Create your own Business Project with a Social Cause

The  Business Project  Guide will help you to focus on all the contribution requirements.
Read it carefully and check the conformity of your file before uploading!

1- Objectives
The “Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable City” Business Project aims to identify and promote entrepreneurial ventures contributing to sustainable urban development.
Contributions should put forward innovative ideas and proposals focusing on a specific dimension which candidates consider to be a major business opportunity for sustainable economic growth in the urban environment.
Candidates are welcome to build on existing projects that they are conducting in their own local environment.  If their contribution is based on such existing projects, it should be mentioned very clearly in the contribution and references. They should have also the formal authorization of the  owners or initiators of these projects.

2- Content
The Business Project is a first step before the formulation of aBusiness Plan.
It should cover the following items:
• Vision: what needs of urban citizens do you want to satisfy? What is the benefit in terms of quality of environment or quality of urban life?
• Product or Service: which product or service do you want to deliver? What is new in terms of product, service, technology, or business model?
• Clients and Marketing: what clients you are targeting? How will you market your product or service?
• Competitors: what is your potential competitive edge over current competitors?
• Financial: how long it will take for the project to be profitable? Give evidence that your Business Project will be economically sustainable within a reasonable time frame.

3- Instructions for Authors
Attention:  Your Contribution File (all items included) must not exceed8,000 words.
 It should include:
• The names and e-mail addresses of the three authors, and the name of your university or school.
• A short title
• 3-6 keywords
• An Executive Summary (not exceeding 1500 characters spaces included)
• The body of the contribution (from 5,000 to 6,000 words)
• References
• Exhibits (Facts and Figures)

http://www.shanghai2010award.com/business-project-guide

“Sticking it to the man”

Investment banker, Jeff Hagan, does what he does best, investing. So, he buys 100 Gillette Mach3 to avoid having to pay for upgrades that he doesn’t really care for.

“I’m a full-on capitalist, but there’s a little bit of ‘sticking it to the man’ here that I enjoy,” says Mr. Hagan of his stockpile of Mach3 blades, which Gillette launched 12 years ago.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/110050/razor-burn-a-flood-of-fancy-shavers-leaves-some-men-feeling-nicked

Worldwide Business Project Competition

Below are inspirational projects that can motivate and give us ideas in working to improve the world and even make ourselves more marketable as business students.

“17 June 2010

Shanghai 2010 Award : a Worldwide Business Project Competition on ‘Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable City’

More than 1,000 students took part in the “Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable City” business project competition organized by HEC Paris and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, which ran from 8th March to 12th May 2010.

Chaired by M. Phan Nhay, Head of the Bank of China in France, and in the presence of leading French architect Jean-Marie Charpentier, the Jury took place at HEC Paris on 28th May and selected the 5 best projects for the Awards and 3 for Special Distinctions.

The winning teams are:

• Golden Prize – Bank of China: a team of Chinese researchers and business students from Cambridge University for their business project based on a new patent-protected chemical - the Air Purifying Additive - which, added to paint, breaks down the toxic gases and gives fresh air to the house.
• Lafarge Award: an international team from HEC Paris for a concept of low cost, self-supporting modular homes, built with sustainable building materials, as well as with an integrated system to produce energy and manage water and waste.
• Sodexo Award: a Brazilian team of young women entrepreneurs from Fundação Getulio Vargas - EAESP (Brazil): producing low cost construction materials from recycling plastics to serve the needs of popular housing.
• Schneider Electric: an international team from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School for a stand-alone solar power unit - a tree-like structure with a single pillar and solar panels as the crown - which can serve the electricity needs of slum inhabitants.
• Veolia Environment: a Japanese project from Keio University for the development of power-generating floors, generating electricity when people walk, for example, in the metro.

Special Distinctions also go to 3 teams from:

• Renmin University (Beijing) for their innovative concept of lithium battery package for electric bicycles.
• Zhejiang University (Beijing) for their novel use of technology for a new filter tip for exhaust pipes.
• Ecole Polytechnique d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme (Algiers) for the preservation of the cultural heritage in the city of Timimoun in the Saharan African Desert.

The five winning teams will be honored on 15th July in Shanghai. The Award Ceremony will take place at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in presence of the Chinese and international business and academic community.

http://www.hec.edu/News/Shanghai-2010-Award-a-Worldwide-Business-Project-Competition-on-Entrepreneurship-and-the-Sustainable-City

http://www.shanghai2010award.com/

U.S. Stocks Fall Sharply, Following Asia and Europe

“Stocks in the United States fell sharply Tuesday, following a broad sell-off in Europe and Asia that was fueled by concerns over the pace of growth in the global economy.

Stocks in Shanghai set off the decline after the Conference Board, a private research group, said it had recalculated its leading economic index for China to show a 0.3 percent gain in April, down from the 1.7 percent gain it reported two weeks ago.

Trade in European markets followed and turned lower, and then the contagion of declines spread to the United States, where the Dow dipped below the 10,000 level soon after the opening bell.

In afternoon trading, the Euro Stoxx 50 index of euro-zone blue chips fell 2.9 percent, while the FTSE 100 index in London fell 2.2 percent.

“It’s a continuation of what we’ve been seeing for months,” Gary Baker, an equity strategist at Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch in London, said. “There’s re-evaluation of global growth prospects going on. Will 2011 turn out weaker than 2010?”

In afternoon trading in the United States, the Dow was down 220.75 points, or 2.18 percent, at 9,917.77. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 27.26 points, or 2.54 percent, at 1,047.31, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 68.54 points, or 3.09 percent, to 2,152.11.

Quincy Krosby, a chief market strategist for Prudential Financial, portrayed a series of events that led to the chain reaction of sell-offs. There were concerns over growth in China; higher unemployment figures in Japan; worries over banks in Europe; and strikes in Greece and Spain.

Take note:

“I think it all goes back to this deflation trend that seems to be taking place,” said Tom di Galoma, the United States head of fixed-income rates trading at Guggenheim Partners. “The Fed is on hold and you are starting to see investors panic on interest rates, thinking they don’t have enough bonds in their portfolio.”

Chinese investors were also awaiting an initial public offering from Agricultural Bank of China that is expected to raise about $23 billion, a market splash some feared would draw money from other issues as fund managers rebalance their portfolios to include the new entrant.

The dollar gained against major European currencies, with the euro falling to $1.2190 from $1.2277 late Monday, and the British pound falling to $1.5022 from $1.5104.

But the United States currency declined against its Japanese counterpart, dropping to 88.75 yen from 89.37 yen — its lowest level since early March.

Crude oil futures for August delivery fell $1.40 to $76.85 a barrel. Comex gold fell $2.10 to $1,236.50 an ounce.

“

For whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30markets.html?hp