News Articles

JCI (Junior Chamber International), the worldwide federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs, is glad to invite the members of JADE to take part in the International Competitions of JCI!

- Do you excel in your field of activity and exemplify the best attributes of the world’s young people?
- Do you need some fund to turn an idea into a concrete business plan?
- Are you a creative young entrepreneur who has started a new business using creativity?
- Or do you know someone who meets above requirements?

If your answer is yes, our competitions are for you:

- The Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award (TOYP) serves to formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and exemplify the best attributes of the world’s young people. By recognizing these young people, JCI encourages them and others to seek excellence and serve others. Thus, JCI contributes to prepare better leaders, who will create better societies.
Registration deadline is May 20, 2008.

- JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Award (CYEA): This award recognizes, honors and celebrates exceptional young entrepreneurs and the role of creativity in their success.
Registration deadline is May 31, 2008.

- JCI Best Business Plan Competition (BBP) is designed to foster the entrepreneurial spirit. To facilitate this JCI provides young entrepreneurs with the tools and opportunity to turn an idea into a concrete business plan with $5000 start up capital.
Registration deadline is: July 1, 2008.

Finalists will receive:
- Economy airline ticket to attend the 2008 JCI World Congress in New Delhi, India
- Hotel accommodation at the Headquarters Hotel
- Free JCI World Congress registration

And the winner of the JCI Best Business Competition will receive $5000 start up fund.

THE COMPETITIONS ARE OPEN TO: young entrepreneurs between 18 and 40 (nominees born before January 1, 1968, are not eligible for the competitions). JCI is requesting entries from its National Organizations, as well as from individuals and other organizations such as universities, ICC National Organizations, Local Chambers of Commerce, Young Entrepreneurs of Europe and AIESEC.

To submit your entry or to read more about the competitions, please visit the JCI website http://www.jci.cc/programs

JCI is an international non-governmental organization (NGO): a worldwide federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs with nearly 200,000 active JCI members and millions of JCI alumni. By participating in various projects, meetings, seminars and events around the globe, JCI members grow personally and professionally, developing the entrepreneurial and leadership skills needed to generate positive changes in their communities, their countries and the world.

Should you have any questions or need further information or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact JCI Programs Coordinator Ms. Erzsebet Czinger at eczinger@jci.cc.

CNJE national meeting took place in Aix-Les-Bains, a prestigious city in the Alpes. 750 Junior-Entrepreneurs and CNJE partners were gathered from the 25th to the 27th April to exchange experiences, be part of discussions, trainings and to party.

On Friday, participants could join different kinds of activities such as tennis, beach-volley and spa. The sun was shinning, so they could also take a beer in a café and visit the city. On Friday night, a cocktail gathered everybody and Junior Entrepreneurs exchanged a lot among each other, while waiting for the party. Most of people went to bed quite late, but everybody was there for the breakfast at 8am on Saturday.

During that day more than 40 different workshops were provided by CNJE partners, CNJE and also by some JE’s. Junior Entrepreneurs could learn everything necessary to manage a JE: treasury, communication, project management, team-working, international projects management.

The lunch was outside, under the blue sky in a lovely park. During the afternoon, a moment was dedicated to job/internship interviews by KPMG SA, Microsoft France, Altran and BNP Paribas.

Saturday night was holding great expectations: during the gala diner, the excellence awards were announced. Dinner was then really cheered up by Junior Entrepreneurs that were waiting for the results. Finally, the time came to present the different awards. CNJE members announced the nominated while the results were given by representatives of CNJE partners.

- Best engineering project : Junior Supélec Strategy.
- Best commercial project : Bretagne Conseil.
- Best communicating Junior-Entreprise : Sep Efrei.
- Most entrepreneurial Junior-Entreprise : Aquitaine Marketing Service.
- Most promising Junior-Entreprerise : Aquitaine Electronique Informatique.

