Feature

Social Business Plan Competition 2010

Star Campus Desk

The grand finale of Social Business Plan Competition 2010(SBPC'10) was held at North South University (NSU) premises on 11th April. This is the first time in the history of Asia where a business plan competition has been organized based on the unique concept of 'Social Business'. This event was organized by Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES!), the business club of NSU and Yunus Centre, an organization of the 2006 Nobel Laureate on Peace Dr. Mohammad Yunus.

The grand finale of SBPC'10 started at 3 in the afternoon. In the first phase, top 5 teams of the competition presented their plans in front of the judges. They were given 20 minutes of time for the presentation, after the presentation there was a question-answer session. After a thorough presentation and judgement, the result was ready. 'Change We Need', the team from North South University became the champion team for their plan 'Edu Support'. The members of the champion team were, M Mamoon Al Bashir, A.S.M. Shakil Haider and Zahid Ahmed Chowdhury. The business plan of 'Change We Need' focuses on providing educational instruments in lower costs than the market price. 1st runner up was 'Odyssey', a team from Banking Department, University of Dhaka. The plan of Odyssey was to use organic plantation of VASAKA, in order to meet the demand of the Bangladeshi Pharmaceutical companies as well as the employment of women population of Bangladesh. 'Protégée', a team from Finance Department, University Of Dhaka stood 3rd for their project 'Hope' where they want to purify water using Shajna, a vegetable. Other two finalists were 'Team JFL' from IBA, University of Dhaka and 'Divine' from Stamford University Bangladesh. A.S.M. Shakil Haider, member of the champion team, 'Change We Need' told us that, “We are very happy to be the champion, but this is not the end, rather we are now more determined to implement this business plan in real life”.

The closing ceremony of SBPC'10 started at 7 p.m. The closing ceremony started with the speech of Mohammed Sohail Mustafa, Faculty Advisor of YES! He congratulated the finalists and thanked the honourable guests and sponsors. After that, distinguished guests, renowned women entrepreneur Ms. Farzana Shakil, Mr, Zahrul Syed Bakht, CFO, Aamra Group, Ms. Lamiya Morshed, Executive Director, Yunus Centre addressed the audience. Later Pro Vice Chancellor of NSU, Professor Dr. S A M Khairul Bashar and Mr. Benajir Ahmed, Vice Chairman, Board of Governors, NSUF also addressed the audience. They all thanked YES! for organizing such an event. The closing ceremony ended with the speech of the Chief Guest Mr. Annisul Huq, President, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). In his speech, he asked the young students to dream and go for their dream. He inspired the students to step ahead in their lives and to try to be an entrepreneur. The audiences were amazed with his speech, especially the young students who seemed highly motivated from his words. Finally the closing ceremony ended with a corporate dinner organized by YES!

However, the event was inaugurated on 28th of February. Pro Vice Chancellor of NSU, Dr. S A M Khairul Bashar inaugurated the competition. While inaugurating the competition, he thanked the YES! club for organizing such an unique event. On the day of inauguration, a workshop was conducted in the NSU premises. This workshop was conducted by the Yunus Centre representatives. In this workshop, the Yunus Centre representatives gave the participants elaborate ideas about 'Social Business'. Then, the participants got engaged in brainstorming session. Later a question answer session was conducted. Eventually, the criteria for writing the business plans were demonstrated. There were 32 teams registered from 17 different universities, both from the private and public institutes. After that, they were given a time of 3 weeks to submit their proposals. All the 32 teams submitted their plans. And all the plans were so unique in nature that the judge panels were in big dilemma. Thus after a tough process in selection, top 5 teams were selected, and called for the final event for the presentation of their business plan.

Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES!) has always organized events which are helpful for the students. They are famous for organizing fieldtrips, seminars, workshops, business plan competitions. Back in 2009, YES! organized Agro Business Plan Competition, which was very much appreciated by the concerned people. After the successful completion of SBPC'10, YES! wants to go to the next level. Newly elected president of YES!, M Mamoon Al Bashir told us that,' Next time we are going to organize 'IT Based Business Plan Competition to Create Digital Bangladesh, and this competition will be bigger and better than this. However, we are also thinking about getting affiliated with the business clubs of different universities of South Asia'.

After watching the glowing eyes of the members and talking to them, especially Junayed, Juthika, Nafis, Faisal,Tanveer, Rahi, Irfan, Salekin, Shohorab it can be said easily that they would do this competition and many more events successfully as well.