Wearing the stories of Vixere, RCHK’s 2022 JA Company
By Celeste Lau
Vixere’s totebags, which come in sea blue and pearl white designs.
Vixere is a student-run company that is participating in this year’s JAHK Company Programme Competition. They sell necklaces and tote bags inspired by the different biomes of endangered animals.
Junior Achievement, or “JA,” is a worldwide organisation that “equips young people with the employment and entrepreneurship skill sets and mindsets they need to succeed.” It is one of the world’s largest youth organisations, training them for employment and entrepreneurship. It assists over ten million young people in over 100 countries.
Junior Achievement Hong Kong hosts an annual “Company Programme” competition for people aged 14-18, where students develop their entrepreneurial mindset.
Vixere produces a line of products that raises awareness on the issue of animal endangerment and habitat destruction. Their product lines include necklaces — in three designs to represent different endangered animals and biomes, with a colored jewel made of recycled plastic — and tote bags — which come in white and dark blue colored designs.
Vixere’s leadership team, from left to right: Manjot Singh, Shraddha Rajesh, Joshua Ng, Ray Liu, Megan Chan, Abhinav Khanna, Maki Flauta, NIshant Kidangan, Ian Chung, Charis Pao
“It was clear to us that sustainability would be the issue to tackle through our business,” said Rajesh, the Corporate Social Responsibility Officer. “Through extensive research, we learned about the many negative implications of human activity on the environment. While each issue is unfortunate, the idea of someone losing their home because of us triggered feelings of guilt throughout the team, which is why we selected habitat endangerment as our central issue- in order to make whatever change we can from our side to fix an issue we have all had a part in creating.”
As expected, there were many challenges that the Vixere team had to face. “None of us have ever been part of a company, so that was kind of tough,” remarked Chan, the Chief Marketing Officer. “It was tough on an individual level to figure out our place in the company — I remember feeling like I didn’t really know what I was doing at the beginning of this competition, and constantly feeling very frazzled. Thankfully, most of us eventually settled into our roles and felt more confident in them. It was also difficult on a group level, because we have so many departments and components going on all the time, and all that chaos makes it very easy to miscommunicate. But that’s been a really valuable experience for everyone involved, and I hope we’ll all walk away having learnt a thing or two about working in a business.”
Luckily, the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t affect the process that much. “We were lucky to have done half the project while we were in person,” noted Pao, the Chief Design Officer. “From a design standpoint, there weren’t any significant issues. However, once the fifth wave had hit, I ended up taking on the whole production of one of our products as we were unable to continue at school, which was far from ideal, but I’d say it was a good learning experience.”
Vixere’s necklaces, which come in three designs: ice biome and the polar bear, ocean biome and the blue whale, and rainforest biome and the Spix’s macaw.
There were many lessons to be learned from the programme.
“I feel that this experience has been eye-opening for me both in my role as Chief Financial Officer and as a member of the company in general. Through the numerous requirements and challenges that we were faced with, I found that simply learning how businesses function effectively is vastly different from actually taking up a position within a company and undergoing the challenges oneself,” says Khanna. “One of my greatest takeaways has been that in order to progress forward in a company, those that are involved must have common goals with regards to the company’s direction.”
Sales began on the 7th of February, and will continue to run until the 6th of March. For those interested, visit their website at vixere.shoplineapp.com, or follow their Instagram @vixere.rchk.