Posted by Admin on December 22, 2009
Here’s an update for the Vino Arielle. The product is featured in this Dec 2009 /Jan 2010 issue of Appetite magazine:
Besides that, the product has also been featured by a US Industrial Design Website – Yanko Design. Subsequently, it has been picked up by various industrial websites in UK, France and Taiwan.
In Singapore, this product is currently can be found at 4 boutique wine shops listed here.
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Posted by Admin on November 26, 2009
You may have seen this article in last Saturday’s edition of The Straits Times. 
Nanyang Optical is soliciting for new ideas and concepts through NLB’s Creative Industries Xchange (CIX) programme and you are invited to submit ideas or business proposals based on any of these requirements:
1. Opticals – any new design or material which will add value and enable Nanyang Optical to stand out from the competition. Note: Nanyang already has an eco-friendly line called LinkSkin which uses recycled material (see: http://www.nanyang.com.sg ).
2. Green initiative – any new idea or concept that complements Nanyang Optical’s eco-friendly positioning as “Singapore’s first eco-friendly eyewear store”.
3. Marketing - There are two tracks to this:
(a) Any new way to market its products & services, e.g. via comics, film, animation, etc.
(b) Also, should Nanyang Optical adopt a holistic eco-friendly versus maintaining an eco-friendly product line and space in its retail outlets
If you are keen to work with Nanyang Optical , please send an email to Damien_Wang@nlb.gov.sg by Friday, 4 Dec 2009 with the following details:
1. IDEA: Please provide a brief summary of your idea or business proposal. Do indicate if it addresses one or more requirements (Opticals, Green initiative or Marketing).
2. CLUSTER: You may wish to form your own team or seek potential partners through the CIX programme to develop existing ideas or generate new ideas.
(a) If you already have a team, please tell us something about yourselves.
(b) If you would like to seek working partners, please let us know what are the types of people you would like to team up with (e.g. programmers, graphic designers) and we will try our best to match you with other applicants.
Participation in CIX is free-of-charge and would involve small to large group interactions to develop your initial ideas. The National Library Board would also be provide you with research support should the need arise.
This programme is expected to run until the end of January 2010, when the Clusters would pitch their ideas to Nanyang Optical for their assessment. Successful clusters would then get the opportunity to work with Nanyang Optical to develop their ideas for the market.
About Nanyang Optical:
Nanyang Optical is a well-established company with more than 30 years of experience in optical retail, wholesale and manufacturing. They are one of the Singapore’s largest optical retail chain with a portfolio more than 20 outlets spanning across Singapore, Indonesia and China. These include their wholly owned subsidiary — Alexis Eyewear Boutiques and franchises.
The latest initiative for Nanyang Optical is their aim to reduce adverse environmental impacts and advocate corporate social responsibility and awareness. As a result they have decided to embark on converting to “GREEN” eyewear shops by launching eco-friendly eyewear made of recycled materials and implementing a full circle recycling system. Their aim is to provide the eco-friendly eyewear to the world through collaboration with partners and distribution networks.
About CIX
The Creative Industries Xchange (CIX) is a platform for business owners and creative professionals to come together to conceive and collaborate on fresh, new business ideas. Through business-matching sessions, participants can explore creative solutions, innovative business opportunities and leverage on cross-industry experience.
Interim proposals
Two ad hoc clusters were formed last month, and these were some of the interesting ideas they came up with in a couple of hours:
Cluster 1: ‘Airfix’ spectacles: Cluster 1 proposed an a DIY spectacle kit which takes a leaf from plastic scale models from UK manufacturer Airfix, and features the construction and finishing of the spectacle from a flat-packed kit manufactured through plastic injection moulding. The slim packaging also makes it handy as an emergency pair of glasses while travelling, while the ease of production makes it feasible for Nanyang Optical to introduce new designs from time to time. It is also possible to sell the basic kits + upgrades online. Issues raised by Nanyang Optical:
Cluster 2 proposed customisable spectacles using a modular system. The customer selects the desired parts which will be assembled at Nanyang Optical outlets. This is supported by a facial recognition and measurement online application generates previews for various models for the customer. Benefit of this proposal would be the reduction of inventory coupled with the offering of personalisation services for customers (i.e. mass customisation). This will appeal to medium to high end customers who prefer made-to-measure products and who prefer to be serviced in-store rather than online. Issues raised by Nanyang Optical:
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Posted by Admin on October 19, 2009
In Western mythology, the Dragon is an evil flame-spitting creature that invokes fear in the hearts of men and lays waste to entire armies and cities. According to legends, only the courageous few ever survived an encounter with a Dragon.
