Bali Exposed to Entrepreneurship Expertise from Finland
Finnish Study abroad company Asia Exchange with their advisor Peter Vesterbacka, who is known as one of the miracle makers behind the mobile game Angry Birds, and the founder of the startup event Slush, are now spreading their entrepreneurial visions on the island of Gods, Bali.
Vesterbacka and Asia Exchange have launched together with Warmadewa University a unique program called Bali Business Foundation (BBF) program. The academic program is from the curriculum of the university and blended with great amount of business visits with the most successful entrepreneurs on the island. The program focuses on entrepreneurship and leadership on theoretical, but even more on practical level. The goal is to demystify the art of how to become a successful entrepreneur (or work with one), how to tackle the start-up challenges, and how to generally make one’s professional and personal dreams come true. And all this happens on the widely praised paradise island of Bali.
Bali Business Foundation program is the new pearl of Warmadewa University’s study programs, and anintegral part of its internationalization strategies. Vesterbacka, who works also as an Adjunct Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tongji University, is thrilled about the program:
“Bali is the hottest environment on the planet for adventurous minds seeking for their goals. We Finns, people who can walk on water (especially during winter), are happy to help universities to answer to the needs of the changing world.
Entrepreneurs and startups form the new backbone of our societies. We need this kind of mindset and universities need to support it.”
Bali is known not only as the hottest travelling destination and surfing hub of the youth all around the world, but also as an emerging startup and digital nomadism hub of South-East Asia. Bali and its universities have also attracted thousands of international students mainly from Europe to study and live to the fullest already during two decades.
“We can immerse students with real-life experience of how to establish and run businesses. Asia Exchange, which has helped already 6,000 students from 70 different countries to study in Asia, is a perfect partner for us. With the new program our common goal was to have something that we wouldhave wanted to study ourselves when we were students.”, The Dean of the faculty, Dr I Nyoman Kardana from Warmadewa University, states.
