Armed with what they had seen, the students went back to their strategies, working across three directions: a Gen Z viral marketing campaign, a Southeast Asia expansion to rival the likes of Legoland and Sunway Lagoon, and a global franchise roadmap. After a trial run in late June, each finalist delivered an individual pitch at the Grand Finale on 7 July.
Then came the real test. Instead of presenting ten separate ideas again, the Elite 10 were asked to do what founding teams do: merge their strongest thinking into one plan, and agree on it. Building consensus among ten sharp, opinionated minds is harder than writing a good pitch alone, which was precisely the point.
Bringing It Back to Dwi Emas
On 14 September, the journey came full circle when Superdough visited Dwi Emas. The Elite 10 presented their unified strategy to the Superdough team on home ground, the same campus where it all began as a classroom challenge.
For the students, the takeaway goes well beyond pricing models and value propositions. They watched their individual ideas become part of something bigger, and saw first-hand what it takes to work as one team. More than anything, the challenge showed them business as something they could actively contribute to, not simply study. Several are now keen to take on more competitions.
Perhaps the best measure of how it all landed came from Kawai himself. If they ever make their plan happen, he told the group, they should look him up, because he would come and work for them.