Microsoft Word - Center for Entrepreneurship Annual Report 2010l.docThe Chinese University of Hong Kong Center for Entrepreneurship Annual Report for August 2009 to July 2010
This is the fifth annual report of The Chinese University of Hong Kong Center for Entrepreneurship (CfE) submitted to the Asia Pacific Institute of Business on September 22nd, 2010. The report
reviews the accomplishments in entrepreneurship practice, research and teaching Outlines the governance and financing of CfE for the fiscal year 2009-10 and Seeks advice concerning initiatives to be pursued in the coming year.
I. Accomplishments A. Practice The CfE fosters entrepreneurship among students through our CUHK-wide start-up business plan competition, the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup of Student Entrepreneurship (VCCE), and various external competitions in which our students represented CUHK. We run the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge (HKSEC), open to all university students in Hong Kong. This year, we facilitated the creation of the CUHK chapter of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). We continued activities with the Tolo Harbor Angel Support Network and supported the founding of the Hong Kong Business Angel Network. In addition, we have successfully bid to provide consulting services concerning their incubatees to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC). 1. Vice Chancellors Cup of Student Entrepreneurship (VCCE) VCCE was held on February 26th and 27th, 2010. We implemented two major innovations to VCCE this year (1) we rescheduled VCCE from November to February to allow incoming students (especially MBAs) the time to prepare more mature plans and (2) We held VCCE over two days to allow substantial interaction between judges and students while accommodating a larger number of student participants. Nineteen teams registered; one was disqualified and three were screened out (by Hugh Thomas and Kevin Au) because plan quality was substandard, leaving 15 teams to compete. The number of student participants, 73, considerably exceeded previous years. However the numbers of mixed teams (teams including students from more than one faculty or program) declined from last year. In terms of student numbers, Business Administration Faculty undergraduates dominated, with 34 students; second was MBAs with 20 students; third was engineering undergraduates with 11 and fourth was engineering postgraduates with five. Social Sciences, Law and Continuing Education each contributed one. On Friday afternoon, we held the semi-finals, comprised of three divisions of five teams per division, from which two teams each
were selected for the final round which took place on Saturday morning. The first second and third place teams (Ho’Me, later named Vy-Sense), iQpon and MyMag were 100% MBA teams, the first time such an outcome has occurred since VCCE started. This may reflect the success of the concentration in entrepreneurship in the MBA program, introduced in 2009 (see C2 below). MBA domination at VCCE less positively reflects a reduced interest of students from other faculties in participating in VCCE and a drop in the number of cross-disciplinary teams. Prize money and out of pocket expenses for VCCE were covered by an RAC grant administered by the Committee on the Advancement for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CASIE). Details of VCCE are found in Appendix I. 2. External Competitions: Asia Moot Corp, Global Moot Corp, YDC and the Little
Challenge Cup As in past years, we sent our VCCE first place team under the name Vy-sense to represent CUHK at Global Moot Corp at the University of Texas at Austin, adding a PhD engineering candidate to the team to strengthen its technical credibility. The team won the “Best Market Potential” award in its division. Moot Corp has now been renamed the Venture labs Investment Competition, to emphasize rollout rather than a mock exercise. This year, we broke tradition with our second place team, who declined to represent CUHK at Asia Moot Corp at Thammasat University in Bangkok in March 2010, so the honor went to the second runner-up, My Mag, who Mag won the Challenge Round of the competition. Working with the CASIE, now led by PVC Henry Wong and Chaired by Wong Kam Fai, we have selected the teams to represent CUHK in the China Challenge Cup (entrepreneurship) to be held in September 25th to 30th, 2010 in Changchun, Jilin. Selection presented a challenge as none of the VCCE winning teams wished to compete. The MBAs in Ho’Me/Vy-Sense indicated they did not want to pursue their startup and, although MyMag and i-Qpon both attempted startup, after several months of hard work, both abandoned their plans and had no interest in presenting dead plans. Strong support from CINTEC has allowed us to form two credible inter-faculty teams. Two members from Ho’Me/Vy-Sense were introduced by KY Leung of CINTEC to streaming technology developed by Professor Jack Lee. Their team has been joined by an engineering post-graduate student Michael Liu. They seriously are planning rollout and will representing CUHK at the China Challenge Cup. The second team, Green Collar, is led by Jack Cheng who won HKSEC in 2008, represented Hong Kong in HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards 2009 and is currently rolling out his venture in Sheung Shui. He will be paired with an engineering PhD student of Prof Yam Yeung, Derek Yiu.
