May 21, 2014 – The Global MBA program at National Taiwan University hosted Elias Ek, CEO of Enspyre and Matthew Lee, Taiwanese biotech company OBI Pharma Director of Business Development, for a discussion about leadership.
Twenty students from all over the world showed a careful attention to the words of both speakers , asking many and long questions.
Professor Miriam Garvi first asked both speakers to introduce themselves.
Elias Ek shared his long experience as an entrepreneur:
His entrepreneurial beginnings at 15 years old when he wanted to start a home delivery service of Swedish bread
His creation of a website for the Taiwanese gay community
His plans to open his own coin laundry store when there were 3 in Taipei
The birth of Enspyre – http://www.enspyre.com
Writing the book How to Start a Business in Taiwan.
Matthew Lee shared how he was born in Taiwan, went to school in the US and then came back to Taiwan to help start OBI Pharma – http://www.obipharma.com
It was obvious how proud he is of how OBI is working long-term to invent biotech therapies for breast and ovarian cancer. He also expressed that he was proud that Taiwan has the skilled employees and capital to launch such an innovative company.
To learn more about immunotherapy: http://www.obipharma.com
Matthew Lee also gave some key to do a good business:
Be creative and original
Have a pinch of madness
Be persistent
The students had 1.5 hours of questions. Among questions asked we could mention :
How protect your business against larges companies when you launch a new product on the market better than large companies ones
Why speakers have chosen to do their business in Taiwan rather than USA.
Is taiwanese market enough mature
How building a strong network
How to lead Taiwanese employees