Development of entrepreneurial mindset among engineers

After organising Pioneros, an intra-university business case competition last year, BUET Entrepreneurship Development Club (BUET EDC) has successfully organised the second version —Pioneros 2.0. Powered by LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited, this time Pioneros 2.0 was an inter-university business case competition, bigger and better than last time. The objective of Pioneros is to provide a firsthand experience to the participants in solving real-life problems of the business world. The finale was held on January 18 at BUET auditorium.

The registration for Pioneros 2.0 started on November 03, and the online round started on November 10. About 600 teams, 2160 participants from 43 universities from all over the country registered and participated in the online round. The first workshop was held on November 24 providing the tips and strategies for case solving, presentation and experiences of 'Pathao'. The second round was more intense with 60 teams selected from the online round. The teams had to solve a case on the spot and present it in front of the judges in the allocated time. The teams gained considerable expertise in case analysis, market segmentation and most importantly critical thinking under pressure.

Pioneros 2.0 was very successful in achieving its objectives as the finalist 10 teams, selected from a very close competition in the second round, move on to finals. Before the final round, LaFargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited held a workshop at the headquarter 'NinaKabbo' to give the finalists a glimpse of how an industry works.

The finale was a tight competition among 10 teams from BUET, DU, NSU and BUP where they had to present the solution of the given case in 12 minutes and an eight-minute question answer round. The finale event had an ambitious start with brilliant minds embracing the platform and presenting their case solutions, each team better than the other.

The judges were Naimul Baset, director of Integration and Business Development, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited, Fahima Shahadat, head of Infrastructure and Technical Services, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited, Naimul Abedin, acting head of Marketing, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited and Syeda Kamrun Ahmed, director, eGeneration.

Naimul Abedin said, "Business landscape is changing and require strong communications and analytical ability to assess the business situations and develop plans. Pioneros is aimed to foster upcoming graduates to embrace more of a corporate feel and equipped with real-life scenarios."

Shariful Islam also said, "The business environment is becoming more complex day by day, and being able to learn collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making has become essential."

BUET Entrepreneurship Development Club pulled off quite a commendable hosting that night. Pulling off such a big inter-university event with small but dedicated members flawlessly was quite stunning. The finale was divided into two segments, a short cultural break between the presentations. The judges' panel, in particular, had much-reputed personalities who did perfect justice at critically evaluating the teams.

After a short break, the winners were finally declared. The second runners-up were Team Hashtag from North South University comprising of Tasmia Khan, Tasfia T Katha, Aneem Islam and Sadman R Chowdhury; the team that came second was Team Ingenious having Mohaiminul Islam, Galib Hasan Khan, Fahim Rashid Chowdhury and Md Shihabuzzaman from BUET; and finally the winning team out of the ten was Team Tycoons from BUET that had Tanveer Ahmed Tomal, Imtiar Jalal Niloy, Monzurul Islam and Shadman Sakib and won an amount of one lac taka.

The event ended with speeches from the judges, and they talked about how satisfied they were with the overall organisation of the finale and the calibre of the finalists. All the finalists and judges sat down for a gala dinner at the end of the programme, and BUET EDC added another feather in its cap after orgnising the first ever inter-varsity business case competition in BUET.

The writer is currently studying in the final year of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He can be reached at [email protected]