In this day and age, getting ahead of the trends is the key to ensuring business sustainability, this is especially true in a fast-changing industry such as retail.  With this in mind, SMU’s Retail Centre of Excellence (RCoE) partnered with one of its founding members - Harvey Norman - to organise the first-ever SMU RCOE-Harvey Norman Case Competition 2018, which was themed around Internet-of-Things, or IoT.

Held over four months from September to November 2018, the competition, which attracted 36 SMU teams, challenged students to come up with novel ideas for the retail chain to present and market the ‘Smart Home of the Future’ concept to its customers.

The marketing of a Smart Home is a complex endeavour, as it requires customer adoption of a suite of networked home appliances.  How to most effectively sell such a suite of products is a key consideration.  Preliminary stages of the competition began in September, with teams conducting consumer surveys, studying the existing technology platforms, and recommending selling strategies to Harvey Norman.

Eventually, eight best teams emerged and faced-off at the Grand Finals held on 3 November, where they presented their creative ideas and took on tough questions from Harvey Norman’s senior management team which formed the judging panel.  They were: Harvey Norman Asia’s Managing Director Mr Kenneth Aruldoss; Chief Operating Officer Ms Bernice Kwok; General Manager (Electrical) Mr Jonathan To; and General Manager (Marketing) Ms Eloise Sim.

After a gruelling but fruitful day, Team CDE – comprising 4th year business students students Teh Chao Hong, Hu Jiayu, Lin Junhong and Yeo Khee – impressed the judges with their recommendation of a three-stage plan through which Harvey Norman can Educate, Engage and Elevate its end-to-end customer retail experience.  Their proposal included an interactive 360-degree website for customers to explore the Smart Home Concept, a 3D Retail Store Mock-up and a Smart Community to answer customer's queries.

[Photo: Emerging as the champions was Team CDE, comprising 4^th year LKCSB students (L-R) Teh Chao Hong, Hu Jiayu, Lin Junhong and Yeo Khee, who are pictured here with Harvey Norman Asia’s Managing Director, Mr Kenneth Aruldoss (far right).]

The champion team found the case competition immensely enriching.  “We are grateful for the opportunity to apply the marketing concepts learnt in the classroom to address a real-life business challenge.  Having our ideas evaluated by Harvey Norman's top management also gave us invaluable insights into the industry as well as our strategic thinking and presentation skills,” they said.  They were rewarded with a prize of S$5,000 while Team Wind Chasers and Team Maverick Consulting were awarded first and second runner up, and received S$3,000 and S$2,000 respectively.

SMU Senior Lecturer of Marketing Geoffrey Da Silva, who is also Associate Director for Talent Development at SMU RCoE, said, “The Smart Home will be a reality in the near-future.  Exposing our undergraduates to such trending topics is important as it adds rigor and relevance to their learning experience.  RCoE will continue to engage our students in more of such case competitions and research projects in future, so as to bridge classroom learning and the ‘real’ retail industry.  An important outcome would be to create a talent pool for our retail and services sectors.”

Harvey Norman’s Mr Kenneth Aruldoss was pleased with the quality of the teams.  He said, “The three winning teams demonstrated clear understanding of the need for comprehensive end-to-end customer experience for Smart Home retail with rather interesting ideas coming from each team.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the judging the competition and interacting with these young bright sparks.”

[Photo: Mr Kenneth Aruldoss with Team Wind Chasers comprising (L-R) Tan Sau Kuen Hilda (Year 3, SOSS), Low Jie Min (Year 3, SOSS), Teo Kar Leng (Year 3, LKCSB & SOE).]

[Photo: Harvey Norman Asia’s Mr Kenneth Aruldoss (centre) with Team Maverick Consulting comprising (L-R) Chua Xing Ying (Year 4, SOA), Ang Jian En Benny (Year 4, SOE and LKCSB), Leroy Ng (Year 3, LKCSB), and exchange student, Jean-Baptiste Thierry Joannes Gourdin, from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.]

[Photo: All the grand finalist teams gathered for a group photo!]