#UK Hong Kong innovator leads procession to Cambridge

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hong kong, global inventions, Cambridge

International product innovator GIobal Inventions Ltd is leading a procession of Hong Kong businesses to Cambridge from May.

The international marketing organisation, which supplies retail buyers in 38 countries, plans to set up offices in the UK technology cluster this spring and open in New York in September.

Partner Priscilla Smith told Business Weekly that there are five Hong Kong manufacturers – “all good friends” –  who also want to have a presence in Cambridge. She added: “The set up is fluid at present and we will decide the structure during our stay in May. We certainly have plans to scale up if Cambridge embraces us and it will be  several times bigger when we bring our Hong Kong friends to Cambridge around six months after our set-up.”

To date, Global Inventions has commercialised more than 100 inventions, often in large quantities. The business says its forte in terms of services provided to inventors and designers is taking an idea or raw technology to market on a global basis by delivering the 3Ms – marketing, manufacturing and money (it is also an angel investor).

Senior partner, Anil Vora, who lived in UK from 1964-1994, has a portfolio of properties in partnership with his family in London but is determined to set up an office in Cambridge.

The company says it is vetting a number of options for its new Cambridge product incubator. As part of a long-term strategy it is keen to replicate its Hong Kong/China model in the UK, US and elsewhere globally based around the two elements of its business model – the innovation incubators and what it calls “crowd funding with a twist.”

Global Inventions says it wants to engage with students, inventors, academics and ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs. Vora qualified as a mechanical engineer from the University of Birmingham in 1969 and worked for a number of companies in UK. “I created a few inventions but no-one wanted to buy them. In 1994, I showed one of my better inventions called ‘Gusty’ to Tesco in Welwyn Garden City but was shown the exit.

“The buyer liked the product but did not have the confidence in terms of us executing the orders. We went back to the drawing board and asked ourselves what was really needed to take an idea to the marketplace.

“We say 3M, which means manufacturing at competitive price (like China) + marketing on an international platform (China because she is the factory for the world and all big box retailers have sourcing offices there) + money (the favourite word of a UK/US bank manager is ‘no’ and the favourite words of a Hong Kong bank manager are ‘can try’ ‘can do’).

“We also posed the question: If you go to Wal-Mart, Target etc in your city, what percentage of consumer items are made in China? The answer is generally between 50 and 95 per cent.

“We also asked what percentage of items Wal-Mart, Tesco, etc bought from Hong Kong and China: The answer was between 60 and  80 per cent with the rest from local importers.

“We were out of UK/US within a month; I went to Hong Kong as a poor inventor but full of vigour plus a positive attitude, implemented our three mantras, made a success and never looked back.

“Tesco met us in Hong Kong in 1996 and asked us for exclusivity but we could not offer it as M&S, Halfords and six more UK retailers had by now placed orders.” So why the reverse on the UK and US? Vora said: “Looking back our critics were right. Now the time is ripe to return with a strong track record in commercial innovation.”

Vora believes there will be many more deals in the Cambridge Cluster like the SoftBank swoop for ARM: “This is the beginning of a good story because I bet there will be at least five takeover deals exceeding $20 billion before 2020.”

Creating more entrepreneurs in the UK and US is a key plank in the strategy: “Looking at New York, for example – not unlike Cambridge – there are too many inventions to harvest but not enough farmers.”

Company inventions feature products across many industrial and retail segments, including online translator aids and a mosquito repellent smart watch. In June it is set to launch a novel ‘freshometer’ to tuck into baskets of fruit to keep produce fresher.

Vora concluded: “Tim Eiloart and David Southward of Cambridge Consultants decided to ‘put the brains of Cambridge University at the disposal of the problems of British industry.’

“We want to put the brains of Cambridge University/UK inventors and Stanford University/US inventors plus the legwork of Chinese factories at the disposal of the problems of world industry.”
 

from Business Weekly http://ift.tt/2k21mNy

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