NEWS

Team Energenius wins first place at “bizz@kampüs.” Uni students asked to come up with brilliant ideas for Ülker Metro.

Bizz@kampüs returned this year for its seventh time in a row. Awards went to undergrads and Master’s students alike. 901 teams from 137 universities across Türkiye submitted ideas on how to design and market Ülker Metro. Winning first place was Team Energenius from Boğaziçi University and Istanbul University. Team Conception (Yeditepe University) and Team mADcap (Ege University) walked home having won second and third place.

To date, some 29,075 post-secondary students have participated in the completion (since its conception) with 9,693 proposals.

“MY ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE: BE SOCIAL AND BE OPEN TO CHANGE”

Ali Ülker (Deputy Chairman of Yıldız Holding) gave a speech at the award ceremony. In it, he emphasized how important change was: “Everyone who competed in this contest came forth with very successful and strong ideas. I’d like congratulate all of you for your courage. In my opinion, you’ve all made a difference.”

Ülker also had a few recommendations for young people:

“The world is changing rapidly. You must keep on top of change. We need to go digital. We absolutely must use technology and science in our favor. Do your best to join as many social activities as you can before you step into the business world. You need to socialize, work on corporate social responsibility projects, intern, join contests like this one, assimilate into the world around, and learn everything you can in order to grow. Education is a lifelong process.”

“THEY GOT IMPORTANT MARKETING EXPERIENCE”

Faruk Gözleveli (Vice President of HR at pladis, noted that some 901 teams from 137 universities had submitted something to contest this year. He also added that:

“We’re thrilled to be able to reach out to university students from across Türkiye. They gained value and experience when it came in managing projects, working in teams, brainstorming and breathing life into creative ideas, and do presentations. I hope that all of them blossom in their career journeys.”

THEY GOT TO INTERN AT YILDIZ HOLDING

Team Energenius – Melike Nergiz, Ayça Yağışan, and Enes Ünal – won first place (beating ten teams who had advanced to the finals) as well as won TL 15,000. Team Conception – Bige Şeyma Apaçık, Cevdet Yanalak, and Melik Alçınkaya – received second place and a cash prize worth TL 10,000. Team maDcap – Didar Aktaş and Aylin Acar – walked home with third place and TL 7,500. All three teams also won the chance to intern at any Yıldız Holding company.

Students were asked to come up with a marketing plan for Ülker Metro. This year’s jury panel included: Faruk Gözleveli (pladis, VP of HR), Kadir Kamadan (plaidis, VP of Chocolate, Gum, and Snack Production), Serdar Turan (Editor-In-Chief at Harvard Business Review), Fatoş Karahasan (lecturer at Bilgi University and columnist for Dünya Newspaper), Aslı Özen Turhan (Marketing Director at Ülker Chocolate), Ali Sertakan (pladis, Regional R&D Leader), and Mehmet Uçak (Corporate Communications Director at Yıldız Holding). All three teams received advice about the dynamics of the business world, and were given the chance to take a giant step forward for their careers.