PM ups the ante at Global Enterprise Challenge
massey-university
Mon Jun 22 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
PM ups the ante at Global Enterprise Challenge
Monday, 22 June 2009, 1:55 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Monday, June 22, 2009
Prime Minister ups the ante at Global Enterprise Challenge
Prime Minister John Key issued a further incentive to students taking part in the Global Enterprise Challenge at the Albany campus.
He pledged to pay half the air fares for the winning team to visit him in Parliament to present their proposal if they could come up with a novel way to raise the rest of the cash.
Teenage entrepreneurs are tackling a challenge to produce a working model of an innovative product or service that will reduce food waste in New Zealand and looking at ways to make that food available to help alleviate starvation in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Speaking at the launch on Saturday, Mr Key welcomed the 80 year-12 and 13 school pupils to what he described as a “great campus” in Albany.
“My advice is to think creatively, think outside the box,” he told the students. “Ultimately, enterprise is the heart and root of business. You are growing up in a world where everything is online and you are totally comfortable with that and it is going to transform the world.”
Mr Key gave a tongue-in-cheek example of thinking creatively, saying he had suggested to Finance Minister Bill English that a way to reduce the country’s $7.7 billion deficit was to buy plenty of tickets for the Big Wednesday jackpot lotto draw. “Bill said 'I think that idea is better than most of the ideas you have rung me about',” said Mr Key.
New Zealand is the defending champion of the Global Enterprise Challenge, which is organised by the Young Enterprise Trust. The University is the host and principal sponsor. Participating schools are from Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wanganui, Manawatu, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
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Professor John Raine, regional chief executive of the Albany campus, urged students to take this opportunity to pick up business skills from the Massey mentors who are specialists in international business, food technology, engineering and science.
The panel includes Dr Tony Mutukumira from the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health and product development lecturer Chris Chitty (also known as Dr Robotech, the mad scientist from TVNZ children's show Let's Get Inventing).
The eight teams have 24-hours to prepare their business plans and power point presentations and will be based in boardrooms of businesses including ActionCOACH, Actionmail, ASB, BarterCard, DraftFCB, FedEx Express, PKF Accountants, Renaissance Corp, Russell Investments and The Edge.
They will have access to expertise from mentors from each company as they build a prototype of their design with a $50 budget.
The teams will present their case to a panel of judges and the winning New Zealand team will go into the global final against 20 other countries. The presentation will be videoed, transmitted on the internet and the winners will be announced in the early hours of Wednesday.
The Global Enterprise Challenge is part of a weekend called International Enterprise in Action with students sharpening up their business skills during the FedEx International Trade Challenge, where they developed a New Zealand product for export. Six students from this challenge will go on to represent New Zealand in the FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge competition in Singapore in August.
Every participant in the challenge will receive a scholarship worth $1000 from the University's College of Business and the winning team members will receive $2000 scholarships.
ENDS
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