Selecting CUHK representative teams for future competitions will continue to be challenging. We must select teams to go to Asia Moot Corp 2011 prior to VCCE 2011; hence, we plan to maintain an ongoing roster of teams capable of representing CUHK at by-invitation competitions in addition to sending the VCCE winners to Global Moot Corp. Although we have a substantial history of participation in international competitions, and have done well in Hong Kong wide and Chinese competitions (this year Jack Cheng of Green Collar – see above – took first place in the Hong Kong HSBC Young Entrepreneurs competition), our teams continue to record mediocre performance reflecting less well developed plans and less commitment roll-out than is found among the winners in competitions of a high global standard. Financing for external competitions participation travel and accommodation is provided by a grant from the CUHK Knowledge Transfer Unit (KTU). 3. Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge (HKSEC) 2009 Under the slogan of “Making Enterprise Social” Mingles Tsoi led for the third consecutive year the Hong Kong-wide competition HKSEC 2009. In all there were 22 lectures, meetings, mixers and training sessions. 831 students in 215 teams responded from 21 post-secondary institutions joined HKSEC. They submitted 139 summary written plans with visual presentations. Twenty-two judges selected 24 semi-finalists who, with the help of 18 mentors, wrote complete plans. Another 12 judges chose six finalists from which two winners were selected by five distinguished judges to implement their social enterprises as interns. This year, the two winning teams were mixed university teams: Inter Cultural Education students came from PolyU, HKU and UST; True Colours students came from Baptist U and City U. This marked the first year that CUHK students did not take any top honors in HKSEC. We take this as a mark of the growing attraction of HKSEC throughout Hong Kong, but will encourage our students to win back top honors in 2010. Funding for HKSEC came from a $1.2 million grant from the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, which allowed us to plan a full program of activities starting in the summer of 2009 and continuing until the final in January 2010. A critical part of the competition is the $240,000 available for internships. This year, we allowed students who had graduated after 2007 also to participate and we changed monitoring of the internship awards from an hourly basis to a milestones basis to further emphasize taking practical steps in the rollouts. The winners from 2009-10 True Colors and ICE, are well advanced in their roll-outs. The winner from HKSEC 2008, Jack Cheng of CUHK, is continuing with implementation of his plan, Green Collar.
HKSEC has made wide use of YouTube to post videos of the competition and other activities (see http://www.youtube.com/user/hksec). The Home Affairs Bureau awarded us the mandate to run HKSEC 2010-11 in July. Press clippings for HKSEC 2009 are found in Appendix II.
4. Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) SIFE is a global association of undergraduate students, sponsored by major multinational companies, where students in member universities design and implement social projects and present their activities in a series of annual competitions. The competitions’ rules and scoring criteria are globally standardized and winners of local competitions compete in regional and global competitions, with judging provided by corporate executives. Projects tend to be “one-off”, implemented by students over a one or two year period to achieve a single social objective or manage an event. SIFE China chapters, coordinated by a permanently staffed office in Shanghai, have been very active for several years. In Hong Kong SIFE chapters in Open University and Hong Kong University have sporadically participated in China wide competitions, but Hong Kong lacked its own region, because SIFE rules specify that at least four universities are required for a regional competition. This year, largely under the initiative of two CUHK students, MBA graduate \Yanni Wu and BA student Jack Cheng (the team leader of the HKSEC 2008 winner), a SIFE Hong Kong region was established based on four universities in Hong Kong (CUHK, Poly U, Hong Kong U and Open U). The CUHK team, selected from about 50 active CUHK members, won the Hong Kong SIFE regional competition and went to Shanghai in May 2010 as the Hong Representative. The CfE, through the work of Mingles Tsoi and cooperating with Prof Chen Mun Kin of the Department of Sociology, has provided encouragement, mentoring and advice to SIFE, but otherwise does not commit resources for SIFE activities.
4. The Tolo Harbor Angel Support Group and the Hong Kong Business Angels Network The Tolo Harbor Angel Support Group, an activity led by Kevin Au and Wilton Chau, where informal investors hear finance solicitation pitches of start-up companies and exchange experiences on investment, held two sessions in this year. We then stopped activities following the establishment of the Hong Kong Business Angel Network (HKBAN) by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. CUHK, through Wilton Chau, strongly supports HKBAN as a Hong Kong wide angel capital network with participation from all Hong Kong research universities and the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. We believe that there is room in Hong Kong for several organizations that support informal investment, but have halted Tolo Harbor Angel Support Network activities until such time as it becomes clear what non-overlapping activities are best led by a CfE based support network.
5. Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) Incubatee Business
Plan Consultancy Services and Cyberport Incutrain Program.
