The annual three-day competitive program is held between the Private Equity Institute at the University of Oxford and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago.

• Oxford Saïd Business School students’ team won the annual Oxford Chicago private equity challenge
• The 3-day competition takes place between the Private Equity Institute at the University of Oxford and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago
• The challenge this year involved presenting an assessment of the potential for a leveraged buyout of Scout 24, a German online classifieds company

The competition this year took place at the Polsky Institute at Chicago Booth on February 26. The challenge provides the students access to leading investment banks and private equity firms.

It also includes mentoring from industry professionals, networking opportunities and the chance to work on real-life case scenarios. The win represents the second consecutive victory for Oxford.

The challenge culminates in a presentation session in which the two teams, one from each institution, put forward investment proposals based on real-life companies to a committee of highly experienced finance industry figures.

The Oxford team comprising Atos Drauschke-Muradyan (2018 MBA), Felix Tan (2016 BA Economics & Management), Vivek Elluru (2018 MBA), Rahfin Faruk (2018 MBA) and Carl Rietschel (2018 MBA) took home the cash prize for their presentation.

“The feedback we received from them improved our pitch considerably and was critical to our success,”

Vivek said it was a wonderful feeling to win against a top side like Chicago Booth. “The effort of over two months working on the challenge and putting our best foot forward was all worth it as it was a fantastic learning experience,” he added.

Felix Tan said the team had extensively researched their target company and repeatedly tested their pitch with mentors Andreas Angelopoulos, Jeff Henriksen, Artem Katilov and Klimenti Katilov, as well as with senior investment professionals from Oakley Capital and Ares.

“The feedback we received from them improved our pitch considerably and was critical to our success,” he added.

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The team had earned a hard-fought victory having had to overcome numerous challenges, including a lack of publicly available data points. “This made it difficult to justify our forecasts, but we developed a variety of benchmarks based on similar companies in order to be comfortable that the management could execute on the KPIs we were projecting,” Felix said.

He said the team debated every element of their presentation. “The debates are what refined our presentation, and the difference between the first and last iteration was night and day,” he added.

Andreas Angelopoulos, Associate Fellow and founder of the Oxford Chicago private equity challenge, said, “The experience for the students is much more than the challenge. It is a unique three-day private equity intensive program that gives students access to the best education and network opportunities in finance and private equity, globally.

“Students attend a Private Equity seminar, compete in the PE Challenge in front of an Investment Committee, attend the Private Equity Forum and also take part in a trek to learn from Oxford and Chicago alumni,” he pointed out.

Team mentor and Associate Fellow Jeff Henriksen described the team’s performance as impressive. “There was not one question they could not answer from the investment committee. Atos, Felix, Vivek, Rahfin and Carl all worked incredibly hard and showed that when it comes to finance, Oxford Saïd is a force to be reckoned with,” he added.

Peter Tufano, Peter Moores Dean and Professor of Finance, organisations at Saïd Business School in the University of Oxford has, in an interview published in the school blog, given his views on the role of business education in combating complexity.

He says the focus of the programs have been to make the participants more effective at the individual level, at the team level and at the organisational level. “Our new challenge must be to make our leaders effective at the systems level as well.

“Huge complicated problems demand people who can work across sectors to address the issues that fall outside of the neat buckets of organisations and governments,” he adds.

While businesses need to be financially viable in order to survive and to produce excellent goods and services for their customers and clients. these are only a starting point, not the sum total of businesses’ responsibilities. Every business is part of a wider community. ‘That community may be local, national, and global,’

Until recently though, business schools have been more attuned to the opportunities to enhance individual, team and organisational performance, than systems performance. Yet the increasing challenge for business is to work alongside leaders in other sectors to address these far more complex problems.

“That’s why we’ve tried to put some emphasis at the School on thinking about systems-level challenges and equipping our students with the skills they need to address them,” he says.

What has Saïd achieved in this direction? The School had, in 2013, introduced Global Opportunities and Threats: Oxford (GOTO), a problem-solving community geared towards addressing some of the most complex issues that the world faces today.

