The PolyU Global Student Challenge is an international business plan competition hosted by the The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). In 2009, York student–founded business Waverun were successful in reaching the semi-finals in Hong Kong. Unexpected delays gave entrants an extra year to work on their pitches, but they all finally met in June 2010.

Team Waverun before boarding the plane in Heathrow.

Chris (York) on hearing his flight was cancelled

Firstly, to anyone wondering what happened to the blog series on STIMULATE: sorry! My travel plans have been rudely interrupted by a volcano. But I’m now in an office, thanks to Karen and Nick here at Sydney, so I can finally add some more content!

The students were all very busy on the final day of the event, but I managed to catch up with two of them for a quick chat about how Day 3 (Thursday) went for them…

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Yogesh (Sydney) “Day 3 started with a session from Peter Herbert (Australian Film, Television and Radio School) who talked about the digitisation of movies and what the effects were on the movie industry. This gave us a good perspective of how digitisation works for books, movies and music. It was very useful because movies and music have already gone past that point; you can look at these sectors and try to learn some lessons for the digital publishing world. Of course, it’s not a complete analogy, but I think that digital music and publishing are pretty similar.

Then, we had the Mark Tanner of Read How You Want—a recent startup which digitises publishable content and customises it for the people who want it. We’ve actually used a bit of their model in our presentation—they realised the costs were really high in Australia because of the labour and technology. So what they did was outsource their digitisation process to India, buying a local startup there. This is also a substantial part of our costs.”

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Li (Nanjing)

“I think Day 3 was very useful for the lectures on business models and products. For example, we learned that one of the most important things to a company’s main income is not the product you sell, but where you are in the value chain of the industry. The lecturers had many years of industry experience, so it was a great inspiration for our project.”

“We’re working on a presentation on successful digitisation of textbooks, and the changing world of learning. I’m very pleased with how it’s going for our team, and I think we’re showing our logic clearly!”

Tony and Stephen at Munich Airport doing the obligatory travelator handshake.

I have had the pleasure of being one of the faculty advisors to STIMULATE.  The journey started at Manchester Airport where I met the team for check-in and the lengthy journey to Sydney.  We flew Singapore Airlines through that well-known stop-over city to Singapore – Munich.  Some 24 hours later we arrived and were met in Sydney for transfer to the hotel and some much-needed sleep.

Over the four days our role has varied from technical guide and mentor, roving source of advice, tester of progress and aligner of thinking with the overall process.  Did it include looking after our students in some kind of loco parentis role? Yeh right, nice idea! Definitely not; I lost the stamina to work all day, eat and drink all evening and then party late into the early morning years ago.  The students worked really hard throughout the four days and put the work hours in.

The group on a tour of The University of Sydney bell tower

I think our role included—at the request of the local organizers Nick and Karen—to spread ourselves around at dinners to moderate alcohol consumption.  Yeh, that worked too.  Some of the advisors became more the entertainer. Turned out Russ, in a previous existence, was a professional performer and had the unhidden talent of being a fine singer and has entertained us a number of with little outbursts over dinner. Jokes and anecdotes have also helped ease the few quieter moments. Have a look at this choice moment from Desmond (UWA) — which was only quiet because we were speechless…

Being ‘on duty’ at all times excluding the privacy of our own room has helped make it hard work for us too but overall it has been a great fun experience.

The second day of STIMULATE moved from the University to the Australian Technology Park. ATP is a business incubator which has strong links to the University, but with tenants from a wide range of backgrounds.

As well as valuable talks on ideas and marketing, students had the chance to meet local entrepreneurs, and learn from experts, while experiencing the environment of a real business incubator.

Leeds' team—shown giving their Day 1 presentation—are now spread across mixed university groups

I caught up with each of the four Leeds students to find out how the second day went for them…

Tom (Leeds)

“On the first day, I felt a bit lost because doing a science degree, I didn’t feel as though business was really my field. But Day 2 has been a lot better: I now feel a lot more comfortable, and like I can easily pull this off.”

“Our strategy is looking good. Before Day 2, I was at a bit of a loss, and didn’t know where it was going. But now we have a good, defined strategy, and a good team. I’m looking forward to getting it all finished, having a complete plan and some sort of conclusion. And I’m also looking forward to the final night cruise!”

