CFA Institute recently collaborated with ACCA Hong Kong and Barclays on a competition that enhanced the business acumen and social consciousness of students. The partnership built upon a shared commitment to instill ethics in the next generation of investment professionals, for the ultimate benefit of society.
The theme of the 2019–2020 ACCA and CFA Institute Business Competition was “A New Era of Business Success with Ethics and Purposes,” and the final took place on 18 January 2020. This was the seventh year that ACCA hosted the annual competition and the first year that CFA Institute was the co-organizer.
Open to university students in Hong Kong and Macau, the teams suggested ideas to tackle ethical challenges presented in a case and showcased their creativity in thinking of ways to better society. The overall aim of the competition is to build awareness of the importance of ethical behaviour for our future leaders.
Barclays provided three real-life case studies around the social issues of diversity and inclusion, affordable housing, and environment and sustainability. The collaborative team, made up of ACCA, Barclays, and CFA Institute representatives, was dubbed the “ABC” team!
How it worked
Students were invited to form teams of three to four individuals and submit business proposals in which they had laid out a visionary design of a campaign, project, or product for a selected industry to address the issues presented in the cases. By early September, the competition had received more than 300 proposals! Of those proposals, only 20 teams were selected to progress to the semi-final round. While preparing for their final business proposal, students from the 20 teams were encouraged to participate in Ethical Decision-Making workshops conducted by Alan Lok, Director of Ethics Education in the Asia-Pacific region at CFA Institute, as well as receive coaching from regional ACCA members.
Lok said the Ethical Decision-Making workshops offered “vibrant two-way engagement” with “active learning through voicing out one’s different point of view as well not refraining from asking ‘silly’ questions.” By practicing their ethical decision-making skills and becoming more aware of ethical dilemmas in the professional world, the students became “better prepared to analyze and act on situations inside and outside of the classroom,” Lok added. The session emphasized that the CFA Institute Code of Ethics is not just a boilerplate statement but rather a code that is immediately applicable to real-life ethical dilemmas.
By early January, eight of the 20 proposals were selected and the teams were invited to present in the final round of the competition. The finalists presented their proposals to a panel of 10 judges, composed of senior finance and accounting practitioners in the region. In addition to selecting the 1st place winner, the judges were also responsible for awarding the Ethics Excellence Award, the Creative Excellence Award, the Research Excellence Award, the Digital Excellence Award, and the Team Excellence Award. In the end, students from The University of Hong Kong (nicknamed “TransClothmer” because of their proposal to transform old clothing) won the championship. Other student teams from the University of Hong Kong also received the 1st runner up and 2nd runner up places.
Successful collaboration
Talking about the success of the ACCA and CFA Institute collaboration, Alan noted that “the mutually beneficial relationship with ACCA will not end with the Business Competition.” In its dedication to promoting ethical and professional values, ACCA also worked with CFA Institute to offer their membership access to sessions of Giving Voice to Values for Investment Professionals, which is an online course hosted in the CFA Institute Ethics Learning Lab and is an approach that teaches how to effectively respond and act on your values in ethical situations.
What your local society can do
To build on the success and make this a global initiative, we encourage your local society to take part and bring next year’s competition to your local markets.
We also encourage you to visit the Giving Voice to Values page on Connexions, which provides ways for you and your members to participate in the program.
For more information about how you can get involved and collaborate in your local markets, please contact alan.lok@cfainstitute.org.
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