Tuesday 15th June 2010 marked the fifth Inoorero University Vice Chancellor’s Innovations Forum. The forum was hosted at Inoorero University Lecture Theatre. As has become the norm, several entrepreneurs had been invited as guest speakers.
The fifth IU VC Innovations Forum was a special one because it was also the occasion where the partnership between Inoorero University and Chase Bank Enablis Business LaunchPad was formalized.
In the first ever partnership with an institution of higher learning, Chase Bank Enablis Business LaunchPad and IU have partnered to sponsor the chase bank enablis business plan competition. The business plan competition (BPC) is a nationwide competition.
The Chase Bank Enablis Business LaunchPad Competition is an entrepreneurship development initiative of Enablis East Africa and is supported by Chase Bank, Nation Media Group, Safaricom Foundation, Inoorero University, East Africa Cables, Access Kenya, and the Kenya ICT Board.
This competition aims to turn great ideas into thriving sustainable businesses. The competition targets all Kenyans, in particular the 11 million youth across the country, and will be managed and executed by Enablis East Africa.
Speaking at the forum, Moses Mwaura, Regional Director, Enablis East Africa said (that)
“The winners and finalists of this competition are set to enter a new and exciting phase in the development of their business, with the added benefits of Enablis membership and potential access to funding.”

Inoorero University committed three million shillings to kick start training of entrepreneurs in twenty towns across the country. Speaking before the presentation of the Kshs. 3 million cheque, Professor Henry Thairu, Vice Chancellor Inoorero University told a packed IU lecture theater that a time had come for students to think of creating employment instead of completing their studies and looking for employment. Using the returns analogy, the professor emphasized that like all other investment made, education was an investment and that it was legitimate to expect returns from it. He said (that)

“The expectation of the government is that the higher the investment in education, the greater the returns from the human capital. But it is very disappointing to see graduates tarmacking due to high level of unemployment. The big question is then “Is our education helping us to solve our problems in society?” Education that does not solve the problems in a society is a lost investment”. Nobody can afford lost investment, it a waste of resources”

While urging the students to utilize the education that they were acquiring at IU to compete at a global level, the VC motivated the students by telling them to ulize the opportunities available to them.

“We have same opportunities of the so called first world: world class computer and internet”. We do not have “Third world” brains”. The people in the Third world are doing wonders in the world. What we need now is to change our thinking models to realize the wonderful opportunities and create a new world order”.

In concluding his speech reiterated IU’s commitment to offer quality and useful training by saying (that)

“The measure of the success of a University is not the number of students that it produces for graduation or the amount of money it generates. This may be acceptable as an economic measure for sustainability but it is the wrong measuring instrument to measure the expectation of the sponsors and graduands”. “A better measure is the amount of enterprises created and the number of graduates getting into the employment sector”

Speaking at the forum, Moses Mwaura, Regional Manager, Enablis Eastern Africa encouraged the listeners, comprising of both IU students and members of staff, to move their ideas a notch higher and turn them into innovations.

"Things are created from ideas. All communities have problems that need solutions. Solutions to a single problem are many and varied depending on the thinking that the people engage in. Ideas are potential solutions to the problems in a community. They can also be called innovations. When these innovations are implemented and are packaged into an income generating solutions that they become entrepreneurial business ventures. The ventures to retain their value must be sustainable business ventures with a business model that can be replicated and modified to suit varying social environments.

The things we have today, internet, radio, mobile phones were not named by Adam but by the current generation. We are still creators and we have the opportunity and the capability to create the things of the next twenty years today. What we have today are the thoughts of yesterday: high-rise building, roads, vehicles. These did not exist one hundred years ago.”

Citing examples affecting the lives of Kenyans, Mr. Mwaura challenged the audience to develop a solution to the persistent theft of KPLC transformer oil by developing a solution that can only function in the transformer and that would be of no other economic value outside of the transformer.

In conclusion, the Enablis regional manager encouraged the students to think about the future needs of the country and the world when thinking of entrepreneurial endeavours:

“what do you think will be the biggest company in Kenya in 2030 and what will it be selling? We are sowing the seeds of the biggest company for 2030 today, this afternoon; the Safaricoms and Googles of tomorrow. What is the business idea when Google gives you free 7 GB email? They sell and market the number of people who have access to their platform as marketing service. This would not have been a business idea several decades ago, but it is one of the big international service businesses. The big companies of 2030 will be 10 times bigger than Safaricom and we cannot imagine or understanding what they will be selling now. May be these products and services have not been created or exist in a rudimentary form.

The opportunity and challenge is on you and me to come out with these products and services and companies. Will you stand up to the opportunity?”