Tomorrow's Ideas, Today

The Genesis Students in Business Competition is a fantastic way for entrepreneurs of the future to gain their first real experience of pitching and implementing exciting new ideas.

For those who may be new to the concept, the competition offers two streams – one being centred on technology with a view to enabling business, and the other based around social entrepreneurship, encouraging students to come up with business models that will help the community. With a long list of hopefuls whittled down to four finalists for each category, the competition itself was held last Friday. All finalists made a 10-minute pitch and faced five-minutes of questions from a judging panel comprising of top academics and business representatives. It really was like a genuine Dragons’ Den situation.

This year the honours in the Best Innovation Capital Award category were shared by two teams – Beehive (who came up with an exciting web-based production technique utilising a laser-cutting machine that produces designs or artworks submitted via the Internet) and Mybo, who pioneered an online appointment booking system for the health care industry that enables users to locate relevant health service providers and schedule a consultation. The Best Social or Not-For-Profit category was taken out by a group called Hessex, who presented an idea for providing clean energy to poor villages in Africa and Asia via a solar panel installation that provides long-term benefits to host communities.

Prior to the actual final, each of the competing teams not only had the opportunity to engage in educational workshops run within the Business School, but also got to work with a mentor from the entrepreneur organisation TiE. And while each winner received $3000 to further develop their concepts, it’s important to recognise that all participating finalists presented highly original ideas that should one day give rise to innovative companies that will do extremely well.

Author: Andrew Lee, Genesis Students in Business Competition co-organiser
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Past Winners

Help Where It’s Needed Most

Back in June I blogged about the hugely important social impact bond project that four Master of Management students helped deliver for Life Without Barriers.

The big news is that following the proposal, the new NSW State Government has just committed to undertaking a trial social impact bond scheme in their first budget. This is a very exciting development for two reasons. The first is that it represents a new way of directly linking welfare funding to outcomes and ascertaining the value of particular programs or initiatives in terms of delivering benefits for highly vulnerable people. For instance, does the intervention (in the case of out of home care) help families care for their children safely? Does it help children find safe, stable homes that ensure they have a better life? The second reason is that it’s a new way of getting additional funding into welfare services. Given the overwhelming demand in the community, and the fact that the out of home care budget in NSW is completely over-committed, that’s a very positive thing.

The assistance of the participating Master of Management students (in partnership with Deloitte) can’t be overstated. Together they compiled a very detailed economic analysis of applying social impact bonds and how to apply that methodology to out of home care in NSW. It was the students themselves who ultimately briefed senior Treasury officials, who were clearly very impressed. Indeed, it’s interesting that the Government’s recent budget announcement mentioned foster care as one of the areas they want to trial. We congratulate the Government on this bold and exciting initiative, and we’re tremendously grateful to the University of Sydney and the Master of Management students for their outstanding work.

In terms of further collaborations with the Master of Management program, we’re very excited about the possibilities, and are hoping to begin working with our next round of students very soon. I should also mention that Gina-Sue Bolon - one of the students who worked on our social impact bonds project - is now working for Life Without Barriers on the development of public policy.

Author: Kylie Gwynne - National Director of Partnerships and Strategy - Life Without Barriers

The Perils Of Cyberspace

Want to know the biggest challenge facing businesses over the next few years? I’ll give you a clue - it’s not the prospect of a GFC Mark II.

While volatile economic conditions will of course constitute a significant hurdle, I believe the biggest threat to corporate prosperity will arise from the increasing power of social media networks. Even as you sit and read this, managers at many levels are trying to understand how they can use these spaces to not only promote their products and services, but to combat the type of widespread brand damage that the medium can facilitate. Indeed, while we have the experience and management models to respond to events like economic downturns, there is absolutely no consensus on how to combat the challenges presented by the likes of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, as well as the plethora of consumer blogging sites.

Companies need to understand the power of social media and be at the forefront of its exploitation. For example, how can they use social media to communicate with their customers? How can they use it to market themselves and their products in a way that ensures survival? Alternatively, how do they respond to negative or damaging consumer blogs that may arise as a result of a service or product issue? Indeed, you only need to upset one housewife in order for millions of people to be reading about the experience minutes later. And what about the issue of unknown parties posing as a business online and posting erroneous, detrimental, or libelous comments? These are all extremely difficult questions.

As such, managers of the present and future have to be extremely savvy and innovative within these spaces. They need to possess the skills to develop ideas and strategies to not only promote their brand in a rapidly changing and evolving space, but to affect damage limitation in the face of negative sentiment. The prospect of significant and possibly irreparable company damage could well be the price of not facing up to this difficult challenge.

Author: Peter Savas, Director of Service and Logistics, Electrolux Australia

Brawn And Brains

Though one takes place in a classroom and the other on a field, elite study and elite sport have a lot more in common than you might imagine.

As someone currently combining a Masters of Commerce degree with a first-grade NRL career, I can definitely say that achieving success in both demands dedication, perseverance, and a very strong work ethic. Both play an extremely important role in my life and I can say without a doubt that both disciplines complement each other really well. From a personal perspective, I think it’s a good idea to have other interests than just footy. Afterall, there’s only so much training you can do in a day. Uni studies continue to be a great escape, with the mental stimulation being a good balance compared to the sheer physicality of rugby league.

I also know that I have to prepare for life post-footy, and thinking about that next stage of life is also important. At this point, the plan is to finish my Masters and maintain my distinction average before doing an MBA abroad. I’d then like to look at launching a corporate career, maybe with one of the big consulting houses, and see where that takes me. At the end of the day, it’s all about having the options that a uni education provides.

That’s why I also founded the Future Direction Network with a group of school friends. It’s basically a mentoring and scholarship program aimed at encouraging kids from South-West Sydney to engage in higher education. People from lower socio-economic areas are significantly under-represented at uni and we decided we really needed to pass on information about the benefits of enrolling in further study. It’s run in partnership with Sydney Uni’s Compass Social Inclusion Project and I think it’s a very important initiative. If we can provide some motivation and inspiration, that’ll be great.

Author: Corey Payne – Master of Commerce student and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs second-rower

The Right Advice

Choosing to enroll in a postgraduate degree is perhaps the most important decision of a student’s academic career, yet selecting the right one can be a daunting challenge.

Indeed, the majority of postgraduate enquiries we receive involve potential candidates asking about not just one, but three to four different programs. What’s even more interesting is that those programs usually span two or three faculties. So even if someone’s interested in, for example, a Master of Commerce and Master of Marketing degree (both offered within the Business School), they may also ask about a Master of Strategic Public Relations, which is offered through Arts and Social Sciences.

That’s why having access to the right information and advice regarding all the available choices is so crucial. With this in mind, one of the best places to start is the university’s new postgraduate website. The site is unique in that it enables possible course options to be pinpointed based upon individual study motivations. These may include the desire for professional development or career change, or the need to enhance professional qualifications or indulge a personal interest.

In addition to the site, the university’s postgraduate GO Expo (to be held on September 22) will also be an ideal opportunity for people to come and find out about every postgrad degree offered across the whole university. With 16 faculties all up, it promises to be a very efficient way of canvassing all available possibilities in one go. The expo will also provide the chance for potential postgraduate students to sit down and talk to academics about particular programs of interest, as well as the type of career outcomes that might eventuate from choosing a particular course. With postgraduate study such a potentially life-changing activity, both are options I would highly recommend exploring.


Author: Michaela James – University of Sydney Postgraduate Student Recruitment Manager