Inside the cube: Interview with Mak Fazlic

Mak Fazlic will be in the Zurich cube. The student of the Faculty of informatics of USI will participate to the InCube Challenge, organized by the ETH Enterpreneur Club from the ETH Zurich, and for one week will collaborate with his teammates to solve one of the global challenges proposed.

Why are you participating in this event?

Regarding participation, It was truly unexpected. I received a message from my friend which stated I would be suitable for such an event. At first, I thought it was a joke, as I saw that the event is about students living inside a cube. Now, who in their right mind would live in a transparent cube? That is exactly what kept me interested as I was reading the details of the event, after which I was left intrigued for a completely different reason, an entrepreneurial one. That is to say that the marketing team, besides being very friendly and open minded during the OutCube prep-challenge in Crans-Montana, definitely know what they are doing. Entrepreneurship was never my thing and I always saw myself in a corporate environment. That said I believe that I needed extra exposure on the entrepreneurial side of things, considering that leading such a professional life can be extremely exciting. I did not know anything regarding such endeavors, and an interesting concept of the cube, coupled with an opportunity to open my entrepreneurial horizons and network with amazing people was definitely what motivated me to submit the initial form.

Do you believe that working in such a small space effectively helps in developing actual projects?

Although my beliefs stand to be corrected, I currently believe that a small space working environment should be extremely effective, as it promotes direct collaboration and diminishes communication inefficiencies. Regarding actual projects, I am much more pessimistic, considering that actual projects are much more complex in their nature. They should require intimacy with ones thoughts before they are exposed to the team or the world at large. On the other hand, there is an argument where much of the communication within large companies is complete electronically and passion or affect cannot be delivered in such ways, keeping in mind that to foster innovation within one's work, previously mentioned components are essential. To conclude, I believe that a small space working conditions are excellent for brainstorming and prototype building, as they allow for less conventional ideas to come to life in a fast-paced environment.

What do you expect from this experience?

I expect to have fun. A short answer, but an honest one at that. I expect to learn as well. Learn how to work in a team and cooperate with other students to not only produce a deliverable, but produce one that is on a satisfactory level. Particularly the idea I enjoyed was that every team consists of students from different backgrounds, different fields of study, which makes it extremely easy to consider edge cases, but also experience and be influenced by these insights. I expect to take advantage of this opportunity as I find it very valuable. During the two preparation events, being prep-Cube and OutCube, I had the opportunity to meet many passionate and like-minded people with who I plan to stay in touch after this event is completed and use the event to solidify these friendships and build trust.