[1 April 2005]
Asurion Asia Pacific Promotes Entrepreneurship In Collaboration With Singapore Management University

Asurion Asia Pacific, l eading provider of value added services to the wireless industry, is proud to announce the inauguration of the “Asurion Young Entrepreneurs Challenge”, in collaboration with Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore's first private university funded by the government. Created exclusively for SMU students, the competition gives students valuable experience in developing a business plan and an opportunity to bring their plan to fruition.

Each team, comprising three to five members, has been tasked to develop a product or value added service relevant to Asurion's business in its target markets, namely Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. The proposal needs to address the issue of customer churn in the wireless industry, by pioneering innovative solution to help mobile operators retain customers and grow their customer base.

“ Asurion is excited to work with SMU toward a common vision, that of encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the students and identifying outstanding talents in the process . We are confident in the potential of this competition to yield innovative value added service ideas for the wireless industry and g auging the students' response so far, this year's competition will start the ball rolling for more to come on an annual basis.” said Mr Daniel Currie, President and CEO, Asurion Asia Pacific.

“We expect to hear from our students many exciting and novel business ideas which provide fresh insights and challenge conventional perspectives. This is the hallmark of SMU students who are schooled in our unique pedagogy that encourages out-of-the-box thinking, constant questioning of assumptions and a hierarchy-free interaction with the faculty. SMU students have traditionally topped several prestigious international business case competitions which attests to their maturity in developing sound business solutions.” said Professor Howard Hunter, President, Singapore Management University.

Apart from cash prizes, winners will also stand to be employed as project consultants, should the company decide to implement their business proposal. An internship opportunity will also be offered to outstanding students at Asurion and Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest communications networks in the world.

This competition is organised by the SMU Ventures, a student-led entrepreneurship club that promotes idea generation and the entrepreneurship culture within the university and beyond by incubating new ventures and networking with experienced investors and consultants in the business industry.

The competition started with 17 teams in the running and through a rigorous selection process, five teams have been short-listed for the final round, which will be held on 1 April 2005. The final round involves a panel of five judges, who will evaluate and select the top three teams following a presentation by the finalists.

The panel of judges includes:

• Daniel Currie, President and CEO, Asurion Asia Pacific
• Andrew Thomas, Managing Director, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
• Paul Kitchin, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel)
• Singapore Management University:
  • Associate Professor Desai Arcot Narasimhalu, Director Industry Relations,
    School of Information Systems
  • Associate Professor Tan Wee Liang, Lee Kong Chian School of Business