A team of students from the School of Business Administration at AUD participated in the Business for Better Competition held by Western Union and Al Ansari Exchange where they won an award for “Most Socially Responsible Business Award.”
 
The Business for Better Competition is a sustainable business plan competition open for undergraduate students in the UAE. The aim of the competition was to provide students with an opportunity to come up with out-of-the box, sustainable, for-profit business ideas drawing upon their skills and talent to compete with their counterparts from other Universities across the UAE.[1]
 
Ms. Meghna Nambissan from Team Cool-It at AUD presented her team’s sustainable business idea with enthusiasm: “our company will be the sole importers and distributors of ventilated air suits created in Japan. We will brand the suits under our own company name, Cool-It, and we will be targeting the U.A.E.’s large construction industry. These suits use state-of-the-art Japanese technology to keep construction workers cool during the summer time, and reduce their body temperature significantly by increasing the airflow between the body and the suit improving productivity and working conditions.”
 
The team, comprised of three active Business Administration students Shyair Ganglani, Nikhil Kumar and Meghna Nambissan was mentored by Prof. Jeanette Teh, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at AUD, which the team thanked for her constant guidance and support in helping them excel in the competition and as business thinkers.
 
“The team did an incredibly impressive job. They got a letter of intent from a property developer with a soft promise to order 30,000 suits in the first year, and an informal commitment from the manufacturer to give them exclusivity for the region. They even made a tentative agreement with a laundry services company to service the suits (where they would earn royalties per suit as the middle party),” commented proudly, Prof. Jeanette Teh.
 
When looking back at the competition the team agreed that: “the entire competition gave us a great perspective on how business pitches are done in the real world, the judges posed difficult questions allowing us to experience exactly what it would be like if we were looking for real funding to start our business. As a team of students we learnt to be more detailed and practical when it comes to our business ideas and the real world.”
 
After all the positive feedback and support received from the judges, the team is now looking into the feasibility of implementing their idea, “if not as a full-fledged business, then perhaps as a CSR initiative,” says Nambissan.
 
Dr. Mohammed Abu Ali, Dean of School of Business Administration commended the students for their achievement. He said: “Social responsibility is in the core of the SBA mission. To reflect our students’ understanding of business social responsibility in a successfully implemented case is a source of fulfillment and pride for the students, faculty and the School of Business Administration in general.”