Date : 18/3/2004

With all the recent emphasis placed on SME development, the strong entrepreneurial capabilities of Thai’s shone through last week. A group of students from Thammasat’s Master in Marketing program finished 1st among 14 of the region’s top business schools at Asia Moot Corp, Asia’s largest business plan competition, hosted this year at the University of Hawaii during March 15-17, 2004.

Kanate Premsub, Sathita Uthaisri, Sarinthip Srisathit, and Nattapat Prahasdangkura, represented Thammasat University, with their new venture, Nutriloc Corp. Their business idea is based on a microwave technology, MIVAC, which uses a specialized and patented process to dehydrate foods for food processing industries.

In Thailand drying foods is a multi-billion baht business, and is used in numerous applications including dried fruits, vegetables, and spices. Even meats and seafood are dried for noodle soups and other packaged foods. Typically food processing companies have only two choices, conventional heat drying or freeze drying, each presenting problems for food companies. Heat drying reduces quality of foods in both nutritional value and appearance and limits export possibilities for certain products. Freeze drying offers better quality but is expensive and can use up to 48 hours to dry a single batch.

What makes MIVAC so special is that its microwave process can produce best quality, at 50% the cost of Freeze drying and only hours to process. Nutriloc has a tremendous opportunity to make Thai foods more competitive in the international markets with respect to both cost and quality.

The team pitched its idea to a panel of investors in the Final Round against India School of Business, National Chengchi University of Taiwan and Nanyang Technological University from Singapore. The Thammasat Group won 1st place and prize money of 200,000 Baht (US$5,000).

The group of students came across this opportunity through a local Canadian businessman, Germain Bergeron, who had contacts with the inventor and works with Thammasat in supporting and advising the MIM students in their entrepreneurship coursework. Together over the last 9 months they have been developing the business plan to launch this new technology, Mivac. During the last several months the concept has created a lot of excitement for food processing companies. “We realized we had a great business idea when we started meeting potential customers here in Thailand. Every food company we met was excited about our offing,” said Kanate Permsub, who acts as the director of Marketing for Nutriloc.

Asia Moot Corp® began in 1998 as a regional qualifying competition to Moot Corp® Competition at the University of Texas at Austin. With aspiring entrepreneurs looking for start-up funds from experienced investors, the MOOT CORP® Competition simulates the real-world process of raising venture capital. MBAs from business schools around the globe come to The University of Texas at Austin each May to present their business plans to panels of investors. From among the new businesses presented, the investors select the best new-venture opportunity. Founded in 1984, the MOOT CORP® Competition is both the first and longest operating, inter-business school, new-venture competition in the world, and attracts top schools such as London Business School, Oxford, Insead, Kellogg, University of Michigan, Babson College, Bond University, and Ivey School of Business, to name a few.

As winner of the Asia Moot Corp® competition, Thammasat wins a prize of US$5,000 and will travel to the University of Austin May 5-8 and compete against 30 other schools in the annual world championship at Moot Corp, where the first prize is venture start-up funds of 4 million baht (US$100,000).


Quotes from team members for participating in Asia Moot Corp

Kanate Permsub (Mr.)

My biggest learning as an entrepreneur are : to do extensive research to better understand the industry, and to delegate the right tasks to the right persons. Apart from this I found that team effort is crucial for winning everything. For me, the most challenging part of the process was finding the product, we had searched for almost 6 months until we found the right product.

However, after all hard work and achievement, the Project Work class has brought me to the higher level of thinking, applying the business knowledge, writing and presenting the project. Above all it taught me how to start my own business and the foundation with real world application.


Sarinthip Srisathit (Ms.)

I had a great time working on this project with our team members for almost a year. We learned a great deal from each other as well as from advisors and many individuals who are experts in the field. The most challenging part of the process is searching market information (in terms of size and growth). The key to our winning the competition was the good plan and best preparation. We were well prepared at all times!

I must add that connections play very important role toward being an entrepreneur.


Sathita Uthaisri (Ms.)

The most challenging part of the process was getting information needed by researching and interviewing, and finding the right market to sell our products. My biggest learning is to be able to allocate my time for working and doing a project work, to know the industry and the market potential, not only for our products but also Thai agricultural products as a whole. Learning from each other, as a teamwork, is also a big achievement for us.

Everything I experienced from the competition will be a good asset in my real life situations. It opens up my opportunity to think and analyse potential products in all aspects. This project has influenced me to be an entrepreneur!


Nattapat Prahasdangkura (Mr.)

It was very tired for a graduate candidate who’s working and studying at the same time. However, the result was fantastic. I am now thinking to start my own business.

I would suggest Thammasat to put together the potential project ideas and present them to the real venture capitalist. I heard from my colleague that Singapore has a real venture presentation day. It is hosted and sponsored by the Singapore government. The Singapore government will also put money in the venture for the start-ups. It creates the entrepreneurial spirit to the business students and provides them the opportunities to launch their ventures right after their graduation. If this can be done, Thammasat will be a more exiting place to study!