On 1st October 2009, about 120 adventurers had a close encounter with a female Dragon in Singapore, and all of them not only emerged unscathed, but also a lot wiser, for in Eastern mythology, the Dragon is a symbol of wisdom and power. This ‘Dragon’ they faced was none other than Ms Rachel Elnaugh, one of Britain’s most prominent female entrepreneurs, a former judge of the BBC business reality show Dragon’s Den (where budding entrepreneurs faced the Western kind of Dragons) and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the British Library Business & IP Centre.
Ms Elnaugh was the guest-of-honour for the closed-door launch of the CIX programme for 2009 where she shared her insights into the business world with the 50 invited guests (from SMEs, creative individuals and business people). Organised by the National Library Board (NLB), this intimate session in the evening of 1st October provided the participants with the opportunity to dialogue and learn from such a prominent business personality.
As part of the CIX programme, three of the past CIX winners were given the opportunity to have a public consultation session with Ms Elnaugh, sharing with her their experiences. Through a Q&A session, Ms Elnaugh was able to point out the flaws in their strategies, forced them to re-focus on businesses and gave them advice on what they should be doing next. This was an invaluable opportunity that showcased how the NLB – through its programmes – can help local businesses and adds value to the local industries in a very tangible manner.
Ms Elnaugh also spoke at a public seminar earlier that day about her experiences as an Entrepreneur and also to share her insights and views about the common entrepreneurial challenges facing businesses and companies. Ms Elnaugh also spoke about clarity of intent, the law of attraction and the ‘art of allowing’.
This talk attracted more than 70 participants from various industries, corporate bodies, academic institutions and universities.
Some of the books cited by Ms Elnaugh included the following titles which are available for loan at the Public Libraries (please check the NLB online catalogue for details):
Think and Grow Rich
Author: Napoleon Hill
Publisher: Kuala Lumpur: Napoleon Hill Associates Creative Vision, 2005.
Call number: 650.1 HIL -[BIZ]
Purple Cow
Author: Seth Godin
Publisher: New York : Portfolio, 2003.
Call number: 658.8 GOD -[BIZ]
The Secret
Author: Rhonda Byrne
Publisher: New York : Hillsboro, Ore. : Atria Books ; Beyond Words Pub. ; c2006.
Call number: 158.1 BYR
Business Nightmares
Author: Rachel Elnaugh
Publisher: Richmond : Crimson, 2008
Call number: 658.4210922 ELN -[BIZ]
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Posted by Admin on September 17, 2009
Date/Time: Thursday Oct 1, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Venue: Level 16 – The Pod in National Library Building
Admission is FREE but registration is required. Please register via Go Library using this link.
Rachel will speak about entrepreneurship, and share her experiences on the challenges and obstacles that she faced.
Rachel Elnaugh is one of Britain’s highest profile female entrepreneurs. At the age of 24 she created the market leading experiences brand Red Letter Days which generated over £100million in turnover in the 16 years that she ran it, and earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002, as well as being short listed for the 2001 Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year award and the Growing Business Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2002.
In early 2005, Rachel shot to fame as one of the original Dragons in BBCTV’s BAFTA nominated cult business show Dragons’ Den.
She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the British Library Business & IP Centre, an Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust; in 2008 she won the IAB ‘Champion for Entrepreneurship in the UK’ award and in 2009 was runner-up for SFEDI’s ‘Champion/Supporter of Other Enterprises’ award.