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The first year took up demography and the problems associated with ageing societies, such as those endemic to the US, China, Japan and much of Western Europe. One alumnus from this GOTO cohort went on to create an organisation that combats social isolation and reduces levels of suicide among senior citizens in South Korea.

The second-year considered issues related to big data and data privacy. “in retrospect, I think we were ahead of our time in focusing on these issues. Subsequent iterations of GOTO dealt with water scarcity, the future of work, the future of healthcare, and for this coming year, the future of energy,” Prof Tufano says.

Another issue of importance is the duties businesses have to society and whether they have responsibilities beyond making a profit. Prof Tufano says these questions are not new and have predated the times of prominent Oxford political economist Adam Smith. Incidentally, Smith had in 1759 published ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’.

“Smith’s seminal work explores how our moral ideas and actions are a product of our nature as social creatures. It also concerns the duties that we owe to one another. When it comes to business,– which are collections of individuals – inherit the duties that we have to one another as individuals, Prof Tufano says.

While businesses need to be financially viable in order to survive and to produce excellent goods and services for their customers and clients. these are only a starting point, not the sum total of businesses’ responsibilities. Every business is part of a wider community. ‘That community may be local, national, and global,’ he says.

In a more connected world, businesses are increasingly finding themselves linked with suppliers, customers, employees and “bystanders” far from their communities. At the same time, global phenomena can affect relatively “local” businesses.

“Globalisation has transformed supply chains and the jobs that are available in the supply chains. Growing inequality and growing communication capabilities have meant that people’s expectations have changed. Ageing will affect virtually every industry and every government service,” Prof Tufano says.

Changes in technology, communications, demography, environmental challenges, and inequality cut across national borders, across sectors of society, and often even between generations.  ‘Given the complexity of systems-level problems, it’s unlikely that one single approach or point of view will miraculously produce an answer,’ he says. Instead, we must ‘work to bring a diversity of approaches to thinking in order to solve these problems.’

“At the core of these issues is the requirement for cooperation and collaboration between different types of individuals and organisations, the need for cooperation across sectors as well as countries,” he adds.

The School, in association with the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, has announced a new 1+1 MBA from October 2019.

Students will have a choice of getting a Master of Studies (MSt.) degree in any of the languages offered by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages–French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese and Greek.

Candidates accepted to the 2019-21 MBA 1+1 program will undertake their master’s course during the 2019-20 academic year and their MBA during the 2020-21 academic year.

They will follow the standard MSt. Modern Languages program in year one, with a bridging programme over the Summer vacation and then follow the MBA course in their second year.

As part of the 1+1 cohort, they will have access to a range of business-related support and resources throughout the first year of their course (including access to specialist careers advice, corporate events and business networks).

Students of the 1+1 MBA will get the opportunity to develop strong relationships with current MBA students, international alumni, prominent academics, and expert practitioners. They will also have full access to the career and professional development resources of the school.

The School has been offering the 1+1 course with a number of other University departments including Japanese Studies, Latin America Studies, Music, and Visual, Material & Museum Anthropology.

The School said a recent longitudinal study identified Oxford language graduate salaries were above that of STEM. Another report by the Confederation of Business and Industry (CBI) highlighted the demand among businesses for skilled professionals in languages.

The pairing of an MBA with the MSt. Modern Languages allows candidates to develop business skills alongside an enhanced understanding of the culture associated with a specific foreign language.

The combination of language and business skills will provide useful tools for those wishing to pursue a career in international environments, commercial, educational, or any other sector.

The School has been offering the 1+1 course with a number of other University departments including Japanese Studies, Latin America Studies, Music, and Visual, Material & Museum Anthropology.

“We are excited to launch this new program and are looking forward to working closely with the Business School.  This represents a really interesting development in our graduate course offering, combining the Faculty’s focus on non-Anglophone literature and cultures with core business skills,” says Professor Ian Watson, Chair of the Faculty Board.

How to apply

To apply for the 1+1 MBA you must meet the entry requirements for both the Oxford MBA and your chosen Master’s. Individual applications should be submitted for the Master’s degree and the MBA program by the relevant deadlines.

For the MBA portion of the 1+1 application, you need to follow the application process for the MBA application and submit your application form and supporting materials by your chosen application deadline.

