The 2026 CGMA Global Business Challenge (GBC) Chinese Mainland competition has successfully concluded. Initiated by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), this world-class international business competition targets undergraduate students worldwide. It is designed to discover and nurture young talents with comprehensive commercial literacy and global competitiveness. Featuring real-world business cases, the contest comprehensively assesses participants’ capabilities in financial analysis, strategic planning, teamwork and full English business presentation.
Prof. Dr. Jack WOO, Associate Professor of our School, supervised the X-learn team, formed by first-year undergraduate students majoring in Financial Management at SZTU together with undergraduates from other prestigious universities. For his thorough guidance throughout the competition, Prof. Dr. Jack WOO was awarded the title of Outstanding Mentor of the event.
The semi-final for Chinese Mainland was held at the Baiyun Campus of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies on 28 May. Each team delivered an 8-minute full-English presentation of their commercial proposal followed by a 3-minute Q&A session with judges; a team talent showcase was additionally arranged for the final round. All participating teams were required to develop feasible and holistic operational optimisation plans for the featured enterprise in the official May 2026 MCS business case. Students needed to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge including management accounting, macroeconomics, corporate operation and digital marketing. The panel of judges consisted of CGMA holders, senior financial executives from industry and distinguished business academics from universities, who conducted rigorous evaluation of all submissions and presentations.
The X-learn team adopted an inter-university collaborative formation. Li Fudian and Huang Yi, first-year Financial Management undergraduate from our School, took a core role throughout case research, pre-competition preparation and on-site defence. During the long preparation phase, Associate Professor Jack WOO provided all-round one-on-one guidance. His tutoring covered case decomposition, financial model construction, commercial logic refinement and polishing of English defence scripts. Considering the limited professional knowledge base of first-year students, he supplemented core theories such as management accounting and corporate valuation, guiding team members to build systematic commercial thinking aligned with the assessment criteria of international competitions.
The X-learn teamwon anExcellence Award in this competition. The participants gained invaluable experience on this international stage. Li Fudian and Huang Yi, team members from SZTU, sharedtheir insights: “As a freshman who has just embarked on business studies, it is an extraordinary opportunity to take part in the CGMA international competition. This experience not only allowed me to consolidate fundamental financial theories learned in class and apply textbook formulas to real corporate business scenarios, but also enabled me to communicate with outstanding business students from top universities across the country. I have sharpened my communication and task allocation skills through cross-university collaboration, and gained a clear understanding of the high standards international business competitions set for global mindset, professional English proficiency and on-the-spot adaptability. This entire competition journey has laid out a clear roadmap for my future academic study and competition participation.”
In recent years, Business School has deepened industry-education integration and competency-oriented practical education. The School strongly encourages students to take part in high-level international business competitions, establishing a practical training platform featuring “mentor guidance, inter-university collaboration and learning through competitions” to help junior students engage with international business evaluation systems at an early stage. The Outstanding Mentor award received byProf. Dr. Jack WOO marks a milestone achievement of our faculty’s dedication to competition coaching and empowering students to expand their global horizons.
Moving forward, relying on international accounting resources including CIMA, the School will regularly host competition briefings, case workshops and pre-competition training sessions. We aim to support more students to polish their professional competencies and comprehensive capabilities through top-tier international contests.
Text / Pictture: Jack WOO
Review: Bella LU
