The Financial Times FT MBA quiz pits teams of business school students the world over against each other. It also marks the launch of the annual FT MBA Challenge, in which students apply their skills to develop a business plan for the FT’s Seasonal Appeal partner which this year is the human rights organisation, Stop The Traffik.
The London-based Imperial College Business School has won for the third year in succession, the Financial Times FTMBA Quiz beating ten other teams from all over the world.
The Quiz, held at the Financial Times’ London office on March 10, was compered by FT Management Editor Andrew Hill.
Imperial’s team comprised Full-Time MBA students Jimena Gonzalez Mardjetko, Charaf El Mansouri and Sylvain Poncet, Weekend Executive MBA students Simon Broomfield and George Gowers, and Executive MBA student Faisal Dajani.
The team later attributed its victory to a combination of diversity and luck. The team had members from Argentina, Morocco, France and Britain. Each person drew upon their variety of experiences and knowledge which helped to cover the wide range of topics.
“Having a good bond with your team mates allows you to put egos aside and work your way to the correct answer using logic,” Team member Faisal Dajani said.
Imperial overcame challenge from 10 other schools including London Business School, Oxford Said Business School, Warwick Business School, Cass Business School, University of St Gallan, University of Surrey andFrankfurt School.
“We are extremely proud of the team for representing Imperial College Business School so well. To win three years in a row is quite an achievement and reflects the real-world business knowledge that our students demonstrate, and the brilliant minds we have here at the School,” Dean of Imperial College Business School Professor G ‘Anand’ Anandalingam said.
Entry to the Quiz was limited to one team per business school. There was no entry fee and the team could have three to six members. Held from 6pm-9pm, all teams participated in the first four competitive rounds, with the two leading teams then competing head to head in the final buzzer round.
The competition was stated to be tight throughout, with ties for first, second and third at the midway point, and Imperial three points ahead at the final buzzer.
However, the Imperial team remained confident. “Despite the pressure of having won it two years running and being behind until the final round, we kept cool and didn’t panic,” team member George Gowers said.
Meanwhile, FT said the 2016 MBA Challenge involved convincing corporate partners to promote the STOP app for collecting data and then develop the wherewithal to analyse it. If the app was widely adopted, analysts would be able to establish real-time trends on the activities of the traffickers and equip those working to prevent trafficking with timely actionable data.
This would be the fifth edition of the MBA Challenge. In the past years, teams have tackled issues like the social stigma faced by young people wearing glasses in developing economies, problems faced by children and young people in education worldwide and the logistical problems of delivering life-saving cancer drugs to children in developing economies.
