At the beginning of 2015, the Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya (FIA UB) received great honor from three major US campuses, namely Brigham Young University, Harvard University, and Stanford University. The three of them, who are jointly the organizers of the International Business Model Competition (IBMC), have officially collaborated with the FIA UB Business Department to hold the preliminary round of the Business Model Competition (BMC) for Southeast Asia and its surroundings. With this position, the winner of a business modeling competition held annually by the Department of Business is entitled to take part in IBMC held in the United States which involves hundreds of teams from dozens of countries.
Via e-mail, IBMC Director Jeff Brown stated that his party had observed the implementation of BMC which had been held twice by the Business Department in an event entitled "Espriex". Jeff believes that the basis and support system as well as the vision to continue and develop this activity in a more advanced direction can be seen from the implementation of Espriex so far. The following is a complete e-mail excerpt from Jeff Brown, who also serves as Assistant Director at the Rollins Center, Brigham Young University:
“I and my team have carefully observed the Espriex 2.0: Business Model Competition activities that you are holding and we are happy with your work. Given the foundation and existing support system, coupled with your vision to continue this activity and expand it more broadly, we officially invite Espriex to work with us as a qualification provider for IBMC. As the qualifying organizer, the Espriex winner will automatically take part in the international event which we hold every year in May.”
Of course this trust is a big reward for the hard work that has been done by all the lecturers of the Business Department for the last two years. Even though the business approach originally coined by Alexander Osterwalder is currently gaining popularity among world-class businessmen and small and medium businesses, there are still many businessmen and students in Indonesia who don't know about it. Therefore, this collaboration with IBMC organizers will be a momentum to introduce business modeling among Indonesian students and entrepreneurs, as well as a momentum to realize the vision of the FIA UB Business Department to become a reference for the development of business administration in the international arena.
In November 2014, Espriex 2.0: Business Model Competition was attended by around 90 teams in the preliminary round and 14 teams in the final round, including from Gadjah Mada University, Ciputra University, Bogor Agricultural University, Lampung University, PPM School of Management, University Hang Tuah Suarabay, Putra Malaysia University, Singapore Polytechnic, and host of Brawijaya University. (ALA/FIA)
