Winners of the 2010 were announced at a ceremony in New Zealand's parliament on June 17. The list of winners and links to their reports and journals are in the 2010 section under "Archives".
Judges for the awards were the Hon Maryan Street (NZ Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Trade), Her Excellency Ms Caroline Chrétien (Canadian High Commissioner to New Zealand), Helen Sutch (Pro Chancellor at Victoria University of Wellington) and Anu Mukherjee (National Bank NZ and successful Indian social entrepreneur).
Judge Helen Sutch, said “This has been a most interesting and at times moving task. I am impressed at the thoughtfulness and concern of these teams, and the way the project has stimulated and enabled young people in poor countries, alone and facing formidable obstacles in the most difficult environments, to participate. It also appears to have been a life-changing experience for some of them.”
For the press release please click here.
The Global Enterprise Experience is an international business competition that aims to develop skills in managing across cultures, time zones, world views and levels of wealth and poverty.
Participants from around the world enroll in pairs to compete in teams of eight. Each team has four pairs from four countries. Multinational teams compete, not countries.
Participants are generally students, graduate or undergraduate, who are studying international business, international relations, development, peace studies, management, business communications, information systems or marketing. Participants have also included entrepreneurs and citizens seeking to foster their skills in working in global teams. To date 150 universities and polytechnics in 55 countries have participated.
The final report is written in English. Participants may use any language to communicate that suits the team's members.
Each team is presented with an international business challenge for the team to agree on and write a six page proposal. For example in 2009, participants were set the task:
Write a six page business concept proposal for a profitable product or service to foster socially and environmentally sustainable homes, villages or cities. Your project needs to draw on the diversity of your team members and their countries. The proposal is a preliminary investigation of a concept and sets out the rationale as to why your team should receive a grant to undertake a full business plan. Your proposal will need to convince funders that this is a worthwhile project to pursue, with evidence of information, thoughtfulness, understanding of business issues, and an action plan for how your team would proceed with the venture.” In addition, each participant is required to submit a one-page journal that outlines their experience and insights. The one page journal is essential to be eligible to win any of the prizes.
Participants communicate using interactive technology on the web. Easy access to computer resources and broadband helps but many participant have participated and won using internet cafes, dial up services and meagre access to computers.
