The NSYSU Hult Prize Club, which is supported and supervised by the Office of Career Development at the College of Management, successfully held the Hult Prize on campus program competition at NSYSU last December. The competition’s theme was focused on “Getting the World Back to Work” and encouraged students to focus their creativity on establishing innovative ideas that could create new employment opportunities while fulfilling the social responsibilities of the College of Management; it also promotes education on ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability, leading students to have a better understanding on social enterprise.

Team Era had participated in the 2021/2022 Hult Prize on campus program competition at NSYSU last December. Era was honored to achieve first place and will represent NSYSU in the upcoming Taiwan finals.

To ensure the feasibility of their project, Era had the pleasure of working together with Jessi Fu, the Hult Prize global winner in 2015. This collaboration has been extremely fruitful and helpful as Era were able to significantly improve their business idea and pitch based on the constructive feedback given. For example, they learned how they could demonstrate their emotions by re-designing the PPT slides, improving their speech, incorporating solutions to challenges that hadn’t come to mind yet, and improving their business model, all to have better performance during the upcoming Taiwan finals.

Team Era consists of four individuals from different countries. The role of the Chief Executive Officer was helmed by Suphanut Wu from Thailand. Next, they have Chia-Jui Kuo from Taiwan, who took on the Chief Operating Officer position. Thirdly, Thaisa Appelman from the Netherlands acted as the Chief Marketing Officer. Lastly, we have Akshit Mehta from India as the Chief Human Resource Officer.

Era made a unanimous decision to create a business model that was focused on reaching a more sustainable future. After conducting in-depth research, their vision “Create a new Era with less e-waste” was established, and their business model was finalized. Era’s main goal is to implement an innovative business model in Thailand which has the simultaneous benefit of reducing e-waste while providing employment.

To achieve both goals Era strived to launch an application in Thailand to ease up the process of disposing of one’s e-waste. Additionally, they have planned on opening a facility in Bangkok where the e-waste can be collected, sorted, and dismantled. Another crucial factor in their plan is to organize events and lectures to increase awareness among the population about all the harmful impacts e-waste has on its environment.

Since the Taiwan final competition is approaching, Era plans on meeting with an e-waste recycling company in Taiwan to acquire additional knowledge. They will also continue to improve their pitch and incorporate more detailed information about Era’s business model, and long-term plan. Additionally, they wish to retrieve more specific information about the technology used for e-waste and incorporate this information into their pitch.

Era’s team members said, “We are grateful for all the help given to us so far, and we feel confident that our business model will be successful once implemented in Thailand, and will demonstrate the path towards a more sustainable future while leaving no one behind”. We wish them all the best in the upcoming competition and hope they would be able to realize their dreams.

You can find out more information regarding the Hult Prize through this link. Alternatively, you can also follow their Facebook and Instagram to learn more.

(Written by Suphanut Wu, proofread by College of Management)