Enter at Will but the RM15,000 is Mine!

Win RM15,000 with Scope International ICT Business Plan Competition 2007

Scope International is a wholly subsidiary of Standard Chartered that functions as a Shared Services Center for the Standard Chartered Group. A Shared Services Center is a centralized entity that focuses certain dedicated roles e.g. customer support service (remote & phone support), technical support, account & HR processing and so on. (Read more my entry on IT Call Center Job Prospect in Malaysia to understand more about service center role).

Based in Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), Bukit Jalil, Scope International Malaysia operates 2 main core, namely Banking Operations & International Software Center Malaysia. The office houses a number of support staff that work around the clock, and I remember placing about 3 candidates over there few years back (They either have moved on since or getting a new supervisory role). Their support cover mainly the Asia region that includes Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Pakistan & Dubai.

In the latest event, Scope has last week launched Scope International ICT Competition (thanks to Irwan for discovering it), a nationwide competition that invites students and working ICT professionals to submit their business proposals and innovative ideas.

The main goal of the competition to encourage participants discovering new ideas on how to utilize ICT to improve business processes, enhance the life styles and technology usage for the betterment of the society. The competition also allows the participating students and professionals to enhance their networks through a wider social interaction, mixing people of various diversities who are presently in the private and government sectors.

I anticipated that the RM15,000 is high enough to entice working professionals to take part (As for the student category, winner walks away with RM12,000 – don’t tell me this is not enough).

The hardest part is to squeeze your brain so that it pops up a breakthrough idea worth presenting. The next thing to do is writing up a business plan idea in a MS Word, not exceeding 1500 words, that translates to a mere 2 pages of A4 paper. Sounds very much doable, huh? In coming up with your idea, you can focus on coming up with solutions for banking, telecommunications, government, lifestyle, entertainment or any other related industries and business sectors. And oh, before I forget, this is a team competition where you can have 2 to 5 people in your team.

And as for the competitions structure (team presentation will be on November 2007 and award ceremony on December 2007):

Stage 1

Upon submission of their business idea, a team of Internal Judges will vet through and select the top 5 teams for the two categories.

Stage 2

Short-listed teams (10) will be sent for a 1-day skill enhancement seminar and workshop conducted by a professional and reputable facilitator. This is to further add-value to the competition and to provide the necessary skill sets required in drafting a winning business proposal.

Stage 3

Honorary Judges will then select from the top ten short listed teams, the best business idea and rank the top three winners for each category. The deliberation for the selection of the top three winners for each category will only be done after the formal presentation by the required teams.

Competition is open for registration now, and to register and submit your application, visit official Scope International ICT Business Plan Competition website.

Other posts you may want to read:

1. HSBC Young Entrepreneur Regional Awards 2007
2. Call Center Jobs Prospect
3. 5 Types of Business Plan
4. The Deloitte Tax Challenge 2008
5. ExxonMobil Walk-In Interview, 10 May 2008
6. Dell Graduate Attachment Program
7. Nescafe Kick-Start (New) Season 5
8. Cradle Investment Program 2008

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.