Buçimas, Pogradec

business@school

An initiative of the Boston Consulting Group

“business@school” is a highly rewarding program for high-school pupils, where they can develop their own realistic business ideas. As an initiative of the Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s largest strategic consulting firms, the program aims at imparting business knowledge at a young age, awakening entrepreneur spirit and self-confidence. Business@school is available in the US and several Western European countries - in 2017, NG brought it to Albania. Schools from all over the region are invited to participate.

The program is divided into three phases. After the pupils have formed teams, they select a large company, analyze its products, target groups, company structure, and the market. They also learn the business basics: profit and loss, balance sheets, or competitive factors. In the second phase, the pupils transfer their new knowledge to a tangible local business. The third phase is all about developing their own business idea. Here, they can become active and creative. The teams observe what is needed in the market, prepare a real business plan with descriptions of market gaps, ideas for financing, recruiting appropriate staff, or acquiring customers. In a final presentation, the teams bring forth their business idea to an audience and the jury.

The jury consists of members of NG, guest lecturers, representatives of business@school or local entrepreneurs, who evaluate their work and give scores. Finally, the jury selects the winning team.