University of Sydney team finishes second at Alpha Beta Psi Regional Meeting

Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) is a United States-based organisation which acknowledges outstanding academic achievement and promotes best practice in the study of accounting, finance, and information systems. It was founded in the United States in 1919 and celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Lily Zheng, Sachin Samarawickrama, Minqiu Zhao, Alex Zhao, Janine Coupe, Jeff Brown and Dhivyen Aaron

Along with students from UTS, University of Melbourne, Monash, Deakin, University of Auckland and Waikato University, the University of Sydney team attended the Beta Alpha Psi Oceania Regional Meeting themed "Inspiring Future Leaders to Leave a Legacy of Excellence," hosted by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Presenting in the Best Practice competition with the metaphor of planting a tree that gives shade to future generations, the USYD Chapter, represented by Jeff Brown and Sachin Samarawickrama, placed second in the category of "Branches" while Alex Zhao and Lily Zheng placed 3rd in the category "Roots." USYD finished as the 2nd ranked University amongst the Oceania chapters.

"I was extremely proud of the team," said Janine Coupe, USYD Faculty Advisor.

Dhivyen Aaron, Alex Zhao, Lily Zheng, Minqiu Zhao, Jeff Brown and Sachin Samarawickrama

With a keynote presentation from Andrew van Dinter, EY Global Mining and Metals Tax Leader, and professional development activities provided by Tiago Devesa and Matt Gaffney, the team gained deep insights that they plan to implement and share with the USYD community at events.

USYD Beta Alpha Psi also held a Design Thinking Workshop with IBM at the start of April. In late March, members took part in the Diversity & Inclusiveness Conference, sponsored by EY, with a panel of practitioners and academics sharing their experience.

To find out more, or sign up to become a student member, visit the USYD Beta Alpha Psi website.

Written by Minqiu Zhao

Dual Mandate Business: What Does Gulf Food Security Have In Common With Sydney’s Urban Future?

By Associate Lecturer Michael Katz

CSR is about businesses performing in a way that appears to further some social good that goes beyond the financial interests of the firm and relevant legal requirements. However, moving beyond CSR, which is seen as peripheral and more messaging than reality, the concept of dual mandate is an important development.

Dual mandate sits within the spectrum of ‘shared value’, but with the important distinction of meeting a minimum mandated deliverable on both financial and social measures. This middle ground between corporate CSR initiatives and smaller social business initiatives has important implications for business in the ability to engage a diverse set of stakeholders.

A Significant Break Through
It was a journey for me to arrive at this middle ground, having started my career within a private sector hedge fund with no social value, swinging the pendulum all the way across to a social business with limited financial potential, I arrived at dual mandate via a pit stop in the Gulf. There, I was engaged as a consultant to write a food security investment strategy that would secure the country’s access to food for the next 50 years, a bold plan given they domestically produce next to nothing.

The challenge was to meet the minimum financial return expectations that the investment agency is mandated to target, while simultaneously mandating minimum food security outcomes expected from the strategy. The subsequent approach that we developed is focused on developing long term relationships based on trade and co-investment, moving toward a model of co-creation of new value as opposed to a transfer of existing value. This is achieved through a number of investment methods, including joint ventures, long term offtake agreements and knowledge transfer.

Back At the Ranch
This project and the associated development of the dual mandate model has led me to work on three major initiatives back in Australia:

Working with local government, investors and food producers to better understand how the global movement of sovereign food security offers more than an opportunity to sell the farm - it provides an opportunity to build deep trade-based and co-investment relationships that transcend the single financial dimension. This is an exciting prospect for Australian producers, who don’t want to miss out on the flow of capital entering Australia, but also want to remain in the game. Additionally, the balance sheet underpinning the investor nations, combined with their appetite for investments across the supply chain, put large scale infrastructure opportunities on the table for regional governments.

The dual mandate concept equally applies to developers in Sydney’s housing market. Property development firms are beginning to recognise that Sydney’s urban growth should meet both investors’ financial expectations (or it won’t be funded) and the government’s vision for social value (or it won’t be approved).

The latter can be measured through ‘equitable access’- i.e. access to housing at affordable levels as well as key services, employment, social activities etc. This requires taking a holistic view of a development site rather a narrow individualistic perspective. This can take the form of community consultation, forming land owner groups to design a regional vision, and of course mandating social outcome targets. The result is a win-win situation, being that approvals become easier for developers, while also greatly benefiting the wider community.

