Off late the term “Global Market” has lost all relevance in business. The market rewards products that cater specifically to the local markets. This is slowly evolving into the dominant strategy amongst most companies. Understanding this aspect three universities in the most influential markets this side of the world came up with the Asian Innovation and Entrepreneurship Immersion Programme. The objective was to have a collaborated academic course which would transcend barriers of physical borders, cultures and economies. Giving the participants a wholesome idea on how to set up a company in 2016 in either one of these markets.

20 students each from NUS, Singapore, Tsinghua, China, and Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, formed a part of the Tri-Uni contingent, spending a week each in every campus. The first week at NUS focused on understanding disruption in modern markets. The students were tasked with coming up with a business model for an idea which solved a pre-existing problem. Emergenetics International helped sort the students into groups, based on psychological profiles, for parity between groups of students. A session with them helped the students identify the strengths, drivers and possible barriers while working together. To further impress the ideology of start-up thinking NUS had lined up visits to IDA Labs, Impact Hub, Blk71, and the NUS Entrepreneurship Society over the course of the week. The session ended with a presentation by the students, on their learnings and a mock-up business model of their idea.

At THU, China, Students took this idea forward by means of the SPRINT methodology of getting to a Minimum Viable Product. Visits to Tsinghua’s XLabs, the Zhongguancun Innoway, SEM Accelerator gave the students an insight into the difference in market strategies of Singapore and China. The students were treated to a game of business simulation centered around the Prisoner’s Dilemma to further test how much of group dynamics had been worked on since the previous week. A contrast on two types of companies were shown at THU. With a visit to the start-up sphere (Sensetime and Apply Square) and fully realized companies (SinoSteel and ChemChina), students garnered a working knowledge of the Chinese market. This was later showcased in the presentations for that week, where their ideas in week one were restructured to cater to the Chinese market.

At ISB students were taught about innovation, and also to use means of creative destruction to disrupt the markets. Taking the idea of their start-ups forward there were multiple modules that helped students understand the importance of being able to monetize an idea, and to capitalize on it in time. Sessions at the Technology Hub, India’s first start-up accelerator, fostered the seeds of innovation in students, while visits to Bharath Biotech and Microsoft India showcased how Intellectual Property Management and Offshored Innovation need to work in tandem for a company to achieve success. The trend of innovation, IP rights management and offshoring/outsourcing solutions was continued in the presentations, with the groups analyzing their ideas as potential start-ups and deciding the path forward for each of their ideas. The session concluded at ISB, with a formal dinner and a send-off to the NUS and THU students by the current PGP batch. The new ideas and avenues opened to the students resonated with their mindsets, ensuring that the walk away from the session was not only fruitful but memorable as well.

Story Credits:
Kapil Ganesh Aiyer,
ISB YLP 2014, 
BTech, Production Engineering, NIT Trichy