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HCI-GSK-EDB Entrepreneurship Challenge 2008

- By Pearlyn Ler 08s74

30 June 2008 marked the final stage of the HCI-GSK-EDB Entrepreneurship Challenge, which aims to spur entrepreneurial spirit as well as interest within and beyond Hwa Chong. The annual Challenge involves the Virtual Business Challenge (VBC) and the Best Business Idea Competition (BBI). The Challenge has traditionally been jointly organized by both Hwa Chong as well as the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore. However, this year, we had the privilege of GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, to partner with us.

Early in the morning, the judges arrived at the Venture Capitalist (VC) Fair to listen to the one-minute elevator pitches made by the nine BBI finalist teams. The judging panel of three included Mr. Tan Kim Seng, Managing Director and Co-founder of 3V SourceOne Capital, Ms.Tan Lee Sar, Head of EDB’s talent attraction department; and Mr. Loo Peng Leong , Chief Operating Officer of Inova Venture Pte Ltd. Teams presented their ideas based on the theme of “Science and Technology in Business Today.” The ideas ranged from creating lettuce with added health benefits, to software for digital art designers to work simultaneously on the same project. At the end of the elevator pitches, the judges evaluated the teams’ performances and from there, shorlisted five to proceed on to the Grand Finals. They were: Cellunol Corp, Proleaf, RevTech, SUNergy and Team Prozo.

The five grand finalist teams then took to the stage and gave in-depth presentations of their innovative business plans to the judges, teachers as well as the C1 cohort. But first, the guest-of-honour, Mr. Chris Dob¬son, Vice President and Site Director for Manufacturing and Supply for GlaxoSmithKline made his inspirational speech on the great power of innovation and entrepreneurship, illustrating this with the success story of the pharmaceutical giant. The teams later exemplified the same power in their novelty of products like an orchid leaf scanner to detect plant viruses in orchids, ethanol extracted from agricultural waste as well as an antibacterial nano-zinc oxide coating for hospital surfaces. They were again grilled by the panel before the judges left to deliberate over the results.

Meanwhile, the VBC winners were invited onto stage, where they were presented prizes. From the College category, virtuele bedrijfsuitdaging comprising Chen Siheng (07S6G), Goh Kai Meng (07S6G), Loy Xing Kai (07S6K) and Joel Ong Jia Mian (08S6K) were the ultimate winners while Te4m, made up of Ang Jing Jie, Justin Salim, Lee Hong Hui and Ong Yik Sin Taylor, emerged tops in the Upper Secondary Category. The audience also had a share in the fun with a quiz on the presentations made. The students who answered correctly walked away with hampers full of goodies.

Finally, it came the moment everyone had been waiting for. Mr. Tan Kim Seng, the Chief Judge of the Competition, commented on the presentations and commended the teams for their enterprising spirits. He then announced that Team Prozo had impressed the judges best with their spir¬ited pitch at the VC Fair, and pronounced them the Winner of the VC Fair. Even so, the winner of this year’s Best Business Idea, who won a trip to Silicon Valley, was RevTech, with their idea of producing lettuce with added health benefits. Congratulations to the winning teams!