18 May 2015

The Business of Creative Thinking: The Key to Solving Social Problems

Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk announced on the 1st of May at the launch of the Tesla ‘Powerwall’ that he expects to "fundamentally change the way the world uses energy". The ‘Powerwall’ is a sleek suitcase-sized lithium-ion battery designed for homeowners to store energy. Musk proposes that in conjunction with solar cells, the technology has the potential to usurp the need for fossil fuels to drive sustainable growth in the developing world. Musk talks a big game, but as the brains behind Paypal, Solar City, Hyperloop, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, his pedigree throws weight behind his audacious rhetoric.

Although undersupply is undoubtedly a calculated strategy to stoke interest and publicity, Tesla have booked $800m in first week sales for the ‘Powerwall’ and have sold out until mid-2016.


I took particular interest in Tesla’s shift into the energy market as I spent the summer interning at the Resources and Energy Division of NSW Trade & Investment as part of the Business School’s Industry Placement Program (IPP). My primary role in the department was to develop a research paper on the ‘New and Emerging Resources Industry in NSW’.

I can’t simply accept that a battery can fundamentally change the way the world uses energy overnight, but there is certainly considerable momentum building towards renewable energy technologies becoming cost competitive with traditional fossil fuels. My IPP experience was immensely challenging, but it was also a thoroughly rewarding experience. Authoring a research paper has been a much needed leg-up in the competitive graduate job application process.

I was also fortunate enough to have travelled to India in July 2014 with the 40K Group as part of the Business School's Community Placement Program (CPP). In alignment with Musk’s business philosophy, my CPP experience tested the hypothesis that for-profit ventures can act as an agent to drive sustainable social change. After undertaking a thought provoking unit on social entrepreneurship, I worked in Bangalore with a team of nine tertiary students from various academic backgrounds to develop a clothing line for sale in the Australian market. Ultimately, the business is now fully functional and our products can be purchased at the 40K Online Marketplace.
 
I would highly recommend going on the 40K Globe Program and if you are interested in getting involved, watch the video below and apply at the 40K Globe website.


Musk has already achieved many great things, but it is his attitude to selecting his colleagues that differentiates him from the rest. As he puts it, "The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative."

Whilst consciously sounding like a billboard, my CPP and IPP experiences have genuinely taught me far more than any classroom based subject ever could. Working in a rural village in Bangalore was an insightful contrast to working in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, yet both experiences were tremendously worthwhile for various reasons. I was taken out of my comfort zone, made many new friends and developed skills that have made me confident of achieving a successful transition into the professional world. 

Andy Burgess
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

12 May 2015

A Light in the Dark

I arrived in Bangalore, India in the evening. A beautiful red sunset hung over the city skyline as I was driven to ‘the hive’, where our team was to live and work for the next four weeks. I was in India as part of the Business School's Community Placement Program, to partake in a month long fellowship with Pollinate Energy, a social business that enables access to sustainable technologies. Founded by a group of Australians, Pollinate Energy seeks to do social good by targeting groups of people that otherwise have no access to these technologies by making the technology affordable, and by remaining fully accountable to the customer and ensuring that the products are fulfilling their purpose.

Over 292 million people in India live without electricity. They rely on very crude technologies for their light and heat, most often kerosene lamps. These lamps are not only expensive to fuel, bad for the environment and a poor source of light, but they’re incredibly toxic. Indian families are forced to risk carbon monoxide poisoning and respiratory disease just to light their lives after dark.


Pollinate Energy has developed solutions based on solid research and community understanding. Not only is Pollinate fighting kerosene poisoning through the use of solar lamps, but by hiring Pollinators to sell and distribute the product, they’re creating employment too. They’re giving individuals in slum communities the chance to stand on their own feet and be stakeholders in their future growth.

My role was to work within a team to develop a strategy to sell a new product range of water filters, and to continue selling the solar lights to the communities around Bangalore. Unlike traditional internships, we were given a huge amount of responsibility early on, and it was up to us to steer the direction of the new product sales – a task that was daunting at times, but hugely rewarding. Our average day involved brainstorming ideas for the most effective way to sell the water filters, and then setting out into the communities in the afternoon and evenings to try out different methods to sell the products with local Indian entrepreneurs.

Perhaps one of the most confronting things about the working with Pollinate Energy was being faced with the sheer poverty in some of these communities and the obvious language barrier that existed. However, it was a joy to see that even though the people living in these communities lived in such adversity, they seemed so cheerful and happy.

I learnt a significant amount about social business in my time at Pollinate. As it doesn’t operate like a charity or a traditional business, the company has to carefully balance both the economic and social goals of the enterprise to ensure their mission and goals are met. In the case of Pollinate Energy, their goal is to reach more people by expanding their operations into nearly every major Indian city by 2020. They know they can’t do this by giving away products for free, so in order to reach more people and create a greater social impact, they sell the lights and other products to create more revenue, and therefore scale up their social impact.

It was hugely rewarding to meet our goals of selling over 50 water filters by the end of the month. When the solar lights were first presented to the communities, they took time to gain widespread adoption – and now they literally sell themselves. Hopefully we see the same result for the water filters, as a simple change in the cleanliness of drinking water could have a huge impact for the lives of the people in these communities.


Scott Ellice-Flint
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

6 May 2015

My Industry Placement Program Experience at PwC Beijing

It is always a good opportunity to have real world experiences as a business student. What is happening in the real world very is very important to me to complement my studies in the classroom. Six months ago, I was lucky enough to join the Industry Placement Program (IPP) and work at PwC in my hometown, Beijing.


I’m the kind of person who always strives to set goals before taking action. At the beginning, I put down a few objectives. However, the story in the real world is always different, insofar as you never have the chance to complete your goals one at a time. Unlike the classroom, you can easily feel overwhelmed by many tasks and must be able to adapt to the pace in the firm in order to catch up with others as soon as possible.

I worked in the Risk & Assurance department for two and half months. Our job included designing and evaluating internal control systems for some state-owned enterprises in China. It started with a few days of preparing and editing biding documents for clients, and also many other tedious, but important jobs. 'Every brick is essential for building a house', and from the very beginning I began to develop an understanding of the whole business.


Later, I was given the opportunity to further grasp the essence of the job on a three-week business trip. Working in a team is always very interesting. None more so than in one of the Big Four accounting firms, as I had so many opportunities to interact with people from different backgrounds, and, as such, dramatically improved my interpersonal skills. One extremely valuable experience was the opportunity to interview senior managers of our clients, allowing me to understand how managers conduct their work and think from their perspective.


The unique element that distinguishes IPP from other programs is that it actually provides the chance for peers to share their experiences. In China, all the participants lived together, no matter which company they were allocated over the six-week period, which gave us the chance to share all our interesting stories. Even the catch-up on weekends was a special part of it. Having heaps of friends around you to talk about the funny things, not only helps you learn more about office politics, but also enriches the experience, as you are not on your own.



Overall, I gained insight and tranferable skills in a diverse range of areas. Time management is perhaps the most important one, as you have to cultivate multi-tasking skills in order to meet deadlines. In addition, learning how to handle stress in the workplace, especially in professional services, can help you to achieve more and also make the work more enjoyable.

I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to put what I’ve leant in to practice during my last year at Uni, and I can’t wait to graduate and have more exciting stories in the future.

Anqi Dong
Anqi is an international student student at the University of Sydney Business School. Anqi recently completed an internship with PwC in Beijing as part of the Industry Placement Program.