Hundreds of people seemed to crowd the Hall of Building A, 4th Floor of FIA UB that night. Most of them are students from various campuses in ASEAN. They are present at FIA UB in order to "Opening Ceremony & Gala Dinner” as the 25 finalists in the "ESPRIEX Business Model Competition ASEAN 2017" organized by the Department of Business Administration FIA UB. This activity is titled "The Largest Lean Start Up Competition in ASEAN“Because it is fighting for a very prestigious prize. In addition to thousands of US dollars in cash, the winner also has the right to represent ASEAN countries to compete in the "International Business Model Competition" which will take place at Harvard University in mid-2017.
Welcoming the arrival of the participants and invited guests in the activity which has been held for the fourth time, the Dean of FIA UB Prof. Dr. Bambang Supriyono MS expressed his hope that the entrepreneurial spirit through business models This can spread evenly to other countries. The Dean hopes that ASEAN countries can jointly foster an entrepreneurial spirit among their younger generation. "It is not impossible that in the future this competition can be held in rotation at other campuses, both in Indonesia and in other ASEAN countries," said the Dean.
In addition, the Dean views that the entrepreneurial spirit is currently no longer only the main domain of students in business majors. The Dean referred to the diverse backgrounds of the participants who did not only come from business majors, but also from other majors such as medicine, agriculture, fisheries, technology, computer science, and so on. "Government institutions also benefit from business development, especially those that have cooperative relationships with business companies," explained the Dean.
Meanwhile, still in the series of opening ceremonies that night, Sunu Widyatmoko was lined up to be the speaker"Evening Seminars“. The former President Director of AirAsia Indonesia talked a lot about vigilance in the early stages of business development startup. According to Sunu, the initial stage of business is referred to as “Death Valley” and not many companies can escape this stage. It takes relentless hard work and determination to get out of this stage. "Everything can be achieved, as long as you have a mature and unique business modeling concept," said the alumni of the FIA UB Business Administration Department.
The 2017 ASEAN ESPRIEX Business Model Competition series of events will be held for 2 days, from Tuesday (21/3) to Wednesday (22/3). On the first day, the 25 finalists were required to attend class mentoring accompanied by business experts from academics and practitioners. This class aims to solidify the concepts that will be presented on the second day tomorrow.
Among the 25 finalists, most came from Indonesian campuses spread across the islands of Java and Sumatra. In addition, there were 5 teams from universities outside Indonesia, such as Malaysia and Thailand.