HKSTPC has had modest success with its incubator program but its management considers that substantial potential for stimulation of high-value creating enterprises is being lost because incubate corporations are insufficiently aware of profitable business models and market opportunities, inexperienced in establishing strategic partners, and unfamiliar with sourcing finance. To address these problems, HKSTPC approached Hong Kong universities and consulting companies requesting proposals to provide general consulting to its incubatees and specific consulting to those few incubatees with high potential for global impact. The CfE through the initiative of Wilton Chau, with the support of Richard Tang and Mingles Tsoi, and with Hugh Thomas as principal investigator, bid to provide these services. We were won the bid in early August and the contract was negotiated and signed by the Technology Licensing Office (Alice Ngan) in mid September. The CfE is associated with Cyberport’s incubator, the Incutrain Program (for start-up digital entertainment and lifestyle companies) through representation by Hugh Thomas on the Advisory Board and the Vetting Committee. This association has continued uninterrupted since the start of the Incutrain Program, four years ago. B. Research As a research center of CUHK under the Asia Pacific Institute of Business, the CfE’s primary duty is to carry out and disseminate first class, applied research in entrepreneurship. 1. Initial Study on the Roadmap for Design Entrepreneur in Hong Kong – a case research approach Since 2008 Kevin Au and Bernard Suen have been working with the Hong Kong Design Centre financed by the Design Smart Hong Kong (which projects we refer to as the Design Smart Initiative (DSI)) to provide programs on entrepreneurship for designers. In 2009, we broadened DSI by successfully applying for $1.4 million in funding to support the research to discover roadmaps used by Hong Kong based design entrepreneurs to chart their own development, to benchmark the outcomes to find the shortcomings and practical ways to improve these roadmaps and to produce indigenous teaching cases for effective communication of these insights. Interviews and writing is now in progress. This DSI research is scheduled for completion by October 2010. Note that the DSI initiative is not reflected in the accounts of the CfE – it is a separate research project under Kevin Au as principal investigator – although it is administered by us and its team members are very much a part of CfE activities. 2. Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics The CfE, under the initiative of Kevin Au, is co-investigator with Nan Kai University (the principal investigator) in a major research project Models of New Enterprise Formation and
Growth funded by the National Social Sciences Fund of China (project #73732004). The study investigates companies at three different periods over two years. This large-scale, longitudinal study of new firm formation is being conducted in eight urban areas of China. The primary purpose is to uncover the factors that initiate, hinder, and facilitate the emergence and development of new ventures in China. In the first wave of data collection in 2009, we contacted 20,998 Chinese households by telephone through random dialing in eight representative cities in China. Of those, 974 were nascent enterprises, 601 of whom went through a comprehensive telephone interviews regarding the status and development of their startups. The project will follow the development of these startups and collect two more waves of data over a two-year period. Note that this study’s income and expenditures are not included in the CfE accounts as the study is administered by Nankai University. The data, however, will be available to our researchers for analysis. 3. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Hong Kong and Shenzhen 2009 In cooperation with over 300 scholars the CfE conducted GEM Hong Kong and Shenzhen 2009 to benchmark entrepreneurial activity against from 55 countries. We held a press conference in Hong Kong to announce preliminary findings timed in January 2010 to correspond with the release of the global report in Santiago, Chile. We are currently writing the full study. Preliminary findings show that early stage entrepreneurial activity rate in Hong Kong has dramatically dropped from 10 percent in 2007 to 3.6 percent in 2009, while Shenzhen experienced an even greater drop from 11.5 percent in 2004 to 4.8 percent in 2009. We found that, although the quantity of entrepreneurship had drastically fallen due to the global financial crisis, entrepreneurship quality had improved. See Appendix III for a copy of the news release. Although GEM membership involves the tacit commitment to implement the study each year, the CfE has participated in studies only in five studies in the last eight years: 2002-4, 2007 and 2009. We have benefited considerably from the publicity of the GEM reports and the international contacts afforded by the GEM network, but we decided not to do the study in 2010 and we do not intend to enter the 2011 study either. These decisions are based on the high cost in terms of commitment of personnel and funds (the 2009 study was only partly financed by grants from HKBI and the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences with the balance coming from CfE manpower and funds), the increased difficulty (due to rising interview drop-out rates) in conducting the telephone random interviews and the relatively little academic value that we have to date derived from the studies. We continue to seek an appropriate research funding model that will allow us to continue to be part of this high-profile international team.
4. CUHK Alumni Census of Entrepreneurs (ACE) The KTU of CUHK has financed CUHK ACE, an internet based poll, led by Louis Leung and Mingles Tsoi, of CUHK alumni to determine their impact on the economy of Hong Kong and the region and to identifying mentors who can help students launch successful new ventures and add to our angel capital support group. CUHK ACE was inspired by research by Prof Chuck Eesley of Stanford, concerning MIT and Tsinghua. It was launched with a forum at the end of March and has worked through the alumni affairs offices at the university, college and faculty levels. We have received about 1,000 responses to the internet questionnaire, about two hundred of whom have, at some time in their careers, been entrepreneurs. We are carrying out case analysis of 30 of those entrepreneurs, in order to write up a series of CUHK entrepreneur cases. Of the entrepreneurs who have answered ACE, approximately 80 are interested in continuing to work with the CfE to help student entrepreneurs. ACE research was highly visibly displayed in posters during Entrepreneurship Week 2010 from September 9th to 13th, 2010 at CUHK. 5. Successful Trans-Generational Entrepreneurial Practice (STEP) Project and Research into Family Business Practices Kevin Au since 2008 has led our initiative in the STEP Project organized by Babson College and involving, in Asia, Bond University (Australia), Indian School of Business, Nankai University (China), National Sun Yat Sen University (Taiwan), Queensland University of Technology (Australia), Seoul University of Technology (Korea), and Sun Yat Sen University (China) conducts research into succession in family businesses. The initiative will result in the publication of a case book by late 2010. As CUHK’s Asia Pacific Institute of Business is keen to pursue family business initiatives, in future, the CfE is shifting STEP and other family business research to APIB.
