USC Days 2015: Entrepreneurship Forums

Photograph by Christine Suson

In celebration of the USC Days 2015, various socio-cultural community extension services (CES) academic activities were conducted parallel to the theme “Education with a Mission.” Among those that were held yesterday, the  “Entrepreneurship is Service” and “Managing Yourself” forums were attended respectively by a majority of business students and professors at the Theodore Buttenbruch Hall, USC Downtown Campus.

Guest speaker Dr. John Wai-keung Leung, Director of the Executive MBA Program of the City University of Hong Kong and doctor of education in Bristol University in the United Kingdom, handled the first forum and emphasized on the importance of giving service so as to give experience to customers. His first session focused on the Service Challenge that, according to him, must be given more attention to by aspiring successful entrepreneurs. Apart from rendering those services to consumers, the value of observing or comparing trends was considered essential in creating a basis in internal, open and external innovation – all seeking to create a new and genuine  product to introduce to the public.

Part of the Entrepreneurship is Service forum discussed the differentiation of services and products – the latter considering “intangibility, perishability, variability and inseparability.” Dr. Leung also introduced an equation, “service equals time management”, to the audience which he used to strengthen the idea of perfecting compartmentalization and work-time relationships.

The second forum entitled Managing Yourself was conducted by Dr. Brian To, a receiver of the program for management development (PMD) from Harvard University and a professor of Strategic Studies in the Philippine Military Academy. His talk revolved around the case of the scandal concerning Ashley Madison – a dating site which encouraged married individuals to secretly have an affair online. Dr. To, then, related this to entrepreneurs who should always consider ethics in business, despite the capability of it to generate financial income.

To conclude the event, Business Administration chairman Ms. Joyce Natalie U. Yang awarded the certificates to the speakers followed by the closing remarks delivered by Dr. Melanie B. de Ocapo, assistant dean of the School of Business and Economics.