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Hannah (Leeds)

“Going to the technology park was one of the most useful aspects, as we were exposed to professionals from different industries. Compiling all the information into a project is challenging, but it has been great fun working with some really talented students, all with different perspectives, and I get on well with my team. We have achieved so much in the last two days, and I know far more about the industry than I ever thought I could.”

“Today has been about formulating the information. We’ve basically been researching for the first couple of days: interviewing people and doing market research; trying to build up a picture—and now the challenge is not to gather more information, but to assemble it into a format that we can present tomorrow.”

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Lee (Leeds)

“Our group’s strategy is focused around learning, so we came to the University to talk to students and academics.  The morning session was useful – Chris Styles was particularly inspirational and helped us conceptualise what we needed to do.”

“We’re doing the niche e-publisher task. When we worked through the series of questions we were given, we found out what we don’t know. We split into pairs, and while our answers did align with each other, there were some clear gaps, so we need to refine it today.”

“I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing all of the presentations; to see how everything fits together for each case study. Having seen the journey that we’ve been on, it’ll be interesting to see how it fits with the other pieces of the puzzle, and I’m also looking forward to relaxing when the final presentation’s over!”

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Jonny (Leeds)

“The presentations on day 2 were the best. They were absolutely excellent. My group is doing the chain retailer, and there were certainly a few models we saw which we can use, pulling together our strategies. I also really like the idea of business incubators, so it was great to be exposed to that.”

“In the afternoon, we went into town to one of the main book retailers in Australia—Dymocks—and did some field research chatting to customers and members of staff; trying to gauge their perspective on the e-book situation, and got little bits of information out of it that were useful.”

“Unfortunately we feel a little bit behind the rest of the groups in terms of actually putting the presentation together; we’re struggling to come up with one fundamental strategy, but once it’s there, I think we’ll be just as successful. Day 2 was great, we got to know each other a little bit better, and dinner was great too!”

Nicholas Haskins (WUN Manager, University of Sydney)

As the WUN Manager for the University of Sydney it is exciting to see the inaugural STIMULATE Forum come together and to see students from around the world – the UK, Canada, China and Australia – meet each other and engage in a global discourse on enterprise.

Certainly, we have put together an engaging and informative program of guest lectures by experts from industry, academia and government but this experience is really being driven by the students themselves. This is proving to be a valuable opportunity for them to share not only their common experiences and views but, more importantly, to learn from one another’s unique and rich cultures and economies.

It is in events like this that we can see the next generation of scholars, leaders and entrepreneurs – motivated, engaged and global in their perspectives. This is something that is central to the mission of both the University of Sydney and the Worldwide Universities Network.

… but we have ensured it is not all work and no play for the participants! We have built in plenty of time away from the classroom for student teams to explore the city and to get to know one another in less formal surrounds and from the looks of things they are all certainly having a great time in Sydney!

WUN STIMULATE Sydney 2010

Coming up in a near-future post: video evidence that while all of the participants are mentally very agile, one student is particularly good on their feet…!

Having talked to most or all of the participants after the first day of STIMULATE, the one shared conclusion seems to be that it was tiring! Students also found that the first day was spent getting to know each other, and establishing team roles.

The day started with university teams giving presentations they had prepared in advance. Before the event, teams were briefed on the issue the project is exploring: e-books and the publishing industry. Throughout the event, mixed university teams are exploring the issues of e-book technology, including themes such as:

• threats to traditional businesses and business models;
• opportunities for expansion into an increasingly global, digital market;
• what business models may succeed in the world of e-books; and
• how to engage with new and old customers, given the changing market.

York gave an overview—together with Leeds—of the market from a UK perspective.

I spoke to each student from York in more detail about the first day, and how things were going. After their initial presentations, students moved into mixed teams, so that they would no longer be working with people they knew well. Teams contained at least one Australian student, but aimed to create a mix of disciplines and cultures. Each team was given a different case study—based on a real business—to explore, and from which to develop a business strategy. Some of the York students’ comments follow.

Katre (York)

“The first day was nice. It was really interesting to get an overview about what we’re supposed to do, and to meet different people.”

“The second day has been useful so far. We’re using the field experience time this afternoon to find out more about our industry. We’re going to campus to talk to students about how they want to learn, as we think that the educational sector is key to our business model.”

“Our case study is about a smaller e-publisher, and we hope to come up with a new way to exploit the technology to make learning fun. I’m looking forward to coming up with some answers to the question. There are probably lots of answers—and nobody can really say which is the right one—but we have to come up with something which we think is right.”

