STUDENT ENTERPRISE COMPETITION:Clarity, team-work and good presentation skills are the key areas participants of the Student Enterprise Competition need to brush up on

LAST YEAR'S Newstalk 106-108FM Student Enterprise Competition was a closely fought battle between 1,300 students in 325 teams. To scoop the top prize, the winning team must not only produce a compelling business plan for the sample company but also demonstrate clarity, good teamwork and polished presentation skills.

Killlan Doherty, captain of last year's winning team from the National College of Ireland, says the prize (a two-week internship with Digicel in the Caribbean) is worth the effort. "It was the most amazing experience. We joined 19 of the company's senior managers on an intensive training programme and even though we were students we were treated as equal participants."

Killian Doherty says choosing the right team mates is crucial. "I had experience of the competition from the previous year and pitched the idea at a group of fellow students of different ages with different skills and backgrounds," he says. "Between us there was a good range of experience especially in one of the key areas which is strategic thinking."

Doherty's preparation advice to teams for the first round is to read the newspapers avidly and to be fully up to speed on business issues that might be relevant to the initial case study. Also worth brushing up on are basic analytical tools such as SWOT, PEST and Porters Five Forces. "They give you a basic structure to work with and apply as required," he says. "We also tried to connect some happening situation in the external business environment with the case studies."

Doherty says the lead-in time on the first case study gives a team ample time to put a detailed analysis together. "You have access to the internet and to all the data sources you need so you can be very thorough. It gets tougher in the later rounds where you don't have access to external information. This is where reading widely and keeping up with the news before the round comes in."

Thomas Cooney is a research fellow with the Dublin Institute of Technology and president of the European Council for Small Business. He has been involved with the competition from the outset. "I am a big advocate of case-study learning as students really engage with the process and it makes the learning more participative and enjoyable."

Cooney says he looks for three key elements in a presentation: good analysis, clear prescription and clear presentation. He advises students to begin by reading the beginning and the end of the material to get a sense of what the case study is about.

He says team members should read the material individually and highlight what they see as the key issues. A team debate should follow and when a course of action has been decided the team should be split according to areas of business function such as marketing and finance. Above all, Cooney says, the team should stay focused and avoid being distracted by social chatter.

"We're as interested in the decision-making process and rationale as in the solutions," he says. "Their deliberations shouldn't lead to a single answer. Rather they should offer a number of options because we want them to realise that there is rarely just one answer to any business problem."

Lorraine McDonnell is Enterprise Europe network manager with Sligo Chamber of Commerce and one of the competition judges. "What we're looking for is evidence at the outset that the students have understood the company and its issues," she says. "We need them to give a good synopsis of the business that shows they have grasped what's going on and then to present several options for the company going forward. We are looking for evidence of thinking outside the box."

McDonnell says one of the biggest mistakes teams make is failing to provide a clear summary of their intentions at the start. "I'd say about 70 per cent of participants don't sum up at the beginning so there is a lack of clarity," she says. "They usually have the information but muddle along for ages before getting to the point."

McDonnell says last year's winners combined strong content with excellent presentation skills. "They were very professional and there was strong evidence of the fact they were working as a team. They got to the point quickly and showed they understand the issues facing the company very early on. This left them with time to outline their solutions and to put their ideas into a wider marketplace context."

Making an impression is not only about the quality of the business analysis. How a team looks is equally important. "It certainly helps where a team has taken the trouble to suit up," McDonnell says.

"It is also important for them to make eye contact and interact with the judges and the audience as the rounds progress."