3. I believe that 2015 was
a strong year, which
centred on building
the foundation of the
society for the future.
To do so, our goals for the year were:
• Pioneering innovative initiatives
• Growing our network of profession-
al sponsors by 200%.
• Expanding the society by encour-
aging more students to benefit from
MSOC’s unique professional and
social events.
• Increasing alliances with other
societies for exposure and synergies
from partnership.
• Further strengthening the society’s
relationships with its members.
FromourPresident
Nancy Xie
Our vision from the very start was to
differentiate and elevate the society,
positioning it as one that adds value
to students by assisting them with
their personal and professional
development.
54
4. • Collectively signed up more than 1,000 members in one week, almost doubling the figure from the previous year.
• Introduced the MSOC Initiative Award, increasing student involvement and activity, as well as doubling member
attendance rates at our events. This included a compulsory component called the Career Leaders’ Challenge.
• Held our first ever Career Leaders’ Challenge, a fun but rigorous full day of activities with sponsors, where students
demonstrated their skills and abilities in several challenges.
• Being involved in the Global Microfinance Case Competition, establishing the society as the first in New South Wales
to participate.
• Our winning Campus Final team was successful in winning the Grand Finals, which were held in Melbourne, in con-
junction with the University of Melbourne, Monash University, Deakin University and RMIT University.
• Increased exposure to sponsors – existing and new. New companies we collaborated with included Chartered Ac-
countants, Strategic Pacific Partners, IBM, Suncorp, NAB and Oaktree.
• Strengthened our partnership with APACDE and Unilever through delivering a LinkedIn workshop and competition
after its’ success in 2014.
• Initiated a partnership with Inside Enterprise to provide our members with a new workshop, focusing on business
acumen.
• Professional developed our team of Directors by organising skills masterclasses in each portfolio, and training days.
• Implemented a feedback system, to continuously improve all aspects of our events.
Reaching new heights
in 2015
I believe that 2015 was a strong year, which centred on building the foundation
of the society for the future. Reflecting on our initial goals, I feel that we have
made strong progress, noting some of our achievements over the year:
The first new initiative we pioneered was the MIA, an award that students gain through participating in theoretical workshops,
practical competitions, networking events and leadership days, as well as completing reflections before and after the program.
This is a reflective, theoretical and practical integrated experience aimed at giving recognition to students who take the
initiative to be actively and consistently involved with our society. We believe that consistent participation in these events more
effectively develop the skills of our members, therefore the program requires participants to complete a certain number of
units attained through their attendance.
The MIA is an initiative that is unique to MSOC, and is not offered by other business societies. Since the introduction of the MIA,
student attendance at our events has doubled.
Above: The CLC held at The Place, UNSW Bsuiness School
26.6 44.2
New Initiatives
MSOC Initiative Award
Career Leaders Challenge
Global Microfinance Case Competition
Avg. Attendance per Event
Since the introduction of the MIA, our attendance rates have practically
doubled.
MSOC Initiative Award
Career Leaders Challenge
In line with our focus on professional development, the CLC is an interactive, fun but intensive program. Participants engage in
a full day of activities, starting with activities that bring out their leadership, teamwork, presentation and problem solving skills,
and building up to a stimulating case study.
We invite company representatives and sponsors to the event, to either lead teams of participants, lead workshops, or network.
This year, we connected our CLC participants with representatives from IBM, Unilever and the UNSW Business School.
The winning team, as judged by Business School representatives on the day walked away with a $50 voucher for their case
presentation. They, along with the two runner up teams of the day, were invited to a further half day judging and networking
session at the Unilever CBD office.
6
5. Our winning team performed extremely well,
winning the Grand Finals in Melbourne.
Global Microfinance Case Competition
The Global Microfinance Case Competition (GMCC) this year featured
microfinancing solutions for an organisation called Amartha Micro-
finance, which aims to improve access of low-income families to
quality financial services in Indonesia.
Far Right:
Zurich Consulting, winning
the Grand Finals
Bottom Left:
Zurich Consulting, winning
the Campus Finals
Top Left:
Teams undergoing final prep,
Campus Heat Rounds
Teams were asked to create a 5-year business plan, with the
aims of:
• Growing the borrower base
• Growing positive social impact
• Sustainability, whilst maintaining strict credit discipline.
