Representatives of the leading Chinese CY Zone entrepreneurship platform recently visited the Berlin and Leipzig innovation and start-up regions for almost one week. In addition to getting to know start-ups and visiting the Innovation Center for Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ) in Berlin, the 10-person delegation focused their activities in Leipzig particularly on the topics of Industry 4.0, start-up funding as well as some promising start-ups from SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator. One highlight for the group from Asia was attending the 2016 Accelerate@HHL Entrepreneurship Conference including the Elevator Pitch competition.
Focus on business ideas from the high-tech sector
Joe Wang, CEO of the Chinese CY Zone entrepreneurship platform and member of the judging panel of the Elevator Pitch competition, was excited about the contestants and said, “I particularly enjoyed the focus on business ideas from the high-tech sector in this competition. It is different from China, where we are witnessing a rather market-driven approach. At the Accelerate@HHL Conference, I experienced a serious examination of topics that concern us all – Industry 4.0, cloud computing, big data and the intelligent car.”
Human factor determines the success of start-ups
In addition to one other Chinese contestant, start-up founder Xiao Wang seized the opportunity to present his business idea of a service robot during the Elevator Pitch competition. Thrilled to come in 2nd, Wang said, “I enjoyed participating in the competition as well as the entrepreneurship program in Berlin and Leipzig. I benefited from the insight into the German mentality and their numerous activities in the industrial sector. I am hoping to gain a foothold on the European market with the robot I presented here as early as next year.”
Emphasizing the spirit of the 2016 Accelerate@HHL Entrepreneurship Conference, the Chinese start-up founder commented, “Thanks to the international event at HHL, one thing became quite clear – only a strong team can facilitate business ideas to break through. Against this background, it would be desirable to recruit even more international employees for our start-ups in China and intensify our contacts with foreign universities such as HHL in the future.”
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, drew a positive conclusion of the entrepreneurship program designed for CY Zone, stating, “Our basic idea of presenting the innovation strongholds of Berlin and Leipzig to the Chinese founders, exchanging entrepreneurship ideas and views on specific topics and creating an informal setting to establish contacts with other companies and venture capitalists was a genuine success.”
About CY Zone Cyzone.cn is the exclusive Chinese partner of the start-up publication Entrepreneur Magazine. Cyzone.cn aims to help Chinese entrepreneurs promote the growth of China’s small and medium-sized enterprises. It holds various activities to help entrepreneurs build up their partnership networks and business resources, serving as a community for Chinese entrepreneurs. Through Entrepreneur Magazine, CY Zone is introduced to the latest news on business opportunities and foreign entrepreneurs’ successful experiences. As a media platform serving Chinese start-up companies, CY Zone helps them get better integrated into the world’s business environment and expand their business globally. www.cyzone.cn
About HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management as a hotbed for entrepreneurs With over 165 start-ups established by HHL alumni over the past 18 years, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management has developed into an incubator for company creation. The founders’ entrepreneurial commitment has created more than 2,800 jobs already. In 2013 and 2014, HHL reached one out of the three first places for the best entrepreneurial universities in Germany cited in the Start-Up Radar ranking published by Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Founders’ Association of German Science) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BWMi). According to the Financial Times, HHL ranks first in Germany and fifth globally for its entrepreneurship focus within the M.Sc. and EMBA programs. www.hhl.de/EntrepreneurialGraduateSchool
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