On Friday last week, Matthew Robinson (13 Business Studies) as part of the 2017 Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) had the opportunity to travel to Wellington to compete in the Entrepreneurs in Action (EIA) weekend.

Matthew represented Otago Boys’ High School and competed in the EIA weekend which consisted of entrepreneurial team and individual challenges. The EIA weekend was held at the Massey University campus. Matthew’s team for the weekend was (Boffa Miskell, a landscape designing consultancy company) which consisted of four mentors who work for the company, one Illumni (a student who had done the weekend in the past) and seven other 2017 YES students.

Fridays challenge was to take a networking photo with the Minister of Finance Steven Joyce. Matthew’s team won this challenge, they recreated the John Key three-way handshake with Mr Joyce and did a 12-way handshake instead.

Saturdays Innovators Challenge was to come up with a product that sources food product that others reject and turn it into something that the discerning buyer wants to purchase. They had 8 hours to do a 2-page business plan and do a 5-minute pitch to the judges. So, with this in mind Matthew’s team ventured into the streets to find a real problem as they failed to come up with one in the classroom. They stumbled across the occasional Brewery and this is where they found their problem. They turned spent hops into an oil called Hop Drops. This oil containing anti-inflammation, pain relief, anti-bacterial benefits, acne healing properties, decreasing stress anxiety and sedative effects. Matthew’s team did really well to come up with a highly commended innovative idea.

On the Sunday, the teams were set with a new challenge, again having to do a 2-page business plan and a 5-minute presentation but this time only having 5 hours to do so. The challenge was to develop a market entry strategy for a geothermal product suitable for Japan. Matthew’s team came up with an extremely original idea of a geothermal power town like Eat Street in Rotorua, but that was shot down by the Judges as it wasn’t filling the brief. With three hours to go the team decided to go with a ‘Geo-Box’. This is a box that turns geothermic energy into electricity that powers cars, bikes, phones, and general appliances. It is designed to better prepare Japan for a big natural disaster and will change from green to red when an emergency is happening. Matthew’s area of responsibility within his team was Finance and according to the judges this was a decisive factor in Matthew’s team winning the NZ Trade and Enterprise Challenge. The win meant Matthew moved on to the individual challenge to compete against 15 other students in the final quick-fire challenge of the weekend. With the top 3 getting a spot in the national team to go to Silicon Valley, California, USA.

The quick-fire challenge consisted of acting as a consultant to the innovated real-life New Zealand shoe company Allbirds. The scenario required students to make recommendations of how Allbirds should diversify and what market they should target and how they should target them? Students were given 10 minutes to plan, 2 minutes to pitch, and a minute for judges questions. Unfortunately for Matthew he didn’t make the top three but without a doubt it was a wonderful achievement in getting to the finals stage of the weekend.

Upon completion of the weekend Matthew and his team were all offered a scholarship to attend Massey University Business School in the future.

Matthew is currently CFO of Otago Boys’ High School YES company ‘Brighter Books’- www.brighterbooks.co who currently produce and sell activity books for 4-5-year olds transitioning from early childhood education to primary school.