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Posted by Admin on August 11, 2009
This is the third installment of a series of interviews with start-ups being nurtured by the CIX programme.
1. Tell us a little about NAG: What is it in a nutshell? What is its core or definitive business or service offering? How did you come up with the name of your start-up?
Shan (left): NAG (an acronym for Noise Agenda) is a quarterly design magazine dedicated to introduce the fresh young talented artists, designers involved in art-related fields in Singapore; a guide for all arts enthusiasts, be it students with a passion for the arts, designers/musicians with a hunger for more new works or anyone with a deep interest in knowing more about the local art scene. The concept for NAG literally means to berate/bug about something, someone basically anything under the sky. It is like a persistent nagging that will leave an impression on your mind.
Ping (right): NAG also conveys a unique identity and serves as an easy directory for different genres of the Creative industry. In each issue, we feature the most interesting personalities from our areas of interest, preparing the ground for promising newcomers.
2. Why pick this industry/market? For instance, was it a leap of faith or something you are familiar with?
Shan: Apart from the fact that both of us have a design background, we saw a huge potential to start a local Magazine focusing mainly on Art and Design. As there has not been any local Magazine catering to this specific field in Singapore as yet, NAG will be in a unique position to expose Singapore’s very own arts scene to Asia and beyond. We are hoping that NAG’s quarterly magazine will provide you the readers with insightful updates on the current art/design situation locally and also to highlight issues that have an impact on designs around us.
Ping: Our conviction is that we need to have this magazine. Our Love and Care for the people and things we embrace around us and finding the angle to a story that no one else have, has been the answer to this question. We want to reach everyone who’s interested in what we’re doing, every age, every scene. We’ll let the never dying curiosity haunt us, and our doors has since open for much potential ideas to flow through.
3. Was it difficult to get your first business idea up and running? What were some of the difficulties you faced to get NAG started?
Shan: Yeah it was. There were many doubts on whether we should take a risk to get the magazine business running. We were not sure if this would work in the earlier stages of our discussions, as it is a ‘make or break’ business. As compared to markets overseas where there are demands for their local art and design magazines, a large portion of the arts magazines in Singapore are imported.
Ping: A major difficulty would be us doing everything with our effort and staying on the plan to survive.
4. What made you decide on a joint venture rather than running a solo start-up? What are the working dynamics like for the two of you?
Shan: Having two brains is better than one, don’t you agree? It takes two to tango and it would be double the solutions, concepts and fun. Being a new start up business, hiring is not in the cards for now. So it’s just the both of us juggling all the ideas, editorial and design elements for NAG. Plus the fact that both of us can learn and support each other rather than having to go solo is great.
Ping: We had the opportunity to meet each another through Johnny Lau. Both YuShan and myself compliment each another with our skills. e.g Yushan is pretty savvy with her organization skills, and I tend to put my mind in the wild for more cranky ideas. At different stages, we felt that bridging our ideas brought us closer, and that’s not easy to chance by.
5. What are the current or potential obstacles or challenges you foresee coming your way, and how would you overcome them?
Shan: The road ahead will be long but we are hopeful and will challenge any obstacles positively. In the publishing industry, it is known that there is an incubation period before a magazine transits into operational mode. Nevertheless, we would be utilising this incubation period to fully explore all possibilities and to give our readers the best we can achieve. We’re letting the contents of NAG dictate the types of advertising offers we accept. We will continue to discuss ideas among ourselves and with our talent pool before fine tune the ideas and go ahead with them. Through these processes, it will all come together for a successful business.
Ping: I would say relationships. We need to get in touch with the world as we are right now; we need to build the up our PR skills with the contributors we work with, really, and that is the most important ingredient of NAG.
6. In your opinion, what role does (or can) the National Library play to help start-ups like NAG as well as established businesses?
