Andreja Čurin, Inštitut za raziskovanje podjetništva

Articles from the magazine "Prizma", January 2006

An example of good practice of cooperation of students with companies

One of the goals of the project "Podravje – the learning region" is stimulation of early linking and cooperation of students with companies. Activities in this set are still being implemented, therefore we will present them in the next issue, and today we will present an example of good practice. In the last year, the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University in Maribor and the University-business incubator "Tovarna podjemov" in cooperation with the company Prevent d.d., have published a reward for the best student project for companies.

The tender was a part of the programme »Student projects for companies«, the main purpose of which was to increase the transfer of knowledge between the university and business environment. The program allows for recognition of undergraduate and postgraduate students, who are ready to test their knowledge and experience in business practice (by cooperating with the existing companies or establishing own spin-off company, selling technology or expert knowledge) and contribute by that to the development of our economy.

For companies, such cooperation solves certain problems, but above all means a search for new business ideas, concepts, models, opportunities to introduce new technologies, etc. At the same time, the created and nurtured relationships with young experts are also very valuable and can lead to employment after graduation. Cooperation is useful also to students, as such experience presents an opportunity to test the acquired knowledge, assistance in planning of career path and an opportunity to publicly present their ideas, work and are rewarded for it.
 

Winning student projects for companies

Pursuant to the tender, the students competed for awards with their contributions from the following fields:
A. Student research project (within the tender themes). The students were allowed to study different themes that are interesting for the company Prevent d.d.. The themes of the tender were mostly related to the development of the automobile industry and the production of automobile industry products.
B. Presentation of an innovative business idea. The students were asked to present an innovative product or service that has a chance of succeeding in the market. The organizers of the tender were prepared to support the efforts of students to establish own companies or to sell a good business idea.
C. Presentation of a new technology or its innovative use. The students could present the newest technological breakthroughs that may be interesting to the existing or new companies. This field was intended primarily for students of technical faculties, who have found or developed new technologies during their research.

The main criteria for evaluating the entered projects were the following:
 Originality of the solutions, findings and suggestions;
 Practical applicability of solutions per individual fields (for company Prevent d.d., for the development of a new spin-off company or for transfer of the technology into economy); and
 Integrity of the approach to research.

By the set date, 14 contributions were entered into the tender that matched the required criteria. Among the arrived projects, the expert committee chose six best contributions that were then evaluated by the additional criterion of the quality of personal presentation of the project.

The first prize of the tender, 14-day professional training in the company Prevent Thierry Brasil Ltda, worth SIT 500,000.00, was awarded to the project »Strategy of acquiring business in the markets of Brazil, Spain, USA, China, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, considering cultural differences and their influence on the approach to the offer, negotiations and business-making« (Jasmina Cvahte, Davor Leskovar, Primož Bauman).

The second prize, 50 % reduction on the enrolment fee for postgraduate study of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University in Maribor, worth SIT 250,000.00 SIT, was awarded to the project »OKEJ & Comp d.o.o.« (Erih Obrez).

Among the rest of the finalists from third to sixth place, practical rewards were distributed in total value of SIT 250,000.00. The rewards were awarded to the authors of the following projects: »SSMT – System for Cellphone Tracking« (Gregor Luka Leskovšek, Andrej Kovač), »Development of a new product in the field of construction tinsmith trade« (Primož Bučar, Lovro Grilanc, Andrej Dajčman) and »Market factors of the internationalization of the Chinese market« (Staš Stermecki, Kris Stermecki, Maša Šetina). The awarding ceremony was held on March 10th, 2005 on the 25th conference PODIM.