This was our first year being involved in a competition of such
scale, with the partnership involving four other universities:
University of Melbourne, Monash University, Deakin University
and RMIT University. In addition to improving our networks
and relations, we were also about to gain exposure for both the
UNSW Business School and our society.
From our society, there were over 30 teams, and overall, over
100 teams entered the competition from all five universi-
ties. All teams attended a workshop and submitted a deck of
slides. The top nine teams were then screened for the UNSW
Heat Rounds, with the top three teams going through to the
Campus Final Round.
The winning team from our UNSW Campus Final Round, Zürich
Consulting, were flown to Melbourne for a Corporate Day with
AT Kearney and NAB, followed by the Grand Final Round. Our
winning team performed extremely well, winning the Grand
Finals in Melbourne. The prize included the GMCC trophy, $500
for the winning team, as well as an all-expenses paid dinner
with the grand final judges from NAB.
98
6. Global Microfinance
Case Competition:
Congratulations to
Alex London
Nick Pinidiya
Lily Zhang
Julian Vertoudakis
on winning the Grand Finals.
‘For anyone who is thinking about
doing case competitions there
are a couple things that might be
helpful.
First is to work with people who
you can spend a lot of time with
and whose opinions you trust.
Case competitions require a huge
amount of effort and can be quite
difficult, you definitely don’t want
to make it harder by working with
people you don’t like.
Second, think about the end goal.
It sounds simple but it often gets
lost during discussions about what
the issues and strategies are. Keep
in mind what the end goal is to
help guide those discussions; it’ll
help to cut out the interesting, but
ultimately unhelpful strategies.
Third, work on the slide deck and
presentation. At the end of the day,
all the judges will see is that final
deck and what you say. They won’t
know the amount of research and
effort you’ve put in unless you
demonstrate it to them. The best
strategies won’t win if you can’t
convince the judges of that. So
definitely take the time to practice
and polish your final product.’
- Lily Zhang, GMCC Grand Finals
Winner
1. People
2. Goal
3. Presentation
Team Acknowledgements
Cabinet
President - Nancy Xie
Vice President (Internal) - Phil Jung
Vice President (Events) - Olivia Fung
Vice President (External) - William Lin
Secretary - Miles Ma
Treasurer - Austin Shen
Returning Officer - Benjamin Tang
Directors
Marketing: Jessica Liu, Nicholas Lau, Michelle Nguyen, Christine Yang
IT: Chamath Gunathilake
Events: James Leung, Rhys Price, Lorna Liu
Careers: Ivan Lu, Kurstan Hu, Katrina Ng
Subcommittee
Internal: Stephen Bomba, Aaron Jackson, Clare Peng, Judy Tu, Cissy Ye, Selena Yip
Events: Colin Chang, Karen Huang, Jaylin Kan, Pompea Truong, Dylan Wu
External: Cindy Feng, Wendy Gao, Jessica Gourdon, Merrilyn Huang
Case Competition Advice from Zurich:
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7. Continued Excellence
William Lin (External)
In 2015, the Management Society was able to build
upon previous successful events whilst introduc-
ing a range of exciting new activities to deliver on our
mission of translating vision into reality by providing a full
range of development opportunities to members.
Interview Challenge
In April, we held the Interview Challenge
with support from the Commonwealth
Bank of Australia and the Careers and
Employment Office. The aim of this com-
petition was to help simulate the job ap-
plication process for students and help
them gain experience in an interview
environment. As a result, the com-
petition was heavily focused on the
enthusiasm of participants as well as
their willingness to learn, as opposed
to experience on their resume.
Prior to the assessment centre and
interview, students were required
to submit their resumes and answer
a range of short questions. After
screening this based on a balance of
enthusiasm displayed and experience,
the Careers and Employment Office
held 2 heat round sessions. These
were designed to simulate a typical
assessment centre including group
interviews and a group work task. The
top 4 candidates proceeded to the
final round of interviews which were
conducted at the CBA headquarters
by a graduate recruitment coordina-
tor. The winner (Max Yeung) secured
a networking lunch with managers
from a CBA division of his choice.
The main contacts involved this
year were Samantha Berry, Careers
Consultant at the Careers and
Employment Office and Simone
Ridgeway, Campus Talent Ac-
quisition Manager at the Com-
monwealth Bank of Australia.