In addition to those five awards, the final one was waited with a lot of anxiety by the six nominated Junior Entreprises for the “best Junior-Entreprise” award. The six finalists went through different steps during the year. They were first nominated as part of the 30 best Junior Entreprises after their annual audition. After that, their strategy was analysed by our partners (KPMG SA, Microsoft France, BNP Paribas and Altran) through an application file.

One of the partners went to audit them once again. The economic newspaper Les Echos held a client-satisfaction-survey of the twelve semi-finalists. Finally the six finalists had to do a presentation in front of the CNJE partners, who were responsible for choosing the winner.

This year, the Best Junior-Entreprise is Junior ISEP, a Paris based engineering Junior-Entreprise.

The award was announced at 2am and the party went on through the night.

On Sunday, tired but happy faces came to the brunch before going back home. This meeting was the biggest organised by the CNJE and can be considered the challenge of 2007/2008 team term.

For any information, please, feel free to contact: international@cnje.org

The event in the European Parliament on 8 April 2008 offers the possibility to engage in a ‘Pact for Knowledge and Innovation’ where stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors will consider how the ‘The 2020 Challenges’ can bring benefit to Europe’s economy and citizens. The need of a pact, as expressed by the organizers, is based on assumption that Europe’s future depends increasingly on its ability to both generate and manage knowledge and innovation.

JADE, as an official supporter, is present to highlight the JE Experience as one the most effective ways of relating Higher Education and innovative learning methodologies in order to stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset amongst the decision-makers of tomorrow.

A working session during the day will provide for the opportunity to discuss the establishment of a permanent Forum between the Members of the European Parliament and stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors. Besides organizational issues the meeting will also reflect on an annual work plan to be executed in a series of breakfast-, lunch- and dinner debates.

The Declaration underpinning and substantiating ‘A pact for knowledge and innovation’ will be presented during the Cocktail Reception prior to the dinner.

For more information, please click on following link.

In the December and January editions of the Club Junior-Enterprises (CJE), CNJE (also called JADE France) hosted two renowned speakers: the Minister for Higher Education & Research, Valérie Pécresse, and the President of the MEDEF (an association that gathers French CEOs), Laurence Parisot. During the March edition, CNJE had the pleasure to welcome Brice Hortefeux, Minister of Immigration.

In addition to the Minister, CNJE was honoured by the presence of Mr Bruschi, an attorney specialised in Human Rights, and Mr Sacko, President of the association of the Malian students in France. The Conference was attended by 500 people, mainly students and politicians.

A very interesting debate on immigration was held. Although the debaters agreed on the current situation of immigration in France, they did not share the same ideas to improve the future of immigrants. Moreover, this edition of the CJE was an opportunity to strengthen the situation of CNJE as a student think tank leader.

For the first time a CJE Conference was organized outside Paris, it took place in Clermont-Ferrand. It was organised with the much-appreciated help of SEGMA, the 35-year-old Junior-Enterprise of the ESC Clermont Business School.

On behalf of CNJE, Cédric Legros (CNJE President), had the opportunity to discuss with the Minister the status of foreign students from outside the EU, who still do not have the right to work for French JE’s. The CNJE really hopes this situation will change.

From left to right : Cédric Legros (CNJE President), Minister Brice Hortefeux, David Chong (CNJE Club Junior-Entreprises manager) and Florence Poutriquet (CNJE international manager).

The Biennial Conferences of the European Economic and Social Committee have a long-standing tradition and mark the mandate of the EESC President in office. As a key event, it highlights and treats the issue of entrepreneurship considered as particularly important for the European integration process and brings together main societal actors having an interest and responsibilities in the area.

JADE will attend the 2008 Biennial Conference in Athens on September 8th and 9th. It concentrates on the President’s main theme “Entrepreneurship with a human face”.

Click here to download the first press release.

