Reflections on the Mapletree Forum on 20th March 2019

The Mapletree Challenge Forum has given me a very insightful viewpoint from an entrepreneur's perspective. The main topic of the forum generally revolves around the subject of sustainability, but there were some key takeaways from Ms Nancy Ling which I felt were rather essential and important: understanding your customers and having the commitment to strive for success.

Ms Nancy Ling is the co-founder of the company eco-u, and has aims to transform human generated waste into biodegradable forms so that it is more beneficial to the environment and sustainable as well. She has noticed that almost all hawker vendors in Singapore have been using plastic bags and wraps for packaging of styrofoam boxes, which are typically used for takeaways . These plastic bags are usually disposed of after use. This sparked the idea of creating biodegradable bags for the storage of styrofoam boxes but however, she soon realized that Singaporeans have been accustomed to the usage of plastic and are reluctant to change. She understood that this business can only be customer-driven and therefore she tried to share her thoughts to hawkers on how sustainability is a growing need for the environment and everyone will eventually be taking this path. The only question she had for the hawkers was "In this path to sustainability, would you like to be a leader, or a follower?" This shows how having a great understanding of your consumers allows for a better plan execution. 

Ms Ling has also mentioned that entrepreneurship might not be cut out everyone, especially if you do not have that "fire in your belly". I do believe that having a strong passion in the work we are researching on allows for more depths of understanding and would therefore allow us to be more resourceful and confident in our work. Having a strong passion can provide a huge motivational push for us when we may be in times of need, such as when the ideas start to grow stagnant. 

In general, it has been an extremely riveting session listening to the speakers talk about how they faced their challenges and how they managed to overcome it, and has also given me a new look on how entrepreneurship works in all.