Meet the Managers Night
In May, we held our flagship event for
Semester 1, the 5th annual Meet the
Managers Night in the Dean’s Lounge.
This year’s event was structured to
include a 45-minute mediated panel
session with selected representa-
tives, followed by networking.
This year was the biggest year on record,
with participation from a broad range
of industry professionals represent-
ing the following companies: Deloitte,
Woolworths Limited, Allianz, Telstra, IBM,
L.E.K. and PwC, with additional support
from Hugh Bainbridge. Attendance
from students was also a record high,
with 50+ students attending the night.
The winner of the
CBA Interview Com-
petition was Max
Yeung, who secured
a networking lunch
with a CBA manager
of his choice.
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8. Opportunities
& Workshops
The nature of professional events has been adapted to
best suit our rollout of the MSOC Initiative Award (MIA)
as outlined in the President’s report. This was done by
ensuring workshop material and competition structures were
optimized to count towards MIA program requirements.
Woolworths
Building on from a successful relation-
ship in 2014, MSOC conducted the “Ace
that Interview” & “Presentation Skills
Workshop” in March and August. Both
events were highly successful, with full
attendance in both sessions and positive
feedback from both students and
Woolworths representatives. The main
contact is Arancha Alvarez, Group Talent
Management & Organisational Develop-
ment Specialist at Woolworths.
LinkedIn Competition
Also continuing on from a successful
event in 2014, MSOC conducted the 2nd
LinkedIn competition in conjunction
with APACDE. The competition consisted
of a workshop conducted by Careers and
Employment, followed by a competition
sponsored by Unilever, with a prize of
meeting a mentor/manager.
Peoplecorp
In 2015, MSOC facilitated 2 rounds of ap-
plications for the annual Peoplecorp
Intern Program – in March/April and
October/November.
Both rounds consisted of online
marketing (Facebook, email, website) as
well as an in-person workshop run by
Peoplecorp staff.
The main contacts were Jennifer Tiglao
(March/April), Associate Consultant and
Vivian Tham (October/November), Team
Coordinator at Peoplecorp
BCG Unplugged
BCG Unplugged was MSOC’s first event
held with BCG, held in conjunction with
UMCG, involving a Google Hangout Q&A
session held with BCG staff during Friday
of O Week in Semester 1.
There was a high level of interest (50+
people registered and accessed the
Hangout) although technical problems
from BCG’s end meant that only 10
people could join the Hangout at any
time
BCG contacts include Maisie Farmer,
Recruiting Coordinator and Mary
Katergaris, Recruiting Coordinator.
MSOC’s second LinkedIn
Competition was a
huge success, gathering
over 60 participants.
Of these, 5 winners
from MSOC secured a
networking meeting with
a Unilever manager.
Far Left:
LinkedIn Workshop,
Tyree
Left:
Woolworths Workshop
Quadrangle
Bottom:
Peoplecorp Workshop
Quadrangle
William Lin, External VP
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9. A Culture of Achievement
Phil Jung (Internal)
I believe that MSOC’s successes this year were in large part
due to MSOC’s strong group cohesion and positive organ-
isational culture. Two main factors were accredited for this
outcome: 1) team rapport and 2) engagement with members
The first was the strengthening of re-
lationships between team members.
This was made possible by dividing
the subcommittee into the three
portfolios (Internal, Events & External)
instead of having a conglomerated
‘general subcommittee’.
Under this restructured scheme, the
Vice Presidents ensured to personally
engage with their subcommittee,
reducing the sense of hierarchy. Also
by delegating meaningful tasks and
proactively training each subcommit-
tee member, Executives instilled in
their teams a sense of citizenship and
commitment towards the society.
Secondly, we introduced initiatives to
drive stronger engagement with our
member base.
By asking students to fill out a
Feedback Form after each event,
we were able to make vast im-
provements to better cater for
students’ needs. We also increased
engagement by providing ample vol-
unteering programs on occasions
such as O-Week and O-Day, through
which members could contribute as a
member of the MSOC team.
76%
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Greater engagement
through:
- Feedback forms
- Reward Schemes
- MSOC Initiative Award
Most importantly, through the intro-
duction of the MSOC Initiative Award
(MIA) we were able to retain robust
attendance rates over the course of
the year. The main attraction of this
program was in the way we rewarded
active/loyal members and developed
a personal affiliation with them.