At the University of Sydney Business School, we are working to engage students with dual mandated businesses spanning Broken Hill, Redfern and all the way to India. The common thread for these businesses is that they are all concerned with both making a profit and a material social impact. Through this we have identified five key stages of implementing the dual mandate:

• Social Value Dimension: conceptualising, measuring and pursuing social value
• Trade-off: understanding trade-offs between financial & social value dimensions
• Maximising Value: on both dimensions, and achieving an acceptable outcome on both
• Implementation: engaging all required resources to execute the strategy
• Communication: ensuring all stakeholders understand the strategy and benefits 

What does this mean for you?
It’s important to note that not all businesses have the capacity to achieve material impacts on both financial and social mandates. However, I firmly believe that the current generation of graduates, and therefore the next generation of leaders, will be increasingly looking toward dual mandate business as the Holy Grail. I believe that to truly move towards the expectations of the next generation, we need to recognise the limitations of the current social initiatives: moving beyond the messaging of CSR; the limited financial and operational scalability in small social enterprises; and the opaque nature of ‘shared value’ strategies.

Instead, we need to be identifying genuine economic opportunities through the lens of a social problem, and understanding the mechanisms, such as co-investment in global food markets and collaboration in urban development, through which dual mandated business can be achieved. Getting this right will be a critical characteristic in attracting talent and capital, and achieving sustainable profits.

Michael Katz is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School, and unit coordinator for the Community Placement Program. His research, teaching and private sector focus is on the area of business and investment where profit and social outcomes intersect. Michael has more than 10 years experience in private sector finance and investments across venture capital, funds management and property transactions. He is currently engaged as Director and principal investor in a real estate urban activation business; a Director in a refugee-focused venture capital business; and is writing a food security investment strategy for a major sovereign wealth fund.

Adventures in India

This past July I have had the opportunity to work with the social enterprise, Pollinate Energy, through the Business School's Community Placement Program. Pollinate Energy aims to improve the lives of India’s Urban poor. Every year, thousands of Indians are migrating from their rural villages to these urban slums. These people are seeking employment and these harsh living conditions, often without electricity, act as a gateway to the city. Pollinate Energy helps these people by employing locals to sell them solar lights and fuel efficient cookstoves.

I was placed in Hyderabad, the first city for Pollinate to expand their working model to in Bangalore. The program ran for four weeks where we worked on different aspects of the organisation in a group made up of ten kiwis and aussies, and six local Indians. The international students were all living together in an apartment called the ‘Hive’ which doubled as our work space.

We were split into three different working groups, each with a mix of international and Indian students. I was lucky enough to be in the team that was coaching the new ‘Pollinators’ – local’s who want to help, and are looking for a job. By targeting this demographic, those in the slum communities are more likely to relate and can more easily communicate with the Pollinators. At the same time it’s giving someone a job, skills and an international network which is quite rare for these people in a place like Hyderabad!

My training partner was Shanti – she might look cute but she was tough coach. She also acted as a translator between Vinay (our Pollinator) and I, translating both Telagu (the local language) and body language. I learnt that the Indian head wobble meant anything along the lines of yes, no, maybe, I’m listening to you but hurry up and finish and I’m telling you yes but I’m not going to hold my promise – something I found quite frustrating not understanding!

In the mornings we three would get together and discuss the what had gone well the day before, and where there was room for improvement in Vinays sales techniques. A big challenge we faced was developing trust between us, and those we were trying to help, as they had never had any kind of interaction with Pollinate before. In the afternoons we would head out to a selection of his designated slum communities, which were randomly scattered amongst the high rise buildings in the city or near new construction sites. The contrast was incredible.

The approach to business is completely different in India and it definitely took awhile to adjust. For example, what’s considered rude and what isn’t. Apparently it isn’t considered rude to answer your phone mid-way through a sale of a product? Calling your employer the day you are heading to your village for a week long festival is not uncommon. And as for the stretchable nature of ‘Indian Standard Time’ the difference between 5 minutes, three hours, two days late or a day early to an interview is minimal – oh and your welcome to bring a mate. All these things become less surprising when you start operating in the same environment.

People in the communities were extremely welcoming, pulling out chairs for us to sit on and offering us food. They take such pride in their huts, it’s difficult to not feel guilty for being treated so well, when the average wage is less than $2 a day, but it actually means more to them if you accept their offers. This cute woman even did Henna for me! She saw me watching her pluck leaves from the tree and grinding them into a paste for her daughters, so invited me over to have it done.

