Entrepreneurship@work
A report of the Entrepreneurship Fair (8 december 2022)
It has become a tradition of well over a decade to organize the Entrepreneurship Fair at the Brussels Campus of KU Leuven’s Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB). The Fair is open to all FEB students with a knack for entrepreneurship. Since this was the first Entrepreneurship Fair to be organized live – after two digital versions – there was a lot of enthusiasm among the audience to participate. The convincing line-up was the extra push the crowd needed to ensure a fully packed auditorium for the first time since long!
The Entrepreneurship Fair is built around three pillars. The first one is a Poster Exhibition that gives students of the elective course 'Business Plan' (taught by Professor Ingrid Claes, who is also the host of the event) the opportunity to present their business idea by means of a 'Pitch Poster', in order to gather valuable feed-back from the audience. The second pillar is a Business Seminar during which speakers from start-up companies and the corporate world share practical insights with various groups of students, based on their personal entrepreneurial story. Thirdly, there is the closing event, the ‘Entrepreneurship Plaza’, that brings together all participating parties to exchange information and to network. At the Plaza the chemistry among entrepreneurial minds can do its work: often, a direct result of these inspiring encounters is the start-up of various companies of students who present their business-case on this event.
This year, FEB welcomed two dashing business professionals who brought complementary testimonials of their journey: Julie Strobbe (CEO and Founder of LuLu Green Labs) and Simon Van Hoecke (Strategy Director at Van Marcke).
‘Doing nothing is just not an option’
Julie Strobbe explained the steps she has taken to launch a high-end product line of baby care products under the brand name ‘Oh, Baby!’. As it often happens when starting a business, Julie came up with the idea out of a personal need. When she was on maternity leave – with all her attention focused on the best possible care for her baby boy – she realized the importance of high-quality products to help her do that.
As Julie was working in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, she was very much aware of the impact chemical products can have on the skin. Although she is not a scientist but a lawyer, her professional background in cosmetics, made it easy for her to discover which ingredients good skin products for babies consist of.
Moreover, she had direct access to an excellent network to take the first action as well.
Towards an attentively listening audience, Julie elaborated on the most important lessons she learned during the preparation and effective start-up: the importance of finding the best partners (such as a distributor and a lab to develop the products), the mandatory precautions concerning intellectual property, the need for unwavering self-confidence and perseverance when unexpected reversals of fortune occur (COVID!), the value of a hands-on and a 'lean start-up' mentality and the return you get from collecting huge amounts of very practical data on all occasions.
To conclude her inspiring and passionate testimony, Julie explained her future business plans in these tough economic times, where galloping inflation has an important impact on consumer confidence and therefore buying behavior. In essence, Julie is convinced that the pure nature of her products, with an emphasis on baby care, is an important advantage to counteract the adverse effects of a struggling economy. ‘People do not skimp on baby care products because they only want the best for their child’.
In addition, Julie pays a lot of attention to the positioning of her brand. She does this by emphasizing the natural formulation (ingredients, ed.) of the products, the recognizable brand name, the attractive packaging and the sale through pharmacists as a widely appreciated specialized retail channel. This integrated approach provides a strong basis for getting through the current difficult period.
Anyway, Julie plans to take further steps to bridge the difficult economic times. These actions will be gradually implemented from 2023. "Doing nothing is not an option," she said with determination. Julie will give us an update of these plans during a forthcoming guest lecture (which is eagerly anticipated!)
Julie Strobbe
Prof. Ingrid Claes
From one monolithic tanker to a fleet of agile speedboats
The second key note was Simon Van Hoecke, Strategy Director at Van Marcke, a distribution company of sanitary and central heating. Simon explained how entrepreneurship and innovation are consistently 'organised' at Van Marcke. It is in the DNA of the leading 90-year-old family business to apply targeted transformation processes and a supportive overall culture to overcome obstructive and outdated structures and narrow-mindedness. By transforming itself from a monolithic ‘tanker’ into a fleet of agile, independent ‘speedboats’, closely working together in a coordinated way, it has catapulted itself to ‘Enterprise of the Year 2020’-finalist – in true Phoenix style!
The difficulty for a start-up like "Oh, Baby!" is to build a solid platform from scratch; the challenge for Van Marcke is to constantly rebuild the platform and make full use of it. This requires a clear vision of the end goal, careful planning and disciplined execution. "Changing your car while driving, requires focus and eyes on what is in front of you" In doing so, the right balance must be found between the management of the existing core companies and investing in new companies that must secure the future. In this way, Van Marcke has reformed its footprint and diversified into e-commerce, real estate and even banking with an improved regional spread on top.
From a fundamental point of thinking, Van Marcke now rather approaches its activities as business models rather than businesses itself. This offers plenty of opportunities for the way the products can be marketed: the products no longer need to be sold in the traditional way but can be offered as a service. This leads to the possibility to reuse and recycle both ongoing activities and resulting products and services, improving the sustainability and flexibility of the market response. Provided that the digital backbone is fully up-and-running.
As this has also been one of the most important areas of investment in recent years, Van Marcke is now taking advantage of the newly created potential through the launch of an online marketplace for construction professionals, the digital offer of heating installations and a Software as a Service- concept (SaaS) for the resale and 'Heating as a Service'-approach for bathrooms and interiors of large construction projects.
Van Marcke's story brings together all the strategic and operational aspects needed to successfully guide a company through the many challenges of today's VUCA world, resulting in 30% revenue growth over the past three years and a doubling of EBITDA in the same period. The story was masterfully delivered by Simon Van Houcke towards our business students, who may later take on a similar role in the business arena. Europe is still relevant!
The last part of the Business Seminar consisted of a Q&A, moderated by Prof. Gerd Van Den Eede. The debate looked more closely at how to deal with major economic shocks, geopolitical crises, climate change and other social issues. The interviewees were Julie Strobbe, Simon Van Hoecke, Wouter Winnen (Head of Fund Investments at PMV) and professors Vincent Molly and Peter Teirlinck who both specialize in Management, Strategy and Innovation as research domains. Many valuable insights were shared and the audience was called to confidence and belief in the entrepreneurial and innovative power of all those present, as a way to overcome major challenges as a group.
To the provocative question from the public whether Europe, within the rapid and drastically changing geopolitics, will remain economically relevant in the future, a reassuring and well-argued 'Yes!' was answered. Accompanied by Julie Strobbe's adage: 'Doing nothing is just not an option!'
This concluding remark led seamlessly to the last part of the evening: the Entrepreneurship Plaza. Here, all attendees could learn from the participating entrepreneurial student entries: ranging from traditional Georgian cuisine, sustainable creative streetwear, tailor-made beauty & healthcare services, high-tech solutions in cyberspace and augmented psychotherapy via virtual reality. The diversity of ideas, the massive presence of young bright minds from all over the world, the open atmosphere in which information could be exchanged, people could meet and possibly make new partnerships ... All these elements are particularly promising for future student entrepreneurship at the Brussels campus and beyond!
Peter Vancompernolle
Simon Van Hoecke
