image: Officiating guests at the Launching Ceremony of the Global Youth Leadership Institute. view more
Credit: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) invited Professor Hau L. Lee, a leading scholar in global supply chain management, entrepreneurship and innovations in developing economies, and value chain strategies, to speak at the PolyU 80th Anniversary Global Leader Lecture Series on 28 June 2017.
In his lecture entitled "Creating IN and OUT Values Through Entrepreneurial Innovations", Professor Lee, The Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, shared his insights on how values created through entrepreneurial innovations can be a powerful means to support economic development in developing economies.
He stated that great values can be created when the entrepreneurial activity involves an innovation which can be a combination of product and process transformation; and the values can be in the form of "IN" or "OUT".
"IN refers to helping to serve the needs and improving the living standards of people 'in' the developing economies, such as providing affordable healthcare, improving access to food and medicine, developing education opportunities for them, etc. The values are created 'in' the economies," Professor Lee elaborated.
"OUT refers to helping the entrepreneurs inside the economies to develop their businesses so that they can export and trade. By export and trade, they are creating values through outside of their economies, which would be value-add from external. Both are useful ways to help improve the well-being of developing economies," he added.
Professor Lee also attended the Global Youth Leaders Summit staged today at PolyU, in which students from different countries presented their projects on social entrepreneurship and shared their views and aspiration to "make the world a better place".
"I hope to see a diversity of projects from our youths, and hopefully some are for IN, and some are for OUT," said Professor Lee.
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PolyU is celebrating its 80th Anniversary this year with a Global Leader Lecture Series in which influential leaders in different professions around the globe will be invited to PolyU to deliver lectures on a wide range of topics covering healthcare, business, innovation and entrepreneurship, art and culture, sports and sustainable urban development. The series will provide the university community with a unique opportunity to learn from the stimulating insights and fresh perspectives of the speakers, and help inspire students to dream big and to bring positive changes to the world.