I would highly recommend this program to anyone considering a career path in renewable energy engineering, an interest in social enterprise, or even just for personal development. The $2,000 Pollinate Energy Community Placement Scholarship from the University of Sydney was a huge help in getting me to India. It was such a challenging but rewarding experience where I directly saw the impact Pollinate is making. Although it was sad saying good bye to the Pollinators we still keep in touch on whatsapp, see who has sold the most lights and make sure the ‘Hive’ is still buzzing!

Esther McArthur
Current student at the University of Sydney

Applications are now open for Pollinate Energy's fellowship programs in December and February. Grow your skills as a leader, an innovator and a social change-maker while bringing renewable energy solutions to urban poor communities in India. Hurry – applications close 4 September! Learn more: http://bit.ly/1I6Qyxa

Master of Management students visit China - part 2

A trip to China is not complete without visiting the impressive factories and facilities the country has to offer.

On our recent trip to the south-east provinces of China, twenty Master of Management students and I had the privilege of being hosted by the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection (CECEP) Group. CECEP is China’s largest state-owned renewable energy enterprise and is leading China into a new era of solar panelled, clean energy in an attempt to mitigate previous damage done by other businesses, often foreign.

CECEP
Whilst in Nanjing, CECEP were extremely generous and hospitable, welcoming us at their impressive Training Centre and Resort in Jurong, Jiangsu. At the resort, we enjoyed banquets, fishing, karaoke, laser tag, fruit picking and everyone’s favourite – the lakeside barbeque. We had the pleasure of being looked after by one of CECEP’s managers, Fan Liang, a representative, who showed us the in’s and out’s of China. CECEP’s Vice General Manager, Mr Zhu, flew in from Beijing to welcome us and answer our questions about CECEP.

As a part of our learning about CECEP and their business conduct, we were taken on a special, one-of-a-kind tour of their solar energy technology plant in Jurong. The buildings were grand and modern, and we were able to observe how an innovative factory operates in China. Some of us were surprised by the high level of automation of the factory (which is contrary to a lot of media reports about Chinese factories!), but were pleased to see that the employees working there were greatly cared for and looked after by CECEP – they had clean and modern working conditions, excellent food provisions and were commonly given accommodation for themselves and their families.

Henkel
Whilst in China, we also took a day trip to Shanghai to visit Henkel’s Chinese head office and one of their newest production facilities.

Most of us (especially the girls!) knew Henkel as a leading producer of hair care products, owning brands such as Schwarzkopf. What many of us did not realise, however, is that Henkel is responsible for leading the world in adhesive technologies, creating adhesive products for customers producing products such as automobiles.

We were able to see Henkel’s production of adhesives in action, visiting their world-class factory named “Dragon Plant” in Shanghai’s Chemical Industrial Park. Whilst there, we also met with Jason Wang, Henkel’s Chief Financial Officer, who explained to us the importance of having a Chinese CFO in China, especially for foreign companies with offices in China.

Our visit to Henkel was integral to building on our understanding of conducting business in China. With the rate of company internationalisation increasing exponentially, this experience highlighted to us that a global experience, as well as knowing your potential, is essential for success in the Chinese environment.

Our trip to China was one that truly makes our Master of Management degree complete in developing ourselves as future world managers and leaders. Anyone considering completing the Master of Management degree should definitely take the trip to China. Our hosts, CECEP and Henkel, as well as our amazing guides and teachers, Associate Professor Philip Seltsikas, Dr Li Wei, Global Executive MBA alumnus Christine Bishop and Professor Hans Hendrischke, made this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.

Sibylla Dammann
Current student in the Master of Management program at the University of Sydney Business School

Master of Management students visit China

After many delays due to monsoons in Southern China, our group of students in the University of Sydney Business School's Master of Management program finally made it to the Habour View Resort and Training centre in Jurong, a town not far from Nanjing in the Jiangsu province. We were the guests of CECEP - the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group - a Chinese state-owned company that is a leader in its field and presents exciting potential to help China and the world reduce their carbon footprint and move towards renewable energy sources.

On our first day after arriving, we were treated to a VIP tour of the beautiful city of Changzhou, a growing metropolis just an hour by bullet train from Shanghai. We met with the officials of the City Government who were eager to tell us all about the growth and prospects of their city. They also wanted to encourage us to consider the potential employment opportunities available in Changzhou, and the chance it affords us to bring our foreign knowledge and insights. The Changzhou Government even treated our whole group to a visit to the Dinosaur Park, a giant dinosaur theme park, where we got to ride the largest rollercoaster.