Ping & Shan: The National Library has been supporting NAG with resources and information that have been of tremendous help. The research team has lightened our load. Their findings are optimised for our purposes, plus the information they provide about the magazine publishing industry is current, which is valuable to entrepreneurs like us. With the information at hand, we would not repeat what others have done. The National Library has also been generous in granting us space for our brainstorming sessions and giving us their feedback and suggestions to improve our business ideas.
7. How has the CIX process (so far) benefited you as a start-up?
Ping & Shan: CIX has been an extremely informative platform for us, in learning the core business know-how. We are being equipped to analyse our target market, how unique our business proposal is, and other administrative issues pertaining to business.
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Posted by Admin on August 7, 2009
This is the second installment of a series of interviews with start-ups being nurtured by the CIX programme.
1. Tell us a little about Skoop: What is it in a nutshell? What is its core or definitive business or service offering? How did you come up with the name of your start-up?
Skoop is a platform that offers dedicated talent management to unique creatives from the design, media and arts. We lead our talents to excel and nurture their potentials with devotion. In journalistic jargon, getting a ‘scoop’ means having exclusive publication first hand. Applying this concept onto our talents, Skoop makes them stand out exclusively in the creative industry as iconic specialists.
2. Why pick this industry/market? For instance, was it a leap of faith or something you are familiar with?
As the saying goes, ‘no man is an island’. An arrow thrown can travel a great distance, but an arrow shot from a bow can travel a whole lot more with accuracy. Being a designer myself back then, I was never guided. I simply accepted jobs that were available to me. Have you ever imagined how much time an individual can save, how much faster he can realise his potentials, and how meaningful his career can advance, if he were to have strategic career planning and professional guidance? This is the motivation that developed Skoop into what it is today – to uncover these talents, to avail the opportunities, and to make dreams come true.
3. Was it difficult to get your first business idea up and running? What were some of the difficulties you faced to get Skoop started?
Let’s be frank: It was harder than it looked. Putting aside all the hard work that was required, one needs to have a clear mind in order to channel all his efforts in the correct direction. Imagine a sailor who survived through a huge storm, but ended up at the shore where he started? Imagine a hiker who reached the peak of one of the highest mountains, but ended up realizing that he climbed the wrong one? One of the biggest difficulties Skoop faced was its positioning. It took numerous failures to get Skoop to where it is now, and no doubt that it will continue to face hardships in future for it to evolve and harness.
4. What are the current or potential obstacles or challenges you foresee coming your way, and how would you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges we face is the build up of Skoop’s track record. Without impressive achievements to showcase, it is difficult to establish our brand further. Failure to make decent accomplishments over time could lead to talents losing faith in us – one of the situations we would definitely need to overcome. I think it is at an advantage for Skoop to collaborate with mutually-benefiting SMEs that share the same concern and help one another.
5. In your opinion, what role does (or can) the National Library play to help start-ups like Skoop as well as established businesses?
I see the National Library as a treasure mountain of knowledge and information. Knowledge is power, and only the arrogant would succumb to complacency. Individuals (especially entrepreneurs) need to constantly upgrade themselves to advance with this ever-changing world, and National Library is in the perfect position to offer assistance in various forms of research and reading recommendations. Besides this, the National Library could organize events or seminars for business entrepreneurs to gather. Through these gatherings, not only can established businesses share their experiences with start-up companies, there may also be potential opportunities for fruitful collaborations.
6. How has the CIX process (so far) benefited you as a start-up?
CIX has prompted us for a change in our perception, uncovered solutions to difficult problems Skoop was facing, and has provided the necessary research information for progress. CIX sessions are excellent in educating us professional knowledge in the most creative and efficient ways. The results have influenced Skoop greatly and have open up many new dimensions to our business. Skoop has gotten to meet a handful of start-up businesses and is venturing into a future with exciting collaborating opportunities.
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Posted by Admin on August 3, 2009
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a series of interviews with start-ups being nurtured by the CIX programme.
1.Tell us a little about Libellule: What is it in a nutshell? What is its core or definitive business or service offering? How did you come up with the name of your start-up?