6. Chinese Biennial Private Enterprises Survey Tracking Study We are cooperating with Prof Dai Jianzhong, Associate Director of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences to work with the National Survey of Private Enterprises, a biennial survey of some 4,000 firms conducted in China under the management of the United Front Department with the support of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The study is national in scope and every two years polls almost 4000 firms are asked a broad variety of questions about company activities, financial performance, and entrepreneur background. Although the study results have been summarized by reports in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 and although the data through 2006 is quasi-public, the identity of firms in the main data set is not revealed and there is no way to link the same firms across the years using the official data set. Professor Dai, however, who has been the manager of the research since it began in 1990, has tracked in hard copy just over 900 of the firms staring in 2000 and declining to approximately 100 in 2008. We are arranging this data subset into a form
that can allow the analysis of success and failure in Chinese private enterprises over the last decade. Currently, we are applying for funding for this study. C. Teaching The CfE is not a teaching unit of CUHK, but teaching entrepreneurship is important to fulfilling CFE’s mission. Our work on teaching comprises encouraging and coordinating the development of appropriate entrepreneurship programs, promoting best practice in entrepreneurship education. 1. Undergraduate Minor in Entrepreneurship The minor in entrepreneurship was implemented in 2009. It includes courses from the Faculty of Engineering’s Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, the Faculty of Social Sciences’ School of Journalism and Communications and the Faculty of Business Administration’s Department of Management, where it is housed. 2. MBA Concentration in Entrepreneurship The MBA concentration in entrepreneurship was implemented in 2009, largely through the work of Kevin Au. Many students took entrepreneurship as their concentration in its inaugural year, making it the second most popular concentration after finance. MBA courses in the concentration are taught by David Ahlstrom, Kevin Au, Wilton Chau and Hugh Thomas. Robert Lee, who is on the CfE Advisory Board, will be teaching in the concentration in the coming year. Going forward we anticipate coordinating projects concerning entrepreneurship with students in the Faculty of Engineering and CUHK researchers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. 3. General Education CfE Executive Board members taught entrepreneurship modules in the General Education courses of United College, New Asia College and Chung Chi College. Unbeknownst to us, Shaw College implemented a full General Education course this year. Three years ago members of the CfE applied for a new General Education Course in entrepreneurship. Our application was turned down because the university considered that its academic content was insufficiently rich. However, the inauguration of the Shaw College course, and the verbal encouragement given to us by Joseph J.Y. Sung, the incoming CUHK President and Vice Chancellor, has led the Executive Board to decide to re-submit an application to the university to offer a General Education course in entrepreneurship in the coming year for implementation in 2012. 4. Hong Kong Design Smart Initiative (DSI) The CfE co-organized a program with the Hong Kong Design Centre and funded by involving a series of seven modules and one site visit on entrepreneurship for designers and creative business
in the third intake of students for the 8-weekend course in the summer of 2009. The initiative is led by project director Bernard Suen and has developed into the case writing initiative referred to above (See B1). 5. Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE ) Asia 2009 The CfE in partnership with the CUHK Centre for Innovation and Technology (CINTEC) held REE Asia 2009, co-hosted by Stanford University Technology Ventures Program and co-organized by City University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and The University of Hong Kong. REE Asia 2009 was held in HK Science and Technology Parks (October 21), Cyberport (October 22) and Shenzhen High Technology Industrial Park and Shenzhen University (October 23rd). We received 40 papers in response to our call for papers which were sent for double blind review. We accepted 20 papers of which 16 actually presented. The expenses of REE Asia 2009 were fully covered by sponsorship, with the most substantial sponsorship coming from the Innovation and Technology Commission and the Lee Hysan Foundation. Over 200 individuals including 100 scholars from 50 universities in 19 countries attended. We are currently printing 200 copies of the full proceedings (including all speeches, panels and papers), we have contacted with Edward Elgar to publish a reduced proceedings containing nine papers, with publication scheduled for December 2010. 6. Dragon Culture Entrepreneurship Scholarship Victor Choi, founder of Dragon Culture (http://www.dragonculture.com.hk/dcadmin/default.asp) serial entrepreneur, ardent antique collector and dealer, real estate investor, author, benefactor and alumnus of CUHK, donated a $20,000 scholarship for CUHK students who have contributed to entrepreneurship. We solicited nominations from students and faculty and received 10 nominations/applications for the scholarship. The selection committee, led by Kevin Au and including Louis Leung and Victor Choi, selected two winners, an engineering PhD candidate, Li Qingyun, whose plan represented CUHK at Moot Corp in Texas in 2009, and a BBA student, Jack Cheng (see above) to share the prize for 2009-10. Victor has indicated that he wishes to continue the scholarship, but is keen to discuss how it can be improved. 7. Programs and Fellowship Program Kevin Au obtained funding from CUHK’s KTU to organize a CUHK Programme and Fellowship, offering a set of extra-curricular courses to CUHK students to prepare them for starting their own courses. To date, three courses have been run, “Launching your Independent Career Summary” – workshops I & II and “Making money by writing a blog or publishing on the web”. And two additional workshops (as part of Entrepreneurship Week in September, 2010) including a site visit
to the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (coordinated with CINTEC) on September 11th 2010. II. Governance and Management The membership of the Executive Board for 2009-10 was as follows:
