The Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship hosted the university’s annual business plan competition on March 20-21, giving students the chance to get cash awards to move their carefully designed plans into action.
The competition, which was recently renamed The New Venture Competition, is the second of two events put on by the Willes Center each school year. The first event, The Great Ideas Exchange, is held in the fall semester and gets students thinking on ideas that could turn into an actual business. From there students select one of three categories for their idea (international, domestic, and social entrepreneurship) where they are mentored by BYU–Hawaii faculty as well as local and international entrepreneurs on how to create a professional-level and actionable business plan. Students submit these plans that then are reviewed by a panel of online judges who select the top submissions in each category to present to a live panel of judges during the winter semester competition. For 2013, top student presentations had a semifinal round on Wednesday, March 20, and a final round on Thursday, March 21.
Winners of the competition were awarded a total of $30,000 presented by the Willes Center and university leadership for the purpose of getting their new venture up and running. The first place prizes were, for the domestic category, a plan called Pillow Face that will produce disposable pillowcases that prevent acne. The international entrepreneurship winner was Golden Baby, a Chinese preschool that specializes in English immersion. Well Africa was the top plan in the social entrepreneurship category for their plan to raise awareness and prevention of child slavery in the cocoa fields of the Ivory Coast.
The students and their plans were not the only attraction of the two-day event. Keynote speakers Gary Crittenden and Mark H. Willes as well as three power blast speakers and a question-and-answer panel titled “What I Wished I Learned in Business School” were open to the public. Crittenden, a former Chief Financial Officer of several large companies including Sears and American Express, addressed the students on what a business needs to be successful. He shared experiences from his many years in industry as well as his experience as an LDS businessman. Closing remarks at the event were offered by Mark H. Willes, a world-recognized business leader who most recently served as CEO of Deseret Management Corporation from 2009 to 2012. He also served as president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission from 2001-2004. Willes focused his remarks on the moral characteristics that set you apart from the competition.
BYU–Hawaii alumni speakers included Joseph and Susie Berardy, Richie Norton, and Logan Woolley. The Berardys started DBI-Hawaii, a company specializing in Hawaiian gift lines, furniture, jewelry and hotel amenities and décor. Richie Norton is an author, consultant, and entrepreneur who has written two best-selling books, The Power of Starting Something Stupid and Resumes are Dead and What to Do about It. Logan Woolley is the founder and CEO of Regatta Group of Companies, and oversees corporate startups, acquisitions and capital development.
See a complete list of speakers and panelists from the 2013 New Venture Competition.
Brett Lee, previous-winner-of-the-competition-turned-judge, said that the plans submitted this year as well as the speakers and panels were the best that he has seen in the five years he has attended the competition.
Read more at willescenter.byuh.edu.