Thoughts of an Accounting Student: The CIMA Global Business Challenge

Last year, shortly after winning the award for 'Best Presentation' in ACCG315, my team mates approached me about this CIMA Global Business Challenge and how they needed a fourth member to enter. At first, I was hesitant with being able to commit to such a large project and to give it my all. I told them that I wouldn't make any promises, and that they should ask just about everybody else first (they would be able to claim points for the Global Leadership Program) and I would join if nobody else wanted to. (They disagreed). One member started pestering me about it and I decided that it would be a good learning experience (from the in-depth case study as well as the team work experience). I thought that as the task was to write a report and my team mates were not native English speakers, I wouldn't be completely useless. (I'm kidding, just in case it wasn't obvious.) So I finally agreed to be the fourth member of their team. I don't know why they were so insistent on me joining them, somehow they were under the impression that I was intelligent.. (another joke.)

Not long after we registered as a team, we received a case study that was about 20 pages (not even exaggerating) plus a scenario that was about 6 pages (from memory). It was on the oil and gas industry and had five main issues that we needed to prioritise, address and provide recommendations for. Not going to lie, seeing the amount of information we had to process then produce a quality report out of was intimidating and seemed arduous. Thankfully, I had my team mates and being around them highly motivated me and prevented me from distracting myself. After reading the complete case study and scenario, I felt a lot more confident because it wasn't as hard as I had built it up to be in my mind. Soon, we volunteered ourselves to certain issues and got started. I had two issues to address, regarding ethics and the company's public image. Once I started, the ball was rolling and it pretty much flowed from my mind. I also put in extra research, checking on what other industries in the E&P (exploration and production) industry was doing.

Of course, I volunteered to then give the whole report a good once-over to check over grammatical errors. This wasn't as laborious as I thought it would be and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of our report, (not that I had ever doubted our team). I gained a lot of confidence after seeing the final product and was really proud of our team. I didn't mind if nothing came out of it because I was just proud of what we had produced. I was amazed by Julian's dedication to the project, even adding additional parts to what I had written. He really went above and beyond.

After a couple of emails back and forth to Nicole and some help from Macquarie's team last year, we made sure our report fit the requirements and finally submitted it. We were all happy, having completed the project and continued back to our daily lives, not giving the report another thought. To be honest, we undertook the project, not even thinking about the final prize; for the most part, my team wanted to be able to claim GLP points for our participation.

Then the unexpected happened. Several weeks later, we received an email, congratulating us as we had been shortlisted to the Australian national finals! About 40 teams in Australia had entered the competition. When my team mates first notified me of this, I was overjoyed. Then, a feeling panic set in. We were required to present our report to a panel of judges. In public. I generally don't have too much of a problem with speaking in public, except when I was required to memorize a bulk of information. Blanking out and forgetting what I had to say was my biggest concern. There was also the 10 minute question and answer session to consider too, which could easily make or break us. I was also worried that I wouldn't have enough to say but it turned out that I had trouble cutting things out. We had about a week and a half to prepare for our presentation which was during a critical time in the semester, I distinctly remembered having to submit 3 assessments, 3 days in a row the week before we had to present.

I think I spent about the same amount of time if not more trying to cut out parts of my speech as I spent writing it. But I spent countless hours rehearsing and trying to remember and practicing my speech. I was really worried because even when I was able to remember it without looking at my page, I still got nervous when I practiced in front of my team members. I think I also had the pressure of being under the time limit. I also volunteered to give a summary of our presentation so I had to remember a bit more information.

Even until the day of the final, I was still stumbling a little bit and it worried me and I could tell it worried Julian too. But after taking a break, as we traveled to the hotel, I felt calmer. I knew that I knew my speech by heart. When we arrived, we were led into a room and told that we were last to present. We had to wait one and a half hours before we could present. While this meant that we had time to practice, we wouldn't be able to watch the other teams present. The long amount of time

before our presentation also made us nervous. We were told that it wasn't good if we were last due to strategic reasons, being compared to other teams but I don't think it made too much of a difference.

When it was our turn to present, I think for the most part, it went smoothly. Unfortunately, I was caught off guard with the questions. I had actually prepared some answers related to my topic but the question asked was not really connected to what I had prepared. It was a shame. Julian stepped in. I had never admired him more than at that moment. Even though he wasn't the strongest English speaker (he honestly has great English skills though) he really saved the day and had something to say about everything.

We came third which we were grateful for. Although we weren't going to Poland, I still think it was a great outcome. We made friends with the other teams and had a great night overall, for me, mainly because I had overcome another challenge and that after this, I would be able to focus on studying for the upcoming finals (but that is another story). It was a great experience and I couldn't have done it with better people. Without my friends' dedication and slight coercion (kidding) we would not have made it this far. I just have the greatest respect for my team mates and they just have this positive energy that is so contagious. Here are some photos from the night.