Business Idea Competition

CUST, Directorate of Corporate Linkages in collaboration with VSO conducted a Business Ideas Competition on February 11 2019. The purpose of the activity was to provide funds to the students who have potential to become employment provider rather than employment seeker. For this purpose, the students and Alumni of the Capital University of Science and Technology formally known as MAJU Islamabad were invited for submission of their business ideas. The initial advocacy for the idea’s completion was done through internal communication channels. All faculties nominated faculty members who informally solicit for ideas. Initially more than 200 ideas were considered for evaluation.

A committee was constituted to evaluate business ideas presented by the students. The following committee conducted formal evaluation of the business ideas plan and growth plans.

1. Ansir Ali Rajput, Management Sciences
2. Muzaffar Asad, Management Sciences
3. Tahir Awan, Electrical Engineering
4. Ibrar Arshad, Computer Science
5. Muhammad Shahid, VSO Executive
6. Alena, VSO Executive

The formal competition evaluation was comprised of three stages. At the first, stage all the ideas were scrutinized and finally 19 ideas were selected for formal evaluation. Formal evaluation was analyzed in two comprehensive screening process. The first stage comprised detailed evaluation of the proposal submitted by the student and the second phase was based on presentation followed by critical questioning by the panel.

For the execution of the entire activity, Online proposal submission form was developed along with the timeline. The participants were supposed to fill in the form in order to develop a business plan. Competition shared through university email system and social media platform 19 formal proposals out of several were finally selected for detailed evaluation. The selected ideas ranging from bookshop to Mobile App were analyzed. A formal committee of evaluator comprised of VSO representatives and the faculty members from Management Sciences, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science scrutinized the business ideas. Each evaluator was requested to evaluate proposal on given criteria independently. Furthermore, committee was requested to formally evaluate the presentations of all selected ideas. The committee members evaluated the presentation of each idea independently on a certain set criteria. The score of each idea was compiled and submitted to VSO. The ideas were categorized into four concept, Business idea, Business plan, Launching soon, and Growth stage.