The eighth iteration of the Avenir contest organised by Beijing City International School (BCIS) came to a heady conclusion after 11 teams pitched their business ideas to mentors and judges the weekend of April 20-21. The competition saw the involvement of Beijing’s top international schools including the British School of Beijing (BSB Shunyi) as well as BCIS students. In the end, Team Businesslike Grasshoppers clinched first place in the Senior Division with their pitch of putting together a new drone prototype to safely and efficiently deliver takeout, while Team Eco Apparel took first place in the Junior Division.
Jingkids International spoke with the Junior Division winning teams Eco Apparel’s members Selena Liu and Margaret Yang, second place Team Hare (members Eva Jin, Rita Jiang, Amy Zhai and Helen Xu) as well as Anna Fu from Senior Division runner-up Team VMAX to glean their insights and share their advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Q: How does it feel to win Avenir 2024?
Selena: Among the overwhelming emotions that barged into my mind when winning Avenir, I believe the excitement, motivation, and sense of relief stood out the most. The award was a powerful recognition of our efforts in this journey, and made us feel more encouraged and faithful to continue to this project and pursue entrepreneurial activities in the future.
Q: What do you think led you to your victory?
Amy: Throughout the entire preparation process, the team was super dedicated to developing our business plan and pitch. Although there are imperfections, the effort and confidence we showed is something that led to our success. Particularly, I am extremely proud of our prototype because, even though it isn’t necessarily “good looking”, the completion of the final prototype made the time and effort we devoted to it worthwhile. I am also incredibly thankful for our two mentors, who gave us numerous helpful feedback and made our pitch more structured and logical.
Margaret: This victory was influenced by a lot of factors, and one of the biggest is the countless times Selena and I practiced our pitch. The week prior to the compeititon, we met up 3 times and practiced the pitch 2-3 times each time and worked on our business plan during those times as well. It is our dedication and teamwork that led to the victory of our team.
Selena: I believe it is the dedication, passion, and knowledge we had towards our project that allowed us to stand out among competing teams. Overall, our team was highly meticulous regarding all aspects in the business – from finance details, marketing strategies, and competitive positioning, we ensured that we had a thorough understanding about our business and had the ability to explain and justify all the choices we made in the process, which directly comes from continuous research and discussion with our mentor. Furthermore, I believe that one of our team’s highlight is the business presentation. We were able to display our authentic samples of our product and showed high passions and confidence towards our product during the pitch, which created a positive impression on our audience and judges.
Q: What are your most valuable lessons from the whole experience?
Rita: The most profound lesson gleaned from this experience is the imperative of harnessing knowledge to effect tangible change in the world. Throughout the journey of developing our business, we learned to prioritize addressing the genuine needs of society rather than only conceptualizing theoretical ideas. This directs us towards designing a product that could genuinely make contribution to society.
Anna: I think an important lesson I learned is having a good mindset. I had a better mentality during this year’s competition than last time because I viewed it more as an opportunity to appreciate and learn from other people’s business ideas, and there wasn’t an immense amount of pressure. I also realized that the purpose of the pitch is simply to showcase the idea that we worked for the past few weeks to others, and it shouldn’t be overly stressed over.
Selena: Thriving to be as resourceful as possible, and never be afraid to ask questions, research, and communication is one of the main takeaways I got from Avenir. During the process, our group encountered many business and financial concepts that were unfamiliar with – such as cashflow statement, runway, profit margin, and equity share – which made us feel anxious at first. Still, we demonstrated strong inquiry skills and proactively reached out to a range of sources we had access to, including our mentors, teachers, business supplier (like GRNTEX) and other relevant field professionals that were willing to share their insights. Learning about novel business concepts and models and directly applying them into our entrepreneurship idea is certainly a challenge. However, through overcoming this challenge, we were able to achieve substantial growth as a business learner, and enhanced our prepardness in the entire competition.
Q: What advice would you give to those who are thinking of participating in next year’s Avenir?
Eva: For those considering participating in next year’s Avenir, I advise to embrace the inevitable nervousness that comes with such an event. It is essential to approach the competition with a mindset of continuous learning and growth. Seek feedback from mentors and teammates, andremain open to making necessary adjustments. Remember that collaboration and effective teamwork are key to achieving success in this competition.
Margaret: I would say to practice your pitch as much as possible with your team and choose a business idea that you are truly passionate about as that would lead to exceptional teamwork and dedication throughout the whole process of preparation and when performing. Try not to get distracted by other team’s performances as that can really affect your confidence, so just try your best for the entire process!
Images: Courtesy of BCIS
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