On November 19, 2022, the 1st CMAU National Market Research and Business Planning Competition for College Students National Final and Closing Ceremony were successfully held in ECUST School of Business.

Since its launch in early June 2022, the competition attracted a total of 22,288 participants from more than 500 universities, covering 32 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. More than 50 enterprise propositions of more than 40 well-known enterprises at home and abroad were received and involved catering, food, clothing industries, among others. After intense school and division competitions, 82 projects stood out from more than 1700 projects to advance to the final, and 40 teams entered the field defense of the final.

The opening ceremony of the National Final was hosted by Hou Limin, Secretary of the Party Committee of ECUST School of Business.

Fu Guoqun, Professor at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, President of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Director of the Competition Organizing Committee, delivered a speech on behalf of the sponsors. He fully affirmed the preliminary work of the Organizing Committee of the competition, the final organizer and the Division Organizing Committee, and expressed warm congratulations to the 40 teams that entered the defense of the National Final. Peng Siqing, Professor at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Secretary General of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Director of the Competition Rules and Supervision Committee, pointed out that the competition designed a special review method for specific stages of the competition. For the purpose of ensuring the fairness of the competition, this final adopted the enterprise proposition and especially combined the "blind review + defense" method, along with the mechanism of equal-proportion generation of the grand prize in different groups.

Ma Tieju, Dean of ECUST School of Business, which is the organizer of the National Final, said that ECUST School of Business would do its best to serve the competition and optimize the competition experience of participating schools and teams. He hoped that all participating schools and teams can participate in the defense of the National Final with great enthusiasm, and fully demonstrate the professional level, social care and constant creativity of college students.

Yao Kai, representative of the competition co-sponsor, Deputy Director of the Executive Committee of the competition and founder of Credamo, reported the preparatory information of the national final to the conference in terms of early training, etc., and said that he would be committed to improving the quality of the competition in the future, so that more faculty, students and enterprises can benefit from it. Shi Lei, representative of the sponsor and Secretary of the Party Committee of East China Branch of Sinopec Lubricant Company, highly affirmed the level and effect of the competition, and held that the competition provided enterprises with opportunities and ways to discover young talents and innovative teams, and was an effective practice to learn and implement the strategy for making China strong through training competent personnel in the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Fei Hongping, Associate Professor at the ECUST School of Business, Executive Director and Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Secretary General of the Teaching Committee, expressed thanks to Sinopec Lubricant, the enterprise proposition provider, and explained the process and rules of the final in detail. Then, Jing Fengjie, Professor at the ECUST School of Business, Vice President of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Director of the Executive Committee of the competition, announced the official launch of the National Final.

The 40 teams that entered the defense of the National Final comprehensively displayed real enterprise propositions, and the scene judges asked targeted questions around market research, business planning, etc.. Each team further explored the charm of the market in the competition and contributed youth wisdom to solving the practical market problems.

The closing ceremony was hosted by He Jiaxun, Executive Director of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Director of the Brand Committee, Professor at East China Normal University and Chinese Dean of Asia Europe Business School.

Li Wancheng, General Manager of Key Account Business Department of East China Branch of Sinopec Lubricant Company, Yan Dengfeng, Associate Professor at NYU Shanghai, Cui Dapeng, General manager of Shanghai Diagaid Marketing Research Co., Ltd., Xu Chao, General Manager of Marketing Department of East China Branch of Sinopec Lubricant Company, Zheng Xin, Associate Professor at Tongji University, and Zhou Feng, Founder of Top Qunluo Consulting Agency reviewed the performance of participating teams and agreed that this competition successfully promoted the discussion and exchange of market research and business planning abilities of students in colleges and universities, contributed the strength of young students to solving the actual problems in the market, opened up the "last mile" from theory to practice, successfully realized the original intention of running the competition and wished that participating students should not only dare to think and to do, but also achieve intended goals as planned.

Finally, Jing Fengjie, Professor at the ECUST School of Business, Vice President of the Chinese Marketing Association of Universities and Director of the Executive Committee of the competition announced the list of winners and presented awards to the representatives of the teams winning the grand prize. Among the 5 teams from East China University of Science and Technology, 1 team won the grand prize, 1 team won the second prize, and 3 teams won the third prize. East China University of Science and Technology won the Annual Special Contribution Award and the Best College Organization Award.

ECUST School of Business has long been actively exploring and experimenting the business studies practice teaching approach with the goal of promoting learning, teaching and application with competition, exploring and upgrading the non-mainstream "action learning" education model, so that students can enter enterprises to analyze real problems in addition to accepting classroom education. In the future, the School will also dig into the competition education mechanism, keep track of the hot spots and difficulties in market research, and develop a series of activities such as multi-directional, multi-level and multi-form academic competitions and seminars.

Written by: Zhang Yawen

Reviewed by: Jiang Zhiqiang