26 September 2011

The University of Adelaide is expanding its entrepreneurial competition model, eChallenge, into the corporate world with customised in-house competitions for corporate partners wanting to foster innovative organisational culture.

Corporate eChallenge will run parallel with the public competition from next year and global infrastructure firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff is the first to sign on.

Earlier this year the public eChallenge competition, now in its eighth year, went online to open up the competition to entrants in rural and regional South Australia, interstate and overseas.

“Corporate eChallenge is the next step in the eChallenge success story – and we look forward to working with Parsons Brinckerhoff to further develop their strong innovative culture through this competition,” says University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor and President Professor James McWha.

“We have seen the benefits this leading entrepreneurial competition brings for our own students, for new developing businesses and for the community, and we believe that Parsons Brinckerhoff will similarly benefit from the energy and innovation this competition helps create and direct.”

Parsons Brinckerhoff Executive New Business Initiatives Speros Galanopoulos says the Corporate eChallenge aligns with his company’s vision of inspiring the world’s best teams to create innovative infrastructure solutions to enhance communities for future generations.

“Our investment in Corporate eChallenge reflects the value we place on the generation of new business ideas, and provides a process for embracing these ideas, developing our people’s business planning skills and identifying entrepreneurial talent to take these new businesses into the future,” Speros says.

The annual public eChallenge competition, from this year called the ZEN eChallenge, is run by the University of Adelaide’s Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre.

ECIC Director Professor Noel Lindsay says Corporate eChallenge is aimed at companies who want to promote innovative corporate culture which actively encourages new ideas and fosters entrepreneurial thinking.

“Corporate eChallenge offers these organisations an opportunity to tap into a highly successful entrepreneurial challenge structure, customised to suit their organisation, with online access to all workshops,” Prof Lindsay says.