Talks for future entrepreneurs

Front row, from left: Koh, Wong and Chong with the audience at the talk

The Department of Consultancy and Commercialisation together with GenYouth Sdn Bhd, RunWorldEvent and Law & Justice organised the entrepreneur talk series at the Sungai Long Campus on 2 April 2018.

The talk series was part of GenYouth’s Connected Campus tour 2018 to nurture young entrepreneurs by providing platforms for the youths to meet the experts from the industries. It included two talks by Sakura Kristal Group of Companies Director Alex Chong on “The ‘Y’ Effect”, and TeaLive Business Development Head Bryan Wong on “Franchise or start-up”.

GenYouth Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eldrick Koh said, “We hope to encourage more young people to venture into entrepreneurial journey by providing them with the opportunity to meet the CEOs and experts from the industry, and interact with them to learn from others’ entrepreneurial stories. It would help them to attain a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship and gain a clearer picture of how the industry operates.”

Chong in his talk said, “Within the last six years, I owned seven outlets of my business in the early stage, then faced a huge challenge that I had to close them down with only three outlets remained. However, with much effort, I managed to overcome the difficulties and my business is now running its 14^th outlet. Being an entrepreneur requires agility to acknowledge the problems, learn from mistakes, and figure out the measures to overcome the problems. It is also crucial to educate and prepare ourselves before taking another step further.” Chong’s talk also mentioned the strengths and weaknesses of the youths from Gen-Y, he advised, “Workers from the Gen-Y are result-driven and efficient. These people are also trendsetters who are efficient at work. However, they have to be more patient, keep focused on the goals and invest more effort to build a long-term and stable career.”

Wong’s talk emphasised on the difference between a franchise business and a start-up business. He said, “Both of the business modes have their respective pros and cons. While deciding the type of business that you would pursue, it is always crucial to identify your strengths and plans first. For franchising, there are a few advantages such as the higher possibility of success and existing brand recognition, but the fee to purchase the franchise, as well as its recurring fees, are high. Start-up, on the other hand, offers more freedom in your business which you can be as creative as you wish too with less pressure from a third-party, but generally have a higher failure rate than franchising. Therefore, identifying your business goals, understanding your preferences and ability are some keys that need to be considered ahead.”

The talks saw some 120 UTAR staff and students in the audience. 

The speakers share their experience in the industry