Author Archives: Li Hao

The course ME2062 technology-based entrepreneurship has nearly come to an end. It was a fantastic journey to take this course and develop our project assignments. The course taught us theories about technological entrepreneurship and how to bring a digital product/service to the market.

Business Modelling for an Enterprise

Business modelling is an essential skill for entrepreneurs. Without proper business modelling for a product, an enterprise could fail to deliver the value of the product to the end customers. The theory of business model comes into four dimensions. It defines the value proposition, customer, structure and result for the product in a systematic way. With that, an entrepreneur knows what exactly the product needs to fulfil, who the customers are, how to reach them, how to realise or product the product/service, and most importantly, what the cost and revenue structure of the business are.

Marketing Strategy

Another important lesson I took away from this course is the set of marketing principles. For example, market segmentation, market validation, defining value proposition for marketing purpose, and the 4Ps marketing principles. You can’t create real business success if you can’t sell your product properly. This is why marketing is so important. And yet, it is interesting to learn all of them, because they relate to our everyday life so much that I can always find real life examples for the theories and principles.

Development of a new venture

The most interesting part of this course, I would say, is the group project which requires us to come up with an innovative idea and develop a business plan for it. It was so funny to see all the different ideas proposal by each classmates and how they pitched the idea. I really learnt a lot from them. Within our own group, we went through the process of selecting an idea amongst five different ideas and finally identify the most feasible and innovative one. After that, we set off to discuss and refine the details of the idea, followed by the creating of the pitching video. We put in a lot of efforts in the video since we think in a real life scenario, the success of a pitch will determine the success of your business development since you will get the required funding, support and most importantly, the feedback from your potential investors. Indeed, in the final presentation, the panel judges pointed out several points from a professional perspective that we neglected while pointing out that this was a business idea with great potential.

What I hope to take away from this course

It is quite interesting and fulfilling to see the actual product we developed coming out from this course, at least at a functional level rather than a marketable level. Currently, most of the project ideas are still in the prototyping period. It is good to have a comprehensive business plan for the idea, but implementing it would be a different story. It involves team dynamics, technology development and feasibility assessment. However, I understand that due to the time constraint of this course, this is not possible to do that, but it could be put into a higher level course in technology-based entrepreneurship.

I was not aware that Stockholm was such a vibrant hub for entrepreneurship until I started my exchange study here, when I saw all sorts of technological start-up companies located in Kista paving their way to the future. “Between 2005 and 2012 alone, 6.5% of the world’s billion dollar exits were from companies that had come from Sweden” (Virgin, 2016). There are a couple of reasons that makes Stockholm such an entrepreneurial hub in the Nordic area or even in the Europe.

 

Thanks to the Swedish government’s heavy investment into IT infrastructure in the 1990s, Sweden has the first-class high-speed Internet. The government also grants tax deduction for people buying a computer, which is why the state has such a high computer ownership rate. This has help “equip Swedes with the physical tools and digital savvy to become a national of technological disruptors and a country of ready consumers”. Apart from that, the wide ownership of digital device has created a culture of open access and entrepreneurship collaboration (Davidson, 2015).

 

On the other hand, Sweden has the one of the best social welfare system in the world, which lessens the risk of business failure for entrepreneurs. Research has shown that the more welfare the government provides, the higher their people’s entrepreneurial spirit (Lee, 2016). This is because with a good welfare system to ensure your living, you are much safer to take risk and run a start-up company.

 

Singapore, the country where I have my undergraduate education, is also the biggest entrepreneurial hub in Asia. According to the Economist, Singapore is the “world’s most tightly packed entrepreneurial ecosystem” (Teng, 2016). It is a bit interesting to compare these two entrepreneurial hubs, given that they are a bit similar to some extent. For example, the populations for both Sweden and Singapore are small. Sweden has a population of nearly 9.6 million while Singapore has a population of 5.4 million (Lee, 2016). A small population imposes limit not only on the size of the market but also the pool of talent. Unlike Silicon Valley where it can have a large population in the United States to support its market and talent base, tech start-up companies have to think globally in order to grow and thrive. Fortunately due to the economic tie within the European Union and Asean countries, it is relatively easy for tech start-ups to expend their business to other neighboring countries.

 

To nurture a climate conducive to start-up companies, Singapore government has a portfolio of grants and schemes to give funding and capital to start-up eligible companies, apart from its efforts to attract foreign investors to invest in Singapore start-ups. I am not sure how the government here in Stockholm helps cultivates a start-up climate, but I think the Singapore government has really done a good job in this area. In addition, educational institutions in Singapore have been tightly involved into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. A lot of schools have courses and oversea programs in entrepreneurship, as well as incubation centers for students to kick off their business.

 

I am more than happy if you guys could share your insights about the start-up culture in Stockholm or any other places around the world with me.

 

References:

Virgin. (2016). The world’s best start-up hubs: Stockholm, Sweden. Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/the-worlds-best-start-up-hubs-stockholm-sweden

Teng, A. (2016, Jan 16). Starting up: The rise of the Singaporean entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/singapore/starting-up-the-rise-of/2431670.html

Davidson, L. (2015, Jun 28). How Sweden became the startup capital of Europe. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11689464/How-Sweden-became-the-startup-capital-of-Europe.html

Lee, T. (2016, Feb 20). For Singapore to reinvent itself, it needs to take lessons from Sweden. Tech In Asia. Retrieved from https://www.techinasia.com/singapore-sweden-tech-scene