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World finals of the Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Monaco, 2024

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I took part in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition in Monaco and it was a really unique and great experience. Monaco is an amazing place full of luxury and interesting history. Did you know that every third resident is a euro millionaire and there is one Rolls-Royce for every ten residents? 😳

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition has been running since 1986 and is currently organized in 60 countries, some once every two years. The winners of individual countries go to the world round, which takes place every year in Monaco. Every year, many winners from previous years come, as well as EY employees. 46 finalists of the global round came to this event. Together, we employ 104,000 people and last year we achieved sales of 47 billion euros.

It was a great honor for me to be nominated as one of the 47 finalists for the global EY Entrepreneur of the Year. 🏆 It was won by a really admirable person and great inspiration, Indian financier Vellayan Subbiah. Apart from the beautiful story and great positive social impact, the numbers that Vellayan achieved were certainly admirable. 📈 He managed to build a group of companies that employ over 50,000 people. Its two largest companies from the group have fundamentally increased their valuation. The first from 200M USD to 12 billion USD 💵 and the second from 700M USD to 8 billion USD 💵. You have to admit that those numbers are really amazing.

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This event is a great opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs, plan 1-to-1 meetings with various interesting people (competitors + alumni) and participate in great social activities.

I was very surprised by the decoration of the city. There were photos of the finalists everywhere, on the streets, billboards, in hotels and in many other various places.

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During this trip I completed:

1. Class of 2024 and judges private meeting – all the finalists solved tasks in groups, while the judges observed us. We were in teams of about 6 people, in which diversity was ensured. For me, it was really rewarding to see how super smart people solve tasks, it was a great opportunity to get to know each other better, and I also think that for the jury, valuable information that serves as a basis for the right decision. When solving tasks, we had the opportunity to get to know each other, but also to perceive how individual people think. We solved tasks on a large scale, directed towards the vision, e.g. how to solve various world problems. I was asked what my company vision would be if the planet Earth were one company. 🙂

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2. Opening ceremony at the Opera de Monte Carlo – Opening ceremony, during which all the finalists presented themselves. We had an artistic, dance and music evening program.

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3. Celebration dinner at the Yacht Club – Dinner and networking, an opportunity to meet and talk with current finalists, as well as finalists from previous years. There were about 1000 of us in this 4-floor club, we also had a music program and great networking.

4. Meeting of the current finalists with last year’s finalists – we were again divided into groups, in which different coaches also participated. We received coaching questions aimed at personal development, such as what are my 3 weaknesses and if i had to work on one of them for 5 minutes a day for the next 5 years what would I do. It was rewarding in that I had the opportunity to think about myself and also see how different smart people think about themselves.

5. Various trips and meetings

Monte Carlo Casino Private Tour

Monte Carlo casino

Prince’s Palace in Monaco

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Meeting of YPO members (Young President Organization – is a global network of entrepreneurs who run successful companies. It provides opportunities for education, networking and personal growth. It has members in more than 130 countries). I am a member of this group and many of our members were finalists of EY Entrepreneur of the Year. We were invited to a wonderful venue on the outskirts of Monaco.We had great fine-dining and networking.

On this trip, I managed to have dinner with Christian von Koenigsegg, who is the founder and CEO of Koenigsegg Automotive, a company that produces super luxury cars. His company’s car was parked in front of our hotel, specifically the CC850 model, which is a unique car with a new type of transmission, will be on sale in October 2024, and the initial price will be 3.6 million euros.

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CC850, Koenigsegg


6. World finals

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A 10-20-member team came from most countries, a 6-member team came for Slovakia, since we are a small country. As I mentioned above, Vellayan Subbiah won it. He is the 4th generation of entrepreneurs in his family. Although he has already taken over relatively large companies, it is really admirable where they managed to get to. At the time when he took over these companies, they were not nearly as successful as they are now. His main business makes microloans to India’s poorest people, making software that assesses people’s creditworthiness and calculates predictions and assumptions that the poorest people will use the money wisely and be able to pay it back. The companies he currently manages are worth over 40 billion. and 40,000 employees work in them. It was a really deserved win.

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After the gala dinner, we moved to the legendary bar Jimmy’s underground. This club has been open since about 1970, and is one of the most famous clubs worldwide. A bottle of champagne is on offer for 100,000 euros, and the price for one shot starts at 25 euros.

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I am really very happy and grateful to EY that I could go through this great experience with them. The whole time there was a really great atmosphere, within which we had many opportunities to establish relationships or partnerships. I consider this to be the biggest benefit of the 4-day trip.

I made a vlog (with EN subtitles) on this trip. Thanks to it, you can “find yourself” at the mentioned places and events with me. The vlog is published on my YT channel.

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