Brussels, 28 February - 2 March 2008. Gathering 130 Junior Entrepreneurs from all over Europe, the JSM was a success! The initiation of the event took place with the Opening Ceremony and an ensuing Gala Dinner on Thursday, at which the winners of the eXcellence winners were announced. Friday, as well as Saturday morning, was dedicated to workshops for and by Junior Entrepreneurs to be followed by the Closing Ceremony on Saturday afternoon. 

We would like to thank our participants as well as partners and network supporters for making this event happen and for the support and appreciation that has been bestowed on us. 

Opening Ceremony & eXcellence Awards

The Opening Ceremony, taking place in the beautiful auditorium of ING, initiated the conference with an inspiring speech by Hans Martens, the CEO of the European Policy Centre on “new frontiers”, globalization and challenges of our generation. The eXcellence Awards’, the highlight of the meeting, gave the top three applicants for every category the opportunity to present themselves to the audience and the Jury, which was constituted of JADE supporters and partners.Although each category had exciting outcomes, the most innovative project experienced a very surprising turn of events as two winners were announced. The Most Engaged Junior Entrepreneur:Themis Papadimopoulos, JADE Hellas The Most Entrepreneurial Junior Enterprise:Conquest Consulting, Poland The Most International Junior Enterprise:Marketing Mediterranée, France The Most Innovative Project:JuniFEUP, PortugalKnow & How, Austria  The Jury, as well as the JADE Executive Board agreed that the scope, quality and amount of applications this year was exceptional, leading to feed-back of “great professionalism as well by the organisation as the quality of the projects presented. We are truly proud to be sponsoring your activities” expressed by Chloe Chometon, Recruitment Manager at Oracle. We hereby want to congratulate all winners and thank all applicants for their exceptional performance and fantastic applications.The content of the projects will be covered in more detail in the next newsletter, the JADE Gazette. To subscribe please send an email to mail@jadenet.org. For any additional information concerning the JADE eXcellence Awards, please contact frederik.depont@jadenet.org. 

JADE Welcomes a New Member from Eastern Europe: Impact from the Czech Republic 

At the Closing Ceremony, the results of two votes by the General Assembly were presented.JADE is proud to welcome Impact, as a new member to the JADE network. Founded in November 2006 in Prague, Impact is the first Junior Enterprise to be created in the Czech Republic and has convinced the other members of its members professionalism. It is now officially part the JADE network as a Consultative Member, a country representative representing a single Junior Enterprise (as opposed to a National Confederation). We look forward to see Impact grow and spread the Junior Enterprise spirit in the Czech Republic, so that in the future, more Junior Enterprises will be founded and will enable more students to bridge the gap between theory and practice. 

New Honorary Member: Florian Pesendorfer

At this moment in time there are not more than a handful of Honorary Members in the JADE network. An Honorary Member is a person who has contributed extra-ordinarily to the network. This sign of recognition was given to Florian Pesendorfer at the Closing Ceremony on Saturday.Florian is awarded for his outstanding effort for the JADE IT System as leader of the JADE Portal Task Force that not only introduced JADE’s Intranet. Further he provided workshops throughout Europe on its use. JADE thanks Florian for his contribution in the position of Senior Project Manager from 2003 to 2006 and welcomes him to the distinguished circle of JADE Honorary Members.

On the 16^th and 17^th of February, a weekend in Paris took place to brainstorm about auditing processes and quality assurance. Organised by JADE France with the courtesy of BNP Paribas, the French bank welcomed the participants in a beautiful building near the Opéra Bastille in Paris.  

The Confederations JADE Italia, JADE Portugal and JADE sent representatives to exchange on audits of Junior Enterprises to improve the quality of the network. Eric Dorlencourt, auditor from BNP Paribas, made a presentation, not only introducing the structure of auditing, but also putting emphasis on key elements, such as communication and the “separation of duties”. Crucial is that not all risks can be avoided, but that all risks need to be controlled.

