CAY HILL--The St. Maarten Academy student team won the first Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Interscholastic Business Plan competition on Sunday afternoon with a powerful presentation of its fictional company (Garbage Regenerating Electrical Energy Naturally GREEN) N.V. and its business plan to operate a waste-to-energy plant in St. Maarten.
The event was held at the Belair Community Centre.
Learning Unlimited placed second with its company Eco SXM and its plans to provide recycling services, while St. Dominic placed third with its “Poseidon” business project that focused on revolutionary water filtration methods.
The event was similar to a science fair, but differed with the teams of students having to present full business plans, complete with financials based on market research, personnel, funding possibilities, marketing aspects, etc.
The theme for the event was the environment, chosen to coincide with RBC’s priority programme “RBC Blue Water Project” which is aimed at increasing awareness about environmental issues – mainly on how to protect the environment – through the business community, while building on the students’ business savvy.
All secondary schools were invited to participate in the competition, but only four managed to submit plans. Sundial School submitted a business plan, but could not present on Sunday due to circumstances. All entries were judged by professionals in the field of finance, government and environment. The teams were judged on their ideas and the prototype of their business, the business plan content and the presentation skills and team work.
RBC Area Vice President of Business Banking Ronald Elferink said the bank was very proud of the initiative, congratulated all teams and said the business plans and presentations had exceeded all expectations. He said the intention was to make the event an annual one, perhaps expanding it to include all islands of the Dutch Caribbean.
Minister of Education Rhoda Arrindell, who stayed for the entire event, said that when she witnessed events such as the Interscholastic Business Plan competition she had no doubt that St. Maarten’s future was in good hands with its youth. She praised all teams for the work they had put into the presentations.
“It was obvious that you knew what you were talking about. You didn’t cut and paste from the Internet,” Arrindell said.
St. Maarten Academy
In presenting their waste-to-energy plan, the students explained that many people failed to realise that the garbage they discarded every day could be used to produce electricity. They visited the landfill in Philipsburg for research purposes and noted that government’s recently-released energy policy called for GEBE to produce 15 per cent of green energy by 2015.
GREEN N.V., they said, plans to win a government concession to operate its waste-to-energy facility and be the company that will create that 15 per cent of green energy and sell it to GEBE. The intention is to reduce the current “garbage mountain” on the landfill, promote conservation, turn the landfill into a viable economic facility and reduce electricity cost for the average St. Maartener.
All members introduced themselves and their fictional roles within the company, elaborated on their plans to manage the entire landfill area, spoke about financing and how they would derive revenue. Ironically, they would opt for a government bond rather than a loan from, say, RBC Bank.
In the end, however, it was Academy’s prototype of the facility and what judges called a powerful and energetic presentation, complete with a promo video, that carried the day for the blue and white team.
With its finances, the Academy team was a little short on some aspects, including not reflecting how taxes and personnel cost would affect the company’s projected figures. The team drew some laughs from the crowd when one of its members asked jokingly: “Do we have to pay taxes?”
Learning Unlimited
The Learning Unlimited (LU) team also had an impressive presentation, in particular on the financial aspects of its company Eco SXM, a plant providing recycling services.
The presentation, in terms of the finances, was the most detailed of the afternoon, with focus on the organisational structure and investment opportunities, among other things. The students also focused on shipping cost and how taxes and personnel cost would affect the bottom line.
The recycling facility, the students explained, would operate in three phases. First would be educating the public on the benefits of recycling; the second phase would be the setting up of collection services with coloured bins for glass, cardboard, etc., in several locations and districts, and the last phase would be the processing of materials and exportation. The team also explained that government would be approached for funding.
All teams were questioned by the three-member judging panel and the people attending the event, with LU’s presentation drawing the most questions. The judges offered advice to all teams and questioned how realistic and viable some aspects of the plans were, including LU’s idea to seek a 50-year loan from RBC and the fact that it didn’t give Eco SXM a legal standing (N.V. or otherwise), which is important for funding of any entity.
The LU team also presented from the premise that the company would be the first recycling facility in Dutch St. Maarten, with the profitable advantage of not having any competition, a claim that was dispelled by a member of the Academy team who pointed out that there are existing companies conducting similar activities. Team LU then explained the competition would be indirect.
St. Dominic
The St. Dominic students were the first presenters of the afternoon and focused on how to help St. Maarten and the world with their Poseidon water filtration system. It wasn’t totally clear, however, through what company the system would be sold.
The filters would extract impurities and would be made of sand and activated carbon. Poseidon would offer three systems in total, depending on what was needed and by whom. One filtered system could be wind-powered, another would be on a smaller scale household level powered by electricity and a third would be gravity-generated, primarily for third world countries.
St. Dominic’s team also highlighted its target markets, the prices of all three systems and explained who comprised Poseidon and how it would help save the environment and history, including being able to extract salt from Great Salt Pond for sale on the open market.
The team spoke about the lack of access to clean water in countries like Ghana and Bangladesh, and explained how its company would make money from sales of the systems to the governments of these countries.
St. Dominic also had a fully functional prototype of its system, which it demonstrated and from which the team members actually drank a filtered glass of water.
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