Ten Entrepreneur Teams Hatched by NTU EMBA Presented Results

They are serious about entrepreneurship.

10 teams of NTU EMBA Entrepreneur Practice Program on May 7 at the College of Management took turn to present their team reports to the faculty-practitioner board consisted of 10 practitioners and 10 professors and chaired by Xie Ming-Hui, CEO of NTU EMBA, who jointly offered the Entrepreneur Practice Program designed to encourage learning by action. According to CEO Xie, “Entrepreneur Practice is more than a program; it is for real.”

Entrepreneur Practice Program aims to sharpen up entrepreneurs’ market insight through hands-on field experience; they are expected to find out customers’ breaking points and thereby turn the problems into business opportunities. At the end of the semester, each entrepreneur team is given 10 minutes to demonstrate and report their operational result, business model, product asymmetric advantage, status quo of execution, and the ensuing fund raising plan. Another 10-minute for Q&A will follow the presentation to allow questions from the board and fellow students, such as “When will mass production be materialized?” and “The profit projection after initiation of mass production is exceedingly optimistic.” After which, intense debate and defense usually follow.

Cross-boundary collaboration among top managers to explore business opportunity

This day for everyone was not just a final presentation; with Entrepreneur Practice Program, students had their chance to bring their entrepreneur dream into reality. Most of the 10 teams proposed projects focusing on e-commerce or medium service, while 2 teams were into products of shoes and bags business that combine traditional industry and technology. Other businesses proposed include next-gen optical lenses, VR games, sports facility operation, and 3D building management. Some teams had already developed their products, completed their system, and started service offerings, while other teams lagged behind due to difficulty in raising larger amount of fund to support their more expensive undertakings. To some of the students, it was not just about an idea; they had already committed all the resources they have into these new businesses.

After the presentations that took the entire afternoon, Jiang Jin-Yuan, vice chairman of RAPAQ, as a practitioner, reminded the students that a new business comes into different stages from the big idea, development, prototype, to fund raising, each of which needs a different selling points to appeal to investors. He recommended adjustments in stage reports and fund raising plan.

An entrepreneur must roll the dice in go-for-broke fashion

Lin Hao-Yu, chairman of Shin Kong Venture Capital, pointed out that the students taking the Entrepreneur Practice Program are veteran business people and savvy top managers; these are advantageous niche for them. However, their advantages like social status and wealth already at their disposal are exactly making them less aggressive as may be the younger people, like in the early thirties, who have greater appetite for risks and stronger driving force for do-or-die fund raising initiatives.

For these top managers, the greatest difficulty was forsaking their habitual working patterns. Lin Hao-Yu believed that is the reason that this Entrepreneur Practice Program is valuable. It forces you to leave your comfort zone, embrace academic theories, regroup yourself, and learn a new working pattern with the team. Therefore, innovative products are not the entire picture of innovation; it also concerns innovatively managing a team.

Having scrutinized the proposals from the 10 teams, Lin Hao-Yu concluded that these proposals are mostly trying to find avant-garde business models based on their legacy experiences. An entrepreneur usually comes up first with a great idea or some great technique, then then will need to be able to manage and maintain one entire team and sound financial planning. All three factors must be in place for innovation to be materialized. According to Lin Hao-Yu, “I hope they take this as a matter of serious entrepreneurship and not just some homework. You want your dream comes true and profit from it, your business plan would better be genuinely serious for people to take your words for it.”

The 3,000 strong NTU EMBA alumni members are one giant talent bank where you’ll find the toughest players in every walk of life. Lin Hao-Yu suggested teaming up EMBA students of entrepreneur-oriented and innovation-oriented minds for business experiences and innovation ambition to mutually support and compensate each other. 

A Good Story Expedites the Final Decision to Buy

According to Huang Shi-Bei, GM of IMBD, all these 10 teams were working hard for excellent products or services; they are highly motivated, which is great, but they should at the same time pay attention to customers’ product preference, which is in many cases overlooked by technical-oriented teams. Among the 10 teams, some offer hi-tech, innovative products, while others focus on re-boosting traditional industries with new techniques. Comes what it may be, they all need to provide the real value, whether it be addressing to the potential customers or differentiating from the me-too market segments.

Huang Shi-Bei emphasized that a product development project must be scrutinized from the viewpoints of customers, and ask the question that how customers’ needs are satisfied. Then, you will know who are your competitors. Finally, from the financial perspective, you need to determine whether to continue with development of higher-level product or expand market share with existing product. All entrepreneurs must tenaciously maintain the iron triangle of product, customer, and finance. Once you have the triangle secured, you should make the value of your product as specific and distinctive as possible in your investor’s presentation, preferably with great stories. Investors love to know the core competency of your product and the roadmap three years out. You must make investors believe in the future of your product.

Inevitably, entrepreneurs and innovators will have to deal with cross-boundary challenges. “Action speaks louder,” Huang Shi-Bei emphasized. To transform cross-boundary sparks into the glory in market, a cross-boundary team must learn the give-and-take in the process. During the discussion process, you need at least three cycles of expansion and contraction, shaking-down the big ideas until only the most convincing and viable one remains, then you will have your final innovative proposition.

Nevertheless, many entrepreneur teams tend to forget that the success of entrepreneurship is determined by whether or not customers actually pay for your product or service. That decision to buy is all what matters. A rational consumer, let’s say, who knows about a product, is familiar with the product, and loves the product, does not always pay for the product in the end. An entrepreneur team must think deeply into consumer behaviors; what customers mostly care about is how they may apply your product in their daily life. You must give them a sound reason to buy. You must make them happy with the scenario projected before you may even expect them to finally reach down for their wallets.

It’s nothing less than a battlefield out there. The teams, the board, and fellow students gathered here for this day tossing sharp questions onto the entrepreneur teams were helping the teams to succeed with their propositions in market. This learning through action Entrepreneur Practice Program, with 10 practitioners and 10 professors, had jointly hatched 10 entrepreneur teams. Their future shall be bright and promising.

Representatives of entrepreneur teams presenting their propositions.

Q&A time when faculty, practitioners, and fellow students asked questions.

Xie Ming-Hui, CEO of NTU EMBA, reminded all teams that the official presentation day will come on June 5 and all teams should be on high alert. With still one more month to go, all teams were expected to give nothing less than the best.