Daily Lessons from Life 18 January 2014 - JA Singapore's Company Of the Year 'Competition'

No news headlines to comment on today as I like to share the experience of being on the penal of 3-Judge at the JA Singapore Company of the Year 'Competition' this morning.

JA Singapore is a non-profit Singapore charter of Junior Achiever, a USA organization whose charter is to educate, inspire and enrich young people with the knowledge of finance, commerce and business.

The 'Competition', which I look at as a Learning Journey primarily, is for the students to form a company to sell products or services or solutions for a 12-week period and to liquidate the company at the end of the 12-week period with a full financial report, advertising and promotion video, presentation, set up a trade booth with the actual products or services or solutions they are selling, and a final interview on confirming and sharing what they have learned and what had changed for them in this as-close-to-real-business experience!

Lessons for me:

1. the kids are simply great! All of them have real challenges they would NEVER had encountered like reaching a consensus on what products/services/solutions to work on, managing their supply chains, securing commitment from 20-30 students to stay the course of the 12-week amid competing priorities of school examinations/expedition trips/toher CCAs, and learning new skills and knowledge of accounting/marketing/etc!;

2. the kids come from different schools and cultures like Junior Colleges (2), Secondary School (1), SJI International, American Association (combination of students from 4 international schools and 1 poly) and Singapore Poly. A total of 6 teams. Learning to communicate with different cultures and working on the common goal of keeping the company financially viable while also looking to make an environmental and social impact are definitely hard work though very fulfilling and enriching as described by the students;

3. it is a privilege to be there to witness the results of their 12-week journey and listening to their stories told in their unique manner. Of course there were certain standard and expectations of what they must covered like establishing the purpose of the company, how they are organised and how roles and responsibilities are assigned, how do they arrive at the product/service/solution to work on, what type of marketing research had they done (many use the social media platform as expected for their generation), the supply chain management (quite a few of them sourced from China!), the production of a video to promote their products, the setting up of a trade booth with the display/promotional brochures, collateral and even order forms! (just like in a trade booth and to maximise the normally costly space!), and the very personal interview with the 3 judges to round off the assessment process.

I don't like to call this a 'Competition' but a Learning Journey as EVERYONE is a winner. Just being there is an achievement. For some of the kids, it was a demonstration of the entrepreneurial spirit of resilience, can-do and never-say-die personified. One team had to endure the trauma of reforming their Company as the original group simply fell apart and abandoned the project! I am very inspired by their determination and believed a normal school education can NEVER 'teach' this!

Congratulation to all the students, their teachers and the volunteer mentors in this journey. I am thankful for being invited to join this project and had a thoroughly enjoyable time with my fellow judges (2 very distinguished and successful business persons).