It is more blessed to give than to receive. With the support of the Yeh Family Philanthropy (YFP), HKUST Business School has pioneered a course “Social Entrepreneurship & Venture Philanthropy” and a dedicated Student Directed Venture Philanthropy Fund. The fund provides students with an opportunity to help social enterprises tackle their business challenges, and to participate in social investment decision making.
The credit-bearing elective course started last year. It combines lectures, expert experience-sharing sessions and partnership work with social businesses for students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Students are divided into teams, and each represents a social enterprise to present a business plan and a funding proposal at a pitch competition. The winning team in the competition gets venture philanthropic funding for their companies.
This year, a class of 27 students from the Business School and also the Engineering School partnered with five social enterprises which were shortlisted from a pool of ten. The team formed by two MBA students - Jean-Pierre Wack and Leire Mancisidor - and three undergraduates - Charles Luk, John Yiu and Sunny Chan - impressed the judges at the pitch competition with their business proposal for a green startup, HK Recycles (HKR). They won a grant for the social enterprise to expand its recycling logistics business.
Team member John Yiu said they worked closely with HKR to understand its business, including meetings with HKR’s potential customers, site visits to follow the waste collection routes and see how those garbage items with recycle value were handled. They also studied the government’s policy direction on waste management, the recycling logistics industry in Hong Kong, its potential to grow, major operators, etc.
“We gathered this information and put forward the marketing strategy and consulting advice with a target to help the company sustain its business. For example, we identified ways to track the recycling process to ensure that its service is accountable to customers,” John explained.
“Our financial and social analysis takes into account the positive impacts on reducing pressure on landfills, reducing carbon emissions and creating employment for marginalized workers,” he added.
The course allows students to act as both a consultant for an entrepreneurial company and a potential investor. In addition to working with social enterprises, the students are part of the independent judging panel which includes industry experts and faculty members in making the funding decision.
The judging panel makes its decision based on a number of criteria including business concept, market readiness, team composition, impact value and sustainability. This year, the scores were particularly close between two teams - HK Recycles and another green enterprise dedicated to promoting organic farming. The team partnered with HK Recycles secured enough votes to win the pitch competition and a grant of HK$250,000.
The funding will be used for marketing and advertising, buying equipment and hiring more disadvantaged people to help collect wastes for recycling purposes. Their financial and social impact analysis estimates that by 2015, a further 7,500 people will sign up for the company’s waste collecting service, thus helping alleviate the pressure on the much-debated landfills in the city.
The course has not come to an end after the competition. All student teams are given a choice to join the funded enterprise to put together the implementation plan or to remain in their original teams to continue working with their partners on alternative funding plans.
Acting Dean of the HKUST Business School Prof Kalok Chan said, “By bringing students, social entrepreneurs and philanthropists together, this new teaching model enables students to contribute their ideas and skills to real businesses while making socially responsible investment. On behalf of the Business School, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Yeh Family Philanthropy for its generous support. My special thanks also go to our faculty members, students and participating social enterprises for their hard work and active participation.”
Considering what they had learnt from the course, the winning team said that it was a valuable opportunity to understand the ‘whys’ driving entrepreneurs and the ‘hows’ of executing a business idea through real-life experience.