After attending a lecture at a local administrative school on the reform of the Chinese state, we were hosted there for dinner by the Vice Chancellor. Chatting and eating gourmet local cuisine with our hosts was a surreal evening and something that few Westerners have the privilege of experiencing.

It was also wonderful to meet so many University of Sydney alumni who are now working in China in important roles in industry and government. It goes to show how valuable an Australian education is and how highly it is viewed in China. This has also helped us to understand Chinese business activities in Australia, and the opportunities that interactions between Australia and China can provide both countries.

This has been a life changing experience to say the least. We saw so much in such a short time and gained a great understanding of China and Chinese business culture. I’m sure my cohort would agree with me in saying that this is a very valuable trip!

Will Lyall
Current student in the Master of Management program at the University of Sydney Business School

Think Big Data

In Semester 1, Woolworths teamed up with the Discipline of Business Analytics at the Business School to run a competition using real time data about the sales of some of their most popular product lines. At the end of the six week challenge, top students were giving the opportunity to interview for an internship with Woolworths. John Brann shares his experience on our blog this week.

The unique experience provided by the Big Data Competition was incomparable to anything I had previously experienced. From the beginning, there were a multitude of challenges, including ensuring that our group was on the same wavelength, as well as the simultaneous test of evaluating which techniques, of which we had learnt, would be most beneficial in gaining the best results. Thankfully, my group got along extremely well and we decided to split the workload and allow time for confirmation of our respective results to increase our chances of working out the correct predictions for the varying products.

Once our group was identified as one of the top groups, the next challenge of preparing for interviews with Woolworths arose. Fortunately, the Business School's Careers and Employability Office offered an interview workshop, which answered all the crucial aspects of how to impress and create a favourable first impression. Throughout this whole experience, I have gained valuable and unique skills that are definitely going to help me in the short term during university, as well as in the long term. Most importantly, it highlighted the clear benefits of teamwork and working as a coherent team. This will be especially important, as it will allow for more efficient and proactive group work in both an educational and workforce environment.

From a business perspective, by preparing for the interviews and researching Woolworths Limited, it exemplified how all aspects of any business boils down to the consumer. For example, I learned that when analysing the data, and ultimately it’s trends, the data analyst must recognise firstly, why the consumers behaved in a certain way, and secondly, how to change the consumers’ behaviour and perceptions to manipulate future data. Not only has this competition helped me gain many skills, but it has also supported and enhanced my business studies.

Looking back at my first semester at university, I have been most appreciative of the fact that I have already been given a wonderful opportunity to experience real world applications of business studies. This will not only add practical value to my next three and a half years, which I can use to my benefit when working on theoretical aspects, but also, it solidifies my interest in my studies and the opportunities it can manufacture.

In the long term, this competition and ultimately the internship in which I have been awarded with Woolworths will be extremely beneficial to my career goals. I will be able to work on real life situations consisting of at least a terabyte of data daily. This will be of great pragmatic value in a team environment, and will undoubtedly arm me with the skills for the future, which will fuel my potential. I am also grateful for being awarded this internship as it puts a foot in the door for future employment, which will assist my aspirations to a great extent.

John Brann
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School 

Applications for the 2015 Woolworths Limited Summer Internship Program are open now. Dare to Lead and apply today www.wowgrads.com.au.

Why leadership prevails over your WAM

The moment you sit in your first graduation job interview, your potential employer isn’t looking at your WAM or your academic achievements. They’re looking for an entrepreneurial character to help grow their business. That’s why when you see them clicking their pens or not writing anything down, it’s a cue to move on. Tell them explicitly what makes you different.

How?

Leadership. It is the most employable skill, as leadership experiences can’t be solely studied.

So what exactly is WAM?

WAM:
Weighted Average Mark; a non-experience based numerical assessment of work ethic assigned to all enrolled students.

To an employer, it can tell them how much of a high-achiever you may be. They wouldn’t know if you’ve crammed content the night before. Or how many all nighters you’ve pulled thus far. Let’s be frank: it’s just a number. Like ATAR. It does not encompass you as a character.

So why leadership?

Communication
First impressions count. It gets your foot in the door.  How one presents themself as self-aware through communication differentiates them from the rest of the graduate employment market. They’re looking for people who will make the best fit for their workplace. Someone who can communicate their ideas clearly and confidently.

