SIFE History

SIFE was founded on the belief that a free enterprise system provides the best environment for individuals to realize their full potential and that business helps fuel the engine of human progress.

SIFE was first organised as a project of the National Leadership Institute in the United States in 1975. SIFE grew out of a concern about the attitudes displayed by university students toward business and the very idea of free enterprise. It was also believed that these attitudes were symptomatic of a larger societal issue - a lack of understanding about how a market economy operates and the role of entrepreneurs and business within that system.

The founders of SIFE recognized that the continued promise of business to create a better world would depend on improving knowledge, attitude and skills of university students who could in turn affect larger societal change and one day be entrusted with delivering on this promise.

Such an important effort would require the combined support of the business community and newly emerging university business schools, as well as a unique approach to focusing the natural idealism of university students into a constructive learning experience. This new program approach was based on the following ideas:

• Engage students by giving them creative control of a cause they can make their own
• Create an environment that fosters and rewards teamwork
• Challenge them to learn and develop their leadership abilities by addressing real issues in their communities
• Keep them motivated by injecting a healthy spirit of competition and collegiate rivalry

The SIFE organization and program have evolved rather significantly over the last 30 years. The two most notable changes have been the transition from a philosophical, advocacy style program to one that is more practical and business oriented, as well as the evolution from a U.S focused organization to one that hopes to achieve global reach and relevance.

While before, only national competitions were held, a global SIFE competition was held in London in 2001, with the team from the USA winning the new World Cup. From then on, such a World Cup event was organized each year, in Amsterdam, Mainz, Barcelona, Toronto and Paris, the latest winners being Australia, Zimbabwe and China.

Despite the changes, and there will certainly be more, what has remained constant and will continue to guide and inspire us are the core beliefs the organization was founded on, the partnership we’ve built between business and higher education and our unique approach to mobilizing university students.