Friday Nov 29, 2024
Friday Nov 29, 2024
Monday, 30 June 2014 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The competition, which has been organised by CIMA for the past five years, aims at enhancing knowledge on how success is achieved and sustained in an organisation, and the ability to effectively communicate such knowledge. With ‘ImpACT’ as the theme for this year, the competition is said to contribute to facilitating cross-company knowledge sharing by giving exposure to cases that depict organisational success stories.
Teams of two to three participants from any organisation incorporated in Sri Lanka may register before 20 July, and all completed cases of about 4,000 words must be submitted on or before 10 September.
The cases will be judged by a panel comprising of Professor Uditha Liyanage as the Moderator and Chairman along with Dr. Travis Perera, Chanakya Dissanayake, Dr. Arul Sivagananathan and Manil Jayesinghe.
Assessment of the cases will be done by awarding points for clarity and relevance of the theme, methodology, analysis and findings, structure and presentation of the case, recommendations and practicability and applicability of findings.
The teams placed first, second and third will be awarded Rs. 200,000, Rs. 150,000 and Rs. 100,000 respectively.
Management concepts and application
Participants will also benefit by receiving a deeper knowledge about management concepts and its applications to business, and a deeper understanding about one’s own workplace strategies, value chain, process and competitive environment. It will also assist in contributing to the organisation’s learning and growth beyond one’s area of responsibilities and participants will be provided guidance and training on narrating an interesting and insightful case study.
The winner of the Business Case Awards 2014 along with their employees will also be announced and recognised in local print media. The winner will be provided the opportunity to present the key learnings from their case at the CIMA Business Case Awards Night 2014, where a video recording of interviews with the CEOs of the top three teams will also be aired.
A shorter narration of the winning case will be incorporated into a relevant global and local CIMA publication subject to meeting required standards of quality, while CIMA will also formulate a publication showcasing the best cases. The top five business cases also stand to be published in the business section of a local newspaper.
Importance
CIMA Sri Lanka Board Deputy Chairman and Aitken Spence chief corporate officer, Vipula Gunatilleka, spoke of the importance of a competition of this nature.
“It is a unique opportunity for young CIMA members and employers to share their success stories with the rest of the businesses” he said while adding, “They can elaborate on real life experiences in their own organisations and its impact. It is also encouraging to see if someone can share their mistakes or the blunders they have made in their corporate life.”
Gunatilleka added: “More importantly, they can share what actions have been taken to reverse or to mitigate such adverse effects. In my view, the courage to admit your mistakes and taking action is true leadership.”
Dr. Travis Perera from the panel of judges who also spoke at the event, presented valuable information about the technical aspects of making such a case study. Last year the competition saw 22 case submissions. With 22 cases also being submitted in 2012, it has seen a steady increase from the 15 submissions in 2011. Dr. Perera spoke of how the competition came to be,
“Since the 1960’s the Harvard Business School has been publishing corporate case studies for the purpose of learning and also understanding exactly what’s happening around the world,” while. “CIMA has been doing this case study for the last five years and the number of topics has been gradually increased in order to get more focus and we will introduce more topics in the future.”
Insights
Dr. Perera also provided some insight to hopeful candidates who may wish to take part this year. “Basically a case study is a good story, which is underlined by an interesting plot. Who are the people involved, how did it happen and what made it happen? It should be well made and constructed. There must be a chronological sequence of events. It has to be written well and it should be good reading.”
The event also featured last year’s winners, Sasanke Jayawardene, Pradeep Manthreerathna and Thilina Abeygunawardena of the John Keells Group to further inspire and advice prospective participants. Team leader, Jayawardene spoke of his experience and presented the winning case study on behalf of his team.
“When you take part in a competition like this you need to be inspired. For us the inspiration came from within,” he said, while also commending the support his team received from family members to put in the extra hours of work, as well as their colleagues who supported them by listening to their presentation and asking questions in preparation for the actual presentation before the panel.
- Pix by Upul Abayasekera
