Eight country finalists in teams of four took the stage to stake their claim to being the inaugural champions  of the CIMA Global Business Challenge at the National University in Singapore on Friday August 21st. The teams were trying to impress the judging panel consisting of Simon Hurst FCMA - Executive Director, Goldman Sachs in China, Karina Davies - Director of Sales & Marketing, Swissotel Singapore, Vince Cook - CEO, Islamic Bank of Asia, Richard Soh - CEO, SMa School of Management in Singapore, Ray Perry - Director of Brand, CIMA and myself.

The challenge posed to the teams was - as consultants, to advise the Board of Directors of Solberri Hotels - fictitious but very realistic hotel chain, of their strategy for the next 5 years in turing around the chain that has encountered some strategic as well as operational issues. Indeed a very realistic scenario that is being faced by the leisure and holiday industry.

Having gathered the previous evening to decide by draw the order in which the teams would present, the event got off to a great start. The High Commissioner for Great Britain in Singapore, Mr Paul Madden was the guest of honour, and after an opening address by myself he gave a few words of welcome as well.

All of the teams had interesting pseudonyms and introduced themselves with a five minute video introduction of themselves and their institutions. The creativity displayed by the teams was spellbinding. CMS from Jain University in India started the event followed by Paradigm from University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka, SAMBA of LYIT Ireland, Wonder4 from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in China, Team Enterprize from University of Sussex UK, Anova from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Agies from NUS Business School in Singapore and finally X'Cel Consulting from Taylor's Business School Malaysia.

All of the teams demonstrated an unique style, content, strategies and certainly gave the judges a hard time. There was no opportunity to take the eyes off the screen. They all were truly very professional in their approach, exhibited an extremely high degree of business competence and some of them even provided the theatrics required of the modern-day reality TV.

Of course the heart-breaking aspect of any contest is that there can be only a single winner. This certainly does not make it easy on the judges who themselves have to make heart-breaking choices based on a set of pre-agreed criteria. I can well imagine the plight and mental anguish of the judges of the various 'Idol' and 'Who's got talent' reality shows. There can be no place for emotional attachment. After much deliberations the winners and the runners-up were decided. The inaugural Champions of the CIMA Global Business Challenge were Anova from Hong Kong. And, exceedingly close runners-up were Paradigm from Sri Lanka.

One of the other winners that had to be decided was the Best Future Business Leader. This was another close contest. In fact many of the 32 youngsters could have claimed a stake for this honour. However, Xinhao Sun of Wonder4 China stole the honour. A well deserved winner.

All in all the entire event was a demonstration of excellence. Excellence on the part of all the contestants as well as the CIMA staff from Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland and Sri Lanka who put in a wonderful effort. The judges really had a bonus - certainly I did. I have no doubt that all enjoyed, but a big thanks to them as well.

Next year there will be more teams including those from Australia, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. The competition will be hot. My advice for University teams interested in next year's challenge - get in there early.

The teams, judges, organisers, sponsors as well as a few invitees will wine and dine at the Equinox Bar on the 70th floor of the Swissotel in Singapore - the highest bar in Asia.