On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the Industrial Management Expertise Group (KKMI) Faculty of Industrial Technology (FTI) Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) completed a series of International Virtual Course (IVC) programs titled Product and Business Development, which have taken place starting from August 2nd, 2022, before. This program discussed the strategies, processes, tools, and techniques used to develop new products and businesses in organisations and their application in real-world case studies.

The IVC program consisted of 15 (fifteen) meetings and was one of the various summer course options held by ITB starting from June 2022, with the equivalent of the TI4031 Product and Business Development course. Prospective participants interested in joining the program must register centrally through the ITB acceptance portal by attaching a motivation letter. Participants who have passed the registration selection will be given a participant serial number and documents related to program implementation. In the IVC program held this year, there were a total of 30 participants who came from various university backgrounds and different educational levels, ranging from undergraduate and postgraduate students of ITB to undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students from foreign universities such as the University of Sussex, National Taiwan University, University of the Philippines Los Banos, University Malaysia Terengganu, and the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Science.

The entire IVC program series was carried out virtually or through Zoom online meetings involving 12 (twelve) lecturers–5 lecturers from foreign universities and seven from KKMI. Each lecture schedule is carried out for 3 hours, starting from 15.00 WIB to 18.00 WIB (adjusting to the GMT +7 area). Meanwhile, the profiles of each IVC lecturer or instructor can be seen in the image below.

By utilising the Notion platform as a medium for disseminating learning information, all IVC 2022 participants need to work on five tasks in groups to ensure that the program’s outcomes are in accordance with the objectives of the program implementation. The five tasks include product proposals, problem definitions and customer requirements, product functionalities and specifications, product concept development, and business model development. The participants developed various exciting product ideas from the five tasks, such as baby strollers, smart mirrors, and home biodigesters.

Not only attending lectures, participants were also allowed to interact, collaborate, and establish relationships through various group discussions. Although the meetings were limited to virtual online meetings, the group discussions allowed the participants to get to know each other and establish good relationships as a team to support the program’s sustainability. The activeness of the participants was also seen in their involvement in every series of programs, ranging from interactions with lecture instructors, group discussions, and questions and answers to games and virtual graduations.

At the end of the lecture, the participants were asked to compile a portfolio on product and business development that would describe their ability to design products and design businesses. The hope is that these portfolios can be listed on their respective LinkedIn profiles and support them in increasing their competitive advantage in the jobs they are interested in. In the future, KKMI FTI ITB plans to further improve the learning process and dissemination of knowledge through a series of similar programs that aim not only to provide new knowledge for participants but also to expand international networks and provide learning experiences that is innovative and agile with every existing condition. (KAM)