Libellule is all about celebrating what we love to do in life. Book publishing is our main area of business. We want to encourage book lovers to self-publish their own books, and we do that by offering them our convenient and affordable services, such as publishing and printing. At the same time, we also establish programs to support young talents in launching their careers. We wanted a free-spirited and a happy atmosphere, and it seems to us that our dragonfly mascot embodies just that. ‘Libellule’ then, is the French word for that. Once you get used to it, it kind of just rolls off the tongue (as I think French tends to do), no?
2.Why pick this industry/market? For instance, was it a leap of faith or something you are familiar with?
I’ve always been very interested in the publishing industry. That gave me a lot of faith in my ideas, and courage to try them out in the real world. Really, nowadays I don’t think we can get by without publications in some form or other, can we? It’s become a necessity, it’s become a great source of pleasure to us too. Well we don’t have to be passive and wait for the next issue/instalment- now, when we too can share our thoughts with the world, who knows what could happen?
3.Was it difficult to get your first business idea up and running? What were some of the difficulties you faced to get Libellule started?
It’s unpredictable. It all started, as ideas do, with a question I had: ‘What if I wanted to publish my own creation?’ Then I researched, did some basic plans. More questions led to more research, more thinking. And slowly my idea grew and took on more solid form. I quickly realised I had to think about pragmatic stuff too: materials and machinery, legality issues, finding capital to get things started, costs, licenses… things a design student like me just never really thought about before. This is why I think it’s important to be a quick learner, and to fully utilise all of your valuable experiences and resources at your disposal. The ultimate goal: to organise the book-publishing experience into a simple one, for my customers. A fun, joyful experience. That’s what shapes Libellule‘s business.
4.What are the current or potential obstacles or challenges you foresee coming your way, and how would you overcome them?
We believe that it’s a continuous process- learning from our experiences, keeping up-to-date with industry developments, adapting and refining our system, all so that our customers will always benefit. At the same time, we also generate a large part of our revenue by providing quality printing services to big corporations. In turn, we can then direct this into our publishing and youth programs! I won’t lie: getting things rolling, surviving, standing out from the crowd; as a small start-up company, it’s not an easy thing. This is why we need to prove ourselves and gain a lot of support, credibility, trustworthiness.
5.In your opinion, what role does (or can) the National Library (NLB) play to help start-ups like Libellule as well as established businesses?
The NLB has been a great source of support and encouragement to us beginner-entrepreneurs. For example, the research team has assisted us greatly in finding information and answers that we needed in developing Libellule. In addition, perhaps some kind of dynamic seminars or workshops could be held, where established companies would share their experiences with the start-ups, and help them to further develop their budding ideas? The more established businesses might well identify start-ups with high potential there, which could then lead to mutually beneficial co-operations.
6.How has the CIX process (so far) benefited you as a start-up?
CIX has encouraged us to seriously explore our ideas, and has guided me to taking them off paper, and into practice. Being in such an organization also gave us invaluable opportunities to improve by learning from others, and supporting each other.
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Posted by johnnylau52 on July 30, 2009
The world requires a make over right now. If we can have make-over reality shows for men and women, we certainly need one that can make-over the world. We cannot just rely on one Mr. Obama and certain US companies to do this, since the latter are largely responsible for driving the world economies to where they are today. So while some companies are attempting to get us out of the current mess, we cannot afford to sit around and on the fence waiting for the original culprits to fix the world. We have to get on our own two feet to make these changes.
The majority of books dealing with change or about world affairs always have a chapter on China and India – or Chindia (out check the book Chindia edited by Pete Engardios) – but less than a decade ago both these giants were ignored and essentially left for dead. Today both the Dragon and the Tiger have emerged as the new and wealthiest kids on the block, and the ones to watch to see how they make and adapt to changes in the world.
Every country around the world is trying to differentiate itself to attract tourists and talent, but we are also living in a world that is increasingly connected. Everyday, news headlines feature stories about how countries are trying to differentiate themselves from the rest of the world so they can attract investment, talent and customers. In this tightly connected world where most developed cities are linked wirelessly, this differentiation is essential.
