Cerebration 2012

Cerebration 11
With Cerebration 2011, the competition doubled in size with close to 600 MBA teams participating from all around the globe. Participants developed brand strategies for a major technology company looking for expansion into emerging markets, market entry strategy into the Russian market for a global mining major and formulated sustainable green strategies for an oil & gas MNC. Team Cerebration left no stone unturned in executing a world class competition with finalists spanning London Business School, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and Indian School of Business.

Cerebration '10
Cerebration 2010 continued with its tradition of hosting a magnificent event that attracted over 300 entries from business schools from over 30 countries. An effort that took 9 months in the making the team of '10 spared no making a truly memorable event for the participants, judges, dignitaries and the MBA cohort at NUS itself.

The competition attracted registrations from most of the top business schools while attracting newer entries from top-notch schools in United States and Europe. Through its unmatched rigorous filtration process, the competition ensured that the best teams came forward to compete in Asia's biggest business case challenge.

The final winners were the team "Team Integrative Thinkers" from University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. University of Chicago - Booth School of Business were judged the runners up and the 3rd place was bagged by London Business School. In addition to the winners, IE Business School – Madrid, Nanyang Business School, and Rutgers - The state University of New Jersey were the other finalists which were flown to Singapore.

Cerebration '09
Over the years, Cerebration has focused on helping solve real world business problems for real companies. While helping these companies grow their business, Cerebration has seen a phenomenal growth as well. The event received a record 500 entries from over 120 business schools spread across 6 continents - the highest entries ever received by any business school, making Cerebration 2009 the world's largest business case competition to be managed entirely by MBA students.

The huge success of this event was possible due to the support of case sponsors AsiaTravels.com, Best World International and HealthSTATS International who provided the teams live cases to work on. Cerebration 2009 served gave these companies an opportunity to draw on the talents of the best business schools over the world.

The entries received were filtered through three rounds of judging over 3 months done by our faculty as well as the case sponsors. In the first round 54 teams were selected based on their executive summaries. The qualifying teams then sent their completed reports, which were screened through further two rounds to progressively bring down the number of teams to 27 and then to the 6 semi-finalist teams who were flown to Singapore.

The semi-finals was a tough challenge where two teams for each of the three case sponsors were competing with each other to become one of the three finals teams. The decision was tough in each case with each team demonstrating its unique strengths: some were refined in their presentations while others were more thorough with their research work. The three teams that ultimately made it to the finals were NYU Stern, Duke Fuqua and IIT-Bombay.

The event wasn't supposed to be all work and no fun. The evening was a nice retreat at an open air exotic restaurant with free flow of drinks for the teams and volunteers.

The Grand Finale was truly grand at the Kent Ridge Guild House inside the NUS campus. The 200 strong audiences comprised of leading industrialists, journalists, professors and students. The presentations were brilliant and were made even more exciting by the incisive questions asked by the distinguished panel of judges. The team from Duke, Fuqua School of Management came out as clear winners.

Cerebration 2009, the world's biggest battle of mind and matter, took 8 long months of arduous preparation and the NUS MBA cohort proved its mettle in making it happen.

Cerebration '08
Cerebration 2008 continued with its tradition of hosting a magnificent event that attracted over 450 entries from business schools from 6 continents. An effort that took 9 months in the making the team of '08 spared no making a truly memorable event for the participants, judges, dignitaries and the MBA cohort at NUS itself.

The competition attracted registrations from most of the top business schools while attracting newer entries from top-notch schools in United States, Venezuela and Africa too. Through its unmatched rigorous filtration process, the competition ensured that the best teams came forward to compete in Asia's biggest business case challenge. The international scale of the event was quite interesting with a team from a leading Canadian business school recommending a Hong Kong directed business expansion strategy for a local Singaporean company. In its fifth year, Cerebration is now shaping up to not only retain its current status but also create a reputation for itself among the Asian business community.

The year saw yet another round of interesting companies that are poised for international growth. An ornamental fishing farm, a rejuvenating spa and a microbrewery, all together created some interesting case studies accompanied by equally interesting business recommendations by the participants. The judging panel too offered the brightest of minds in the Asian region with key personnel from DBS, SAP, Direct Marketing Association of Singapore, ABN Amro, Cleanway-KLC group of companies, Radcliffe Invertron and the Case sponsors themselves.