Initiative
Unless you’re superhuman, you’re probably not going to start off your first graduate job as the perfect worker. Your employer knows that. That’s why initiative is desirable. They will be asking themselves, “Is this candidate willing to challenge themself and learn new things?” When people see you with initiative, they see you as someone who can take charge and be dependable. Only through a self-development mindset can you experience true professional growth. After all, experience cannot be studied.

Teamwork
Regardless of the field, teamwork is the definitive quality of a desirable employee. It doesn’t matter how good you are on paper. Selflessness is good teamwork. A realisation of collective aspirations beyond one’s self and working to common ends is what employers can’t do without. Think of it as nailing the theoretical components. Only achieving on a theoretical level is not as pleasing as an individual with practical experience.

Networking
Harnessing opportunities to ascertain your future pathway remains in and out of the connections you foster and maintain. Building bridges with not only professionals, but also students from diverse backgrounds and experiences canvasses a network for future collaboration and impact. Glue yourself to a suite of possibilities with extensive networks. It’ll land you jobs deemed to be out of reach.

AIESEC: Your Gateway to Leadership
AIESEC is the largest student run organisation in the world, facilitating students with volunteering and internship exchanges in over 125 partnered countries since 1948.

From Kofi Annan (Former Secretary General of the UN) to Neil Janin (Global Director, McKinsey and Co.), participants of the Global Leader program have paved new pathways for communities, businesses and lives around the world.

AIESEC spearheads its members into an immersive environment with developmental space to enhance practical skills in areas such as business development, marketing, finance and human resources. 

So why leadership over WAM?
Employers don’t reduce the company's future to a number. They will find value in your capacity to impact as an innovative leader.

Be prepared the next time you head in for an interview. Loosen your grip on the inky CV. An interviewer seeks experience prepared by the opportunities you seize here and now. All the doors close itself eventually. Initiate the start to your future, work with potentially prominent figures of the world and expand your network.

Good luck.

Solenna Fu
Current student at the University of Sydney and Public Relations Officer, AIESEC Sydney

Think Big with Big Data

By Xiaofei Wang and Bohan Huang, current students at the University of Sydney Business School, and participants in the Big Data Competition. The Competition, run by the Business School in partnership with Woolworths, challenged students to use real time data about the sales of some of their most popular product lines to predict weekly sales. 

The Big Data Competition was a great opportunity to apply our business knowledge to predict product sales at different Woolworths stores. It offered us a taste of data analysis, and helped us to focus on what we really want by allowing us to apply our knowledge in real business practice.

As members of one of the winning teams (out of a total of 271 teams and 696 participants), we'd would like to share some of our reflections:

Team work
Our team members came from diverse backgrounds and areas of specialisation. We used our complementary academic knowledge to generate different ideas, as well as support different views. In our team, Xiaofei Wang was responsible for summarising our viewpoints, data testing and model application. Bohan Huang was good at finding patterns and building the models. Donghua Han focused on correlation coefficiency analysis and hypothetical testing. We let each member do their part and learned from each other. We carefully considered whether each idea was effective. Our team combined different options, gradually improved them and finally made them feasible.

We also kept a reasonable level of competition in the team. For example, we shared and discussed our views, debating over each carefully. We often first established different models, then we compared them. To choose the most appropriate model, we discussed not only the test results, but also the advantages of the models. Through these processes, we remained efficient and a competitive position.

Application of business knowledge
There were two accounting students and one commerce student in our team. However, no one in our team had a data mining and analysis background, or experience before this competition. Compared to business analysis or quantitative business students, our advantages were our understanding of business from the financial perspective, as well as our Excel skills. For example, analysing financial statements and calculating financial ratios helped us to explore the most appropriate models. Our weakness was a lack of quantitative business knowledge. So we gradually built a series of models that were simple and easy to integrate with each other, and most importantly, suitable for us to use. In the end, the models proved accurate and effective.

Perseverance
In the first round, we tried a variety of models, but none of them were satisfactory and we were lagging behind another team. But our team never gave up. We set a goal for ourselves and built quantitative knowledge as we went. We looked for appropriate models and improved the results. We fully used the submission opportunities and successfully achieved the top position in the first week on the public board. This moment largely encouraged us and helped us to keep trying to achieve the best performance we could, ultimately leading to our overall success.

Big Data Competition

By Hao Fu, current student at the University of Sydney Business School, and participant in the Big Data Competition. The Competition, run by the Business School in partnership with Woolworths, challenged students to use real time data about the sales of some of their most popular product lines to predict weekly sales.

The Big Data Competition was a great experience, and one which I found very meaningful.

