|
[3 July 2004]
SMU team wins national SIFE competition
National champions to represent Singapore at
World Cup in Barcelona, Spain
The student team from Singapore Management University (SMU)
came out winners among Singapore tertiary institutions in
this year's Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) competition,
held on Thursday, 1 July at the SMU Auditorium. The national
competition included teams from the National University of
Singapore, Nanyang Technological University , Ngee Ann Polytechnic,
Temasek Polytechnic, and Singapore Polytechnic and was supported
by KPMG, AIG SE Asia and Henkel.
SIFE is a global organisation that provides university students
an opportunity to make a difference in their communities
by teaching the principles of free enterprise. The teams
conduct their educational outreach projects throughout the
academic year and then showcase them at competitions where
they present oral, audio-visual and written summaries to
judges comprised of top business leaders who determine which
teams did the best job teaching and equipping others with
the tools necessary for success. For more information, visit www.sife.org.
SIFE's program touches on some of the hallmarks of SMU's
curriculum, in areas such as market economics, entrepreneurship,
business ethics and community outreach. The program also
emphasises teamwork, leadership, communication and project
management skills, all of which are integral to SMU's pedagogy.
Two of the projects that SMU submitted in their presentation Forgotten
Small Man in Singapore involved the team working with
two organisations to come up with business plans. The plan
for the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) was adopted
by the organisation and made a 10% profit for SPD, contrasting
with two years' previous losses. The other plan linked
up a local car polishing firm with High Point, a halfway
house for recovering drug addicts. Through this initiative,
High Point was able to secure a $50,000 grant to start
a car polishing business.
As national champions, the SMU team now advances to represent
Singapore at the SIFE World Cup, to be held 22-24 September
in Barcelona, Spain, where over 30 countries will compete. |