The world that students are graduating into is a very different from the one a mere generation ago. With the internet and mobile technologies’ omnipresence, rules & regulations are being rewritten everyday by companies such as Google. You might think you’re already swimming in the sea of the latest trends such as Google, iPhone and YouTube, but this is rather different from operating a business in this environment. Do you know how you, as a designer, film maker, product designer or photographer can play a part in this new world? How will you function in this world where everything is connected, where nothing has to be isolated and everything can be triggered, collapsed or cascaded into cash or a crash?
The world used to be simpler and essentially made of two curves that every business student had to learn: the Demand Curve and the Supply Curve. This is no longer so in a connected world. There are now three New Curves that I think everyone must understand if they want to make a difference. These are:
Technically, critical mass is not a curve but a graph. What this is means is that whatever product students design, or the film or animation they create has to be consumed by the public, and so, it is crucial for these products to achieve a certain level of popularity so that their creators can continue to design and make more works. Achieving critical mass is key to success, and connecting that one Good Idea to the world is a good start. Be it a product or a service, once it is plugged into the connected world and made relevant, there is at least a chance that your Good Idea can reach a critical mass and make a difference. If you want to know more about the idea behind critical mass, I would recommend that you read Philip Ball’s Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another.
Once your Good Idea is connected to the world, there will be a higher chance of it reaching a point that author Malcolm Gladwell calls the tipping point in his book The Tipping Point - “a magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviors cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire.” Reaching this tipping point was the way that ideas from Amazon to Facebook, Google and iPhone reached their cult status.
I was at a talk given by Mr. Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail. I told him about the incubation program I was working on, which was then called the OpenSource Brand, where a dozen companies came together to share the same brand. They can essentially deploy the same logo and trademark without additional cost and everyone can benefit from this directly or indirectly.
Mr. Anderson asked me a candid question: “…so if I want to join this OpenSource Brand, I could?”. He was spot on because although technically this is the concept behind the Brand, I would have a problem if I allowed anyone and everyone around the globe to join this brand. I still have much work to do if I want to make the third curve happen: which is what Mr. Anderson’s book is really advocating – that the future of business and culture isn’t in ‘hits’ – the high volume head of a traditional demand curve – but in what used to be regarded as misses- the endless long tail of that same curve.
So if I was to see Mr. Anderson today, I would have to tell him, ‘Yes, our brand has a long tail that includes a mixed-bag of up and coming products & services, as well as those that are not so popular for now, but could still be regarded as businesses due to their long tail of being sold to a niche market over a long period of time’. Not only that, but the brand is open to everyone who is from the Creative Industries, as well as those who are not but aspire to be, all of which will boost the brand to be a bigger one with a ‘longer’ tail.
I conducted a course on Professional Practice earlier this year at the School of Arts, Design & Media (ADM) out of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and I shared my views about the three New Curves with the students. I took the liberty to record all 13 weeks of my classes and I have edited them into 51 YouTube videos. Here is the one that is relevant to the New Curves.
Or you can go directly to my YouTube channel to view the video:
Look for OSB Week 3- 2.
The following titles can be found at Public Libraries all over Singapore:
Title: Chindia : how China and India are revolutionizing global business
Edited with commentary by Pete Engardio.
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : McGraw-Hill, c2007.
Call No.: 330.951 CHI -[BIZ]
Available for loan at most Public Libraries.
Title: Critical Mass : how one thing leads to another
Author: Philip Ball
Publisher: London : Arrow, 2005.
Call No.: 301 BAL
Available for loan at Bukit Batok, Bishan, Choa Chu Kang, Central, Jurong West, Sembawang, Sengkang & Yishun Public Libraries; Tampines & Woodlands Regional Libraries.
Title: The Tipping Point : how little things can make a big difference
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: London : Abacus, 2001.
