prof. Dr. Anchada and BBA Alumni for the valuable guidance and intensive courses for the competition. The team also reveals that they have to apply all the experiences and knowledge they learn in the past 4 years from BBA Thammasat University to take on the challenge and write the report for the subject company. Their outstanding analyzing the challenge, presentation skills, and answering questions land them on the first price.
The beginning of the competition
Palita Varojpiputhn says that, before being the representative of the school, they have to pass the audition process within the faculty. In the audition, the project advisors ask students to compete by presenting 3-minute stock pitching, writing a report on simulation group recommendation challenge, and attending a one-on-one interview with the project advisor teacher to evaluate the readiness and attitude toward the challenge. Then the advisor chose 5 students to be the representative in the competition.
The difficulties of the challenge
Natthasak Inthasaeng one of the students says, “This competition is a very tough challenge. The subject company’s stock analysis report was complicated, since WHA Cooperation PCL, as an industrial estate company, has an elaborate budget and business model. Dealing with business, industrial park, logistics, water and electricity, and digital business model, the team spent a lot of time studying the basic budget and company’s structure.” Palita Varojpiputhn also adds, “Not to mention that it is not something we are familiar with. The brief was about B2B business (Transactions between business) which is not the same as the purchases we make on our daily lives. So, to come up with a suitable solution we have to take a step back and look at the whole situation and think about the impact on the country’s economy as well.
The strength of the team
Praweena Manop says that one of the strong points of their team is the BBA network. The supports from lecturers and senior are very important to the team. She strongly believes that the in-class lesson is not the only place students can learn. Sometimes it could be outside of the classroom with a group of people, especially a strong network like one in BBA.
Praweena also mentions that the last Q&A is the turning point for the team. BBA students have plenty of chance to practice creating a presentation and gain other useful experiences. The team was not only applying all the knowledge, but they also have done a lot of preparation work to plan for answering the questions from the judge. “The preparation” is our strength.
Having won the national round, the students from BBA Thammasat Team are now ready for the Asia Pacific Regional competition, which will be held from March 18 – 19, 2020. The team will go up against other teams from different Asian countries, the winner of the region will subsequently represent Asia-Pacific at the global round in New York.