MBA Step Four: Governor's Cup
The business plan competitions were great experiences and reinforced what we had learned during our studies. - Blaine Stansel MBA '08 |
The Governor's Cup offers MBA students a chance to develop their own business idea, assemble a plan and compete to win awards and prizes. Student teams from the University of Oklahoma swept the first-place awards in both graduate and undergraduate divisions in the 2008 Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Collegiate Business plan competition. The Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup has one of the largest cash awards pool in America. The Governor's Cup is designed to encourage students of Oklahoma Universities and Colleges to act upon their ideas and talents in order to produce tomorrow's businesses.
After only three years, the Governor's Cup has attracted entries from 19 campuses across the state, 135 judges and more than 100 innovative ideas. Altogether more than 300 students have tested their Entrepreneurial skills and knowledge while competing for more than $300,000 in cash prizes. Student teams and their faculty advisors will compete in undergraduate and graduate divisions for cash prizes valued in excess of $100,000 and first place winners have the opportunity to win the innovation award, in-kind commercialization services valued up to a total of $50,000.
Students involved in the competition gain access to networks of successful entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders, team-building opportunities and business planning skills. One of the goals of the competition is to encourage the development and commercialization of ideas and technologies being discovered in our universities. Researchers and Entrepreneurs from across the state have stepped forward with their research and innovative ideas to work with interested competing teams.
The competition encourages multidisciplinary teams that combine members from technical disciplines with members from the colleges of business to bring together the pieces necessary for bridging the gap between technology and the marketplace.
A team of University of Oklahoma graduate students took second place in the Donald W. Reynolds tri-State Competition, the final stage of the annual Governor's Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition in the undergraduate division. The inaugural tri-state Donald W. Reynolds Cup business plan competition held on may 15, 2008, represents the pinnacle of the three state business plan competitions in Oklahoma, Nevada and Arkansas. The top two teams (both undergraduate and graduate) from each state competed for cash awards totaling $90,000.
From OU, Perpetual Pharmaceuticals took home the second-place prize of $15,000. The company is commercializing a revolutionary insulin delivery system that can be injected to effectively manage blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes. The team is composed of Blaine Stansel and Pauline Sein, both Price College of Business MBA students.