Kevin Au, Associate Professor for Management in the Faculty of Business Administration and Associate Director of Full Time MBA Programmes. Louis Leung, Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication and Director of the Centre for Communications Research at CUHK Hugh Thomas, Associate Professor of Finance (Director) K. F. Wong, Associate Dean (External Affairs) of the Faculty of Engineering, professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, and the director of CINTEC Benny Zee, Assistant Dean of Research for the Faculty of Medicine, Director of the Centre for Clinical Trials in the School of Public Health,
The Executive Board officially met two times during the year in June & November 2009. The minutes are in Appendix IV. The members of the Executive Board also met numerous times unofficially. For the coming year 2010-2011, the members of the Executive Board is unchanged from 2009-2010 The members of the Advisory Board of the CfE in 2009-10 were
K.O. Chia, Chairman of the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association Roger King, Director, Overseas Orient (International) Limited, Co-Director, Center for Asian and Family Business Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Alice Ngan, Director, Technology Licensing Office, CUHK Anthony Wong, One Laptop per Child China Director Henry Wong, CUHK PVC in charge of research
In the coming year of 2010-11, the members of the Advisory Board of the CfE in 2008-9 are
Robert Lee, Founder and CEO, Achievo Corporation Alice Ngan, Director, Technology Licensing Office, CUHK Henry Wong, PVC, PVC in Charge of Research Anthony Wong, One Laptop per Child China Director Yuelong Zhu, Founder and Director, Magier Company ()and
head of the CUHK FMBA alumni association. Members of the Advisory Board are appointed every May for a period of one year. The annual Advisory Board meeting was held on June 23rd, 2010 with Robert Lee, Alice Ngan, Henry Wong, and Yuelong Zhu in attendance. Executive Board members Kevin Au, Benny Zee and Hugh Thomas were also in attendance. We seek advice individually from our Advisory Board members informally throughout the year. Our founding director, Professor Chua Bee-leng, Director Highbeam, continues to be in frequent contact with us, offering valuable advice and insights. In May 2010, Wilton Chau, Managing Director, QLeap Asia, a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investment, was appointed as an honorary post-doctoral research fellow for one year carrying the title of “Project Director”. Wilton leads our initiatives with HKSTPC, including HKBAN and our bit for consulting to incubates. He is also a highly rated instructor of the MBA course Venture Capital and Private Equity and will be teaching the MBA course New Venture Business Plan Project in the coming year. Mingles Tsoi continues as a honorary research associate carrying the title Project Officer for social ventures. His has responsibilities to manage HKSEC and the census of alumni, in which capacities he is employed on a part time basis. Bernard Suen continues as honorary research associate, carrying the title of Project Officer for new media. Bernard is the partner of Esthete Creative Consultants and with the title of Business Director. Bernard has regularly taught courses on contract bases in new media in CUHK’s School of Journalism and Communication. He has been active in the CfE particularly in offering the Hong Kong Design Institute Course and in leading the DSI case research initiative, in which capacities he is employed on a contract for services basis. In May 2010, we appointed Richard Tong as honorary research associate, carrying the title of Project Officer for family business. Richard will participate in the HKSTPC initiatives. The day-to-day activities of the Center continue to be run by Rosanna Lo Wing Shan, who in July 2010 was re-appointed Project Officer. HKSEC 2009 was administered by Jamie Wong Wing Shuen and Jason Lau. We renewed their contracts after our funding for HKSEC 2010 was confirmed. DSI funding has supported the hiring of Daisy Wong Wai Jung and Nell Shen Na, recent PhD in finance from CUHK. HKACE funding has financed the work of Li Siu Hoi, who has arranged events, followed up with alumni,
conducted interviews and summarized findings. REE Asia 2009 and, subsequently, financing from research funds of Kevin Au has supported the hiring Fanny Wong, who worked at the CfE from September to December and, subsequently of Eric Leung Ho Yin. The increase in projects being run by the CfE, the temporary but exacting nature of most projects’ funding, plus the attractiveness of job prospects elsewhere means that we are hiring staff at the CfE. We have been extremely fortunate over the last year with the high quality, strong commitment and positive attitude of our staff. We hope that we can continue to provide them with a stimulating and rewarding environment. III. Financing Over the last year the expenses of the CfE have been financed by a combination of external grants, internal funding, course and conference fees, and donations. For the 2009-2010 fiscal year which (unlike the reporting year) runs from July 1st to June 30th accounts managed by the CfE had the following cash flow:
Income 2,576,899.76
Expenditure 1,892,651.81
Net Cash Flow 684,247.95
As of June 30, 2010, our accounts had a positive balance of 874,730.62. After subtraction of funds necessary for internship and other payable expenses, primarily under the HKSEC 2009 program, the CfE had available funds of $54,729.66. We moved into our new quarters on the 9th Floor of the New Teaching Building on Chak Cheung Street on June 3rd, 2010, which are luxurious compared to our old the very cramped office in the Lady Shaw Building. As of the date of writing, we have sufficient current funding to maintain our headcount of 5 full-time and 4 part-time staff. Including honorary project directorships and honorary post-doctoral researchers, our current premises, however are now fully occupied! We look forward to enhancing the Hong Kong’s knowledge transfer initiative and furthering the strategy of the Faculty of Business Administration and CUHK on entrepreneurship and sincerely welcome any and all suggestions and help in the pursuit of this these goals. Sincerely Hugh Thomas, Director September 2010
Appendix I - VCCE 2010
Vice-Chancellor’s Cup of Student Entrepreneurship 2010
The Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) invites all students
attending CUHK to enter their start-up business plans in the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup of Student Entrepreneurship (VCCE).
