The Global Enterprise Challenge is a 24-hour international challenge. During the 24 hours, students (16-19 years old) from around the world (Scotland, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Spain, England, Wales, South Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore) will be working in teams of eight. They will be given the challenge of producing a prototype and marketing plan for a commercially viable product to meet a set objective. Commonly, the objective will be related to a social or environmental objective.
The Global Enterprise Challenge, formerly known as the Enterprise Olympics, arose as a result of an international collaboration between Ken Baker, then Chief Executive of the Enterprise New Zealand Trust, and Gordon McVie, who was at that time with Scottish Enterprise. This Challenge is a high-powered student business competition, involving Internet technology and global competitors, designed by Ken Baker and Russ Finnerty.
In 2004, Ken Baker and Russ Finnerty, operating as Enterprise Education International formed a partnership with NTC Pte Ltd of Singapore and with assistance from Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) and PSA Corporation facilitated the first entry for a team from Singapore.
GEC in Singapore
The Global Enterprise Challenge is brought to Singapore through a partnership between NTC’s Young Entrepreneur Centre and Enterprise Education International of New Zealand. The Young Entrepreneur Centre is an organisation that provides enterprise education programs to secondary and primary schools in Singapore. Ken Baker and Russ Finnert are from Enterprise Education International. Both partners have extensive experience in the development and delivery of Enterprise Education programmes in New Zealand and are now extending their reach into international markets. Through an arrangement with Careers Scotland, Enterprise Education International has exclusive rights to offer the Global Enterprise Challenge in Singapore from 2004.
In Singapore, PSA Corporation Limited has been the principal sponsor for this major international event (2004-2005), SMU-EDGE for 2006-2009 and Science Centre Singapore for 2010- 2011.
How many competitions allow you to familiarise yourself with your team, learn to work with them, spend day and night with them to brainstorm and come up with a business idea which answers to the challenge issued, write a business plan,come up with a marketing strategy, do up a financial statement, source for materials for your prototype and complete your presentation in 24hours? GEC stretched me to my limits and exposed me to the reality of the intense business field. This is also where I discovered the potential I never thought I had.
Jean Ng, GEC Participant