Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

Nearly a month ago it seemed that for more than two weeks SSE Riga magically transformed into a market as each of 30 Year 1 teams tried to deliver their best in annual EBP Challenge in order to win one of the four prizes and, of course, earn some money.

Although I cannot compare this year to the last year’s challenge, to my mind Year 1 was very innovative in their ideas and development of their product. Some quite controversial, some – conservative, but all in all Year 1 worked hard in order to deliver the product to the customer. And the customer knows better – there were quarrels, disagreements and critique. But we still performed well. But what did we deliver?

It can truly be said that food at SSE Riga can be sold very easily as the only competitors are the other teams and Fazer Amica cafeteria. Then you could try almost everything that you like – for almost two weeks at lunch you could eat freshly grilled meat with vegetables (it was also the most profitable and named the most delicious project by many); you could try energy pies with guarana seeds, drink freshly squeezed juices, eat fruit, waffles, chocolate pies, burgers and much more. Of course, there were many that tried to entertain SSE Riga students and allow them to see much more than just studies. During breaks you were able to play quizzes, get a massage, watch a movie about Riga, get a henna tattoo, join the lottery, participate in an auction or in the evening go to a charity concert or to a speed-dating event. Perhaps some of you even still have some of the tangible products as a reminder of EBP challenge. Some have FUTURUS GRESSUS pins, maybe others have bought caricature business cards or bookmark timetables, charity postcards, key chains, lighters (a pity that I missed those), finger-dolls, bags and cups from “Be Sunny!” project and some still feel the taste of the Mood Shop on their tongues. I can add only that I was surprised by the conservativeness of our students and staff. I myself was blown away by Oxygen Bar, Riga Bloody business and Water-pipes and was disappointed that they were not the most popular and appreciated because, to my mind, they were unique. As were the smoke bomb guys (although I did not participate in SS, so I cannot argue). Also worth mentioning, there were a few teams who went further and introduced different services to help others (as mentioned before - Riga Movie). Some groups made research – folk dancing group (to help tourists in understanding some traditions of Latvians) and a team who was trying to develop an interactive homepage.

During the presentation this team rose a huge discussion about whether they as a team follow the rules of the challenge as by the end of the EBP challenge no visible profit had been made and no visible product had been put through. Although there are still many people who disagree, as A. Sauka explained, sometimes, when the idea is so spectacular, you have to break the rules in order for the idea to be put in action. Therefore, I wish them good luck in that and I cannot wait to see how much have they done until now.

It is important to state, that the ultimate winners of the EBP challenge who received a scholarship of 150LVL from the Business Lab were the Riga Movie business. I wish them luck in development of their business. The prize from SA (scholarship of 100 LVL for the best social entrepreneurship project) was received by Futurus Gressus, a charity concert that was held at SSE Riga and was visited by almost 100 people. The group that developed the interactive homepage for SSE received the rector’s award and got to go to a business lunch with Anders and Diana. The last prize was received by the folk dancing group who were able to hand in their home exam assignment 3 days earlier than other groups. 

To conclude, I would like to say that EBP challenge was an awesome experience for me as I jumped totally into it. Overall, I have watched all the presentations, I have spent more than 25LVL on business cards, drinks, food, smoking water pipe, oxygen bar and also donated to charity. It was difficult this year, the most common profit was only 20-40 LVL and it is not much. It was almost impossible to compete between each other by trying to sell your product; it was even more difficult for those whose product was not food or drinks. But still, I heard that as a result of the EBP challenge, many found new friends, developed teamwork, had great time and implied entrepreneurial strategies in life. And some of you… some had great profits. Our team did not; well, at least we, together with some other groups, donated ours to centre for intellectually challenged people “Saule”. And for those, who still argue whether this is entrepreneurship, I will say that it is - entrepreneurship with added value. And for those who donated, recently we went to the centre to donate the collected money. They were thrilled. And if you saw the looks on their faces – this challenge then was totally worth it. 

P.s. I hope that those groups that were not directly mentioned in the article will not be angry with me because I did my best in remembering all of you – 30 groups are almost impossible to recall. 

by Inga Jerzjukova