The teams were rated by a jury who eventually chose the winner. VoiceOver member Sandra Irobi was part of the jury. Michael Bowen and Michael Zhang were declared winners of the first edition of the BiD Student Challenge.
Why were you asked to become a jury member for the BiD Student Challenge?
Sandra: ‘I was asked to become a Jury member for the BiD student challenge due to my experiences and participation in entrepreneurial issues. Presently, I am the President of Young Entrepreneurs for Africa (YEFA), which motivates and empowers young highly skilled African Professionals in Diaspora to utilize their professional skills in creating development opportunities in Africa through business.’
What were you looking for in the teams and their ideas?
Sandra: ‘For the groups that handled the business reviews, there duties were to critically evaluate the business plans from entrepreneurs in Africa and suggest ways of improving and adding value to such businesses. What we were looking for from such reviews were:
a. Their presentation skills;
b. Creativity in their critique;
c. Feasibility of their suggested marketing plan/ analysis of the capacities of the
entrepreneur's management teams;
d. Their ability to present a good and detailed plan /strategy that arguments the
entrepreneur's marketing and financial plan;
e. The innovativeness of the group's approach and solution and finally;
f. The sustainability of the group's solutions to the entrepreneur's problems or shortfalls.’
How did you choose the winning team?
Sandra: ‘From the over 30 teams (groups) that registered, the top five teams were selected. These five top teams were then called to make a 2-minute pitch of their presentations and work, and from the top five, the best team was selected.’
What made this team better than the rest?
Sandra: ‘Some important factors that distinguished the winning team, was their ability to sell their idea as though they were the entrepreneur involved, their ability to precisely state the problem, their solution and challenges in a very motivated way, their ability to accurately answer the questions posed by the audience and Jury, as well as the quality of work they did while reviewing the business plan.’
For more information about the challenge see the MYW website.
