While it is still and will always be an adult’s world, the boundless enthusiasm and limitless potentials, not to mention the influence, of the young have earned for them respect and confidence.

Today, more and more top corporations are banking on the youth’s creativity, leadership and business potentials. For them, young people are all the future before us and they are worth all the molding and nurturing they can get.

HSBC, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, established The HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards precisely for this reason. It began in Hong Kong in 2000, and since then has become a regional contest covering Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Committed to educate and develop the youth to become creative thinkers, intelligent risk-takers and innovative entrepreneurs, HSBC had a rich harvest of young go-getters this year who vied for prizes in this business plan writing competition.

Participating teams were asked to pitch innovative business ideas for a product, a service or something that could create value or income, increase sales, or reduce costs. It may also consist of entirely new things or it could be a new way to do old things. The competition provided participants training programs that allowed them to acquire practical business knowledge by exposing them to some of the most successful and influential people in the business community.

The resulting entries? Business plans for paper coffin, tarpaulin bags, sanitary aqua vendo (think sterilized water from the bidet), solar cell phone chargers, coco sugar, coco juice, jeepney cultural trips, or even a reserved seats ATM machine! Indeed, they ranged from the practical to the bizaare, from the amazing to the unimaginable.

But three Atenistas stood out and went on to garner the gold award – all because they love to travel.

"I have been an avid domestic tourist but I notice that during fiestas, if you are a stranger in a town and you go there on your own, you do not really experience being part of the festival, you become just a bystander and that really frustrates me,’’ says Jaime Alejandro Mendejar, a newly graduated legal management student from the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU).

With groupmates Angeli Agatha Ko and March Richmond Cu, both Business Management majors, Mendejar formed their group called Kulay Kultura and planned on "Piyestang Pinoy,’’ an online full-service travel agency that offers cultural tourism highlighted by exciting fiesta vacation tours for foreign, balikbayan and the affluent domestic tourists.

"Travels can be more fruitful if the traveler really experience the culture. For instance, they go to Lucban in Quezon, they can stand there and look at the colorful kipings but wouldn’t it be more memorable if they step in a house of local, learn how to make kiping and help decorate the house for the fiesta? Or we can arrange for a group to go to Ati-atihan in Kalibo and make them participate in the street dancing to their hearts’ delight. We want to sell the total experience, not only the festivals but the food, the arts, the culture, the lifestyle,’’ explains Mendejar.

Initially, the group has identified eight festivals where they plan to bring groups to. Among these are Baguio’s Panagbenga Flower Festival , Kalibo’s Ati-athihan , Cebu’s Sinulog, Lucban’s Pahiyas, Davao’s Kadayawan, Angono’s Higantes, Bohol’s Sandugo, and Pulilan’s San Isidro Labrador.

As early as now, this group is seeing the fruition of their winning plan. People are starting to sign up for Kulay Kultura’s debut foray into business via the Pahiyas festival.

For their creativity, this Ateneo team won P200,000 as self development funds, a six-month scholarship to Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Venture into Entrepreneurship program, a chance to compete in the regional grand finals in Hong Kong, and a one-week study tour in UC Berkeley, California.

Teams from the Far Eastern University (FEU) dominated this year’s competition. Thanks to active coaching from the faculty and the school’s full support, the students are rallied to go forth and win in various competitions, the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards included.

FEU Business Management students John Paolo Cinco, Emil Carl Cuaresma and Martin Dominic Reyes were gunning for the most practical yet the simplest business idea.

"We wanted something that taps into the emotions of the consumers,’’ describes FEU management student John Paolo Cinco.

The result is Eco Tiles made out of coconut husk and aims to reduce the cost of construction by 65 percent through practical and decorative finishes for walls, floors, kitchen sink countertops and bathroom surfaces. The emotion part, explains Cinco, is in rendering tile customization services. Eco Tiles Corp. is composed of Cinco and his classmates Emil Carl Cuaresma and Martin Dominic Reyes.

This group hopes to see their business plan turn into an actual enterprise. They have in fact carefully laid down the groundwork by doing extensive research of the local market and by having their product’s breaking point tested by the Department of Science and Technology. As expected, the product passed DoST’s stringent test. For this, the team garnered P150,000. and a study tour to Hong Kong.

Another FEU team which calls themselves the Coal9 Corporation opted to go the traditional medicine way with helping the poor who cannot afford expensive medicines as their ultimate goal.

Maria Krisna Domanais, Michael Jerome Juan and Boss Randy Sy knew in their hearts that their Gilead charcoal capsule will work.

"It is an herbal medicine made out of cococut shell charcoal or activated charcoal that aims to cure diarrhea, excess gas, and cleanse internal organs,’’ describes Domanais.

Teammate Michael Juan says that for centuries now, charcoal is being used as a folk remedy to the said illnesses. In fact, they have talked to people in a Pangasinan town who have been using charcoal as a cure. What they did then was to innovate, and package the charcoal in vegetable capsules which make the product all-natural.

"Our primary critera in coming up with the plan was how it would impact our countrymen. We believe this product is pro-poor,’’ Domanais expresses. The team won P125,000 and a study tour to Hong Kong.

It is said that the real entrepreneur relies more on his gut, on his intuition and innate capability to determine what will click and what will not.

Young and full of idealism as they are, the HSBC Entrepreneur Awards winners each describe as to what kind of entrepreneur they would wish to be. Interestingly, majority of them are "heart’’ rather than "gut’’ people.

"I am passionate but I have to like what I am doing to be able to succeed,’’ FEU’s Domanais says.

Martin Reyes agrees. ‘’I am more emotional and perhaps I use my heart more. For instance when we were thinking of our project, I would always bring up the hazardous effect that burning this or that could bring.’’

Emil Cuaresma adds lightly: "You can make money by using your heart too!’’

On the other hand, the two guys of the Ateneo team claim they are both "head’’ people, for different reasons.

"I have to use my head because I cannot just waste my parents’ money,’’ Marc Cu says in all practicality. Right now, Marc is dabbling into importation of computer peripherals from China and Hong Kong.

"I don’t want to be myopic and limit myself to the things that I like. There will come a time that I have to take a big leap and for that, you have to use a lot of head to do it,’’ Jaime Mendejar quips.

They may be heralded today as the next big thing in business by these students admit to looking up to people who they emulate in their young minds.

Among their personal heroes are Jollibee’s Tony Tan Caktiong, Senator Manny Villar and businessman Jojo Mitra. One looks up to his father, a corporate lawyer who successfully set up his own law firm while Emil Cuaresma of FEU admires the humility and energy of Meralco’s Arthur Florentino.

Right now, all nine winners hope that their business plans get to be implemented. Team Coal 9, for instance, has so much faith in the Philippine patent laws and they are about to work on getting licenses and patents for their charcoal capsule.

Team Eco Tiles has pinpointed the province of Cavite as their initial target market. Knowing that a lot of people are building low-cost housing in Cavite, the team members are well on their way to producing and marketing their innovative product.

As for Kulay Kultura, they plan to strike while the iron is hot. Summertime is fiesta time and they have a lot to tap into in the next few months. They are already building networks in the provinces, hunting for ancestral homes for their guests to stay in, and coordinating with local groups and travel agencies for allied services. In fact, no less than HSBC Philippines CEO Mr. Warner Manning has signified in joining the Pahiyas cultural tour.

No doubt about it, these young people will be key players in the future of Philippine business.