Nurturing the business spirit
WORKING on the idea of an appliance that can steam and dry laundry at one go, a team of five first-year Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business (CFAB) students from Sunway TES won the top prize of RM8,000 at this year’s Nurture Business Challenge (NBC) organised by their college.
Team GENS, comprising Tiffany Bin Sze Qing, Vikky Beh Wei Chi, Muhammad Hasif Hafidzi, Chia Xin and Sangkharii Kalaithason, emerged champion with their brainchild called Airex.
Vikky was also named the best speaker. The team members used their 10-minute presentation during the finals to outline their strategies to launch their product, targeting working mothers in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Penang.
Held annually to provide business and accounting students with a holistic educational approach, the NBC has seen the participation of 290 teams since it began in 2016. Participants are first-year students from Sunway TES’ CFAB and Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) programmes.
They have to pitch their proposals to market a new service or product, which includes a 10-minute team presentation and another 10-minute question-and-answer session with the judges.
Besides Team GENS’ Airex, two other winning teams presented their ideas of a selfcleaning toilet seat and convenience cooking cup.
To address the problem of dirty toilets, Team Cleaningful comprising Ngew Shwen Wern, Gwenlyn Loh, Tiew Wei Jia, Ng Wai Lam research, technology and pricing strategy.
Teams Agroliser and Morph also made it to the finals, and they each won RM1,000 for their ideas of an affordable organic fertiliser and house paint that could change colour.
The panel of judges included Deloitte corporate finance partner and M&A adviser Datuk Mohd Nizar Najib, EY Partner Malaysia talent leader Lee Soon Fern, KPMG people, performance and culture executive director Monsy Siew, BDO advisory director Pam Lee, PWC associate director (tax) Siti Aishah Ismail and PWC associate director (tax) Matt van Leeuwen, who is also Sunway iLabs director.