Innovation Week

What seemed like an ordinary Monday morning was not to be when an ensemble of hopeful contestants entered into a conference room on Monday, March 24, 2008 and waited to be briefed on the Innovation Week Challenge. Patiently, they waited the arrival of the President of ASES (Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society) Thailand, BBA Thammasat?s premier club active in promoting entrepreneurship among the student body, the thought that ran through everybody?s mind was: What is the ?product??  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Innovation Week, it is a week-long challenge, held from March 24th to March 31 for the second time, with only a few simple rules: contestants, in teams of 6 or less people, had to create value from a product which was provided. As simple as the task may sound, many contestants were unprepared for what was expected of them. As the representatives of each team came forward, closed their eyes and stood with their hands forward, palms wide open; they await what would fall into their hands. Slowly, one by one, each person felt the rubbery texture and the round shape of the product, and instinctively they knew what the product was: rubber bands! One of the first questions that teams began to ask immediately was - ?What is value and how do we define it??, ?Which values do we want to create?? and more importantly, ?What kind of value can we create from such a simple products such as rubber bands?? The answer to those questions lies only in imagination of the teams.

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