Events

From 17 to 23 November, the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) takes place in Moldova. On this occasion, the Organisation for SME Sector Development (ODIMM) participates in various events organised by its established partners.

Again this year, ODIMM was an active partner in the Start-Up@Business Model Competition, applying the CANVAS model. On 19 November, the second edition of the competition, organised by the ASEM Business and Business Administration Faculty, took place.

The main purpose of the event – competition is to encourage young people to start up in business. And this year’s focus has been on social entrepreneurship and correct information about what it means and how to do social affairs.

“The aim of this competition is to develop students’ practical entrepreneurial skills. Here students have the opportunity to implement, present and substantiate their business ideas. I love that during this competition students learn oratorial art, argumentation and presentation of a business idea, but also teachers can see where they still have to work with students and which chapters to emphasise ", says Angela Solcan, Dean of Business and Business Administration, ASEM and initiator of this concept. (*) (**)

Business ideas, constructive emotions, entrepreneurial experience – all were present during the competition. The topic of the Social Entrepreneurship competition brought together 17 teams of students of 5 people each, who had the opportunity to present their business idea along the lines of CANVAS. The main condition to be met was the identification of a social problem and the presentation of an optimal solution in the form of a business idea.

Young people did not remain indifferent and identified sufficient social problems, but they were also creative in providing effective solutions. Business ideas were among the most interesting: rehabilitation centre for women in need, free Romanian language teaching centre, paper recycling, guesthouse for children with parents going abroad, mobile café, installation of passageways for people with disabilities in shopping centres.

The jury was quite strong, asked questions to students, put them into difficult situations, but young people found a way out of all situations and were confident in themselves and in their business ideas to the end.

“Such competitions show that young people care about society. Students showed creativity and courage. The jury was not easy to make the final decision, but what we saw is laudable. We are glad that entrepreneurship, i.e. social entrepreneurship, can be implemented from faculty banks ", said the president of the jury of Tudor Lupașcu, Director of the Business Advisory and Assistance Centre, ODIMM.

As a result, the following ideas were selected as winners:

first place – creation of a free teaching centre for the Romanian language, the affina team, the idea that has been designated and the public’s sympathy (for the first time when the selection of the jury coincides with the selection of the public);

second place – creation of a children’s guesthouse with parents abroad, Ladies in Business team;

3 rd place – ECO bag production, GreenBiz team;

(*) The issue of social entrepreneurship is one that is sensitive to us in Moldova. Starting from the concept itself, it is indissociable from social responsibility. The idea of social entrepreneurship is a new phenomenon in Moldova, but one that has a huge potential for development. The benefits of such entrepreneurship range from developing the country’s economy to improving living standards.

(* *) social entrepreneurship can be defined as a viable economic activity that aims to meet a clearly established social need. If, in the case of traditional entrepreneurship, the purpose of economic activity is to make a profit, social entrepreneurship begins by drawing attention to a social need and uses the entrepreneurial mechanism to create or direct a flow of economic resources to meet that social need.

More photos from the event on the ODIMM facebook page.