The young entrepreneur challenge of the year 2024 was a business competition hosted by the Invictus International School Amritsar where in a group of four we had to present our business pitch to the judges present during the competition in Amritsar. At the start of July, the forms from our school were rolled out regarding this competition. I was approached by my friends and we formed a group of four for this competition. We filled the interest form, enrolled ourselves in the competition and also chose a mentor for us who would be helping us during the competition if we are selected. Later after deciding the business, roles and the main idea we created our first pitch online in video format and successfully got shortlisted for the competition, then we planned further for a better plan, pitch and for our trip to Amritsar. (Competition Days: 12th and 13th August 2024). I was the Chief Marketing Officer in our idea where I pitched creative ways of marketing our solution. Our business idea was named ‘Oikos’ a platform where eco-consultants give sustainable housing advices to consumers, a platform where eco-consultants provide full house transformation service to make the house more sustainable, and a platform where a marketplace for buyers and sellers trading sustainable furniture and other items is available.

Learning Outcome 1: Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth.
To get shortlisted and selected by the Invictus School we had to create a short online pitch and submit it to an email ID provided. We also had to submit google PPT slides which would give information about our business idea. To work on the PPT effectively we four divided tasks and worked on separate slides. Identifying my strength I decided to work on visuals of the presentation and on creating images which would present our business idea. I added appropriate images related to each slides on each slide of the PPT. In one slide I created an image myself using canva where I showed how a house would look before Oikos (our business name) and how a house would look after Oikos on the right side. Additionally, one day before the main pitch in Amritsar, we all practiced our final pitch a lot at night and I observed and identified that I am confident and I am able to speak clearly which was my strength while one of our team member was not so confident and he was not able to speak clearly, meaning he did not have good public speaking skills. Hence, knowing that it is my strength I helped my teammate and also gave some tips to everyone in our team so that we all could excel as a whole team and give our best pitch in front of the judges. While I was able to identify my own strengths, I was also able to identify my weakness to develop areas for personal growth. While creating the PPT and also after being selected while making notes on google document I realized I was not able to organize my findings and research well which would have impacted my presentation part during the pitch, however, fortunately my teammates helped me and I was able to organize my part of the research very well in the pitch.

Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
After filling the interest form for the competition as a team we had to decide a business idea to submit it to the Invictus International School to be shortlisted for the further stage of the competition. Deciding on a business idea is where we faced challenges. Even many days after filling the interest form for the competition, we were not ready with a business idea. We had to create a sustainable business, we all had a lot of ideas and contrasting points which often lead to arguments between team members. We went on from deciding one idea to another and after a lot of discussion, brainstorming and talking with our mentor Pooja More Ma’am, we all decided on a final business plan which was Oikos, an eco-consultation business for houses which also has a marketplace for buyers an sellers of sustainable products. Moreover, after the selection of our idea we still all had one question ‘Why Oikos? Why would people choose us?’ for which we argued and discussed for many days until finally our discussion gave us an answer for the same. Furthermore, another challenge was managing time. We all had a tight schedule which we all had to manage. We initially only met at school, discussing about the competition and our business in the free slot. At times as the time gotten was less at school, we would often go ask our teacher for an extra free slot so that we team members could have a meeting for the competition, this is until we managed our time to give time to this competition as well in our schedule after which we also started meeting outside school and meet online using google meet. This challenged forced me and helped me develop my time-management skills.

Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
We had to plan a lot for this CAS experience. Firstly, as we got selected for the competition, we had to go to Amritsar from Surat. There was one more team selected from our school other than us. The hotel was decided and we as a team had to suggest a preferable mode of transportation. Both the teams that had been selected planned to go travel by flight. I had to plan a lot of things like what to take in my luggage, how much money to carry, making sure I have all the legal documents required at the airport and more. Furthermore, our team also had to plan our business idea, pitch, business terminologies that will be used, business strategies that will be implemented for the success of business, roles of each members and more. While in Amritsar as well we used to plan everything beforehand like what to do the next day, where to go for dinner, and what to work on. This CAS experience required a lot of planning, I created a lot of to-do lists for the same but it was all worth it at the end.

Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
This whole competition was a team competition, it allowed me to demonstrate my communication and collaboration skills. From brainstorming business ideas to creating a final pitch of it to present in front of the judges in Amritsar, we did all of it in our group. We divided roles like I was the Chief Marketing Officer so that we all could do and present our tasks, as our roles were divided, it made the planning more faster as we all were focusing on each aspects of the business for the pitch. As we were working collaboratively, we were able to work more efficiently. As we had a team, we had different point of views and different knowledge on different aspects, we had fruitful discussions and debates which brought of separate view points and knowledge together to form one better conclusion which helped us select a business idea, create a business strategy, and create a pitch for the presentation. Working collaboratively helped us develop new ideas which made our business plan better. Moreover, because I had a team, it was easy to stay motivated along this whole journey. We all helped each other whenever needed during this journey and by helping each other, by working collaboratively, we were able to perform our best and win gold medal in the competition under the category of ‘Promising Pitch’

Learning Outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.
The business idea that we created was related to sustainability (it was a requirement). An issue with global significance is that houses are not sustainable or the furniture inside the house is not, this leads to escalating carbon footprint, increased energy consumption, wastage of water, release of greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of natural resources and more. To solve this issue and to promote sustainable communities and sustainable houses we developed the idea of Oikos which firstly provides eco-consulting advice where advices would be given by eco-consultants on how to make your house or workspace or any place you own more sustainable. Secondly, it provides a service of full place transformation for consumers which transforms the given place into a sustainable and more aesthetic one. Last but not the least, it also has a marketplace where buyers and sellers can come online to buy or sell sustainable products like sustainable furniture resources. This business solves the problem mentioned above and promotes the sustainable development goal 11, 12 and 15 which is ‘Sustainable communities & cities’, ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and ‘Life on land’ respectively.

Conclusion –
To conclude, this experience was truly great, not only was it insightful since there were many business related sessions taken before the actual competition started and since we also had a session with sir ‘Srikanth Bolla’ (the first visually-impaired student in Management Science at the Sloan School of Management of Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is a very successful industrialist today), but the competition was also fun as it gave me the opportunity to visit and travel Amritsar with my friends. Along with being educational the trip was fun which allowed me to extend my creativity in the field of business to create great marketing solutions for Oikos, resulting in our team to win gold in the competition for the most promising pitch.