Youth Business Development Competition 2007 is underwayThe second annual YBD Competition has been launched at Saïd Business School.
Created by the Oxford MBA and MFE Classes of 2005-2006, YBD is a global competition for entrepreneurial young people, aged 16-21. Run by Saïd students, the competition is itself a social enterprise, designed to deliver valuable life skills and business learning to the entrants, irrespective of their background, education or nationality, and to encourage an understanding of social enterprises. A prize fund of £2000 in seed capital is available to support the leading ventures.
Dan Marmar (MBA2006), one of the founders of the scheme explained: ‘This is the world’s first global youth business development competition. It was created to give young people the chance to develop an original business idea with social impact, and to raise funding for that project. We believe the benefits to young people entering this competition are significant. Besides being helped by Saïd’s students to build knowledge and experience in social enterprises and social entrepreneurship, the applicants will be encouraged to develop their team-working and communications skills and will build valuable confidence for the future. They will also have the opportunity to network with other young social entrepreneurs from around the globe with all the advantages that can bring.’
The competition begins with teams of 3-5 individuals submitting their initial business ideas in a one page document (the first round deadline is 31st March 2007). Applications should be supported by a local mentor (such as a high school or university teacher, or community leader). Submissions are assessed by a diligence committee, composed of Saïd business students. Shortlisted applications are then developed further into business plans that address feasibility, market demand, resource mobilization, competitive strategy, and capital requirements, with the support of a mentor from the one of Saïd’s management programmes. Final plans are reviewed by a Venture Capital/Philanthropy Panel, and the team or teams which most clearly demonstrate their ability to put capital to social and economic use will be awarded the funding. It is intended to provide the winners and other finalists with ongoing support from current or past MBA students to continue the development of their plans.
Last year, teams representing eight different countries and five continents reached the final phase of the competition. The Winner of the 2006 competition was a team of engineering students from the University of Chandigarh in India with plans to use the university’s intellectual and human resources to revitalize a major slum adjacent to their campus, providing valuable employment and training to its residents. Under the plan, young people from the slum would receive free student-led courses in core engineering skills (carpentry, electrical, welding), and subsidized grants to use this knowledge to build a basic infrastructure, supporting a reasonable standard of living in their communities.
More information on all of last year’s finalists can be found on the YBD website http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/oba/se/ybd
About Saïd Business School
Established in 1996 the Saïd Business School is a full service business school and one of Europe’s newest and fastest growing business schools. An integral part of Oxford University, the School embodies the academic rigour and forward thinking that has made Oxford a world leader in education. The School has an established reputation for research in a wide range of areas, including finance and accounting, organisational analysis, international management, strategy and operations management. The school is dedicated to developing a new generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs and conducting research not only into the nature of business, but the connections between business and the wider world. In the Financial Times ranking of MBA programmes (Jan 07), Saïd again improved its position and is ranked 19th in the world. This achievement follows the School’s success in HM Treasury’s 2005 ranking of the top 50 MBA programmes in the world, where it finished number one out of all the UK business schools. In the university league table published by The Guardian (May 2006), Saïd ranked first of all UK universities for undergraduate business. The University of Oxford also ranked top for business studies in The Times report published in June 2006. For more information, see http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk
