Nessa Carey and Rowan Gardner (Biolauncher CEO and successful serial entrepreneur) travelled to Shanghai in September to deliver the second training block for a cohort of Chinese professionals.
This is part of the ongoing programme of intensive cohort training supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as part of the Strategic Prosperity Fund for China and by the Shanghai Technology Transfer and Exchange (STTE). The timing was favourable from the aspect of emphasising that the UK is keen to work with China, as it coincided with the visit to Beijing of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This second training block focussed on networking; identifying the customer; understanding market needs; modelling venture capital funding requirements. Although there is sometimes a belief that Chinese trainees are uncomfortable with an interactive style of training, this certainly hasn’t been our experience. The cohort continued to throw themselves into the interactive aspects of the training.
At the end of the first training block the cohort had formed three teams to work on business cases of their own choosing. The teams have all completed intellectual property analyses of their projects, and during the most recent trip they received detailed feedback from the trainers. Before the next training block, they will prepare reports landscaping the business environment and the potential customer base for the technologies they are trying to commercialise. It was striking that two of the three projects were technologies related to water treatment, and the production of clean drinking water. Water availability is a major issue in China and is a consequence of many factors, ranging from the rapid increase in high population densities, to the toxic by-products resulting from the generation of traditional Chinese medicines. Water technologies and expertise are in high demand in China, creating potential opportunities for UK partnerships.
The trainers and cohort spent an afternoon at a new science incubator that was opening officially that day, and has been established by three of the people on the course. It was striking how similar the set-up was to the early-stage incubators we see in the UK, albeit at spectacularly lower rents. Start-ups that are about to move in to the incubator gave presentations that were subsequently critiqued by the trainees. It’s fair to say that the business propositions were reminiscent of what we would see at a similar stage in Britain, both in the positives and the negatives.
The trip to the science incubator also gave the trainees the opportunity to put the networking techniques they had learnt about that morning into practise. A little bit of prompting, some healthy competition (and the offer of a prize) worked wonders. Closer to home, some interesting opportunities have come to the surface as the trainees have got to know us better. Now that we are back in the UK, the trainers are connecting some of the trainees with British contacts and networks for whom a dialogue could be mutually beneficial.
In addition to their business teams, the cohort has also formed teams to work on costed proposals for improving the environment for KEC in their own organisations or regions. Given PraxisUnico’s strength and experience, we think we can provide a lot of valuable insight and support in bringing these plans to fruition.
Nessa Carey also met with representatives from a creative arts university from the province of Hebei, situated in the north of China near to Beijing. Creative arts is an area where PraxisUnico is looking to expand its work, and so this is an opportunity we are keen to explore.