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Stephen (York)

“The first day was a bit of a shock to the system, and there are some big expectations of us. At first, we were thinking, ‘What are we going to do?’. But 24 hours later, and after some expert advice, we can see how many ways our strategy could go.”

“I’ve met some of the most amazing people—students and experts; people who are motivating and inspiring. Now we’re thinking, ‘Bring it on!’.”

“The biggest problem facing our team at the moment is how we’re going to add value to the industry, with the increasing presence of e-books. Yesterday, we learnt about the value chain, but the main issue is how we’re going to differentiate ourselves, or if we can change the market. We’re looking into a lot of things!”

“We mostly spent yesterday getting to know each other, and how we worked as a team—but that was fun. It took a while to get something productive and to put it all in context. So far today, though, we have gained a lot of background information. It’s great, because it’s not wishy-washy, and everyone’s motivated and ready to go!”

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Karin (York)

“Yesterday was mostly about getting to know each other. Most of our group are kind of extroverted, so I think we’re quite lucky. A lot of the other groups are more mixed, though, so I would have liked to do a personality type workshop before we started to work together.”

“It’s important to understand people’s personality types in order to work out who’s doing what, and to be aware of how each team member operates. I think it’s important to learn all of that before establishing team roles.”

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Simona (York)

“Most of our group is introverted, so we have a very different dynamic. I think personality has a lot to do with how a group is formed. I think we’re going to be OK, though!”

“We didn’t have a clear team leader yesterday, but today we have started to come up with ideas, and add direction to our strategy. We’re going to get together and talk more after lunch—but I feel now that we now have a good overall image our approach.”

If you’d like to know why the event is called ‘STIMULATE’, you’ll find out below. But first…

I thought I would start by telling you about STIMULATE – background, the what and why.  STIMULATE is the brainchild of the WUN Enterprise Steering Group. It is a four-day meeting of students who have a demonstrable commitment to a future as an entrepreneur. The students come together and work in intentionally mixed-up teams to learn and explore enterprise, and to network. One of the main aims is to give the groups the opportunity to experience business in a new geographic region.

The York and Leeds teams. From left (L:Leeds; Y:York): Lee Beniston (L), Tom Benians (L), Jonny Paterson (L), Stephen Bryan (Y), Karin Diaconu (Y), Simona Zavadckyte (Y), Katre Leino (Y), Hannah Gilmartin (L)

This year is the first year and hence a bit of a pilot. We are here in Sydney with student groups from York and Leeds, Alberta, Nanjing, Western Australia (Perth) and Sydney. The Pacific Rim region is a dynamic and exciting market that offers fantastic learning opportunities. STIMULATE will require the students to work hard but provides the opportunity to play hard as well, making the whole experience really value adding.

And why is it called ‘STIMULATE’? The teaching/learning style of the event is very much problem-based; the aim is to stimulate the students, by giving them a real problem to work on, so that they may learn and develop ideas for themselves — there is no ‘answer in the back of  the book’. To find out how they get on, keep checking here…

This is the first in a series of posts to cover STIMULATE, a student business learning event hosted by the University of Sydney, and organised by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN).

The four-day event takes place in Sydney, and sees 24 students from six worldwide universities—accompanied by staff mentors—meeting to:

• develop enterprise and business skills;
• gain knowledge of the international and Asia-Pacific economies;
• network with students from worldwide universities, and gain insight from working across a large variety of cultures; and
• to explore an real, current business issue with access to academic and industry experts, entrepreneurs, and a government representative.

More details of the forum business issue and guest speakers will come in a future post.

Chris Simpson (mentor - York)

I’m writing this as a team mentor from The University of York. My name is Chris Simpson, and I work as the Enterprise Promotions Officer. I’m here with Tony Ward, director of York White Rose Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise (WRCETLE).

The aim of this post series (see tag: wun stimulate) is to capture some of the experiences of the event via student blog posts, and to document some of the no doubt numerous interesting ideas which will arise.

Each post will be categorised by its author(s) – look out for introductions from our student team and academic mentor, Tony.

For now, here is the York student team with me at Munich airport – after the first leg of a very long journey from Manchester to Sydney…

York's team, from left: Stephen Bryan, Karin Diaconu, Simona Zavadckyte, Katre Leino, Chris Simpson (mentor)