MEN looking dapper in their coats and ties and women dressed smartly in their power suits seated around a table, conferring and deliberating. That is probably the image evoked when one thinks of meetings that involve coming up with the company's latest It product.

However, the collaboration between Wanin Industries - which started out with the Pere Ocean brand and pioneered the bulk bottled water and cooler rental industry in Singapore - and SMU bucks the trend. The firm, which was established in 1986, wanted to find out the young generation's perspective of Pere Ocean. Wanin Industries was referred to UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute (UOB-SMU AEI) by a business adviser at SME Centre (Spring Singapore). UOB-SMU AEI then introduced Wanin Industries to SMU-X course, which was launched in 2015.

The firm took up the opportunity to collaborate with the university in one of its courses - The Design of Business - under SMU-X. The Design of Business is a capstone course that all business school undergraduates take in their final year. In fact, the company was so keen that it set aside a budget of S$50,000-S$100,000 for this partnership.