Churchill alumnus and Chairman of Cornwall Energy, Simon Jones is the Chair of the Churchill College Enterprise competition, which aims to strengthen professional links between students and alumni. He tells us why he believes this competition is an important opportunity for Churchill students and young alumni.
Through the Churchill Enterprise Competition we are bringing a bit of that magic into College in the expectation that we can bolster the chances of success of specific start-up ideas and also broaden your business awareness in ways that can help you any professional capacity you take on. Think of mentoring as an “on-the-job MBA” experience—you have the opportunity to engage with a great panel of alumni and mentors as part of this programme that I really wish we would have had access to as students and recent alumni
So please look at how you could take advantage of this, however early formed your business ideas may be we are here to assist and make sense of them. Who knows what could come out of this and what we could all learn in the process. Already several students have been in touch with Board members to discuss their ideas. One things many of us know about is sources of finance for great ideas—the lifeblood of entrepreneurs.
As Chair of the Churchill Enterprise Initiative I can point to my own experience. Three years after leaving Churchill, I had one of the most transformative experiences of my career—this was the entrepreneurial management course at Wharton Business School. We were exposed to successful alumni entrepreneurs, large companies CEOs who put their success down to this course, corporate financiers and other advisers who opened our minds to art of what is possible in business. The Churchill Alumni involved in the Enterprise Initiaitive would like to create a similar opportunity for current students and alumni.
The aim of myself and the Board is to create an environment where Churchill students and alumni can gain knowledge and skills in whatever future direction their careers take: corporate, banking, consulting or entrepreneurship.
We look forward to hearing from you and seeing your proposals and the deadline for submission has been extended to March 5th and we hope to have a decision by the end of March, 2015. The prize is £1000 including experienced business mentoring that could be valued in multiple thousands if accessed on the open market .
—Simon Jones, Chair of the Churchill Enterprise Initiative
