Event Profile

The founding members of APEX Global: Darren Toh, Deeraj Karnani & Yang Kangwei

Background

APEX Global was conceived by 3 SMU students who had returned 1st runner-up from CaseIT MIS Competition 2008 organized by Simon Fraser University, Canada. With a strong belief in the harmonization of Business and IT, they proposed the possibility of organizing a global Business-IT Case Competition in Asia to Steven Miller, Dean of SMU School of Information System.

Despite facing numerous challenges of spearheading an inaugural international event, Darren Toh, Deeraj Karnani and Yang Kangwei sought to make the event a reality and the rest is history. APEX Global 2009 turned out to be a “gigantic success” by Miller’s words, featuring 16 top universities and business schools from 11 countries and a panel of 22 judges from industry leaders such as Microsoft, Citibank, Singapore Airlines and McKinsey & Company.

Goals

APEX Global aims to:

  • Integrate two different schools of thought of business and IT to produce a unique case challenge.
  • Become a forum of learning and professional development for the next generation of Business-IT leaders.
  • Develop each participating individual to strengthen his or her ability to contribute to cross functional and cross cultural teams addressing complex problems at the interface of IT and Business.

Identity

APEX Global Business IT Case Challenge derives its name from Darren Toh, one of the event ’s founders. He coined the term ‘APEX’, which is an acronym of the flow of action needed in cracking a business case:

  • Analyze
  • Process
  • Engineer
  • eXecute

The term ‘APEX’ also refers to the highest point or the summit. Together with the tag line “Rise Above Your Best”, APEX Global aims to serve as the platform for individuals to perform not only above the rest of the competition but also their personal best. APEX Global also strives to be the point of culmination for the world’s brightest undergraduates to display their knowledge of dealings in Business and IT domains and fight it out for the world’s very best.

Logo

The swirling of the 2 lines which meet together at a single point represents the convergence of 2 different schools of thoughts: Business and IT. The curves of the lines are shaped like a series of summits, in line with the term ‘APEX’.

The words in the logos are in italics, symbolizing the fast paced nature of the competition’s 24 hour case deliberation and presentation.

The blue and black color scheme used in the logo projects the corporate personality of the event. Blue is associated with confidence, wisdom and intelligence while dark blue is strongly associated with knowledge, power, integrity and seriousness.