Honey Bee Rental Company Wins
2013 China Business Plan Competition
University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and
Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management Host 8th Annual Event
College Park, Md. - January 10, 2013 — MBA students with the
best pitches for China businesses won $10,000 in cash prizes Tuesday from the
University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business in the 2013 China
Business Plan Competition. The annual competition is organized by the Smith
School’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and host partner, Peking
University’s Guanghua School of Management in Beijing. Students from the Smith
School traveled to Beijing to compete with teams from five Chinese universities.
Two teams from Smith’s Israel partner school, the Technion Israeli Institute of
Technology, also travelled to China to participate.
Smith School student Yuan He won the competition’s top prize of $3,500 with
his pitch for Honeymoon Honey, a plan to rent honey bees to farmers and harvest
the honey to make cosmetics. The competition, now in its eighth year, was the
culmination of a business plan course and study trip to China for Smith MBA
students, led by the Dingman Center.
L-R, John Lapides, Dingman Center
entrepreneur-in-residence; Elana Fine, Dingman Center managing director;
Yuan
He, grand prize winner; Holly DeArmond, Dingman Center assistant director
“Innovation and entrepreneurship is an important topic drawing significant
attention from governments and business schools around the world. The
capabilities of innovation and entrepreneurship are particularly important for
China, which is undergoing a key period of overall economic transition,” said
Hongbin Cai, dean of Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. “Leading
the edge of innovation and entrepreneurship education in business schools, the
China Business Plan Competition hosted by Guanghua School of Management in
collaboration with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of
Business manages to enhance the communication of innovative ideas and cultivate
entrepreneurial practices.”
“We are committed to providing MBA students with hands-on global learning
opportunities and this competition has been a hallmark of that pledge, as
students take advantage of the wealth of entrepreneurial opportunities in
China’s flourishing economy,” said G. “Anand” Anandalingam, dean of the Robert
H. Smith School of Business. “We are pleased to continue our partnership with
the Guanghua School of Management to offer this rich learning experience to our
students and students in China and Israel. Regardless of their home country, MBA
students benefit from exploring entrepreneurial ventures in new markets.”
Each finalist team was tasked with pitching a plan for a venture that would
do business in China or leverage Chinese resources in some way. Second place and
$2,000 went to Love-Link, a plan for a company that addresses vegetable food
safety from a team from Tianjin University. A team from Zhejiang University won
third place ($1,000) with its pitch for SmartWheel, a high-tech wheel chair.
Additional finalist teams were recognized and earned smaller cash prizes. Judges
included Smith School and Dingman Center leaders, and entrepreneurial experts
from China.
The competition was the highlight of the Smith students’ week of exploring
venture creation and global operations in China’s rapidly evolving economy. The
trip was the conclusion a three-credit course on global learning experiences led
by J. Robert Baum, associate professor of entrepreneurship. The trip also
included meetings with successful local entrepreneurs and visits to
multinational corporations’ manufacturing facilities to better understand the
Chinese market.
In addition to leading study trips to China, the Smith School also offers an
executive MBA degree program in Beijing with partner the University of
International Business and Economics. In both its China and U.S. programs,
entrepreneurship is a key area of focus for the Smith School. The school is
internationally known for its entrepreneurship research and programs, ranking
among the best in the world for its offerings, according to U.S. News &
World Report and the Financial Times.
About the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
The Dingman Center has been at the forefront of entrepreneurship education and
practice for more than 25 years. The Center’s primary activities include helping
students build their ventures, creating experiential learning opportunities and
providing regional entrepreneurs with access to capital. Key programs for University
of Maryland students include Pitch Dingman, weekly walk-in sessions to pitch business
ideas to experienced entrepreneurs for feedback, Cupid’s Cup, an annual business
competition sponsored by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, and the China
Business Plan Competition, an annual competition and global studies trip in
partnership with Peking University. Within the region, the Center operates
Dingman Center Angels, the area’s most active angel investor network with more
than 40 members and 30 companies funded since 2005.
About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader
in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University
of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and
part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs,
as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree,
custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.
