Page 115 - guidance-supporting-europe-s-aspiring-entrepreneurs-policy-and-practice-to-harness-future-potential

Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

investors, entrepreneurs and other business professionals a means to connect
with and meet students and to disseminate good practice for business
management, leadership and development. They are also an effective
promotional tool as they provide a means of reaching ‘masses’ of students.
Examples of high profile business competitions for HE students were found
in most European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic,
Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Sweden Slovenia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. They
often involve private sector partners as sponsors and jurors. For instance, in
Austria the nationwide business plan competition ideas2business i2b is
subsidised by the chamber of commerce and a bank. Competitions for HE
students tend to be more ambitious and longer than the ones involving secondary
school students.
Example 22 illustrates an example of an international business competition
from Latvia which is hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE
Riga). The competition aims to promote intercultural understanding as well as
entrepreneurial skills.

Example 22. The Peak time competition, Latvia

The Peak time competition is organised by first year students of Stockholm School of Economics in
Riga (SSE Riga). This is an international event which attracts many participants from all over the
world. Its aim is to challenge talented and energetic young people with complex corporate problems
by testing them with a set of various tools: business simulation (Cesim), case studies and guest
lectures (inter alia). In 2010 alone there were 1 200 participants from 202 universities, 43 countries
and six continents. The competition is organised in three stages before 20 ‘best teams’ are selected
and invited to Riga for the final. Only undergraduate students are eligible to apply.
The first phase of the competition starts around January each year as teams form and apply
for the competition. Teams may consist of students from the same university/country or from
multiple establishments/countries.
The second phase of the competition takes place in a computer-simulated business
environment called CESIM-On-Service. Each team represents a virtual company and for one
month, they must compete against each other for the largest market share and highest share price.
Given certain economic and financial constraints, the teams have to make decisions in relation to
their company’s finance, investment, R&D, production planning, marketing and logistics, etc.
Company-management decisions have to be made approximately twice a week. After one month
each company is assigned assessment points based on their performance and position within their
‘regional group’.
The third stage of the competition lasts one week and consists of a problem-solving task.
Teams are given real-life problems prepared by professionals from the business and government
sectors. The teams must come up with a solution to the task which they then have to present to the
judges.
Finally, the remaining teams ranked according to their points from the three previous rounds,
and the 20 highest-ranked participants who will be able to enter the fourth and final round, are
announced at the end of March. The finalists are invited to Riga at the beginning of May where they
compete in more advanced simulations and case studies and submit a short movie about their
team. The team that performs best at the Peak time final is declared champion title and awarded a
monetary prize.

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