The 5th ICC Closes With Ideas That Matter

Release time：2023-03-09    

80 undergraduate students from 27 universities from around the World tackled “Digital Transformation in Finance” as part of the 5th Annual International Collidoscope Challenge (ICC) organized by the Elite Master of Finance Program at Fudan University’s Fanhai International School of Finance (FISF) from February 25th to the 26th, with PwC China as exclusive corporate partner.

The event began with a welcome speech by Deputy Dean of Academics, Professor of Finance, Charles CHANG, who encouraged the competition’s eager participants: “it is you - the younger generation - that will inherit the world”. In inheriting the world, he reminded young innovators that they can win in their chosen career paths by creating opportunities for others: “your purpose is more to give than to take”.

Charles CHANG Delivered the Opening

ICC was founded in 2018 to discover innovations while cultivating a real sense of social responsibility and helping the next generation on the frontier of finance define clear missions as they begin their careers. Since its inception ICC events have covered global health, climate change, and digital transformation, this year’s theme. “Digital transformation is a present-tense concept. Digital transformation is here already”, Dean CHANG said. Recent national studies estimate that the value of China’s digital economy—now an estimated 45 trillion RMB, or 45% of China’s GDP—will increase by 2025 to be greater than the total GDP of Germany, and that the value of China’s digital economy will be greater than the combined GDP of all emerging markets.

Charles CHANG Delivered the Opening

Digital transformation is especially important for increasing financial inclusion of China’s 400 million unbanked individuals through digital currency, wallets, and digital banking. Dean CHANG reminded the participants that digital innovation strategies that increase digital inclusion have huge potential—“these are all questions that end with a trillion-dollar solution”. He wished the participants, sponsors, and judges all the best for the competition to come.

EMF SA James hosted the ICC

Student teams introduced themselves using short videos, hailing from top universities in China and all over the world, with a variety of majors: computer science, accounting, ecology and economics, scriptwriting and playwriting, microelectronics, business and finance, information science, quantitative finance and risk management, and mathematics.

Student Video Sharing

The computer screens came alive with smiling faces and university screen backgrounds as the teams shared creative team names: Dark-X, Team DeFix, FinDiggers (Financial and Digital), MetaFin, and FinMoss. Team Dark-X shared their hope of using the competition to “connect the dots—we are single dots, connecting the humanity behind even more dots”. The air was full of excitement as the industrial experts came to the stage to share their insights on digital transformation in finance.

Ben SHU Delivered the Keynote Speech

Finance is moving from “score-keeper” to “value driver”, and from “data cruncher” to “business partner”. PwC partner and digital finance consulting expert Ben SHU emphasized that finance departments in business world is shifting from score keeping (compliance and reporting) to direct business value creating for companies based on digitalization and collaborating with operations. By 2025, PwC predicts that top priorities of finance functions within companies will focus on providing insights to drive efficiency & business outcome, working in tight collaboration with operations. Based on current benchmarks, 30-40% efficiency savings can be realized by automation and mindset change (PwC’s 2019 Finance Effectiveness Benchmarking).

Round-table session by Bill KONG, PwC managing partner for financial transformation, Ben SHU, PwC partner, digital finance transformation division; and PwC finance transformation partner Eva NI took the stage. The round-table was moderated by Allan CHOU, Global Advisor to ICC, founder of RAIDiCal, a global early tech fund of funds advisory and adjunct instructor of sustainability and corporate innovation at FISF.

Allan CHOU Moderated Round-table

Mr. KONG noted that in the digital age, the focus for the financial industry and finance departments in companies is changing: finance must become more agile, insightful, and bring more value. This means that finance is moving from “Data Cruncher” to “Business Partner”, and digital transformation can help finance departments take on this new value-creating role.  Predictive data analytics, AI, and other key tools from digital finance can help companies shift from historical report analysis (looking at past performance) to forward-looking analysis, predicting at least 6 months to 1 year ahead. This means that digital tools will help finance teams deliver value by providing insights that lead to action to sales, R&D, marketing, and other operations. Digital tools compare external and internal data and bring performance metrics to life so that they can be used in key strategic decision-making. By analyzing transaction data with company operations data, digital tools can help finance professionals add value to companies by offering insights on company’s growing strategy, product & channel profitability, governance, and operation excellence etc.

Even though CFOs and finance teams are becoming trusted advisors and partners that  use digital tools to strive for operational excellence, risk mitigation, and compliance, Ben SHU reminds us “not to let machines lead the humans”, but rather to work in partnership with data and automation: we need to upskill  and empower our own people while provide real-time insights, unified data  through intuitive and mobile technologies.

