“Mass entrepreneurship and innovation” in London : Ideas for Successful Entrepreneurs
1. Among all the technological innovation, entrepreneurial atmosphere, what left the most profound impression to you ?
For me, Cambridge Science Park is very impressive.It is recognized as one of the world’s most important technology center, with unparalleled research projects and Innovation groups. This is a region full of vitality and passion, combining a large multinational resources from universities and emerging companies, where continually attract investment from whole around the world. In the past 30 years, the growth rate of average annual GDP of the Science and Technology Park is 6.3% , which is significantly higher than the growth rate of UK entire GDP 3.4%. Since it creates 55 billion pounds tax income and 28 billion pounds export value annually for Britain，people also name it “ The Silicon Valley of European”.
2. Could you talk about the jobs and missions of Cambridge University Chinese Entrepreneurs Club, and the achievements accomplished before?
- The Communications between China and United Kingdom
This series of activities gather heads of Britain government, British Royal family members, and leaders in business, Information Technology industry and academia, create an international platform from which allows Chinese government and entrepreneurs to communicate and learn, and further foster the communications among different industries and fields. These activities also help Chinese government, companies and worldwide top universities to present and share their research projects, assisting Chinese government and entrepreneurs to globalize their entrepreneurial horizon and strategic decision-making in terms of developing companies.
- Business Administration Training in Cambridge/London
We arrange representatives from Chinese government and companies to visit top universities, like Cambridge University, and London, the financial center of the world, and facilitate business communications by issuing official Cambridge Club certifications. By “Professional Knowledge Learning + Conversations with Leaders in industries + Tours in Britain Companies,” our activities help Chinese government and entrepreneurs to improve their creativity and management comprehensively.
- Global Investment and Financing Opportunities
Cambridge alumni are in all sorts of fields all over the world. As a bridge connecting China with global investors and investees, we not only help Britain government and companies from other countries seeking investment opportunities in China, but also assist Chinese government and investors with finding investment chances in Britain and other countries, trying to match the investment needs from both sides. Our jobs cover: Finance investment service (e.g. Mergers and Acquisitions, Assets Management, Private Equity) ; Industrial investment opportunities (e.g. Real Estate Investment, Trades between China and United Kingdom, Technology Research Report and Incubation).
3.What difficulties have you encountered while you were trying to help Chinese and British entrepreneurs to work with each other? What experience would you like to share with the start-up entrepreneurs from both countries?
The most important thing is that Chinese and British people deal with things in different ways due to their different cultural backgrounds. Such difference sometimes would become a crucial element that determine if entrepreneurs from both countries can cooperate. For instance, there was once I received a request from a huge organization back in China; they wanted me to merge a hedge fund company here for them in three weeks. The clients said that such short period of time would be sufficient in Mainland but I told them that that was not possible in Britain. Britain has a market that is relatively more regulated, so a lot of the deals have their corresponded procedures to go through, especially in Finance. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are very careful about all the deals and there are no shortcuts for us. Therefore, I then told them that we have to do as Romans do in order to get the deal. My advice to the people who are interested in start-up is:
- Based on your own interests and strengths, do more research and find the right direction to actually start the business. Do not follow the mainstream blindly. Do not do something just because it is popular at the time. Popular things are temporary; they will not last forever. Therefore, you need to find your starting point based on your own specific background and situation.
- Once you find a project worth trying, stay focused and be persistent about it. Starting up a business takes a lot of time and experience.
- Your team is very important. A good team can get work done efficiently. What is a good team? It is not like everyone in the team has to be the best in their own fields; it is more like they should be able to maximum their specialities through the teamwork. It is also important for the team members to complement each other. In addition, a welcoming working atmosphere and shared missions are crucial.
- If you collaborate with people from different countries, must pay attention to the culture differences.
4. What do you think about this China-Britain Joint Science and Technology Summit? Any comments? Are there anything that you think would be important for Chinese colleges and universities to pay attention to?
There is an interesting phenomena that often happen between investors and investees: it is hard for experienced investors and investees who have great high-tech projects to collaborate within a suitable platform so that the resource offered from both sides can match. This problem is quite obvious, especially in the projects that are internationally collaborated. After President Xi visited this Summit, China and United Kingdom will have more opportunities to work together. We need more international platforms, such as this Summit, that allow investors and investees from both countries to share and update information about projects and industry trends in time.
Also, we, Cambridge University Chinese Entrepreneurs Club, always aim at further develop and improve the collaborations between China and United Kingdom. That’s why we became the official partner of this Summit. We welcome great colleges and universities in China to work with us, share and utilize the resource we have, and help developing more project collaborations between China and United Kingdom.
The first China-Britain Joint Science and Technology Summit was held in Imperial College London successfully in 2015, October 24th. Synced Technology Company as one the partners of this summit, attended this event.
After Chairman Xi’s British trip and the visit of Imperial College London, holding the first China-Britain Technology Cooperation Summit is to response to the call “Mass entrepreneurship and innovation” of Premier Li, so that deepen the technological cooperation between China and UK. With the great support of Imperial College London and the Chinese Ambassador in the UK, the technological exchange and cooperation event that organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association aims to build a bridge of innovative technology between China and UK through this event, and realizing the technological achievements of UK industrialized in Chinese market as soon as possible, so that promote the development of technology in China and UK, moreover, all around the world.
As the partner of this summit, Synced Technology Company did interviews to the companies which attended this event. The interviewees include: Jozef Dobos: The founder of Repo 3D ; Chu Wang: The founder of Blocks Wearable; Will Eastcott: PlayCanavas ; Jasmine Jiang: The Club of Cambridge Entrepreneurs.
Report Group Members: Tobey Jiaxin HangWu Billy Rita | Editor: Synced