One of the most valuable aspects of the competition was the opportunity to work in a team. As the old saying goes, “two heads are better than one” - more brain power brings more success. I would not have been able to achieve the same result on my own. Working with my teammates, Tori and Christopher, determined our success.

Tolerance and understanding are keys to successful group dynamics. As English is not my first language, it can be hard to express my ideas clearly in this type of setting. The patience and kindness my group members showed was so helpful.

The first week was a challenge, and we didn’t get back great results. But as each week passed, we were able to improve. The competition wasn’t just about the results, but also the process. We used many methods to predict the sales, and also did some online research about promotion and sales. I found myself growing obsessed with the statistics – as they weeks went on, they weren’t boring and rigid anymore.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I learned that teamwork, working hard and making the most of opportunities is the key to success.

I also really appreciate my group members, and thank the Big Data Competition for giving me two good friends.

Culinary Tales

By Ceewing Tsui, Culinary Tales Project Director, current student at the University of Sydney Business School and member of Enactus Sydney - a community of students, academics and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

Who doesn’t love a good story accompanying good food? Culinary Tales, an initiative of Enactus Sydney, provides a unique cooking class experience. In our Culinary Tales classes, our customers learn authentic recipes from a variety of exotic cuisines, including regions such as Yemen, Nigeria, India and Tibet, from our refugee chefs, while hearing their stories. Be whisked away on a culinary journey as you hear the stories behind their own experiences.

“I am thankful to Enactus for giving me the chance to cook and share my recipes.” - Tashi (Culinary Tales Chef)

The beauty of food lies in its universality; its power to forge connections between a diverse range of cultures. Upon attending a Culinary Tales class, you gain an insight into a new culture and the experiences of a refugee. When you arrive at the cooking class, you will be greeted by one of our lovely refugee chefs (RCs) and a host of fellow class members with whom you will have a truly memorable time.

Then, when you learn to cook the dishes, you will also find out about the personal stories embedded in the traditional dishes you are making, and experience the feeling of home that each of our chefs bring to their recipes. Once you have made the dishes, you will also get to share an amazing meal together and learn more about each other!

“Despite all hardships, my passion for cooking continued to grow.” - Joan (Culinary Tales Chef)

What is unique to Culinary Tales classes is that you get a hands-on experience in cooking new and exotic cuisines together with other locals, whilst listening to the chefs’ inspiring stories. The Culinary Tales experience isn’t just about learning new cuisines, it’s about connecting with new cultures and refugees.

Our classes are located at the Lane Cove Living and Learning Centre (180 Longueville Rd, Lane Cove). Be sure to give us a like on Facebook and check out our website to keep updated on upcoming classes that will be advertised soon!

About Culinary Tales
Unfortunately, there is a high rate of unemployment amongst newly settled refugees even if they are highly skilled or qualified. This is why Culinary Tales is aimed at improving the employability, skills, and integration of these refugees into the larger Australian community, via a standalone cooking class business, which hopes to promote their uniquely diverse culinary experiences and culture.

Culinary Tales provides refugees with work experience by employing them to help run a cooking class to showcase their exotic cuisines. Food has a tangible role in forging links to connect a diverse range of cultures. Not only can we share the ways of cooking of refugees, we can also share their stories with the wider community.

The Top Five Benefits of International Internships

Choosing to intern globally is a big decision to make. It’s not only a choice to commit yourself to a new professional atmosphere, but to change entirely your daily habits of food, culture and social life for a time.  It’s like going hiking in high altitudes – your body needs time to acclimatize and it may be difficult initially, but you are no doubt going to emerge a better hiker when you’re finished.

The rewards of training in new environments are plentiful, but what are the top five rewards of global internships?

It grows the initiative muscle
Initiative is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger and more efficient it becomes. It’s a big step to jump on a plane and voluntarily shift your time zone, let alone commit to an internship in a new and exotic land. When interning overseas, you no longer have your deeply knit friends or family watching over your shoulder. You are in charge of yourself and all things get done only if you proactively choose to do them.

Living in a new culture
The great thing about travelling overseas is how much it allows us to learn about the world beyond the society we happened to be born into. In an even more profound way, international work experience is a chance to not only learn about a foreign culture, but to live in the heart of it. Have you ever thought about who you would be if the dice roll of nature had been different? What if you were born into an entirely different culture? This question can’t actually be answered, but global internships provide a nice experimental gaze into other cultural realities.

