Students Develop Mobile Wallet Financial Service Recommendations for Myanmar’s Ooredoo

2019 Russell Investments International Case Competition

On Saturday, November 16^th, the Seattle skies were cloudy and gray, however inside PACCAR Hall, the students who participated in the 2019 Russell Investments International Case Competition shone brighter.

After 48 hours of intense analysis, the 37 teams who participated in the case competition dazzled judges with their impressive recommendations based the case being used in the 2019 Russell Investments International Case Competition, “Launching Mobile Financial Services in Myanmar – The Case of Ooredoo” Gita V. Johar, Oded Netzer, and Alexandre Liege; Columbia Business School, Dec 2017; supplemented by the article, “Mobile money services make waves in Myanmar,” by Elliot Wilson, Mar 27, 2018.

Students played the role of outside consultants hired by Ooredoo, an international telecommunications company headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Teams analyzed both mobile financial service options (i.e., mobile wallet and OTC service) and recommended a future strategic direction for Ooredoo (given its most recent launch of a mobile wallet, M-Pitesan). Teams were tasked with analyzing the following uncertainties and opportunities: 1) Evaluation of Ooredoo’s decision to launch a mobile wallet, M-Pitesan, 2) Consider the impact of the decisions to launch M-Pitesan on key stakeholders, 3) Analyzing Ooredoo’s positioning vis-à-vis Telenor; specifically addressing the two competitors’ advantages in their respective spaces, 4) Make strategy recommendations for Ooredoo on a) expansion into the financial services space or B) Focus on core business in mobile telecommunications

The five top teams moved on to the final round. We would like to congratulate the five finalist teams:

Team 1 (B3): Audry Tjokro, Mario Ramlie, Helena Huray, and Euginia Natalie Wong

Team 2 (C5): Smrithi Sudip, Mikee Cagampan, Sam Kuo, and Natalia Villamil

Team 3 (E3): Ben DeLacy, Everett Buck, Jennifer Chen, and Peony Situ

Team 4 (A3): Jason Yang, Benny Zhi, Vittorio Rossi, and Siewon Kim

Team 5 (D3): Jonathan Alverson, Mac Anderson, Helly Shah, and Arun Solanky

After watching the final round teams present, the panel of finalist judges selected a winner. Of the five stellar finalist presentations, Team 3 took home the title of 2019 Russell Investments International Case Competition champions and $1,000. Team 2 took 2^nd place and won a $400 prize.

Congratulations to all of the teams, especially to the first-place team members, Peony Situ, Jennifer Chen, Ben DeLacy, and Everett Buck. The judges were impressed with their innovative solution, their realistic and comprehensive analysis, and how they handled the Q&A session.

Of the 37 teams that participated, nine of those were teams of Foster School Freshman Direct students who competed in their own track of the competition to win the title of Freshman Direct Champion and $400. We are excited to see these students getting involved so early in their Foster careers. The Freshman Direct Track winning teams were team F2, Samantha Schrantz, Emma Dahleen, Chloe Dahleen, and Jadon Park; and team G4, Josephine Beaudoin, Delgerekh Ariunbileg, Soren Dahl, and Hannah Chen.

For the first time, RIICC included a Masters Track. Five teams participated including students from four Foster Masters Programs. Each team gave an impressive presentation but Team H4 took home the title of Masters Track Champion.

Finally, this competition would not be possible without the support of our sponsor and partner, Russell Investments. The more than 145 student participants and the Foster School’s Global Business Center are so grateful for Russell Investments’ generous sponsorship of this flagship event.