ACCA students’ committee corporate race a success

Thursday, 18 April 2013 00:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The ACCA corporate race, organised by the students’ committee of ACCA was a thrilling, race against time, where 12 teams battled it out for the winning cash prize of Rs. 15,000.

This year, the teams comprised of ACCA tuition providers that consisted of Cosmopolitan College of Business and Technology CCBT that had two teams participating, Mercury Institute of Management with two teams participating, Knowledge Abet Institute of Management Studies (KAIMS), Knowledge Based Business Studies KBBS, and Neptune Edification Kandy.

The non-ACCA teams that took part in the event were Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology APIIT, Business Management School (BMS), Spartans and International College of Business and Technology (ICBT).

The teams faced challenges at the corporate offices/outlets of six chosen companies. The companies participating in this event were from diverse sectors that included Ernest and Young for a challenge in outsourcing , Unilever for a challenge on employer branding, Amba Research Lanka for a challenge of capital market investments, Brandix Mercury that included a challenge on what can differentiate Brandix as a Finance and Accounting outsourcing service provider in the international market of outsourcing, Bread Talk that consisted of a challenge on product promotion and customer feedback and Grand Oriental Hotel in a challenge on marketing enhancements .The race commenced at 8:15 a.m. from the Independence Square, with a Captains race, in which APIIT emerged winners, the teams dispersed from Independence Square to face six different challenges at each of the respective organisations.

At each organisation, the teams had to complete challenges that tested their skills, knowledge, intelligence, ability to think on their feet and time management. Each team was given 30 minutes to complete a given task.

The winners were judged on the number of tasks they have completed and the total marks that they have obtained as a result.

The event was followed by a networking cocktail event where the winners were presented with their awards. This year’s winners consisted of the second runners up, Mercury team one captained by Umar Fareez and the KAIMS team captained by Pasindu Jayarathne, where the awards were handed over by ACCA Sri Lanka Head Nilusha Ranasinghe. The first Runners up, was the BMS team captained by Dhanuka Konara who received their award from Ernest and Young Senior Director of transaction, advisory and services Praveen Ruberu. The winners of the corporate race were the CCBT team two captained by Priyanka Kathirvel who carried away the award given by Amba Research Lanka Pvt. Ltd Vice President Sarah Yousuf.

Speaking at the event Nilusha Ranasinghe stated: “I strongly believe that events of this nature are focused on developing the leadership abilities of our students, which is an important skill that they require in today’s corporate world. To develop organisational leaders we need to understand how requisite skills are acquired over the course of people’s careers, specially at the very initial stages of them as students where the importance of such skills need to be ingrained in them.

“This is what we try to do through initiatives such as the corporate race that gives them an insight into what is required of them in the corporate world.”