A CV more interesting than your average bear
Take two candidates for a graduate engineering position, Bob and Bill. They have roughly similar grades and extra-curriculars. The only difference is that Bob interned in Australia whilst Bill worked for a company in Vietnam. Before the filtering process of an interview, Bill is a little more intriguing – he stands out. He signals a more interesting candidate, one who takes initiative and is curious about self-development.

New friends, new ideas
Making friends overseas is fun because every conversation is potentially a challenge to your entire way of viewing the world. New jokes, food and dance are all great benefits – but even more profound is the exciting novelty of a new climate of friendship.

Coming back a superhero
Returning from their internships, participants often say that they feel like new people – like their dreams and visions for the world are somehow so much closer than they’ve ever been. This sense of agency and courage is nothing short of super hero status – you feel like a new person because you are a new person.

 

AIESEC’s Global Talent

AIESEC is a student run institution that organizes international internships and volunteering opportunities. Operating in over 125 different countries, Global Talent offers internships in young and gunning startups, all the way to big game multinationals. Internships can range from six weeks to two years, depending on what a candidate is looking for in their placement. AIESEC Sydney operates from campus and exists to facilitate the wonderful experience of global internships for University of Sydney students.

We live in the best time to be alive. The world has always been large and endless, and yet today it is firmly in the palm of our hands, if that’s how we want it to be. In the old days, if you were born a cultured German, you remained a cultured German – and might not have even acknowledged that something outside of your part of Germany existed. Today, not only can we skype anyone from anywhere – we can travel abroad to live, work, eat and laugh amongst them.

Ninos Mansor
Current student at the University of Sydney and PR Manager, AIESEC Sydney

The Business of Creative Thinking: The Key to Solving Social Problems

Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk announced on the 1st of May at the launch of the Tesla ‘Powerwall’ that he expects to "fundamentally change the way the world uses energy". The ‘Powerwall’ is a sleek suitcase-sized lithium-ion battery designed for homeowners to store energy. Musk proposes that in conjunction with solar cells, the technology has the potential to usurp the need for fossil fuels to drive sustainable growth in the developing world. Musk talks a big game, but as the brains behind Paypal, Solar City, Hyperloop, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, his pedigree throws weight behind his audacious rhetoric.

Although undersupply is undoubtedly a calculated strategy to stoke interest and publicity, Tesla have booked $800m in first week sales for the ‘Powerwall’ and have sold out until mid-2016.

I took particular interest in Tesla’s shift into the energy market as I spent the summer interning at the Resources and Energy Division of NSW Trade & Investment as part of the Business School’s Industry Placement Program (IPP). My primary role in the department was to develop a research paper on the ‘New and Emerging Resources Industry in NSW’.

I can’t simply accept that a battery can fundamentally change the way the world uses energy overnight, but there is certainly considerable momentum building towards renewable energy technologies becoming cost competitive with traditional fossil fuels. My IPP experience was immensely challenging, but it was also a thoroughly rewarding experience. Authoring a research paper has been a much needed leg-up in the competitive graduate job application process.

I was also fortunate enough to have travelled to India in July 2014 with the 40K Group as part of the Business School's Community Placement Program (CPP). In alignment with Musk’s business philosophy, my CPP experience tested the hypothesis that for-profit ventures can act as an agent to drive sustainable social change. After undertaking a thought provoking unit on social entrepreneurship, I worked in Bangalore with a team of nine tertiary students from various academic backgrounds to develop a clothing line for sale in the Australian market. Ultimately, the business is now fully functional and our products can be purchased at the 40K Online Marketplace.
 
I would highly recommend going on the 40K Globe Program and if you are interested in getting involved, watch the video below and apply at the 40K Globe website.

Musk has already achieved many great things, but it is his attitude to selecting his colleagues that differentiates him from the rest. As he puts it, "The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative."

Whilst consciously sounding like a billboard, my CPP and IPP experiences have genuinely taught me far more than any classroom based subject ever could. Working in a rural village in Bangalore was an insightful contrast to working in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, yet both experiences were tremendously worthwhile for various reasons. I was taken out of my comfort zone, made many new friends and developed skills that have made me confident of achieving a successful transition into the professional world. 

Andy Burgess
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

A Light in the Dark

I arrived in Bangalore, India in the evening. A beautiful red sunset hung over the city skyline as I was driven to ‘the hive’, where our team was to live and work for the next four weeks. I was in India as part of the Business School's Community Placement Program, to partake in a month long fellowship with Pollinate Energy, a social business that enables access to sustainable technologies. Founded by a group of Australians, Pollinate Energy seeks to do social good by targeting groups of people that otherwise have no access to these technologies by making the technology affordable, and by remaining fully accountable to the customer and ensuring that the products are fulfilling their purpose.

