Competition to explore entrepreneurial capabilities of students

Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the growth of economy of a country. For a growing country like Bangladesh, the success of entrepreneurs is indispensable to create workplaces for the growing population. However, there is lack of proper platforms where the young people of our country can uphold their creativity and consider taking entrepreneurship as their career. East West University Business Club (EWUBC) has successfully organised Inter University Business Plan Competition 2017.
This was aimed to be a platform where students from any part of the country will be able to explore their entrepreneurial capacities. The finale was held on February 28. 'The A Team' from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka (DU) became the champion, Team 'Jelly Beans' also from IBA, DU became the runners-up and Team 'Think Thank' from Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) became the second runners-up. The chief guest of the award giving ceremony was the Governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir. The Chairperson of Board of Trustees and former Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin and Vice Chancellor of East West University Professor M. M. Shahidul Hassan were also present at the award giving ceremony.
The competition went live on January  24, 2017 with a call for business plans from all over the country. After that several road shows were held in between January 24 to February 22.  In the first round which was an initial screening round a team consisting three members had to submit a business idea within 6,000 words. As many as 84 teams from 23 universities all over Bangladesh submitted their business ideas, among which 15 of the teams advanced to the second round after being judged by a panel of eminent judges. The name of the 15 selected teams and the trophy of the competition were later disclosed by Commerce Minster Tofail Ahmed during the inauguration ceremony held on February 26 in East West University (EWU) premises. The  minister highly praised the idea of the competition. Later on, a workshop was conducted by founder of Ten Minute School Ayman Sadiq for the selected 15 teams.
The second round took place on February 27. In the second round the teams had to present their business ideas with the limitation to 15 slides to another panel of distinguished judges. The five finalist teams were 'The A team' from Institution of Business Administration (IBA), Team 'Jelly Beans' also from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Team 'Think Thank' from Independent University Bangladesh, Team 'Marshmallows' from East West University (EWU) and 'Team Black' from University of Barisal. The finalist teams had to present their business plans  to a panel of prominent judges with no limitation of slides.
In the award giving ceremony, the  Governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir encouraged such initiative. He spoke about the roles of entrepreneurs and how such competitions are great way to promote entrepreneurship among the youngster. In the award ceremony Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin also articulated his hopes and dreams about the future of Bangladesh's economy.
Accentuating the importance of the competition from the organising body, Shams Alam Khan, President of East West University Business Club said, 'We plan to take the competition to the next level in few years, we want inter university business plan competition to become a startup platform not only for entrepreneurs of our country but all over the world.'
All the competitors showed their enthusiasm to become an entrepreneur through their innovative business ideas and proving the feasibility of their dreams. Tausif Ahmed, the leader of the winning team, shared his experience about the competition. Tausif said, 'Due to unavoidable circumstances none of my team members was able to participate in the competition for which from round 1 till the grand finale, I competed alone individually against 84 other teams from 23 different universities and eventually become the champion. The absolute joy of defeating 84 of the best teams of Bangladesh single-handedly was truly amazing. Each of the three rounds was extremely challenging especially because of the fact that all three rounds were held on three consecutive days.' Waliul Islam Pial, one of the members of the finalist team, said, 'Inter University Business Plan Competition is a continuous learning process. It is like fighting to prove to the world the power of a wannabe entrepreneurs dreams and the existence of its feasibility.'
The competition was not only a great experience for the winners but also for all the participants. The amount of response shows the enthusiasm of the young students of our country about taking lead of their own future. This kind of competitions could help to motivate the youths of our country and become great startup platform for the undergraduate students who dream to become entrepreneurs.

The writer is a second year BBA student at East West University. She can be reached at nabila.anzum17@gmail.com