The finalists have been decided and even in this last round there has been a significant change. Chongqing's 'Oath Keeper' has leaped from eighth to third to secure a place in the Hong Kong Final. Chongqing nearly made it last year but this is their first time in the Final. Sadly slipping out were Greenwich's 'Continuous Flight Augers'. Greenwich have been in previous finals but not this time.
The other five finalists were in the top six in the last round. Leading, as they have done since the round 6, are Glasgow Caledonian's 'Cali Construction' and as if to indicate their intent they even stretched their lead. The CIOB West Of Scotland Annual Dinner was held in Glasgow last Friday and yet another prize was presented to last year's GSU winners Glasgow Caledonian's 'Saltire'. Seeing the continued acclaim from winning may well be inspiring this year's team.
Holding onto second place is Hong Kong Poly U's 'BRE Team 4' maintaining a Hong Kong presence that has been in every final. In the long experience of MERIT it is not usually the leading team at this stage that wins. There is greater competition in the final and decisions are taken under time pressures and there are distractions so the team with the greatest discipline will succeed and quite often the pressure of leading from the front proves to be too great. So 'BRE Team 4' could well be the first HK team to win. We've also had experience of the team in sixth place at this stage winning. The increased competition of the final makes anything possible. It will be exciting.
In fourth, up two places, is Cape Town's 'Prestige Worldwide'. We've yet to have a SA winner, it could be this year. In fifth and sixth are two Australian Universities with Bond's 'Bond Agents' and Deakin's 'AGBA'. RMIT were the inaugural winners of the GSC so we might have another Australian winner this year.
The ranking scores of those just outside the top six show how close it was and those who nearly made the final can be proud of their efforts. Many teams put in fine performances. We trust all the teams who didn't make the final enjoyed the GSC 2016 competition and the training experience in company, business and financial management, together with the experience of the need for team work and leadership to deliver disciplined decision making. MERIT supporting the GSC has a long record of raising aspirations and influencing future training and development as individuals think about what role in the industry they aspire too. The advice in taking part was to think like a director and act like a director. If you liked the role then set out to train to be a director, chose your professional development that will lead you in that direction. The industry needs leaders and you could be one of them.
For the tutors we trust that you found the GSC a good experience and that your students enjoyed it and benefitted from it. Some Universities use MERIT in their teaching modules. Feedback suggests that the lessons in teamwork, leadership and disciplined decision making have been shown to be the most important. As a teaching tool students always seem to respond well to the active participative form of learning and the competitive element seems to stimulate them.
Period 10 results
Preliminary results, subject to change. (Teams with a negative % have requested late submission or have been asked to resubmit)
Top 10