In addition to the two essays required for the MBA application, 1+1 MBA applicants are required to submit this essay: ‘Explain why you see the 1+1 MBA as particularly beneficial for you and how it fits with your career and personal development aims’ (maximum 250 words).

Each of the partnering Master’s programs has its own application form, deadlines and requirements. Deadlines are scheduled in November, January and March, but not all programmes accept applications for all three deadlines. Information on individual Master’s deadlines and application requirements will be available on each department’s website.

If you wish to be considered for a University scholarship during the first year of your Oxford 1+1 MBA, your application must be submitted by your Master program’s January deadline.

Scholarship

Every year, the Pershing Square Foundation awards up to five full scholarships to support outstanding students on the 1+1 MBA, covering the tuition & living fees for both the Master’s degree and the MBA year.

The scholarship is granted to exceptional individuals who can demonstrate the potential and commitment to finding scalable and sustainable solutions to world-scale social challenges.

The interview decision for this stage will be on September 21 and the final decision will be October 19, the school stated on its website.

Stage 2 has an application deadline on November 2, the interview decision on November 16 and the final decision on December 14.

In Stage 3, the application deadline will be January 11, interview decision on February 1, 2019 and final decision on March 22, 2019. Stage 4 has an application deadline on April 5, interview decision on April 2 and final decision on June 7.

Eligibility Criteria

You should have an undergraduate degree with a score of 2.1 (3.5 GPA) or its equivalent. Even if you do not meet the minimum of 2.1 you may still be considered provided you have a very strong employment record demonstrating a high degree of responsibility.

All your University degree academic transcripts/mark-sheets are to be uploaded along with the online application form. These must outline the subjects studied or grades obtained from each academic year. If your original transcripts are not in English you must also supply an official translation. The original copies of the transcripts should be submitted at the time of the interview.

You should have at least two years of previous full-time work experience, to be mentioned in detail in a 1 page CV.  The current class has an average of six years work experience. The school does not seek experience in any specific sector. The students are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, from engineering and finance to academia, armed forces and non-profit.

The first step is to introduce yourself by completing an online form about your background and interests. It will enable you to receive bespoke content and invitations to help you research and make decisions about the program.

The admission committee looks for evidence of career progression and international exposure. You should be able to work as part of a team, as well as be able to show leadership potential. We look for a high level of quantitative and analytical skills evidenced in the GMAT/GRE results. While the school does not ask for a minimum score, the applicants should have a score of 650 or above. The current class has an average GMAT score of around 690.

In case of GRE, you should have a verbal score of 160 and a quantitative score of 161. GRE scores are not valid if they are older than five years on the application deadline date.

If you are not from a majority English speaking country, Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Test Scheme (IELTS) must be taken and all minimum scores met. The requirement may be waived at the discretion of the University, in cases where you have completed a full-time degree-level course of a minimum of nine months, at a recognised institution, where the medium of instruction and assessment was entirely in English.

You should submit two professional/academic References. Once referee details are input onto the application form, your referee will receive an automatic email from the School with details on how to complete the online reference form. The school accepts references from a valid work/professional/institutional email address and not from Gmail/Hotmail account.

You are also required to submit two mandatory essays. The topic for the first essay is ‘Consider a statistic or trend that shocks you. Why it is important to you and how could it be changed for the better? (Maximum 500 words)’. The second topic will be ‘Is there anything not covered in the application form which you would like the Admissions Committee to know about you? (Maximum 250 words).

The completed online application form should be submitted along with a £150 application fee.

Application Process

The school says the MBA program attracts a very diverse group. Applications come from more than 85 different nationalities and a variety of professional and academic backgrounds. The applicants should be exceptional and Oxford Said looks for evidence that the students will make the most of their time during the program contributing to the life of the School and fellow students.

Thus, the first step is to introduce yourself by completing an online form about your background and interests. It will enable you to receive bespoke content and invitations to help you research and make decisions about the program.

Fees & Other Expenses

The fee for the program is £57,200, including course fee, college fee and life-long Oxford Union membership. Those joining the program will also have to pay a non-refundable deposit of £7,800 which will be offset against their course fee.