The following section outlines the
statistics of our major achievements
in 2015, which attests to the strong
teams we had across our three
portfolios in marketing, sponsor-
ship and event organisation. I wish
to thank all team members for their
positive attitudes and generous con-
tributions this year.
Orientation Week
We had a record-breaking number
of sign ups at this year’s O-Week,
totalling to approximately 1070. Our
success was attributed to the team’s
timely and thorough planning,
attractive merchandise, effective
training and a highly successful vol-
unteering program.
Expectedly, over 50% of our sign-ups
were first year students who
From left to right:
Alex Zhong, Phil Jung, Ivan
Lu and Larry Stalis
We made a great start
with 1070 sign-ups at
O-Week, and carried on this
momentum for the rest of
2015.
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10. O-Week Degree Composition
Actuarial Studies 5% 69
Arts 11% 163
Commerce 37% 553
Economics 5% 70
Engineering 14% 205
Law 5% 74
Medicine 1% 20
Science 9% 193
Other 13% 129
Ficiunt caborae eiciis pa nis eos moditatem quidunt pliquas si ditibus
O-Week Year Levels
1st Year 53% 569
2nd Year 23% 245
3rd Year 15% 159
4th Year 7% 71
5th Year/Above 2% 25
Total
78% increase from
600 (2014 record)
1070
We had a record-breaking number of sign ups at this year’s
O-Week, totalling to approximately 1070. Students (who were
mainly first years) were from diverse academic backgrounds.
made up the majority of O-Week
attendees. Most of our sign-ups will
be graduating between 2016 and
2019. We expect to lose about 100
student members next year due to
graduation.
The degrees studied by our sign-ups
were very diverse, reflecting the shift
in our society’s focus towards general
career development. As such, there
was a significant number of sign-ups
from students undertaking non-busi-
ness degrees such as Engineering,
Science, Arts and even Medicine.
I wish to highlight the crucial role
that volunteers had in facilitating the
success of our O-Week Campaign.
Fromover30applicants,11volunteers
were recruited and trained over the
summer break in order to produce
this great result. In return for their
efforts, volunteers were awarded a
Premium Membership (indicated by
a Gold Student ID Sticker) and were
highly regarded for subcommittee
applications.
The Premium Membership System
was another initiative brought upon
by our 2015 President, whereby
active members were given special
priveleges such as an express “skip-
the-line” pass to our Gourmet
Food Events, as well as guaranteed
placements in our key career devel-
opment events.
Coupled with the MIA, this helped to
further motivate our members and to
differentiate our society from other
societies directed towards profes-
sional development.
MSOC Initiative Award
The MIA is a student develop-
ment system that is unique to the
Management Society (MSOC).
The system is cleverly devised to
recognize and reward active partic-
ipants who demonstrate initiative
and genuine commitment. Designed
by MSOC’s 2015 President Nancy Xie,
this program was a major success and
a key driving force behind the strong
attendance rates we had this year.
Degree Composition
O-Week
70% 30%
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11. MSOC Initiative Award (MIA) Statistics
SincetheintroductionoftheMIA,therewasanaverageof44.23studentsforpro-
fessional development events in 2015 – almost doubling last year’s attendance
data. Considering how we increased the number of events held throughout the
year, this data reflects an exceptional growth rate in the society’s popularity as a
result of the MIA program.
We commenced the MIA program with a total of
53 interested participants. From the 45 enlisted in
the program, approximately 80% (42 participants)
demonstrated active participation at various
points throughout the year. Of these, 31% (13)
were able to complete the entire program.
As a result of the MIA, there was a huge boost in
students’ interest towards our flagship events,
where the “unit weightings” (attendance con-
tributes towards completion of the Award) were
highest. Most notably, the registrations for our
CBA Interview Competition, Meet the Managers
Night and LinkedIn Competition each increased
by around twofold.
The Career Leaders Challenge, which is the
program’s compulsory component, was at full
capacity with 45 confirmed attendees and as a
result, we had to prioritise the MIA cohort who
were guaranteed a placement in this event.
Left: Annual Attendance
Rates for Careers Events0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1/06/12
1/12/12
1/06/13
1/12/13
1/06/14
1/12/14
1/06/15
We wish to congratulate the following members who have successfully completed the first ever 2015
MSOC Initiative Award.
