Innovating for Business Opportunities Where Ideas Never Sleep

New York City is an assault on the senses – overwhelming, loud, a home to almost 9 million people. While some would describe this combination as big, bold and brash, it is a strangely welcoming city. 

At every corner there is a feeling of incredible opportunity and abundant evidence of a long history of entrepreneurship. Backed by the belief that failure drives important lessons, a desire to discover and innovate, and a strong venture capital funding network, it is little wonder that New York is one of the main cities outside Silicon Valley that is named consistently as one of the best start-up locations in the US. 

The main objective of the US Study Tour is to learn how to create opportunities in business with a commercial impact. Twenty Bachelor of Commerce (and combined degree) students were selected to participate in the two week program at NYU, Stern Business School’s start-up lab. 

Informed by design thinking principles, the unit offered students practical and theoretical insights into identifying opportunities, research skills to build an understanding of customer needs, pitching skills to sell an idea and cross-cultural skills via insights into business in the US. 

With a profound interest in start-ups, the opportunity to carry out the methodologies behind the development of a product was immersive. Upon listening to presentations by key figures within the start-up space and having the privilege to hold personal conversations with co-founders and investors, I gained invaluable insights that enriched my perspectives on potential career opportunities. - Daniel Tran 

Luke Williams, Founder of NYU Innovation Labs & CEO of Meta Idea Labs

The program broadened my horizons on what it means to be an entrepreneur and innovative. Hearing the thoughts of so many founders and individuals in this space made me realise you don’t have to wait around until you have an amazing idea. Some of the best advice I heard was to just jump in, because it is okay to fail. - Cameron Gonzalez 

                           

Hosted by Professor Cynthia Franklin, the program at NYU Stern Business school incorporates a unique and outstanding line-up of academic insights, startup panellists who speak genuinely about their lived experience, investors who provide reflections on what they look for in start-ups and pitch experts who challenge students to think about how to 'spin' a story and engage an audience.  

Student Tom Serrone described the US Study Tour as a "first-class learning experience" that allowed him to "witness and interact with the start-up economy in New York whilst also thinking about design thinking and disruption."

This first-class learning experience also proved to be of practical value, with Marketing student Chelsey Jayadiwangsa believing her ability "to apply design thinking tools to reimagine problems and ideate customer-centric solutions" will be carried into her future professional endeavours. 

In addition to learning about innovation and entrepreneurship, students are exposed to career and personal brand building tips, networking events and activities and business insights through site visits to Boston Consulting Group (Digital Ventures) in Sydney and NY, the American National History Museum, cultural consultancy and trend spotters Sparks & Honey, and a network event hosted by the North American Alumni Association. 

"The alumni event was a great chance to mingle with former University of Sydney students and really get a feel for how this university stretches our opportunities," said student James Scott. "As someone who is eager to work in New York at some point in my career, it was very refreshing to see so many people making the leap and giving me a lot of confidence in making this big move myself within the future.”"

The opportunity to listen to the experiences of entrepreneurs and the exposure to the dynamics of New York City provided "invaluable knowledge, amazing memories, newfound confidence and excitement for the future," said third year Commerce Law student Rowena Young. 

"I ended up having incredibly genuine and fun conversations with people who imparted all sorts of wisdom. Living, eating and breathing with my group members was also a new experience that taught me patience and the power of collaboration. My only regret? The program was over before I could grab my third slice of artichoke pizza."

US Study Tour 2019

Enactus Australia Ranks on the World Stage in Social Entrepreneurship

This October, the University of Sydney Enactus team travelled to Beijing to present their social entrepreneurship ideas, projects and results at the 2014 World Cup.
 
Monitors and billboards flashed their vibrant colours, the keen walkalators buzzed in its efforts, the floors dressed in its finest outfit and the air was unmoving. It was as though Beijing Airport was holding its breath in anticipation to impress its guests – a strange but warm welcome for the team from down under. Little did we know, this was merely the beginning of a life-changing journey. We are Enactus Australia, students, representing University of Sydney, on a mission to impress and be impressed at the Enactus World Cup 2014.
My name is Jack Huang, a first-year student in Enactus Sydney. In week 12 of my second semester, I had the privilege attending the Enactus World Cup with the National Champion team of Enactus USYD. The three day competition and conference exposed me to the cultures of 33 countries across the world, and the exciting ideas and innovations which students like us are dreaming up across national boundaries. On the first day of the conference, a cultural fair was held. Each country blazed their national pride with items of their unique culture. Exotic foods and symbolic hand-outs were a common sight. Many stands had quirky activities like Korean Tuho, taking a Polaroid to an iconic Ukraine background, wearing a traditional Mexican dresses and many more. I remember seeing a rainbow of different cultural dresses, dancing to Chinese lion dancing drums, led by a billboard-sized Egyptian flag. Everyone was warm and smiling and having a good time embracing other cultures.

The next day, our new friends turned into our competitors with the opening of the first heats of presentation. The competition ran in 3 rounds with 34 teams. I was able to witness some of the most outstanding Enactus teams from around the world, each with their individual flavour and way of presentation. The Australian team presented projects on supporting artists with a disability; refugee issues and women living in shelter housing. This impressed the judges and led us to rank first in our league.

We were deeply inspired by the work of teams across the world including China and Morocco. The Moroccan team innovatively built a clay device to filter water to a drinkable standard and created a business model to support their communities. This year, we finished as a Top 8 team out of 34 countries and over 1600 teams across the world. This was a significant win for Australia. Inspired by our experiences, our student team will continue to work on projects to empower our community throughout the summer break and ready ourselves to compete again next year!



