PROFAS for Colleges

The Contest mission is to inspire and educate young people studying in colleges to experience free enterprise, understand business and economics, and develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills in order to increase the quality of their social life.

Stages of the contest

1. Initial review of the business ideas and their evaluation.

2. Presentation of 60 selected business ideas (BLIC contest) and business simulation.

3. Active training for the development of the presentation skills.

4. Final event. The presentation of the finalists’ business ideas. Award of the winners.

Application

All teams must fill registration form in www.profas.org till 5th of October. The registration form can be found here.

The registered teams are asked to prepare the business idea descriptions until the 12th of October, 2008. filling the business idea form in website www.profas.org till 12th of October.

Business ideas description structure

Business ideas must be described according to the following structure:

1) A short description of a business idea. The following information should be provided: business idea concept, product or service is offered to supply to consumers and how it is exclusive, what are the main advantages provided for the consumer.

2) Evaluation of the external conditions. The external conditions have to be evaluated according to their impact on the development of the proposed business idea. The following information should be provided: how the external environment factors (economic, legal, social, cultural) influence the proposed business (what are the needs of the consumers, what other businesses meet these needs, what major risks exist, what advantages can be distinguished). Also provide description of direct/indirect competitors and their and your competitive advantage.

3) Promotion and realization. The following information should be provided in the section: how the product/service will be launched, what kind of communication will be used, what means of sales promotion are planed and why.

4) Business management and organization of the business idea activities. The following information should be provided: the way how the overall business process will be organized, please consider staff you will need and services you will subcontract. What will be the network of partners (suppliers, information dissemination, distributors etc.) and the way the activities will be managed.

Ideas must be sent no later than the 12th of October, 2008, 3 p.m.

The ideas must be described by using an electronic form available on the website www.profas.org

Each team can send no more than one business idea.

Each student can participate in the contest as a member of only one team and representing only one college.

Only those business ideas, which meats administrative requirements will be evaluated.

Business ideas evaluation

Business ideas are evaluated by the jury of coordinators and experts. The evaluation is based on the following rules:

*Jury is composed of specially selected experts. Experts according their expert field are grouped in three categories: coordinators of the contest appointed by the colleges (academics), specialist of the Lithuanian economic analysis (economists) and senior business executives of well-known business companies (businessmen);

*At least three different experts evaluate each business idea. Evaluation is conducted by one expert from every expert category;

*Only coordinators-experts from other colleges are allowed to evaluate the teams’ business ideas;

*Ideas are provided for the evaluation at random. The anonymous distribution of the business ideas for the experts is a responsibility of the organizers of the Contest. Experts do not receive any information concerning the authors of the idea;

*Ideas are evaluated by filing specially prepared form following the criteria set in advance. The form is prepared by the organizers. The evaluation criteria set in the form for the evaluation of the business ideas are provided on the website www.profas.org.

Initial evaluation is conducted from the 13th of October until the 18th of October, 2008.

On the 20th of October, 2008 the list of the selected 60 teams is presented on the website www.profas.org. If a team cannot participate in an event on the indicated date, their coordinator must change date with other team solving this question together with others coordinators. Organizers must be informed about the changes at least 1 day before the event. Organizers have to be informed by sending e-mail to info@profas.org. Contest has special rule that aims to encourage participation of students from different Lithuanian regions –at least one team from each college is invited to participate in I stage venues.

Contest - 1st stage venues

During Contest Ist stage 6 events will be organized. 10 teams are invited to one event.

Every event consists of main two parts:

Part 1. Teams participate in a business simulation.

Part 2. Selected best business ideas are presented to the Jury. The presentation of the ideas is conducted following the rules known to the participants in advance.

The events will take place on the 23rd, 24th, 27th, 28th, 29th of October and on the 6th of November in hotel “Europa City”, Jasinskio str.14, Vilnius.

Business simulation

During simulation teams (formed by the organizers) imitate work of business companies. Every team will by provided with detailed external environment (the structure of the market, the possibilities for earning money, the conditions) and the information concerning the internal activities of the enterprise (the cost price of the products, the conditions). Students are responsible for running main functions -personnel, sales, production, administration and management. All the teams have a common goal – to maximize the profit. Only effective communication between team members, rational decisions and building partnership will lead companies to best final result.

During the simulation the participants are provided with all the necessary material. No advance preparation is necessary.

The evaluation of the simulation is conducted by calculating every company’s profit. Money is converted into points. The winners of the simulation get additional 10 percent of points (these are counted by taking a total sum of the points collected by all the teams during the BLIC contest and dividing it from the number of the teams) for their teams (with which they prepared business ideas).

Presentation of the business ideas - BLIC contest

During the evaluation the members of the jury make their comments on the presentation of the business ideas, give proposals for their development. The evaluation of the ideas is conducted by following evaluation grid.

BLIC Contest presentations are presented in sessions. Three teams participate in one session. The coordinators receive the order of team presentations before the contest. Teams no. 1 and no. 2 present their ideas during the 1st session; teams no. 3 and no.4 present their ideas during the 2nd session, etc. Each team will have 5 minutes to present each of their solutions. When the time has expired, the presentation is stopped. The content of the presentation must not contradict the content of the written business idea. After every session, the jury will have a right to question the teams for 10 minutes.

Presentations can be delivered by using a power point program. Participants will be provided with the necessary technical equipment. Those who wish to make the power point presentations should send the prepared presentations by e-mail to info@profas.org at least two days before the event (according to the event date indicated for each team in the list of the participants of the Ist stage).

It is recommended that all team members would be involved in the idea presentation. Teams, which have followed this recommendation would be evaluated better than those, whose idea will be presented only by one team member. The experts of the jury are presented on the webpage www.profas.org.

Participation of the finalists (12 teams) in the active presentation skills trainings

After the 2nd stage events organizers will summarize all the points of every team and publish the results in website www.profas.org by the 1st of December, 2008. Following this evaluation 12 teams – finalist will be selected. While preparing for the final Contest event, finalist will be given a possibility to improve their ideas according to the recommendations made by the Jury and to develop them by supplementing the description of the business idea. The teams will receive the recommendations by the 10th of December, 2008. The active training aimed at developing presentation-making skills will help the teams to prepare for the final.

The event will take place on the 15th of December, 2008 in Vilnius, at the hotel “Europa City”.

Eligibility

For participation in Contest students form teams from 3 students, studying at the same Lithuanian college (only full-time students are allowed to participate in the contest). There are no limitations discipline- or degree- wise.

Each team must have a coordinator and indicate his name in the form of the business idea description. A coordinator is a person, officially working in the college, who stimulates the students to participate in the contest, to register, who consults the students when making the description of their business ideas, participates in the initial review of the business ideas prepared by other colleges. The coordinator has a right, but no obligation to participate in the events together with their teams. List of coordinators you can find here.