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16-Year Old Student Wins Nationwide Why Not? Contest
Results of the contest are out- Check out the winning ideas!
Can students working in fastfood outlets value add to their companies by creating their own menus or marketing plan? – Why Not? This was 16-year old New Town Secondary School student, Ian Loh’s winning idea for the Action Community for Entrepreneurship’s (ACE)’s Why Not? Contest.
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Ian’s idea was one of six ideas picked from 420 entries to the nationwide Why Not? contest held in June this year. The entries came from all walks of life, covering students, young professionals, executives, bosses and retirees. A quarter of the entries were logged by youths below 20 years old. The contest, which called for ideas from the public to increase Singapore’s attractiveness as a place for business, nurture entrepreneurs of tomorrow, or encourage innovative and competitive businesses, was held in conjunction with ACE’s 5th anniversary celebrations.
Commenting on the winning idea, Mrs Kim Faulkner, CEO, Activiste Pte Ltd and Executive Committee member of ACE, who was on the judging panel said, “This is an original idea for students to engage in a more meaningful role in their part-time jobs. They will not just work at the counters but be given a chance to have an inside look at what it takes to run a retail business.”
Street wear fashion retail chain 77th Street and F&B chain n.y.d.c. Café & Restaurants are keen to explore the winning idea.
“We have a significant proportion of youth working with us especially during the school holidays. We will explore giving them the opportunity to develop promotions and contribute ideas to increase traffic to our outlets. This will give them some insight into what it takes to run a business beyond serving customers and to learn more broadly about entrepreneurship, “said Mr Samuel Chia, Managing Director, n.y.d.c. Café & Restaurants. |
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| The other winning entries were: |
| a) |
Renting out office space in government buildings for start-ups in related fields to create close interaction between the private and public sector – by Mr Tan Peck Cheong, a landscape architect who started a design consultancy company last year. |
| b) |
Set up an incubator park with low rent offices and shared facilities. Government agencies, venture capitalists and banks could also set up branch offices at the park and have regular sessions with entrepreneurs at the park – by Ms Tan Pei Shan, Assistant Director, Public Service Division. |
| c) |
Set up a website where consumers can post their “wish list”. Budding entrepreneurs wishing to start a business can develop business ideas from gauging consumers’ wants from this website – by Ms Sharon Eng, a Derivatives Documentation Manager at BNP Paribas. |
| d) |
Organise competitions in schools where each student group is given “seed” money which they have to grow. No need for lengthy business proposals, just sharing of lessons learnt –by Mr Joseph Wan, a JC2 student at Nanyang Junior College. |
| e) |
Set up a "fab lab" in Singapore equipped with high-tech prototyping equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutters and digitizers and make it free, so that designers and engineers can quickly prototype new ideas – Ms Michelle Fullwood, an R&D engineer at the Ministry of Defence. | |
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“We received a crop of good ideas for the Why Not? Contest. This is testament that increasingly Singaporeans are thinking out-of-the-box and seeking new and innovative ways to do business and contributing to the vibrancy of the entrepreneurship scene in Singapore. ACE will work with private sector companies and government agencies on the implementation of some of the entries,” said Mr Carlos Fernandes, CEO, Perceptivei Pte Ltd and Executive Committee member of ACE who was also on the judging panel.
The top three winners walk away with cash prizes of S$1,000, S$500, and S$300 respectively, and the three consolation prize winners take home S$100 each. They will receive their awards from Mr Inderjit Singh, Deputy Chairman, ACE, at the 29th BlueSky Exchange & Evening, a regular networking event by ACE to encourage sharing and discussion of entrepreneurship topics, at the Botany Centre at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. |
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