Over 292 million people in India live without electricity. They rely on very crude technologies for their light and heat, most often kerosene lamps. These lamps are not only expensive to fuel, bad for the environment and a poor source of light, but they’re incredibly toxic. Indian families are forced to risk carbon monoxide poisoning and respiratory disease just to light their lives after dark.

Pollinate Energy has developed solutions based on solid research and community understanding. Not only is Pollinate fighting kerosene poisoning through the use of solar lamps, but by hiring Pollinators to sell and distribute the product, they’re creating employment too. They’re giving individuals in slum communities the chance to stand on their own feet and be stakeholders in their future growth.

My role was to work within a team to develop a strategy to sell a new product range of water filters, and to continue selling the solar lights to the communities around Bangalore. Unlike traditional internships, we were given a huge amount of responsibility early on, and it was up to us to steer the direction of the new product sales – a task that was daunting at times, but hugely rewarding. Our average day involved brainstorming ideas for the most effective way to sell the water filters, and then setting out into the communities in the afternoon and evenings to try out different methods to sell the products with local Indian entrepreneurs.

Perhaps one of the most confronting things about the working with Pollinate Energy was being faced with the sheer poverty in some of these communities and the obvious language barrier that existed. However, it was a joy to see that even though the people living in these communities lived in such adversity, they seemed so cheerful and happy.

I learnt a significant amount about social business in my time at Pollinate. As it doesn’t operate like a charity or a traditional business, the company has to carefully balance both the economic and social goals of the enterprise to ensure their mission and goals are met. In the case of Pollinate Energy, their goal is to reach more people by expanding their operations into nearly every major Indian city by 2020. They know they can’t do this by giving away products for free, so in order to reach more people and create a greater social impact, they sell the lights and other products to create more revenue, and therefore scale up their social impact.

It was hugely rewarding to meet our goals of selling over 50 water filters by the end of the month. When the solar lights were first presented to the communities, they took time to gain widespread adoption – and now they literally sell themselves. Hopefully we see the same result for the water filters, as a simple change in the cleanliness of drinking water could have a huge impact for the lives of the people in these communities.

Scott Ellice-Flint
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

My Industry Placement Program Experience at PwC Beijing

It is always a good opportunity to have real world experiences as a business student. What is happening in the real world very is very important to me to complement my studies in the classroom. Six months ago, I was lucky enough to join the Industry Placement Program (IPP) and work at PwC in my hometown, Beijing.

I’m the kind of person who always strives to set goals before taking action. At the beginning, I put down a few objectives. However, the story in the real world is always different, insofar as you never have the chance to complete your goals one at a time. Unlike the classroom, you can easily feel overwhelmed by many tasks and must be able to adapt to the pace in the firm in order to catch up with others as soon as possible.

I worked in the Risk & Assurance department for two and half months. Our job included designing and evaluating internal control systems for some state-owned enterprises in China. It started with a few days of preparing and editing biding documents for clients, and also many other tedious, but important jobs. 'Every brick is essential for building a house', and from the very beginning I began to develop an understanding of the whole business.

Later, I was given the opportunity to further grasp the essence of the job on a three-week business trip. Working in a team is always very interesting. None more so than in one of the Big Four accounting firms, as I had so many opportunities to interact with people from different backgrounds, and, as such, dramatically improved my interpersonal skills. One extremely valuable experience was the opportunity to interview senior managers of our clients, allowing me to understand how managers conduct their work and think from their perspective.

The unique element that distinguishes IPP from other programs is that it actually provides the chance for peers to share their experiences. In China, all the participants lived together, no matter which company they were allocated over the six-week period, which gave us the chance to share all our interesting stories. Even the catch-up on weekends was a special part of it. Having heaps of friends around you to talk about the funny things, not only helps you learn more about office politics, but also enriches the experience, as you are not on your own.

Overall, I gained insight and tranferable skills in a diverse range of areas. Time management is perhaps the most important one, as you have to cultivate multi-tasking skills in order to meet deadlines. In addition, learning how to handle stress in the workplace, especially in professional services, can help you to achieve more and also make the work more enjoyable.

I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to put what I’ve leant in to practice during my last year at Uni, and I can’t wait to graduate and have more exciting stories in the future.

Anqi Dong
Anqi is an international student student at the University of Sydney Business School. Anqi recently completed an internship with PwC in Beijing as part of the Industry Placement Program.