Each entry shall be a team of from one to five CUHK students and shall be supervised by a CUHK faculty member.
Participants must fill out the application form below and submit it by Thursday 31st December 2009. Business plan
summaries are due Thursday January 21st, 2010 and full plans are due on Wednesday February 17th. The semi-finals
will take place on Friday February 26th and the finals on Saturday February 27th. Semi-finalist and finalist teams will
present their plans to panels of judges who will select as winners the teams that plan to create the most value subject to
feasibility. The judging panels will be made up of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and investors. Students and
faculty of CUHK are welcome to attend the presentations. Presenters will meet privately with judging panels for
feedback sessions.
Winners of VCCE, subject to funding availability, will represent CUHK in international competitions including The Global
Moot Corp Competition at the University Texas, Austin and the China Challenge Cup in November 2010. Participants,
subject to eligibility, are encouraged to enter local competitions including the Hong Kong Young Entrepreneurs
Challenge, the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards, the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge and the KPMG
Business Administration Paper and international open-entry business plan competitions such as Asia Moot Corp, the
University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition, the University of Oregon New Venture
Championships, the Indian School of Business Social Venture Challenge, etc.
Prizes
First prize is HK$8,000; second prize is HK$5,000 and third prize is HK$2,000.
Value Creation and Feasibility
Judges will select as winners teams that are expected to generate the greatest value. Determination of expected value
requires assessing the chances of successful implementation as well as the generated values in the event of
implementation. Teams that present plans that judges believe have little chance of being successfully implemented will
not be selected as winners. Depending on the business model, value generated by implemented plans could be
captured in differing proportions by investors and other stakeholders. VCCE start-ups can be for-profit enterprises or
social enterprises. Good for-profit enterprises increase social value. Moreover, a major test of any enterprise’s success,
whether for profit or social, is its financial feasibility and sustainability. Therefore, the distinction between social
enterprise and for profit enterprise is one of degree, not of character, and VCCE welcomes students to submit plans for
social as well as for-profit enterprises.
Your Business Plan
Your business plan should be addressed to an external prospective contributor of equity capital or other resources
required for implementation. The plan should detail the value that your venture adds to purchasers of your product or
service and the business model for capturing that value for investors or other stakeholders. You should explain the
operational, personnel, marketing, sourcing and financing aspects of the venture, including the projected returns to the
investors, the risks in achieving those returns, the strategies for mitigating those risks, and a quantification of social
impact of your venture.
Your venture can be a concept, a start-up or an early-stage business. Eligible ventures can have already started
operations but must not yet have generated substantial sales prior to September 2009.
Competitors from previous VCCE competitions or the CUHK Booz and Company Social Venture Challenge may re-enter
their own updated plans from previous years as long as the re-entered updated plans did not win first, second or third
prize. Plans from the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup of Student Innovation (VCCI) that have not won VCCE competitions are
eligible, whether or not they have won prizes at VCCI or elsewhere.
Through the clear presentation of relevant market research, proofs of concept and/or prototype testing you may
demonstrate how your proposed venture’s comparative advantages will generate value. You should consult and enlist
the help of persons in the Hong Kong, the Chinese and the global business community to improve the feasibility of your
plan. The judges will treat the business plans as blueprints for new companies, so increased team diversity through
inter-faculty membership and involvement of external parties may enhance prospects of winning.
The attractiveness of your venture may be further increased by involving parties outside of CUHK’s student body, but the
students’ roles in the venture’s conception, management, and ownership must be substantial. To be eligible for entry in
VCCE, your team members must not simply be acting as consultants writing a business plan for a company with which
you have little ongoing stake. If your team’s total equity stake is below 20 percent or share of key management
positions is below 50 percent, the student team may be deemed to be insufficiently critical to the venture and your entry
may be disqualified. The venture must not be a buyout of, a spin-off from, or an expansion of an existing company, nor
should it be a franchise, a pure distribution agreement or simply the licensing of technology to third parties.
Written Plans
Your written plans are due on two different dates. Summaries, no longer than 3,000 words, are due Thursday January
21st, 2010. Judges will shortlist semi-finalists by selecting among the summaries. Semi-finalists will be announced on
Friday February 5th and their final written plans will be due on Wednesday February 17th.
Final written plans must be no more than 20 pages of text (10 point typed and doubled-spaced) and 10 pages of
appendices for a total of 30 pages.
The first section of your business plan should be a very short summary that describes your business model, how your
venture meets a market need, why and how it will generate value, how much financing or other resources you seek and
what the investor will receive in return for the financing.
You must submit two hard copies of the business plan typed in English to the CFE at Room 243, Lady Shaw Building,
CUHK plus one soft copy in PDF format to entrepreneurship@cuhk.edu.hk by noon on 17th February 2010.
Oral Presentation
The semi-finalist and finalist teams will present their business plans orally in English. You may use any audio and
visual aids that you consider appropriate. All members of the CUHK community are invited to attend the oral
presentations. Each team will have fifteen minutes to present formally its plan. Each presentation will be followed by a
twenty-minute question-and-answer session with questions being asked by the panel of judges, who will have received
copies of your written business plan prior to the presentation.
