(from L to R, Kelvin Koh, Leong Shi Cheah, Eka Syafiqah, Justin Tan and Low Kai Keng)
This competition was divided into two stages. In the first stage, all participating teams from 10 different countries including Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkmenistan would showcase their business ideas and products in their own respective countries before the judges would select at least one team to compete in the regional leg.
Pressence, a student-run company from Temasek Polytechnic was selected to represent Singapore at the first-ever Regional Junior Achievement Asia Pacific Company of the Year Competition, after clinching a top spot in the Singapore leg.
Volunteers from Credit Suisse visited Temasek Polytechnic for 12 weeks to coach us the JA Company Programme. “We started off by coming to a unanimous agreement on our company’s name, Pressence, and dividing ourselves into different departments. After which, our company decided to produce personalised pillows as we saw that there is a gap in the market. We wanted to fill that gap and cater specifically to our customers. By allowing our customers to customize their own pillows, we make them feel important by providing them with choices and convenience. Being a customer-focused company is of great importance,” said Priscilla, President of Pressence.
(Students making personalised pillows)
“What was really interesting throughout this whole experience was that we got to actually build a simulated company, issuing shares, producing and selling our products, and rewarding shareholders with returns upon liquidation of our company. It was something we would never thought we’d do in our life as a student. It really put what we learnt in school into play,” she added.
“There were many set-backs that we faced, for instance, customers were initially not receptive of our product and sales were below expectation. That is when we realised that managing and maintaining a successful business model is harder than it seems to be. However, we persevered, taking these set-backs as lessons learnt for us to work harder and made painful decisions in order to keep our business model operating. Our hard work paid off. Sales started to increase tremendously during the last few weeks, and we were making profits! Victory tasted so sweet at that time. Pressence event donated part of our earnings to Temasek’s Campus Care Network Funds to help financially needy students. After the operation of our company for 12 weeks, five of us: Eka, Justin, Kai Keng, Kelvin and Shi Cheah were honoured to represent Pressence and participated in the competition in Singapore. The competition took place in Raffles Institution on 6 January 2011. We set up a booth and presented our business ideas, experiences and products to the judges who were from the industry,” said Justin.
(Junior Achievement Competition in Hong Kong)
“Being a part of the JA Company of the Year Competition equipped us with a broad understanding of free trade among countries and ways a company should demonstrate corporate social responsibilities. Additionally, being able to represent Singapore in this competition is definitely a glorious and humbling experience for us all. It not only recognised our efforts but also gave us the opportunity to interact with students from different countries. This has been a most fruitful experience. We wouldn’t be able to make it this far if it wasn’t for the continuous support from our lecturers, our sponsor and volunteers from Credit Suisse, and Junior Achievement Singapore. We would like to acknowledge our gratitude and thanks to them.” said Kai Keng, Vice-President of Production of Pressence.
(Pressence with the Japanese students in Hong Kong)
“Our journey in Junior Achievement Company went definitely further than what we had ever expected. It went all the way to Hong Kong (17-29 January 2011) where we represented Singapore for the Asia Pacific Competition! Junior Achievement was truly an inspiring experience for all of us. Meeting different students from different parts of the world and successful entrepreneurs in the international industry really inspired us to be a successful person in the future. Through this competition, we understood how each country is significant in contributing to the economy today. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to participate in Junior Achievement Company of The Year Competition as the memories and friendship forged are definitely one that I would keep for life. I believe it goes the same for the rest of my team members.” said Eka, Vice-President of Public Relations.
According to Kelvin and Shi Cheah, “Junior Achievement Company of the Year Competition is definitely one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling competitions as it not only taught students how to view things from a different perspective as an entrepreneur but also opened up a whole new dimension for students to learn the operations of a business. We would strongly encourage all youths to participate in this competition and we believe it will continue to ignite the passion for them to be entrepreneurs”.
Posted by Kai Keng
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