In addition to the winners, HEC Montreal, three other teams from NUS Business School, London Business School and McGill University made it into the finals held at Grand Hyatt, Singapore. The winning team, Team 'Morning Glory' comprising MBA students Montu Gupta, Rani Salman, Fabio Carriero and Mauricio Idarraga, proposed a global business expansion strategy for one of Singapore's most well-known Microbrewery Restaurants, Brewerkz. Team 'NUStalwarts' from NUS Business School emerged very credible runners up to the winners.

Cerebration '07
Cerebration 2007 had set out to build on its success in all aspects of the competition and truly establish itself amongst the best Business Plan Competitions in the world! We think it definitely did, as do most of our participants, partners and dignitaries.

Cerebration 2007 saw a tremendous influx of teams registering for the competition which effectively makes it one of the largest Masters level competitions in the World. With close to 600 registrations from more than 100 Universities and 30 different countries, Cerebration 2007 helped create a new league of Business school events. In its third year, Cerebration has built a reputation for itself in the Business School community, world over and is now looked upon as a premier Business Plan competition in Asia and we plan to take it to an altogether new level in the years to come.

Cerebration 2007 brought the best of the business schools from all across the globe. The Entrepreneurs Team from INSEAD, France analysing the 'Thai Express' case study for the Middle East market clinched the first position in the Cerebration 2007 Grand Finals. They beat the other five finalist teams to emerge as the team with the best plan in the Grand Finals held in The Grand Ballroom at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore on 27th March 2007. Our very own team from NUS Business School too did a great profiling and analysis on Ron Kaufman's Up Your Service! College and were ranked as the First Runner Up. The Team from Jones Graduate school of Management, from HEC Montreal, Canada also doing a business plan on Ron Kaufman's Up Your Service! College ended up as the Second Runner Up.

The Grand Finals Judging Panel comprised top notch industry representatives from Merrill Lynch, CISCO, Sabre Capital, Financial Times, OSIM, Thai Express, Ron Kaufman, HSBC, Gallup Organization and also CEOs / Top Management and Industry Specialists. Prof. Chistopher Earley, Dean of NUS Business School, in his address greeted the participants and congratulated the winners.

The event had superior media coverage by leading newspapers and local television.

Interesting snapshots of Cerebration 2007.

Cerebration '06
Cerebration 2006 brought together the great minds from all across the globe. The BrainCraft Team from Instituto de Empressa, Spain doing Informatics case study for Kywait market clinched the first position in the Cerebration 2006 Grand Finals. They beat the other five grand finalist from top ranked universities across the world in the Grand Finals held in Raffles City Convention Center, Singapore on 27th March 2006. The Magic Purple Team from the Kellogg School of Management, Nothwestern University, USA doing a business plan on a TCM player for the US Market emereged as the First Runner Up. While the Team HEC Montreal from HEC Montreal, Canada also doing business plan on a TCM player but for Hong Kong Market ended up as the Second Runner Up.

The Grand Finals Judging Panel comprised top notch industry representatives from Bain & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Sabre Capital, Hewitt Associates, sponsor CEOs / Top Management, Industry Specialists, Dean NUS Business School, IE Singapore and Temasek Holdings.

The Grand Final ceremony was graced by Honorable Minister Gan Kim Yong, Minister of State for Education & Manpower where he addressed the participants and guests.

Prof. Chistopher Earley, Dean of NUS Business School, in his address greeted the participants and congratulated the winners.

The event was covered by leading newspapers and local television.

Cerebration '05
16th May 2005: Asia's business leaders converged at The Grand Copthorne @ Singapore for the Finals of Cerebration 2005. After an enduring battle which featured 350+ teams spanning 4 continents, The Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada emerged victorious with Instituto de Empresa, Spain coming a close second.

Set in the backdrop of Singaporean companies looking to make a global presence, Cerebration 2005 was the ideal platform for business leaders of tomorrow to cross swords in the markets of their choice. The final battle was however at Singapore.

Gracing the final event was the chief guest H.E. Mr. Raymond Lim, Minister for Prime Minister's office, 2nd Minister for Finance & Foreign affairs and a galaxy of industry stars. Cerebration 2005 would not have been possible without the active support of IE Singapore, The NUS Business School and its numerous patrons and well-wishers.

As Asia's most global MBA duel - Cerebration 2005 was the favored destination of many, with Singapore - a city where every interaction leaves you enriched, recharged and craving for more capturing the imagination of the teams.

Cerebration 2005 - A Challenge like No Other! Uniquely NUS MBA.