Academic Honesty
Your written plan is a prospectus to attract external equity financing. As the writer of a prospectus, you have the legal
obligation to present clearly, completely and truthfully all material facts concerning the proposed venture.
While you are free to project the future in any way that is reasonable, you must not misrepresent current or historical
facts.
You will be held accountable to maintain the standards of academic honesty of CUHK detailed in
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/ . The plan you submit must be entirely your own. Claiming work
written by others to be your own is plagiarism, a serious academic offence.
We encourage you to use any and all information including interviews, internet sources, books, industry periodicals,
market reports, academic literature and start-up business plans written by others. But whenever you quote directly you
must use quotation marks around your direct quote and insert a footnote and whenever you paraphrase another
person’s words, you must insert a footnote. These footnotes must contain full citations that will enable the reader to find
the source, independently verify facts and determine the extent to which your ideas derive from the cited sources.
Plagiarism is both a breech of academic honesty and the theft of intellectual property. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in
VCCE. We will use both our experience and electronic anti-plagiarism screening tools to check plans for academic
honesty.
Ownership of and Disclosure of Plans and Presentations
Each participating team will continue to be the owner of its plan after entry in the VCCE. By entering, however, each
team gives permission to the CFE to distribute the plan to judges and administrators and to use the plan for pedagogical
purposes. The CFE will not ask members of the CFE, faculty and administrators of CUHK, judges, reviewers, or
members of the audience to agree to or sign any non-disclosure statements for any participating team. The CFE may
record VCCE presentations and those recordings will be the property of the CFE to be used at its sole discretion.
Teams should consider information disclosed at the presentations to have entered the public domain.
Schedule of Events
Thursday December 31st, 2009 Deadline for Teams to Register
Thursday January 21st, 2010 Submission of Business Plan Summary
Friday February 5th, 2010 Semi- Finalist Announcement
Wednesday February 17th , 2010 Deadline for Semi-Finalist Full Plans
Friday February 26th , 2010 Semi- Finalist Competition & Finalist Announcement
Saturday February 27th, 2010 VCCE Grand Final and Awards Dinner
Appendix II: Press Clippings of HKSEC
Appendix III GEM News Release

•
•


2007 10%2009 3.6%2004
2004 11.5% 2007 4.8%
2005 2009


Appendix IV: Minutes of Executive Board Meetings of the CfE 2009-10
Center for Entrepreneurship Executive Board Meeting
MINUTES Date : November 12, 2009 Time : 09:30am – 11:45am Venue : Room 212, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK Participants: Profs. Kevin Au, Hugh Thomas, KF Wong, Mr. Mingles Tsoi, Miss Jamie Wong, Miss Daisy Wong, Miss Fanny Wan, Mr. Jason Lau and Ms. Rosanna Lo
Minutes:
Selection of Director and Chairman - Prof. Hugh Thomas appointed as the 2009-2010 Director and Chairman of the Center.
Project or Item Description Report by
Entrepreneurship for Design and Creative Business case research project – progress report
HKDC Bookazine – have finished 5 chapters out of 8. In the progress of interviewing the designers.
Daisy
GEM HK & SZ Survey results - SZ TEA rate has dropped substantially since 2004. - Consumer Search provided a list of SZ telephone drop out rate table and list of difficult reasons while doing the telephone survey. - The preliminary results
- GEM report working & printing schedule (see att.) - Funding for Consumer Search invoice HK$125,500: SZ Academy of Social Sciences has agreed to sponsor RMB 100,000 for the survey. - Funding for report production costs ~ HK$100,000: Prepare a proposal to HKBI and they agreed verbally that to sponsor the printing costs.
Hugh / Rosanna / Fanny
HKSEC 2009-10 – progress report Mingles/ Jamie/ Jason
- Promotion - Events list - Inviting China / Macau teams to present at the Final Presentation
day - So far, we have confirmed that there are 3 teams from China are
interested to join the final competition day. - Nov 16 is the executive summary submission deadline. - Mingles will liason with Simon Mak and if he can sponsor the
China team to come to HK. - Timeline / Milestone : proposed to host a Grand Dinner on the final competition day.
