Cincom Hosts Second UC Spirit of Enterprise Competition

For the second year in a row, Cincom Systems hosted and sponsored the 2006 UC Spirit of Enterprise MBA Business Plan Competition, an invitational forum for the next generation of entrepreneurs to "road test" their new venture concepts. Initiated by the University of Cincinnati Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research (“E-Center”), the competition was held on Thursday, Feb. 23, and Friday, Feb. 24. The inaugural 2005 Spirit of Enterprise Competition drew teams from all over North America. This year, the field increased by four teams to a total of 12.

“Cincom Systems’ World Headquarters is a great venue in which to compete, and it gives students a chance to learn about global business from one of the great entrepreneurial success stories in the software industry, Tom Nies,” said Charles Matthews. Matthews is executive director of UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research and a professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management in the College of Business.

The UC team, which advanced to the finals, was edged out of the top spot by excellent teams from the University of Illinois-Chicago (SanoGene) and Carnegie Mellon (Neuro Life), but outpaced the team from the University of Georgia (FS Dashboard). UC graduate students Ahmed Shuja, Srinivas Parimi, Dennis Delvin, Ibraham El Rahi and Michael Finn achieved a second runner-up finish and $2,000 Queen City Angels First Fund prize.

“Ahmed Shuja did an outstanding job representing his team and UC with his new venture plan, ‘Progressive Cooling Solutions,’” said Matthews. “Thanks to the team's hard work, Progressive Cooling is poised to redefine the process by which tomorrow's electronics will be cooled. Progressive Cooling's continuing entrepreneurial journey over the past two quarters has been an intense and challenging one. In order to represent UC, they had to conceive, plan and develop their written and oral presentation and then compete against other MBA teams in the 9th Annual UC MBA New Venture Plan competition held this past January. Once chosen, the last several weeks leading up to the competition were just as busy as the team continued to hone its plan and presentation, consult with faculty advisors, business and industry contacts and conduct mock presentations/rehearsals.”

As have past UC teams, Progressive Cooling faced an extremely strong competitive field. Twelve top schools from across North America competed in three preliminary round tracks. In track one, the University of Arizona, University of Georgia, Duke University and Wake Forest University faced off. Concurrent with track one, the University of Oregon, Carnegie Mellon, University of Illinois-Chicago and The Ohio State University squared off in track two, while the University of Louisville, University of Manitoba, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Cincinnati went head-to-head in track three.

The top team from each track and one "wild card" were selected from the three tracks and moved on to the final four: Carnegie Mellon, UC, University of Illinois-Chicago (the wild card team) and the University of Georgia.
 
The non-finalists moved on to the UC Taxi/Limo Competition where each team had an opportunity to literally take a ten-minute limo ride with a potential investor mirroring a chance encounter and opportunity to sell their venture idea. Wake Forest University (Audio Fusion) took the top prize in the Taxi/Limo round.

This was the second year for the UC Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Plan Competition hosted by the UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research. Key to the competition is the continued help and support of its sponsors, especially the lead role played by CoB alum Thomas M. Nies, founder and CEO of Cincom Systems, Inc.

“We’re honored to sponsor the competition and to work with the University of Cincinnati in promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial development in its curriculum,” said Nies.

In addition to Cincom Systems, Inc., event sponsors included City Angels Fist Fund, Blue Chip Venture Company, Fort Washington Capital Partners and the Ohio Capital Fund, The Walnut Group, Draper Triangle Ventures and Executive Transportation Services. CincyBusiness magazine joined as a media sponsor this year.

About the UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research (E-Center)
Founded in 1997 by Dr. Charles H. Matthews, the E-Center’s vision and mission is to provide a state-of-the-art entrepreneurship curriculum and research base not only for potential student entrepreneurs and scholars, but also for people in the many organizations that interact with small, entrepreneurial and family-owned businesses on a daily basis. The University of Cincinnati has been ranked as one of the top 50 programs for entrepreneurship in the U.S. by Success magazine and one of the top regional programs in the U.S. (Entrepreneur Magazine) in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

About Cincom
For nearly 40 years, Cincom's software and services have helped thousands of clients worldwide simplify the management of complex business processes. Cincom specializes in the five areas of business where simplification brings the greatest value to managers who want to grow revenue, control costs, minimize risk and achieve rapid ROI better than their competitors.

The Inaugural Spirit of Enterprise Competition

Meet the Winners of the 2006 Spirit of Enterprise Competition 

For More Information:
Charles H. Matthews, Ph.D.
Director, UC Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research
Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management
College of Business
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH  45221-0165
Phone: 513-556-7123
Fax:513-556-4891
Email: charles.matthews@uc.edu