By Craig Jones – Alumni of Alpha Innovation Contest 2019
Having been born and raised in Perth, I am the poster boy for Western and Australian Culture. I grew up in a time when hard work and determination to succeed, with a little good luck usually resulted in success. I have owned and run two businesses of my own and have held sales and management positions in companies up to National Sales Manager level.
A chance meeting with the Shenzhen Businessman Association in Perth, I was introduced to Alpha Incubation Group (AIG), led me to an innovative idea – to set up a store selling Australian products. I made a trip to Shenzhen for two weeks and must admit that I was totally captivated with Mainland China and fell a bit in love with the city and how cosmopolitan it was. The boy from sleepy Perth had finally hit the big city and was captivated.
From this trip, I was able to provide a concrete business plan for my business as an import company located in Shenzhen and run by myself in China. This then was the business plan that I presented to the Alpha Innovation Contest 2019.
The level of involvement in the Contest was very high with some quite brilliant and innovative ideas. However, I was still recommended to enter as the exposure would be good for my business. I first present my idea to the panel at the first round, then selected to the final competition. Much to my surprise I was awarded the Alpha Outstanding Project award, which is an honour that I am humbled to have received, based upon the level of competition. I would like to say thanks to AIG, the mentors, judges and all the others involved in presenting and running this competition, which I believe has provided me with a confidence boost in my concept and execution of my idea.
Since the contest, I have been working away on my project and have since had several new outcomes and changes of direction. The first, thanks to a new Chinese girlfriend who is originally from Xi’an, is to investigate the possibility of setting up a store in Xi’an to service the local and tourist market. The second, thanks again to a Chinese friend that I have been doing Dai Gou with, is the opportunity to meet several supermarket owners in Shanghai and Suzhou to pitch my products at them. This coming trip to China will give me the opportunity to once again immerse my self in Chinese culture, give the locals something to laugh at when I try out my very bad Chinese and see if I can start Dai Shu Mama in earnest.