After seven months of intense competition, Altus Poles LLC from the Brigham Young University in the US has won the 5th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition organised by the Singapore Management University (SMU) and sponsored by HSBC on 8 July 2010.

23-year-old Mark Jensen won for himself US$36,000 with his business plan to revolutionise the communication tower and utility pole industry with a manufacturing process that will produce a stronger, lighter and safer structure which also requires less maintenance. His business model is in fact based on patents that his father, a professor at the same University, created. “This Competition has opened my eyes to the Asian markets.

It’s a very outstanding community here,” he says. “One of the things I’ve learnt here is to constantly improve and that will be very important when I go out to raise real money,” he adds. Mark is looking to deliver his first pole by September.

In second place, Biofont from the University of Waterloo in Canada, which offers a screening device for hospital bacteria, walked away with US$12,000, and in third place, Innotest Limited from City University of Hong Kong won US$3,000 pitching its product of a transgenic fish which can test for toxic substances found in everyday consumer products and the aquatic environment. The other three finalists, JointTech Pte Ltd from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), The Dunbar Project from Singapore Management University and WHO-Care Medical, with team members from the National University of Singapore, NTU and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, each received US$500.

For the first time, there was an individual Most Promising Young Entrepreneur award with a cash prize of S$5,000. This went to 21-year-old Sukhsagar Jolly from Biofont who took a year off school just to work on his business. “The organisers brought in entrepreneurs, venture capitalists to mentor us. Just within this week, our business plan has been improved and polished greatly,” he says. And while he looks forward to a good rest after this intensive week, he relishes the experience, “The money, the network, the advice that I’m taking back with me. That’s really priceless.”

Also for the first time, one of the top three teams will get a chance to undergo a three-month exposure in Silicon Valley with PlugandPlayTechCenter.com, a community of over 280 technology start-up companies in the areas of Web 2.0, software (SaaS), systems, semiconductor and telecomm verticals. The best performing local team in the finals will also be eligible to tap into a S$100,000 HSBC Investment Grant to give life to their business idea.

Speaking at the Awards Presentation Ceremony, Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Mr Sam Tan says, “With the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition, SMU has gone a step further by providing budding young entrepreneurs with the opportunity to compete globally and be exposed to international trends and ideas.”

Launched in 2001, this was the first global business plan competition for undergraduates, college and polytechnic students. “We want to encourage undergraduates around the world to develop their entrepreneurial inclinations by providing this opportunity for them to share their business plans, and possibly win for themselves funding not just from the competition, but also from angel investors and venture capitalists. Through this, we want to equip participants with the necessary skills and connections to take them far beyond the Competition,” says Professor Howard Hunter, President of SMU. Highlights of this year’s competition included a three-day Entrepreneurship Study Mission in Singapore for the finalists to understand the local innovation and entrepreneurship eco-system. They visited incubators and network with early stage venture capitalists and Technology Incubation Managers. The teams also had the opportunity to have their business plans critiqued and reviewed before pitching them at a monthly networking event at SMU.

This Competition ties in with the mission of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) at SMU who are the organisers this year. The Institute was set up on the foundation of a unique SMU Plus Strategy which welcomes collaborations with anyone with a compelling innovation, including those outside the SMU community.

“IIE at SMU offers a comprehensive suite of support to budding entrepreneurs - from mentorship to funding opportunities. We are committed to help inventors, including our finalists, commercialise their ideas, and in the process, build high quality and robust start-ups,” says Practice Professor Desai Narasimhalu, Director of IIE at SMU.

HSBC has been supporting the Competition since 2003 as part of its Youth Excellence initiative to nurture and develop young talent and harness their abilities for the benefit of the community. In March, HSBC hosted a hot-housing session entitled Tips from the Top for shortlisted Singapore teams in the preliminary round to pick the brains of senior business leaders. The Bank roped in its senior executives and business partners, along with faculty from SMU to share their vast business experience and acumen as well as to provide comments and advice on the business plans submitted by the local teams through one-on-one sessions with the team members.

Mr Goh Kong Aik, Head of Group Communications and Corporate Sustainability of HSBC Singapore says: “On behalf of HSBC, I wish to extend my heartiest congratulations to all the winners and finalists. The teams have all demonstrated plenty of creativity and enterprise in their business plans and having come so far they can all rightly be proud of their showing. I am sure that all the participants have been enriched by this whole experience. Hopefully it has also helped fuel their entrepreneurial aspirations and inspire them to continue directing their creative potential and energy to open new business frontiers not just for their own benefit but also for the betterment of the community.”

For more information, please visit http://www.smu.edu.sg/.