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Wednesday 22nd of February 2012

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The deadline to submit applications to the 2011-2012 MENA 100 Business Plan Competition has been extended. Please submit your applications before 29 February at 5 pm Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain time.

RULES AND ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Please read carefully these rules and criteria to participate in the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition.

Nationality and team composition

	Applicant teams should have at least two members and at least half of the members should be nationals from one of the following economies: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
	Non-nationals from those economies may be members of the management team and participate in the elaboration of the business plan; however, only nationals from those countries can be team leaders and can be invited to present the plan in the final event of the competition. Only nationals from those countries can be named chief executive officer (or equivalent) in the project.
	For the sake of simplicity in communications, teams must designate only one team leader, who will be the main contact point between the team and the organisers of MENA 100.
	The composition of a team may change during phase 2 of the competition as long as the team keeps at least two members and at least half of those members are nationals of one of the 19 economies listed above. The composition of a team cannot change after phase 2.
	Women entrepreneurs are especially encouraged to apply; however, gender is not an eligibility criteria and gender composition is not considered for the participation and judgement of projects.

Nature of the projects

	Only projects established or to be established in one or more of the 19 economies mentioned above are eligible to participate. The operations of a project can involve other countries not mentioned above; however, preference will be given to projects for which the main or initial target market is one or more of those economies.
	The competition is targeted to projects in the early stages of their development. This comprises projects in seed, start-up or early growth. Existing companies that were registered or that booked revenue more than two years previous to date of the opening of the call for projects are not eligible to compete. For the 2011-12 edition of MENA 100, projects that have been registered or that have booked revenue before November 2009 are not eligible to participate.
	Buy-outs and franchises are not eligible to participate. Other than those, the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition is not addressed at any particular kind of business or economic activity; however, the organisers reserve the right to disqualify any entry at any stage of the competition if the project is not deemed to correspond with the objectives of the competition.
	All applications must be for profit projects and must be seeking external capital (equity or debt). Applicants must prove that their projects need external sources of funding and that they are not able to fund the totality of their projects with own funds. A formal sworn statement may be requested by the organisers of the competition.
	All entries must be planned to be formally registered. The award of any cash prize under the competition will only be disbursed after the winning teams have formally registered the firm. The shareholders of the company will be clearly identified in the business plan and will correspond to those named in the register procedure.
	The awards will be made by cheque payable to the company and not to individuals. Hence, the teams will only be allowed to cash the prize when the company is registered. If needed, an advance of the prize will be granted to cover the expenses of registration. The grant of this advance and the amount will be decided by the organisers of the competition. The balance of the prize will be paid after the company has been registered.

Participation in other competitions

	Teams having won any prize in previous editions of the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition or any other competition are not eligible to participate.
	Applicant teams having been selected to participate in the third phase of previous editions of the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition are still eligible to participate in the current edition. However, preference will be given to projects participating for the first time in the third phase. Teams having participated in a MENA 100 third phase before will have to be considered as outstanding by the scores given jurors.
	All other teams having participated in previous editions of the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition and not having passed to the third phase are welcome to apply and will compete under the same basis as new teams.

Applicants must meet all these requirements and rules to participate at all stages of the competition. Any application can be excluded by the organisers at any stage of the competition.

A MENA 100 board has been established to rule final decisions in case of controversy. Any entries for which compliance with eligibility criteria and rules are unclear or vague will be submitted for the decision to the MENA 100 board. The rule of the board will be definitive.

Innovation

Innovation is a desirable quality in all applications. Although the concept of innovation is broad, those teams convincing the jury of the innovativeness of their ideas in the following lines will have a higher chance to succeed in the competition:

	Product innovation is the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with respect to its characteristics or intended uses. This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.
	Process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software.
	Marketing innovation is the implementation of a new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing (for example, marketing innovations include significant changes in product design that are part of a new marketing concept and that refer to changes in product form and appearance that do not alter the product’s functional or user characteristics).
	Organisational innovation is the implementation of a new organisational method in the firm’s business practices, workplace organisation or external relations (for example, the implementation of new practices to improve learning and knowledge sharing within the firm such as establishing databases of best practices, lessons and other knowledge; or the first introduction of management systems for general production or supply operations, such as supply chain management systems, business reengineering, lean production, and quality-management systems).

These definitions of innovation are taken from the OECD-Eurostat (2005) Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data. Third Edition. Paris.

Innovation is not considered as a rule in the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition. However, those teams proving the innovativeness of their proposals in one or more of the previous points will be judged as better fit to the achievement of the overall objectives of the competition. Also note that, from the previous points, an innovative project is not necessarily related to the use or development of advanced technology.

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