Archie MacDonald, 17, took part in BizVenture Japan, a 48-hour business challenge that saw students from around New Zealand and Japan plan and pitch a business product to a panel of judges.
This year the business pitch was centred around Cookie Time, which has operations in Japan.
The students were put into teams and given 48 hours to address one of two real-world briefs.
The first focused on a new product for Cookie Time to introduce into its Japanese market, supported by a three-year marketing plan.
MacDonald was the only South Islander in his team and said it was exciting to get out of his comfort zone and take the win.
While he admitted it was “pretty weird” working so closely with people he had just met, it wasn’t long before the team found common interests and got along well.
“Naturally there are some nerves involved for sure, but we all worked together and all had different strengths as well,” he said.
In spite of this, MacDonald’s team won the competition with their idea of Enerugi Cookies and Sweet Enerugi Senbei (Japanese rice cakes), combined with matcha powder.
“Over in Japan there’s a lot of energy products consumed everyday ... so if we could put that into a Cookie Time cookie, that’s a more family friendly option,” MacDonald said.
“Including the energy aspect into a senbei we thought was a pretty cool way of linking both the business and our product to the Japanese culture.”
MacDonald said the “bragging rights” and excitement of winning was “pretty awesome”, and is hoping to get into the world of business when he leaves high school at the end of the
year.
“Having the experience I’ve got over the last couple of years is definitely something I’ll be looking at following in the future,” he said.
