Green Thinkers Win the First "ULAB Intra-University Business Plan Competition"

Maisha Binte Ali and Mofajjol Hossain  

The first ever Intra University Business Plan Competition took place at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)   on Thursday, December 15, 2016. The event aimed to encourage students to enhance their life skills. A total of 62 teams applied but only 22 teams were selected for the first round of the competition. The event was jointly organized by ULAB School of Business and ULAB Business Club.  

The panel of judges with the winning team "Green Thinkers.
Photograph: Mofajjol Hossain

Top 5 teams from the first round competed in the grand finale and team. 

‘Green Thinkers’ were the champions of the business planning competition. There idea was to use various methods in order to reuse and recycle waste materials. They have come up with different methods of waste management by the use of technology. Team ‘Reality Escapers’ and team ‘Medico’ became 1^st runners-up and 2^nd runners.

When asked details about their project one of the team member of Green Thinkers, Ibraim Mishail said " It is about the waste material and recycling. It is about integrating the households and the locals garbage collectors to our business. Don’t waste your waste. Don’t cut trees for paper, be digital. Our aim was to recycle different products which people throw away as waste." 

The Vice Chacellor during his speech said "Studying business in a classroom and getting a good cgpa and a degree is really not enough. You have to focus on skills. What is skills? The skill of finding information, doing research, presenting something, convincing someone, answering questions satisfactorily, this are very important. And from a business competition you will come out with multiple skills." 

 

Audience watching the speaker during the event.
Photograph: Mofajjol Hossain  

                                         

The judges of the grand finale were Mr. Shawkat Kamal, Associate Professor of ULAB Business School; Mr. Sadad Adnan Ahmad, Chief Marketing Officer of Beximco Communications Ltd.; and Mr. Nurul Alam Chowdhury, Chairman of Swadesh Insurance and Executive Director of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association (BKMEA). Also, Professor Imran Rahman, Vice Chancellor (Acting) of ULAB, Professor Milan Kumar Bhattacharjee, Treasurer of ULAB, and other faculty members were present in the event.

After the event ended an audience,  Media Studies and Journalism Department of ULAB, Mohammad Sabbirudin Shaikat shared his thoughts with us, "The fact that they are first giving a written and then a presentation is very interesting. The entire process and the strategies they follow through the competition is something which needs skills. For me as an audience I feel very excited to be able to see these processes unfold." 

The event was a success as ULAB's goal was to build inter communication and develop skills among it's students. With a large number of participants and the grand finale the business competition plans to make a come back every semester.