A total of 185 teams participated in the International Business Idea Challenge (IBIC 2020) that was held virtually from 7th until 9th December 2020. The teams came from 27 institutions across 9 countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, United Kingdom, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, and Nepal. Jointly organised by the Faculty of Business (FOB) and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), IBIC 2020 also featured two major annual events; eBES and IYSEC in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). The event also received support from ICAEW as the Strategic Partner for this event.

The participants gained more insights on entrepreneurship with two special webinars namely ‘From Job Seeker to Job Creator: The Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Young Entrepreneurs’ involving MMU alumni; Ms. Putrimira Mohd Jasmi Tan (Founder of Rayyan Haya), Mr. Terry Swee Chee Yong (Founder of VESBO Malaysia) and Mr. Jonathan Khoo Ze Yu (Founder of Jonkerns & Co). The second webinar was ‘Falling in Love with Social Entrepreneurship: Will you?’ by Ms. Sharifah Sarah Syed Mohamed Tahir (founder of Maryam Saves a Heart) and Ms. Anja Juliah Abu Bakar (Founder and Social Impact Director of Athena Holding Sdn. Bhd.). In addition, another initiative called “JIRAN X MMU” was also initiated during the launching and webinar on social entrepreneurship.

The closing ceremony was officiated by Prof. Dato’ Dr. Mazliham Mohd Su’ud, MMU President. The ceremony was also enlivened with the presence of Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Gerald Goh Guan Gan, Dean of FOB; Ms. Putri Syaidatul Akma Mohd Adzmi, Deputy Director of EDC; Dr. Siti Zakiah Melatu Samsi, Advisor of eBES; Ms. Nun Shwe Huey, Advisor of IYSEC; Ms. Hazlaili Hashim, Director of eBES and Ms. Sharmila Rani Moganadas, Director of IYSEC. A final reminder from our beloved President to all future entrepreneurs before bidding farewell to IBIC 2020 is “success is not final, while failure is not fatal”. What matters is how we must take our courage to learn from our failures and to continue the good fight. May we all find the success that we are looking for.

Well done!