MBA Blogs @ Manchester Business School

Last week our MBS team consisting of Kelly, Bernardo, Niyati and John travelled from Manchester airport to Athens, Greece on a flight operated by Easyjet which is of course the brainchild of famous Athens-born entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

And what a fitting way to begin our campaign of high-flying entrepreneurship at the European Business Plan of the Year Competition (
http://www.ebpyc.org/
) to pitch our business proposal alongside other top European business schools to international venture capitalists and esteemed judges.

The 2013 EBPY competition hosted by ALBA Graduate Business School at The American College of Greece was a fantastic opportunity to proudly represent MBS and present our business plan in 20 minutes plus 10 minutes Q&A. The audience and judges congratulated us on our business plan, our performance and the way we fought to bring a comprehensively legal, innovative cash management solution for specific medical marijuana dispensaries in the U.S.A.

Although we did not pass to the final round, after a special feedback session with the judges, we won many plaudits from the excellent ALBA business school staff, judges and fellow competitors.  

The final rounds involving a further presentation with a 15 minute Q&A was eventually won by WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management from Germany for their electronic parking plan “evo-park”, followed by London Business School, who pitched a re-heated gourmet pizza chain and EM Lyon Business School, providing synchronised light bulbs for the home in third place.

However, the EBPY competition was not all work and no play! After the tremendous adventure of preparing and presenting our plan, we had great fun in Athens as all the teams socialised over dinner and drinks looking over the famous Acropolis which we later visited to enrich our cultural experience of the home of Democracy and Western philosophy.  

As we arrive back into Manchester on Stelios’ airline, we are full of inspiration as the EBPY organisers are looking forward to another promising plan from MBS in 2014!
We would like to say a big “σας ευχαριστώ/”efharistó̱” (Thank you) to all our classmates, faculty, mentors and advisors who supported and encouraged us to get our business plan off the ground! 

The number of people working in corporate sustainability has expanded significantly over the past decade. Many organisations now employ large, diverse teams that are dedicated to delivering practical business solutions in a sustainable way — from responding to resource depletion and supply chain sustainability to driving consumer behaviour change and realising energy efficiency savings.

As the number and diversity of roles primarily focused on addressing organisational sustainability have increased, so too have the number of people entering the profession from other fields. Industry data reveals that around one-third of sustainability and cleantech professionals have prior work experience in unrelated sectors. Professionals from marketing, engineering, IT and manufacturing are all joining sustainability teams and bringing with them a range of different business skills.

On this note, I would say that the Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition (SVCIC) offers a promising opportunity for prospective MBA students and budding entrepreneurs who are interested in pursuing a career in sustainability. The competition also provides access to a network of sustainability-minded entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Participating teams act as associates at a venture capital (VC) fund. Their task is to review a number of business plans and select one to invest in. This involves conducting due diligence, interviewing the entrepreneurs, and performing valuations that consider the profitability, viability, sustainability and social impact of each business plan. Following this, the teams are required to give a brief presentation to a panel of judges, who are acting as partners at your VC fund, to convince them that your investment hypothesis is sound while clearly highlighting the social or environmental impact of the selected business plan. 

One week out from the Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition (SVCIC) and already, the whole experience seems surreal. After spending the better part of the term researching how to measure social returns for sustainable companies, all of a sudden Monday evening had arrived; bringing with it three business plans for our team to review. I think the biggest reason for our success was our balance between capturing a mixture hard work while also enjoying ourselves. In my opinion, both these elements played a critical role in our team’s victory at the University of North Carolina (UNC).

After speaking with the other teams following the competition, we realised that we had out-prepared everyone there. Not only through reading written materials in the months leading up to the competition, but also by seeking out industry experts and school victors from previous years. We were the most prepared team and it showed to the judges.

However, I believe the other key to our success was being able to enjoy ourselves throughout a stressful week. While it’s important to take things seriously, it’s also important to enjoy what you’re doing. I truly enjoyed working with my team, and this made me want to work hard on behalf of them. They also knew when to tell jokes to lighten the mood, such as when my nerves started to get the best of me right before I was scheduled to present our recommendations to the panel of judges. However, they reminded me to just go out and have fun, and this came through during my presentation.

In the end, all I can say is that I believe both factors contributed to our team’s success; and I don’t think we would have secured a first place finish had either ingredient been missing.