Many Singaporeans would know of the delivery service Ninja Van. Those into luxury goods would likely be aware of Reebonz, the e-commerce platform for buying and selling luxury goods. They were both businesses started by Singapore Management University students who had taken up entrepreneurship programmes during their undergraduate years.
SMU president Lily Kong recently announced that the university aims to increase its"innovation density" by positioning its city campus as a meeting point to connect like-minded people with different talents and ideas. As a management university, we take this to heart and we feel we can make a difference in this space.
That's not to say that it can't happen in society at large, but universities are supposed to have that concentration of ideas. Q So, what is the best way for universities to nurture entrepreneurs? A We have several programmes - from classes on entrepreneurship, to experiential learning, where we send students to different business nodes of the world to immerse them in the environment.
Besides, as Singapore's only university in the city, SMU wants to be a place where compelling business ideas are thought up and tried and grown into viable businesses. You can be an entrepreneur wherever you are - running your own business, working in a big business or a small company, and you can also be an entrepreneur in government. It's really about the mindset.