Honing Entrepreneurial Skills from an Early Age at SimBiz

Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and spirit which, to be properly understood, must be practiced from an early age. That is why BINUS INTERNATIONAL Trading Enterprise (BITE) endeavors to instill entrepreneurial spirit as early as possible to the young generation through SimBiz, which BINUS INTERNATIONAL has held every year since 2007.

The 8th SimBiz was held from February 15 to 17, 2014 at Mall @Alam Sutera, Tangerang and at the Joseph Wibowo Center, Senayan. Fifty-three two-person teams from Indonesian senior high schools and universities competed in various events.

“The event lasted for three days because we were aiming at honing their skills to be entrepreneurs, putting them in applied situations with a fun atmosphere. On the first day, we held activities at Mall @Alam Sutera. The participants were assigned to work as the staff of a company, carrying with them an answer sheet. They had to look for members of the committee whom we had dispersed around the mall, the whole four floors. Each member of the committee had a question the teams needed to answer. On the second day, we designed the activities to be more relaxed—participants sitting in front of a computer. But, each team was assigned to play a CEO of a company. Here, we challenged the participants in their decision making skills, involving each unit in the ‘company.’ On the last day, we assigned the participants to be owners of a company, and they were to apply the values they had learned in the last two days. With this series of competitions, we hope the participants can see that the world of entrepreneurship has its fun moments,” the head of committee, Billy Samuel, explained.

Billy added that it required a long process to build the spirit of entrepreneurship. Therefore, patience and perseverance are needed.

The six winning teams were divided into two categories: Senior High School (SMA) and University. In the SMA category, the first place went to SMA Pembangunan Jaya, the second place went to SMAK Penabur Lampung, and the third place was won by SMAN 1 Bogor. In the University category, Diponegoro University came out on top; second place was taken by Prasetya Mulya University; and the third place went to Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. (KF)