Call No.: 302 GLA
Available for loan at Bishan, Central , Queenstown & Toa Payoh Public Libraries; Jurong Regional Library.
Title: The Long Tail : how endless choice is creating unlimited demand
Author: Chris Anderson
Publisher: London : Random House Business Books, 2006.
Call No.: 658.802 AND -[BIZ]
Available for loan at most Public Libraries.
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Posted by johnnylau52 on July 26, 2009
There are a number of start-up programs for entrepreneurship, often offered by MBA schools and more recently, private organizations.
CiX started out two years ago with a different take. I designed the program with a specific output in mind: to create new products and/or new businesses. I know for certain that we are two things: 1) we are a practical process-driven program that leads to realistic output and 2) we are Free-of-Charge.
I know there are a few models out there right now:
1. MBA courses: These courses are often based on proven syllabi from aboard. Besides taking up 3 years of your life to find out whether starting up a business is your cup of tea, you would have to pay a hefty fee for it. But hey, you need the paper qualification anyway so why not?
2. Professional Incubators: They charge you a fee (usually not too high to entice you to sign up) for 1 or 2 day seminar to get you started. You will get a gist of Business 101 through a set of Powerpoint slides which you could download yourself via www.businessplans.org . Then the incubator may claim that they have a fund that they can invest in your ideas, but you need a business plan (because this fund, as it turns out is set up by an affiliated company) But you would have to pay them first to get advice to posh up your business plan. Now once you have the business plan written, they now tell you they can help find you an investor (no money guaranteed) but you would have to pay them a finder’s fee base on their success rate. I have known of incubators who owns the seminar company, the start-up fund and of course a stake of your company. There is no lose-lose for them, only win-win.
3. Entrepreneurial Programmes: These are run by private organizations with heavy subsidies from the government. They often have a ‘host’ facilitating the program by inviting professionals from different background to give snapshots of different topics for the participants. They also bring in mentors to help oversee the writing of the business plans, largely because these organizations do not have experiences on their own. And sometimes, they don’t even pay the mentors. (Hence, they would not be hiring the professional incubators we mentioned earlier). Makes one wonder how sustainable these programs are once the government funding dries up.
CiX is anything but the above. We have two separate approaches. One we call the Industries Xchange where we do matchmaking of businesses from different industries, the other involves start-ups.
The entire Start-up process takes up 3 months where the budding entrepreneurs need only to commit half a day of their time every other week, and subsequently the process is largely online, follow by occasional face-to-face meetings with me. But in order to be qualified for the programme, the individuals who are keen must invest their own time during the ‘pre-process’ interview – which involves meeting with me for at least 6 hours over a few weeks.
I admire one particular incubator-http://ycombinator.com. The US company is essentially an early start-up fund that incubates young companies. Each company is usually given a small sum of no more then $250,000.00 (US dollars) and the founders must meet the fund manager on a regular basis for updates.
CiX is not a fund so there will be no investment of money into promising business ideas, but what we do effectively is we ‘invest’ a lot of our time with the selected few. I personally would put in hundreds of hours to the companies I am working with. Sometimes, its better to start out without money then with money because there is a tendency to spend it all when you have money in the bank.
So this is why CiX came into being, and why I hope it is relevant to some of you out there.
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Posted by Admin on July 18, 2009
OBJECTIVE: To analyse a Business Case Study
For this session, the participants were led to develop their Analytical skills in terms of being able to study and dissect a business or an industry. To accomplish this, the participants were given a case study of Furniture Group and there were asked to study the condition and circumstances of that business from a short to mid to long term perspective. In particular, the participants were asked:
1. If the Furniture Group positioned themselves correctly within the industry?
2. What their views were on the group’s retail and production strategy?
3. What they thought of the group’s amount of research on their competitors?
4. What they thought of the group’s operation setup?
5. Whether the group’s projection was realistic and what the participants though of their projection on profitability?
6. Whether the furniture group was a solid business or was it at risk of failing?
The participants were expected to study the case and to provide succinct answers to the questions posed above…
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