Author: Mason Mui, Managing Director for Strategy & Operations 2026

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Our Client:

Small Talks Circles (STC) is a non-profit organisation that focuses on preparing Hong Kong university students for rewarding, fruitful careers. Through a series of educational forums, Small Talks Circles encourage students to practise networking and “small talk" with one another and seasoned executives, hence the name. They have  provide support in areas that university curricula struggle to, such as public speaking, self-grooming, fashion sense, corporate, as well as access to industry experts.

The Challenge:
It’s our client’s 15th anniversary and they are looking to refresh their business model. They currently rely on STC’s founder and its network of donors as primary sources of funding for its initiatives, and would like to adopt a more sustainable funding model to ensure their longevity. Besides, all workstreams are validated by a single member of leadership causing bottlenecks in their decision making process, resulting from human capital limitations and weak organisational structure.

Our Work:

The engagement with STC was divided into two projects. One internal-facing project focused on building a compelling, fundable value proposition through a signature program, and an external-facing project focused on identifying and accessing relevant funding markets (see STC 2.0 also).

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• Reviewed STC’s event profile, competitor activity, and broader market insights to formulate a signature program that aligned with STC’s educational ethos

• Formulated a governance structure involving cross-functional units with shared responsibilities to improve autonomy in decision making

• Conducted a capacity assessment and proposed recruitment strategies to address human resource limitations

We would like to extend a huge thank you to STC for choosing to start afresh with Juvenate Consulting. The team freely exercised their creativity and truly appreciated STC’s receptiveness to their ideas. We sincerely wish STC the best in proliferating support to university students.