A final year Faculty of Business student, Mr Lesego Muswere, has made the country and University of Botswana proud after coming third in an international business competition.
Mr Muswere, a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business student, entered the competition as a sole participant from Botswana and finished in the top three with Team “PLUS ULTRA” from India placing first while Team “BEEDOWN” from Romania settled for second position.
He was invited to take part in the competition by the X-Culture Administration, United States of America following a sterling performance in the X-Culture 2019 Challenge. The 2019 Challenge had won him, together with three other University of Botswana Faculty of Business students, a berth in the 2020 X-Culture Symposium in Singapore after a top three finish as well.
The 2019 X-Culture International Business Programme had brought together 6 210 contestants from 142 universities in 93 countries from all six continents. The participants who were MBA and undergraduate business students as well as non-students, were required to tackle and solve real life international business problems.
Unfortunately for the students, COVID-19 struck ahead of their July trip to Singapore as the much-anticipated symposium failed to take place due to travel restrictions.
However, all was not lost as Mr Muswere got yet another opportunity to showcase his international business skills. This time he got an invitation from X-Culture Administration (USA), to join an international competition facilitated by their partners (Beeup) who are based in Switzerland. He had to work on a CTI-financed research project, the brainchild of the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (FHO) and University of St. Gallen.
“I had the opportunity to work on a business proposal with the founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Czarniecki. The proposal focused on an ICT company that was stuck in the middle, and we were assigned to find potential customer segments and develop a value proposition for the company,” said Mr Muswere.
He said more than 124 individuals took part in the competition globally, including professionals in the field of business management. He competed and got position three as an individual while the winners and runners-up participated as teams respectively.
As a word of encouragement, Mr Czarniecki stated that a lot of individuals got good job opportunities from such experience including a former user who got a job at Google because he could demonstrate problem-solving abilities and discuss their challenges with the respective human Resource representatives.
Above all, Mr Muswere credits his lecturer, Mr Tendy Matenge for his success in the competition. “The challenge would not have been a success without the help of Mr. Tendy Matenge, who had initiated us into online business simulations back in 2019 and 2020,” he observed.
He added that the challenge helped him to acquire knowledge on the international corporate world besides allowing him to network with some of the most influential individuals including PROF. DR. Lukas Scherer, Director of the Institute IQB-FHS, University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (FHO).
Source: University of Botswana
