Azerbaijan students Irina Lesnyak (19) and Azer Ismayilov (20) have been awarded the €2,250 ($3,000) first place prize in the 12th annual HP Global Business Challenge.
The international competition invites student teams to make a series of budgeting decisions affecting a hypothetical business during a two and one-half year period, including capital investment, research and development, pricing structure, marketing and production level.
The final round of the competition was held live at the HP office in Prague and included teams from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Lithuania and Russia. More than 1,470 students on 374 teams from 16 countries participated in preliminary rounds of competition during the spring to determine the 16 students representing eight teams that would make the trip to Prague to pit their business skills against the opposing teams.
“HP recognises the potential for teaming up with organisations like Junior Achievement to encourage innovation, diversity and global collaboration among the entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” said Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president, Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, HP EMEA.
The contest, sponsored by HP and organised by Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide, is conducted by students playing JA Titan™, an innovative online high school-level programme in which students act as virtual CEOs and CFOs. The students exercise critical economic and management decisions using an interactive web-based simulation of companies competing in a global marketplace. JA Titan is set in the year 2030 and shows students their possible futures by giving them firsthand experience in the challenges that come with operating a successful global enterprise. “This competition is a great opportunity for students to experience life as a CEO, and lets them put into practice the entrepreneurial skills they have learned from JA Titan,” added Gerald M. Czarnecki, president and chief executive officer of JA Worldwide. “The HP Global Business Challenge also gives students a unique opportunity to meet their counterparts from around the globe, and helps prepare them to work in the global economy.”
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $100.5 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
About JA Worldwide®
JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA Worldwide provides in-school and after-school programmes for students in grades K-12. JA Worldwide offers educational programmes that focus on three key content areas: entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy. Today, 140 individual area operations reach approximately 4 million students in the United States, with an additional 3.5 million students served by operations in 114 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org 
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