The competition was divided into several stages- firstly, we were to submit a two-page summary of our business plan, on the basis of which 40 teams were short-listed and invited to LUMS to present their plan. Every team was also assigned mentors, who were experts in evaluating business plans from the venture capitalist’s point of view. Based on the inputs and guidance from the mentor, the teams were to submit a detailed written business plan document, which had 60% weight from the total evaluation.
Engro was generous to sponsor for air-fare of two of our participants; we had asked for this ourselves as initially ASF (Agriculture Support Fund) had promised to pay for 50% of our air-fare, which did not work out later. It was only on the day we were leaving for Lahore that we got a letter of regret from them saying that our plan does not fall in their domain of projects they support as our project was related to aquaculture (fish-farming) which they were not supporting.
Nonetheless, we went ahead to keep our commitment and reached Lahore on the night of April 2, 2009. The inauguration ceremony was on April 3, where Governor State Bank, Mr. Salim Raza was the chief guest. After the opening ceremony the actual event kicked off. The 29 teams which finally came to LUMS were divided into four groups where the presentations took place simultaneously. In the first round, the teams were to give 15 minutes presentation followed by 5 minutes question and answer session. Six teams, including ours qualified for the final round, which took place on Sunday April 5, 2009.
The event comprised of many other activities as well such as Industry-Tracks- panel discussions of personalities from the business world with the students and participants of the event. These tracks were arranged on several topics ranging from Manufacturing Industries to Media, and provided a good opportunity for interaction and learning for the participants. A corporate dinner and a concert were also organized, for providing networking and entertainment opportunities to the students and participants.
The final round was tough- with 25 minutes of presentation, the question and answer session extended upto 45 minutes, grilling the teams on each and every aspect. The level of competition was intense as only top eight teams had qualified for the final presentation round and all the teams were well equipped and well rehearsed and put in their best efforts. Our team had the last presentation of the round, and the challenge that we faced was to awaken the audience and the judges who were exhausted by the six hours of presentation and question-answer session and we also had to captivate the audience to capture their full attention and effectively communicate our message to them. This task was excellently accomplished by the presentation and we also managed to satisfy the intense and grueling questions of the judges which went on for half an hour.
Finally after a break of 30 minutes the moment of truth came as the closing ceremony started. The results were announced and firstly the results for two other competitions were announced whereby in both competitions the LUMS teams were the winners. The stakes became very high and hearts started beating hard as the results were announced for the Kaavish Business Plan competition. There were only first and second prizes- the second prize went to University of Lahore, so we thought that LUMS will get the first prize. Finally the winner name was announced and it was Team FishyWishy from IBA- which was our team. Our team erupted in joy as we were the first prize winners of the competition. It was an honor for us to receive the winning certificate from Pro Chancellor LUMS, Mr. Syed Babar Ali. We were very happy on our victory and all the other teams and Synergy management team congratulated us. It was later that we found out that our team had also secured the highest score for our report and no other team’s score was even near ours.
This event became a memorable experience for us and we returned from Lahore with strong feelings of happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment. The contribution of ENGRO for supporting our team and encouraging us to take part in the competition despite all odds and financial constraints is highly appreciated and not enough words can be written to express our gratitude for the support and encouragement.
To ENGRO with Thanks!
Team FishyWishy
IBA
Karachi