Round-table Session

These shifts to digital finance create another TREND: the transition from traditional finance roles to digital roles. This is great news for finance professionals or students with backgrounds in information system considering a career in finance! The roundtable experts agreed: the most in-demand professionals will be people with good finance or accounting skills plus a digital mindset. Today, the finance industry, consulting industry, and technology providers are all seeking to hire people with combined backgrounds: a solid business sense and a technology background. Curiosity is key. Since finance is a life-long career, the experts emphasized that the key is to make yourself relevant quickly and adapt to the outside world. This means cultivating a proactive mindset of learning beyond the boundaries of your major or course.

Eva NI Shared her Insights

After the industry insights and sharing, the teams are given time to think about the problem(s) that they would like to tackle to fulfill the ICC 2023 challenge of “Digital solutions to solve a financial issue faced by college students world-wide”.

To help the teams to complete their ideation and start to organize their thoughts into a final project presentation deck, Allan CHOU conducted an Innovation Workshop for the ICC participants with important tools of the trade including the breakdown of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, Responsible Leadership, Design Thinking, a strategic thinking methodologies to optimize teamwork and to cover all the necessary tasks to manage their projects in the most professional way.

ICC organizers scheduled a mid-term ideation check and mentorship sessions where the participating teams can test out their ideation and presentation layout so as to better prepare for the final pitch.  Five senior consultants from PwC: Cindy YUAN, Shaw LONG, Sing LI, Helen CHEN, Yvonne LU listened to the team pitches and gave insightful recommendations to the teams to optimize their presentations and refine their vision on how best to present their ICC 2023 ideas.

The Organizer and the Guests from PwC

The final session of ICC culminated in 20 teams pitching their final ideas on “Digital solutions to solve a financial issue faced by college students world-wide” with every ICC participant having to pitch as part of their own team so there’s full participation in the “Silicon Valley Style” five-minute elevator pitch, and a very concise question and answer segment with the judges.

Final Pitch Session

And finally, the winning team from very competitively scoring by three judges is the “Transformers” team, which came up with the idea of developing a tutoring platform - PinPoint based on a special Point system. Points are gained mostly by tutoring others and spent mostly on seeking help. The circulation of points constitutes the innovation: you get tutored, by tutoring others, and no real money is spent.

Ben SHU Presented the Award to the Champion

Special thanks to PwC for joining us this year. The exploration of young people's innovation and entrepreneurship potential relies on the accumulation of both professional knowledge and practical experience. In the past 5 years, around 450 students from 50 plus top schools in almost 20 countries and regions have been invited to the ICC event. There is no doubt they have gained some true inspiration from the event, and aim higher in the future.

The ICC Organizing Committee and the Judges

2023 ICC Group Photo

@刘畅（上海交通大学）

It was an unforgettable experience to participate in ICC 2023. I learned   the latest information about digital transformation in finance from the   lecture and how to form an innovative idea and the achievable plan in the   workshop. What’s more, I met new friends here. We, students from different   academic background, exchanged ideas and worked out a solution to the   financial problem we discovered in limited time. It required us to   brainstorm, divide work properly and manage time well. I was so proud of my   group members and was deeply impressed by the excellent performance of other   teams. Thanks, ICC!

@Jerry Mahajan（澳大利亚国立大学）

The ICC in 2023 was a great opportunity to learn invaluable business development skills in the field of digital technology. On the first day, speakers from PwC China and Fanhai International School of Finance taught us about the ever present digital transformation in the finance industry and how to pitch a business idea. We then collaborated in groups of four students around the world to develop a unique business idea relating to managing the finances of university students around the globe. We worked hard to produce a high quality pitch for our business idea and presented it to a panel of esteemed judges from Fudan University and PwC. Overall the ICC was a great opportunity to collaborate with my peers all around the globe and I developed many skills in both business development and digital finance.

@曹颢宸（北京大学）

It is the very first time that I have ever participated in an innovation   contest or hackathon and I felt that I’ve grown a little by learning from my   teammates and the lectures arranged by the committee. The topic of this   year’s ICC really drew our interest and I did feel the “collision” of   thoughts among participants throughout the event. In retrospect, it was   indeed a joyful and fruitful experience.

@董润（复旦大学）

In ICC, I befriended distinguished students from all over the world and gained a glimpse into how digital transformation will open up new possibilities for our financial world. Through this intense experience of working on and finalizing our project within the allotted time, I picked up some new skills that will definitely come in handy in the future. What a great journey!