JADE France shared its knowledge acquired through 15 years of experience in auditing Junior Enterprises as the French umbrella organization and the ultimate quality controller of French Junior Enterprises. Two of these added to the event with presentations about certifications. ISEP explained how they got the ISO certification, a certification aimed at the control of internal processes, while Agro Services Etude presented a certification by the French institute AFAQ AFNOR, aimed at quality assurance in the communication processes with the client. The certification “AFAQ AFNOR Service – Confiance, les Junior-Entreprises s’engagent » is a certification especially developed for French Junior Enterprises. 

For JADE, feed-back by the participants on the International Project Standard (IPS) was collected with the result that a working group will be set up to present a proposal on how to re-introduce the JADE quality label at the May Meeting. 
 

JADE thanks the JADE France and particularly its International Manager, Florence Poutriquet, for having initiated and organised this meeting, which left all participants with the inspiration and concrete recommendations on how to establish structures to increase the quality of the services provided by Junior Enterprises.

Right in time for the celebrations of the 15th anniversary of JADE we are proud to release the new JADE Movies.

Many thanks to Dieter Michael Grohmann (Director) and Raphael Kubysta (Director of Photography) for helping us realising these movies.

Enjoy watching!

Comment by Nestor Kamden (Cameroonian PhD student studying in Germany); a participant at the “The Junior Enterprise Movement - Cultivating Entrepreneurs in Developing Economies” Intercultural Workshop held at the Technische Universitat Cottbus, Germany on the 30th of June 2007.

Nestor Kamden
Email: neskamd@yahoo.com

“Cultivating Entrepreneurs in Developing Economies” is a key ingredient for future economic development. The Junior Enterprise concept is powerful, as it is a movement generated by university students who identify themselves as future leaders. Developing a network between European, American, Asian and African Junior Entrepreneurs epitomizes a positive youth driven conceptualisation of globalisation. By developing and learning together, they will establish a global youth network which will create a sound foundation for future international cooperation and entrepreneurial activity. The workshop introduced the Junior Enterprise concept to African students studying in Germany. Learning about the launch of the first African Junior Enterprise in South Africa has stimulated a great desire for youth driven development. Working within an established network creates the creative space necessary to turn ideas into reality and stimulate the desire to achieve. There is no doubt that the Junior Enterprise concept in South Africa will grant students the opportunity to add an invaluable practical element to their education. Many young entrepreneurs in Africa are looking for a link to a “Worldwide Network” in order to develop and expand their entrepreneurial ideas. It is unfortunately very difficult for young aspiring African entrepreneurs despite many international forums organised by governments to assist them. The Junior Enterprise network provides a mechanism to foster and nurture organic entrepreneurship, moreover creating new opportunities for enterprising students from developing countries.

Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General, Eurochambres confirmed his participation at the JADE Anniversary Day on the 4th of October 2007 as a key speaker. Arnaldo is involved in the Junior Enterprise network already several years and member of the JADE Advisory Board. Therefore we are glad to welcome him at our celebrations.

The application for the Junior Enterprises stands and the project presentations at the JADE Anniversary Day is now open. Visit the “Events” section for more information.

JADE is proud to welcome Ms. Dilek Ayhan from Norway as new Honorary Member of JADE.

During the October Meeting, taking place in Brussels last weekend, Ms. Ayhan was awarded with this exclusive membership for her outstanding support of the JADE network during the past years and her dedication to the Junior Enterprise concept.

A European-wide survey revealed that Junior Enterprise members are more likely to create their own enterprises (read the executive summary).

Investigating the engagement of Junior Entrepreneurs, the survey revealed a significant impact of the Junior Entrepreneurship experience on members of the JADE network.

94% of the Members feel better prepared for the challenges of today’s business world and are considerably more inclined to create their own business compared to European average.
As the survey uncovered, 25% of current JE members will create their own company during their studies or immediately after completing them. Another 64% are planning to become entrepreneurs after they have gathered professional experiences.