Fenny Chang Cindy Feng Merrilyn Huang
Aninda Mukhopadhyay Alex Zhong Dylan Wu
Clare Peng Judy Tu Angela Lee
Larry Stalis Ivan Lu Roy Wang
Selena Yip Colin Chang Jaylin Kan
Christine Yang Karen Huang
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12. This year, our members have communicated that
our events have “helped significantly in career de-
velopment” in various ways, with over 90% of par-
ticipants indicating “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to
the relevant items.
Suggestions for improvement have been made
towards the timing and location of events, as well
as particular preferences in terms of sponsors.
In response, we aim to strengthen and to also
further diversify our range of sponsorships.
2,221Members on combined UNSW
MSOC Facebook Group and
Facebook Page
Online Presence
MSOC’s online presence on social media and other commu-
nication channels has increased dramatically in 2015.
930Official members on Orgsync
2,403Signed up on our combined
Mailing List 2013~15.
Member Feedback
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13. Social events have brought a more personal and
approachable side to MSOC. The events team
has been successful in boosting our on-campus
presence, increasing engagement and assisting
the promotion of our career development events.
MSOC’s Social Fabric
Olivia Fung (Events)
Subsequently, during the semester
we held Pancrepes event as well as
MSOC’s Signature Chicken Wraps
event. Both events garnered a lot of
attention on campus, proving that
our team effort has successfully been
reflected by the attendance at the
respective food event.
We were able to employ these food
events as one of our marketing
channels to engage our members
and inform them about upcoming
workshops as well as competitions.
As a professional-oriented student
society, events team primarily
focused on food events that would
allow us to differentiate from others.
In addition to Pancrepes and Chicken
wraps, we are eager to innovate and
generate more diverse range of food
events to impress our members in
the near future.
Food Events
We started off the year with our
meet and greet event, which
offered an opportunity for our
members to meet the executive
team for 2015 and understand
the direction that MSOC will
be in vheading for the year.
In the event, we served pizza and
soft drinks to our members and
overall the event ran quite smoothly
and we were able to promote the
proposals we have planned to
release for the year, namely the
MSOC Initiative Award Program.
End of Semester Party
Traditionally, MSOC has in conjunc-
tion with other student societies
organised an intersociety ball.
However, in this year, the student
societies have united together
aiming to provide a more affordable
and equally attractive way for all our
members to interact with each other.
We hired a venue that imposed a
hiring cost in regards to minimum
spend and there were additional cost
for the DJ hire as well as the night
staff to supervise the event.
The event atmosphere was quite
pleasant, however, the event was
lacking in respect to attendance.
One of the major reasons attributing
to this problem as the timing of the
event, which coincided with a cruise
party organised by another student
society at the university which can
easily be resolved in the future.
In the conclusion of the event, we
managed to break even and this was
a great learning experience for all
our societies. This event certainly has
room for development and improve-
ment in the future, given that this is
the first Intersociety End of Semester
Party. With further enhancement
of our weaknesses this year, this
event could definitely become more
popular and demanding.
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14. With further enhance-
ment of our weaknesses
this year, this event
could definitely become
more popular and
demanding.
53Attendees
at Meet & Greet
The Annual Meet & Greet was a major
success, with over 50 attendees and
followed by over 90 students applying
for a subcommittee position.
Bottom Left:
Meet & Greet Event
Roundhouse
Top Right:
Intersociety End of Semester Party
The organisation of training
days helped us facilitate
bonding and to ensure that
subcommittee members
are trained and motivated.
Training Day
Over the July winter break,
our team decided to conduct
a training day enabling our
subcommittees to obtain a
better understanding of their
respective portfolio, reinforc-
ing the experience they’ve
had in their duties in semester
1. During the training day, we
allocated time for individual
portfolio discussions to allow
for planning for semester 2.
Based on the experience they
had in semester 1, we believe
that by utilising those reflec-
tions, we were would be able
to deliver better workshops
and events for our members
in terms of quality and more
tailored to their needs.
During the team meeting,
we were able to reconcile
the different plans made by
each portfolio and compiled
it into a timeline for semester
2. In hindsight, we believe
this process of planning most
definitely facilitated better
organisation of events in
the semester 2. Additional-
ly, through team bonding
activities, our team members
were encouraged to get
to know one another.
Olivia Fung
Events VP
Training Day
Many of our subcom-
mittee members are
expected to continue on
as Directors next year.
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