Jack Huang and Joy Chen
Students at The University of Sydney Business School

Looking forward: Digital Disruption and Management Consulting

20 years ago nobody was sending email, information was available almost exclusively from physical sources and business processes were designed almost exclusively in-house.

But advances in technology have drastically changed our behaviour both as consumers and in the workplace.

An ulterior effect of the information and networking age has been an increase in the flexibility of service offerings by professional services firms. Although the big four still hold most of the market, recently there has been a rise in niche firms, offering services more suited to smaller organisations.

These subjects were covered at a recent panel event hosted by the Master of Management Society at the University of Sydney Business School. The four distinguished guests shared their experience of how industries in Australia are being disrupted and included the following:

• Matthew Gilmour - Founder of Ozforex , an international exchange company that was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange for $442 million
• Emily Yue - Founder of Expert 360, a firm that connects businesses requiring professional services to top freelance professionals and consultants, most of whom have previously had careers at the top firms and agencies
• Damien Tampling - Head of Digital Strategy, Transformation and Investment Practices at Deloitte
• Christopher Kurwie - Senior Associate at Venture Consulting, a company specialising in working with digital, media and telecommunications companies

Panellists, left to right; Matthew Gilmour, Founder, Ozforex; Emily Yue, Co-Founder and COO, Expert 360; Damien Tampling, Partner, Deloitte; and Christopher Kurwie, Senior Associate, Venture Consulting; and host, Emma Cowan, current student in the Master of Management program

Naturally, with three consultants at the table and many aspiring consultants in the audience, there was a lot of discussion on the topic of the management consulting industry.

Damien, the panel’s representative of the Big Four, accepted that the level of disruption in the industry will possibly see the established players become smaller in the coming years, driven by a combination of factors.

From a technological perspective, the online channel used by Expert 360 (described as internet dating meets consulting services) has facilitated a much larger and more diverse market for professional services than what existed previously.

A lack of flexibility in the established firms is another reason for change in the industry. Emily Yue nominated this as the primary reason for Expert 360 being established, as it allows start-ups and smaller enterprises to hire specialist staff as needed, for specific lengths of time, eroding the advantage of larger corporations that can afford to have specialists employed full-time.

Furthermore, in seeking to value add and offer greater expertise to companies, many specialist consulting firms are focusing on specific industries and company sizes; Chris Kurwie’s employer, Venture Consulting, is an example of such a firm.

Discussion among the panel was not confined to the consulting profession; the guests also had the opportunity to share their insights on entrepreneurship and innovation in general. In reflecting on how Venture seeks to make companies more innovative, Chris noted that it tends to entail either the specialisation or diversification of services. Matthew Gilmour exemplified specialisation as a source of innovation, having founded a company that deals only in a specific area of financial services. In his view, the opportunity to innovate tends to be grounded in “fat margins and red tape”: where this can be found, there will often be an opportunity to innovate.

Equally important was his view, upheld by the panel, that most successful entrepreneurs will acquire knowledge and experience in their chosen field prior to creating their own enterprises. Matt’s prior experience in working in foreign exchange for large institutions as well as Emily Yue’s stint as a consultant for Bain & Co. justifies the importance of this prerequisite for being an entrepreneur. In light of this, Matt suggested the stories of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg creating billion-dollar enterprises straight out of college should be seen as the (very rare) exception, rather than the rule. If you intend to be an entrepreneur, perhaps it will pay off to continue your education post-university, pursuing a position at an established company to deepen your understanding and connections in the industry prior to trying to go at it alone.

As experienced professionals and industry leaders, the panellists did an exceptional job of representing themselves and their companies.

This was the second event of this kind that has been hosted by the Master of Management Society, following an alumni event held three weeks earlier.

Max Evans
Current student in the Master of Management program at the University of Sydney Business School and Analyst at CitiBank

Business start-ups: Why small sometimes trumps big

 

Being a member of the Sydney University Business School team that won last semester’s Deloitte Fastrack Innovation Challenge was an invaluable experience for a number of reasons.

Apart from the chance to develop a business idea with solid market potential, my involvement also offered a new perspective on two different business approaches - entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. While the former refers to building a business external to other companies, the latter involves building something within the constraints of a pre-existing company structure. (For the record, we approached our task more from the entrepreneurial side, essentially creating a start-up relevant to Deloitte.)

It all got me thinking about the idea of small companies versus large, and the way that large organisations can try to compete with smaller entities. This can be harder than it sounds. True, small companies don’t have many resources, many people, much money, or even any connections. But if they have a great team, a great idea and have identified a market opportunity, they can make decisions quickly, expand rapidly and fill that gap potentially faster than a large organisation. Having some large organisation experience, I know that many can’t move as fast. For example, one business I worked for took six weeks to approve an update to one paragraph on the company website.

Interestingly, some larger companies are trying to overcome their inherent limitations in order to remain ahead of the curve. Deloitte themselves are a classic example, promoting a culture of innovation and trying to remain flexible and mobile. The fact that after we won the innovation challenge they entered into negotiations with us around incorporating our business idea into their existing framework, is highly indicative of this strategy.

We've now decided to take our idea to market for real. This is a hugely exciting opportunity as we’ll potentially be competing with other larger organisations that perhaps aren’t as flexible. But regardless of what happens from here, the experience of competing in the innovation challenge has been fantastic. Being involved in every facet of building a business - from finance to marketing and strategy - was a really steep learning curve. Nonetheless, it was an incredible experience that complemented my degree perfectly.

Author: Rory Aston James – Master of Management student