HKSEC 2008-9 - 3 Internship Awards teams progress report
Mingles
Tolo Harbour Angel Network - Seminar on Nov 14 - Registrated participants = 40+ - HK Science Park will sponsor the venue rental fees
Kevin / Mingles / Wilton
Cyberport Venture Capital Forum 2010 If CfE will take up as the event organizer in 2010
Hugh
Production Schedule:
a) Data analysis and report writing b) Confirmation of content table c) Submission of content for layout draft d) Submission of 1 draft from printer e) Revise content and make correction f) Confirmation of all layout and content and colour proof of report g) Printing of report h) Printed copies delivery to the Center i) London Business School – Global Monitor Entrepreneurship Research
results launch
Proposed Date: 2009
Nov 9 – Dec 11 Nov 16 Dec 14 Dec17 Dec 17 - Dec 29 Dec 30
2010 Jan 4 Jan 11 Jan 14
GEM Hong Kong and Shenzhen Report Proposed Table of Contents Prepared by
Summary
Recommendations
Foreword by CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof. Henry Wong
Foreword Director of the Shenzhen Academy of Social Science Mr. Le Zheng
Table of Contents
Table of Figures
Introduction to GEM
Appendix II: Definitions of Terms & Measures of GEM
Appendix III: GEM Hong Kong & Shenzhen 2009 Experts
Appendix IV: Survey Questions – APS & NES
Appendix V: Hong Kong & Shenzhen Experts
Appendix VI: Hong Kong & Shenzhen Research Team
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Executive Board Meeting MINUTES
Date : June 9, 2009 Time : 9:30am -11:15am Venue : Center, Room 243 Lady Shaw Building. Participants: Profs. Hugh Thomas, Kevin Au, Louis Leung, Dr. Wilton Chau, Mr. Mingles Tsoi, Mr. Bernard Suen, Ms. Margaret Wong and Ms. Rosanna Lo
1) Entrepreneurship for Design and Creative Business - Have checked with ITF but still not yet confirmed if the proposal has been approved or not. 2) GEM and the Expert Interviews - p/l find attached revised experts list, names suggested by the participants at the meeting today. - Suggested each professors and PD take up a few to do the interview during the summer holiday and
hopefully all the interview can be finished by August. 3) REE paper reviews and preparations - the REE reviewers are review the paper and ranking forms will be sent back on July 3. The results announcement will be by mid-July. Proposed members: Hugh, Kevin, David Ahlstrom, Daphne Yiu Prof. Paul Cheung, Director Technology Transfer Office, HKU Dr. Rocky Law, Associate Director, Entrepreneurship Center, HKUST Mr. HY Wong, Knowledge Transfer Office, City University Ir. Dr. Lui Sun-Wing, Vice President, Polytechnic University 4) HKET invited Bernard and Kevin to write at the “Corner of Entrepreneurship” - Mingles will write an article in July - Wilton will write an article in August.
5) Dragon Scholarship Total Amount HK$600,000 Set out the critierias:
- win a major competition - To roll out a business - Doing well in entrepreneurship minor - Angel fund for students
6) Strategy and Staffing 7) Inviting CUHK as the CVCF 2009 organizer(please see below message from Nick, CEO of
Cyberport) Kevin will reply to Nick that since time is running short, CfE will not take up the organizer role of
CVCF. However, CfE is very interested to host CVCF 2010 and we will have the final decision by December
2009.
- the condition is we cannot afford any deficit income of the event. - will explore the event logistics more when Cyberport is organizing CVCF 2009.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2009 Expert List
EFC Name Company Entrepreneur
3 Finance Bankee Kwan Yes
4 Finance Roger Luk Treasurer, CUHK, Former Chairman, Hang Seng Bank No
5 Finance Simon Mak VC
6 Policies-Government Samson Tam Group Sense Yes
7 Policies-Government Regina Ip Legco No
8 Policies-Government Bernard Chan no
9 Policies-Government Wu Ting Yuk, Anthony Chairman Bauhinia Foundation Research Center .
No
11 Policies-Government Dr. Rosanna Wong Executive Director, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
12 Programs-Government Lester Chan Anthony Au Cyberport Incutrain No
13 Programs-Government E Anthony Tan CEO, HKSTP No
14 Programs-Government Allan Chiang CEO, HKDC No
15 Programs-Government Alan Lam Mr. Viveik M. SAIGAL CEO, Sengital Yes
16 R&D Transfer Anthony Wong former head of ITC No
17 R&D Transfer Matthew Yuen VP Research UST No
18 R&D Transfer Mr Wilson Fung Executive Director, HKPC No
19 R&D Transfer CK Chan Tele-eye Yes
20 Physical Infrastructure Ricky Wong Chairman, City Telecom (HK) Ltd Yes
21 Physical Infrastructure Quinn Law Yee-kwa, Exec Director Urban Renewal Authority No
22 Physical Infrastructure Andrew Brandler CLP Holdings Chrm and Chrm of HKGCC No
23 Physical Infrastructure Rocco Yim ,
24 Commercial Services Barry Lam HK Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce Ltd Yes
25 Commercial Services Anita Leung Baker & McKenzie No
26 Commercial Services Dianna Tsui Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, KPMG No
27 Commercial Services Guru CU Alumni???
28 Education and Training Gilbert Y. Y. Wong, Executive Director,
Center for Entrepreneurhsip and Asian Values No
29 Education and Training Richard Eng Beacon College Yes
30 Education and Training Elizabeth Shing, Director General Hong Kong Management Association No
31 Education and Training Lee SK Victor CUSCE No
32 Market Openness Richard Vuylsteke President, AmCham No
33 Market Openness Dr. Jonathan CHOI Koon-shum Chairman, Chinese General Chamber of Commerce No
34 Market Openness Simon Galpin Director- General, Invest HK
35 Market Openness Harry Yeung President, Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association (MCMIA)
36 Cultural and Social NormsRaymond WongPak King Director, China Mandarin Films Yes
37 Cultural and Social NormsJim Chim Yes
38 Cultural and Social NormsTony Wong
39 Cultural and Social Norms
Kingcomics.com Limited Yes