Out of the alumni members, 40% have already created a company or are creating one at the moment which significantly exceeds the European average. Another 36% of the alumni members are planning to create a company after gathering more professional experience.

Additionally, the customers of Junior Enterprises deeply trust JE members—71% of the interviewed companies would invest in a company created by a JE member, they estimate the JE member’s competences very high and also have high expectations regarding the future career of JE members.

The results of the survey underline the positive influence of the Junior Entrepreneurship movement on students’ ability to think and act entrepreneurial and the development of future entrepreneurs.

Download the survey results

JADE is conducting a research on Entrepreneurial behaviour of its members in co-operation with the french professor Renaud Redien-Collot from Avancia University, Paris. In the previous months, a pilot study was conducted among several current members and former members of the JADE network. The pilot survey ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit 2005′ evaluated what entrepreneurship means for the current JE members and the Alumni. It examines their future career plans especially the ones connected to the actual enterprise creation.

The results of the pilot survey are already promising. From the interviewees, all of the JE members share a series of common values in terms of entrepreneurial spirit. Eighty percent of the interviewees demonstrate ability to belief in themselves, 98% to engage in change, 88% to deliver results and quality, 98% sense of responsibility, 79% ability to develop creativity. In that regard, JE members have fully acquired the entrepreneurial qualities that fit with the profile of entrepreneurial managers.

Full results will be available after the main survey has been finished, which will start in June and is expected to be finished in September 2005.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has outgrown the mere framework of a nice-to-have concept in companies, it became a factor that influences the successfulness of a company severely and moreover it influences the competitiveness of nations, regions and the competitiveness of Europe as an entity.

“CSR is only really beneficial for society and companies if it is fully understood that CSR improves competitvness at medium and long term, and is not only used as a marketing gimmick!”

Hans Martens, CEO, European Policy Centre, Brussels

CSR is a concept where companies (nations) strive not just towards maximizing short-term profits, but also towards creating value to shareholders trough market-orientated yet responsible behavior. It represents including environmental issues, social responsibility and consumer interests into company’s endeavors.

Competitiveness can be measured via several purely economic factors like for example growth, GDP and the balance of payment, but also more intangible factors like the quality of public institutions, low corruption level, level of innovations and flexible labor market, have to be taken into account since they signify country’s competitiveness at equal rate. Those factors are combined in the Global Competitiveness Index according to which Nordic and Anglo-Saxon countries are the most competitive societies whereas countries that have just a very strong growth (for example Afghanistan is leading with 23% increase in GDP) can not always be described as competitive. If we add to the economic factors as well indicators like civil society engagement, progressive public policies, work force development and life long learning the Responsible Competitiveness Index can be developed.

The ranking of the most competitive nations according to the Global Competitive Index and the Responsible Competitiveness Index correlates very closely. It shows that societies which include CSR in their life the most are also the most competitive. These are as well the societies which could be described as being the most competitive in the long term - sustainable and enjoying a high level of social cohesion.

Competitiveness of a nation can not be separated form issues like health insurance, life-long learning and social inclusion of elderly people and businesses can not operate as successfully in environments in which those factors are not taken care of. It works also the other way around: business must adopt socially responsible behavior in order to be successful in mid- and long term. If companies do not take care of their employees, engage them in life-long learning and consult their actions with all stakeholders they do not operate optimally in today’s society.

Despite common West European fear of East Europe’s low workforce costs it is clear that the West European and especially North European countries still are the leaders and will stay in this position due to their sustainable and long-term competitiveness. The challenge for EU 25 is therefore to lead the way towards CSR as important part of competitiveness and sustainable development. It is therefore also the way towards reaching the goal of Lisbon agenda – to become the most competitive knowledge based society in the word by 2010.

JADE, as the voice of the Junior Entrepreneurship movement, aims at developing future leaders with an understanding of and dedication to social responsibility, prepared to contribute to the competitiveness of the Europe of tomorrow.