The HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards are our annual celebration of the achievements of our students and their companies. It is a tremendous achievement for each group of students who complete their Young Enterprise year and proudly present the results of their company and their learning.
Through the competition process, Young Enterprise enables Young Enterprise companies to appear before independent judges who will take a view as to how well they have performed against the Young Enterprise criteria, compared to the other companies at each stage.
The Young Enterprise competition is not simply a business competition for young people. We are attempting to balance a view of the business achievements of each team as a whole with their individual personal development. Therefore, to win an award it is not sufficient just to run a financially successful company or to have created an exciting product. Company members must also demonstrate that they understand how and why the company performed as it did.
Young Enterprise and the HSBC Group believe that innovation is so fundamentally important to business success that we have reviewed the awards and developed the criteria to emphasise this. Judges will be looking for evidence of innovation, the successful exploitation of new ideas in all aspects of the running of the company and an understanding that continuous improvement through innovation is essential to the success of a business.
