Massey helps entrepreneurs 'bungee jump' into business

An Intrapreneurship Summit to transform and revitalise businesses is one of a series of events Massey University is involved in this week as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).

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Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey and co-founder of skincare company Trilogy Sarah Gibbs, a Massey accountancy graduate and star of the University’s Engine of the new New Zealand campaign, are among those on a panel of experts who will share their ideas with the summit today.

The event, at Britomart in Auckland, is for ambitious business leaders who want to embrace innovation and “rewire their business for creativity”, allowing it to grow.

Massey has been a founding partner of GEW since it began in New Zealand. Professor Claire Massey, Head of the School of Management who spoke at the launch event in Wellington yesterday, says the University is proud to be part of the GEW ecosystem which reflects its platforms of innovation, creativity and connectedness.

“New Zealanders know we will never be the biggest in anything – but we can lead – by being first,” she says. “This has happened many times in the past, as evidenced by developments in medicine, science and technology. It will continue to happen in the future, so long as we have the people to do it.

“We need the people who will lead, who will take the bungee jump into entrepreneurship, the people who will follow, who will create clusters of excellence and industry sectors, and organisations that will play their part in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

In addition to the summit, the University’s ecentre, based on the Albany campus, will host a business case challenge today. Participants will put themselves in the shoes of start-up entrepreneur Enrico de Klerk, whose computer network search application company Hub9 is based at the ecentre after he won the Go, Innovate challenge for Massey students. He will be one of the judges alongside Sabrina Nagel, ecentre’s business strategist, and Chris Lock of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.

Massey is also supporting events run at the University’s Bio Commerce Centre in Palmerston North and Vision Manawatu