The London Universities Anglo Sino Rising Star Enterprise Challenge: My first business competition

The “London’s Rising Stars” competition is the first business competition I’ve ever taken part in. It was a seven-hour event that took place during Global Entrepreneurship Week at Portcullis House and the House of Lords (Westminster – Houses of Parliament). Myself and four other team members represented City University. We competed against eight other teams from a variety of schools in the London area. Each team had five to six people and there were around 50 people in total competing at the event. Each of the eight teams was assigned an entrepreneur, two teams per entrepreneur, and each was tasked with developing a marketing strategy for the business’s latest product. These entrepreneurs were a few years out of college and in the initial stages of growing and developing their businesses.

Specifically, my team’s assignment was to take the product, a children’s tourist guidebook of the London area (made by Cupof3, a design & graphics firm), and select the target customer demographic, nationality demographic (of tourists), selling locations, develop a sales and pricing strategy, and identify potential 2012 Olympic Games sales and marketing opportunities. We were given a certain amount of time to compile information from the web and were allowed to leave the building to talk to merchants in the streets. Afterwards, we presented our rough draft strategy to a management consultant, got feedback, and then were given additional time to compile a final presentation for the judges. We then gave our presentation in front of a panel of judges in one of the committee rooms in the House of Lords.

The results? We came in first and were crowned “London’s Rising Stars!”

Having no prior business experience or competition experience, I feel incredibly grateful to have won this title. I think our success is most attributable to three factors.

1. We had an excellent team that worked extremely well together. Forming the marketing strategy was a complete team effort, where everybody contributed ideas and used their strengths to gather information. Had we not worked well together, we would not have been able to compile such a vast amount of market research in such a short a time period.
2. We all had very good ideas about how to market the product to tourists, but I think what distinguished us from our competitors was our ability to take action. We called up businesses, talked with people on the street, compiled statistics, and even bought rival tourist guides in bookshops. It really showed the judges that we had done our homework and that our strategy was grounded in reality.
3. We had a clear and tight presentation. We spoke loudly enough so that everyone could hear and made sure to stay under the allotted time. Compiling the information is important, but communicating it is what seals the deal.

I, along with all the members of my team, was overjoyed. We felt honored to have been up against such stiff competition and grateful that all our hard work had been recognized.

I believe this was the first London’s Rising Stars competition hosted by London Metropolitan University. Despite a few kinks, like not a lot of food and not telling us to bring our laptops, the competition went smoothly and was a rewarding experience. It was wonderful to be able to interact with entrepreneurs only a few years older than myself and have the complete attention of so many successful individuals. If you get the opportunity to participate in this business competition, I highly recommend it! Not only will it hone your business skills, but it’s also a great way to meet individuals with similar interests and goals. As we all know, often times, it’s who you know that can make the road to success an easier path. Just don’t forget to give back, the way these entrepreneurs and business leaders are!

In addition, I treasured hearing Lord Wei speak about the future of business and how China will be an important player in this century. He stressed that every great nation has a great dream (British dream, American dream) and that this century is the time for China’s great dream. The only criticism I had was that in the beginning of his speech, he made is seem like America’s dream was over and that it was now time for China’s dream. Later, he stated how he believed dreams could exist concurrently and that the pursuit of such dreams benefits everyone. I was glad to hear that, because America’s dreams are far from over. In fact, I feel like every day, we are unleashing new waves of creativity and innovation that will make the world better for the next generation. If you need examples, think of Facebook, Apple, and Google. It is my dream to be a part of this entrepreneurial world. Okay, I admit it, I have the startup bug. Thanks London!

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