Enterprising competition could land firms funding, opportunity and cash
A NEW £90m competition designed to reward enterprising firms is being launched by HSBC Commercial Banking.
Winning firms could also receive up to £100,000 each and an overseas ‘Thought Exchange’ trip as part of the Business Thinking 2010 initiative.
Businessess with turnovers in excess of £2m can log onto www.hsbc.co.uk/business thinking and put forward their vision and ambitions for the company, how its management team intends to achieve them and how the prize would help them succeed.
The initiative has three phases of reward for successful entrants with phase one seeing up to 54 companies across the UK shortlisted as regional finalists.
Each company selected from the North East will have the opportunity to participate in an international ‘Thought Exchange’ in one of the world’s most dynamic areas of economic growth such as China, the Americas or Europe.
As part of phase two, regional finalists will be invited to refine their business case to win based on insights gained on the ‘Thought Exchange’.
Two regional winner will then receive up to £5m in lending plus a financial reward of up to £100,000 each.
The final phase will see one of the 18 regional winners crowned overal Business Thinking 2010 winner at a gala event in Hong Kong and receive a further financial reward of up to £100,000.
Mark Vines, HSBC’s regional commercial director for the North East and Yorkshire said: “We know the most successful businesses are those that innovate and invest to get ahead and we are launching Business Thinking 2010 to help support companies do just that.
“We firmly believe that for many businesses in the North East, trading internationally could help them drive their way out of the recovery to success, which is why we are giving so many finalists the chance to meet like-minded companies in other countries and find out about doing business overseas.”
Entrants must be UK-based and have operated for two years or longer.
Firms must be able to provide a profit and loss and balance sheet for a minimum trading period of 12 months as well as projected financials for a minimum of two years.
