Dream. Believe. Dare. Do. These are Walt Disney’s four pillars of success, and the formula shared by guest speaker Dr. Liu Zhaoping to XMUM students during Innovation Talk Series #5 on 21 March 2019. Anatomizing his favourite Disney’s animated classics and quoting examples of Disney’s best practices in customer experience, Dr. Liu, a winner of Teaching Excellence Award from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), explained to the audience the time-tested methodology that empowered organizations to thrive on creativity, innovation, and brand loyalty.

“Entrepreneurship is a very high-risk journey – there’s uncertainty, and success seems elusive; learn from Disney: be dare to dare – take action to achieve your goals so that your dream becomes a reality.”

“The fact that you are joining the ‘Internet+’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition demonstrates that you have a dream,” Dr. Liu told the participants, “Believe in your passion and transform your dreams to success stories.”

Dr. Liu Zhaoping and Ms. Zhao Jie (4th and 5th from right) posed with the participants and organizing committee.

The second speaker of the talk was Ms. Zhao Jie, a former 100m dash champion from Urumqi, China, now an entrepreneurship consultant in Singapore. In a well-structured speech, Ms. Zhao promoted entrepreneurship skills by giving detailed instruction on how to:

1. Market oneself;

2. Build up innovation mindset;

3. Find one’s passion; and

4. Express ideas by writing a high impact business plan.

Ms. Zhao advised the students during the talk:

“Entrepreneurs are not born. Everyone has the potential to become one as long as he or she is willing to develop an entrepreneur mindset.”

Ms. Zhao and Dr. Liu (1stand 2nd from the left) shared with XMUM students the insights of real-world business conditions.

Earlier that day, seven teams of students took the opportunity to meet the speakers one-on-one. Dr. Liu and Ms. Zhao shared the insights and important trends of the industry to help the students taking their innovative ideas to the next level.

Team Divergent, formed by multinational first-year students, pitched their product to the experts.

First-year student Pocha Chaitanyakumar Reddy from School of Energy and Chemical Engineering described what he had learnt from the event:

“To become a successful entrepreneur, we need to be passionate with what we are doing, and stay open-minded and creative.”

First-year student Tania Gabrielle from International Business Programme related her experience:

“I learnt from the experts to look at the potential of our product from the market perspective.”

Dr. Liu Zhaoping is an Assistant Professor from Singapore Institute of Technology and Ms. Zhao Jie is a Senior Lecturer at Entrepreneur’s Resource Centre Institute, Singapore. Both of them graduated from Cornell University.

The Innovation Talk Series, organized by the Office of Research and Innovation, aims to bring in external perspectives from industry experts and leading academics to cover a wide range of topics relevant to innovation and entrepreneurship.