As it enters a national business plan competition, a group of business students at the University of Waterloo is looking north for inspiration, collaborating with a Sudbury mining supply and services company poised to enter the Asian market.
Sen Sachi, Joe Lee, Joyce Lee and Alan Thai, candidates in Waterloo’s Master’s of business entrepreneurship and technology degree program out of the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre, are working with Fuller Industrial as part of their entry into the Manulife: Entry Into Asia Challenge, held in partnership with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
The competition challenges students to develop a business plan for a small or medium-sized business looking to expand into Asia. The winners receive a cash prize of $100,000, with $50,000 going to the second-place team and $20,000 to the third-place team.
Competing against 54 other teams from across Canada, the group wanted to focus on a unique company to set itself apart from the other participants, said Thai, the group’s engineer.
“We were very open to almost any sort of company at the beginning, but we decided as a group that it would be best if we chose something that Canada really excels in as a nation,” he said. “After considering things like the environment and other industries, we really came down to mining as something that we’re superior in.”
Delving into the mining industry was a departure for the members, none of which had much knowledge of the sector before embarking on the project. A contact led them to Dick DeStefano, executive director of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Services Association (SAMSSA), who offered insight into the North’s mining intelligence sector, and suggested working with Fuller, said Sachi, the strategist.
The company stood out for the attitude of its president, Jeff Fuller. Rather than treat the project as charity work, Fuller embraced the opportunity to work with the team as a collaborative effort, Sachi said.
“We liked that attitude he had, and meeting him in person, he really did show that,” he said. “Just learning from his story, he told us about the challenges he faced in his business and how he overcame them to grow the business to where it is now. We found it very impressive and inspiring as well.”
Fuller was impressed by the students’ initiative in focusing on a company from Northern Ontario. Located in the heart of southern Ontario where tech companies reign supreme, it would have been easy to choose one of them over a northern operation, he reasoned.
“What’s unique is they’ve actually taken a look outside their own area and are doing (the business plan) on a mining supply company, which is cool on its own,” Fuller said. “Just the fact that we’re getting some interest, and it’s higher education and it’s collaboration with business.”
Earlier this year the group travelled to Sudbury to meet Fuller and his employees, tour the plant, and glean information about the operation of his company, which fabricates steel pipes and rubber and liquid coatings and linings for pipe and tank systems for the mining industry.
Copies of the completed business plan go to the competition and to Fuller, who then has the option of implementing the business plan. Fuller’s hope is that the proposal will be something he can execute to help his company grow.
“Mining is a little bit slow right now, but Australia is a great big hot spot and an area of interest for us,” he said. “My sense is the real way to handle that is out of Asia, because that’s pan-Asian anyway. So those are the kinds of things that I’d like to get out of it, maybe a launch or an interest into those markets.”
Working with the Waterloo group has been a great experience, he said. Even if his company chooses not to implement the business plan, he can gain valuable insight through the market research the students have completed.
“I’m just excited to see what he next step is and what they come up with for the business plan.”
