Entrepreneurship at Home & Abroad

“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”

--President Barack Obama, Inauguration Speech (January 20, 2009)

Judy Estrin, CEO of Jlabs and self-professed serial entrepreneur, used this quote from President Obama’s inaugural speech to start a discussion on common qualities of entrepreneurs, emphasized the words “risk-takers” and “doers.” At two recent conferences, the Women in Leadership Conference and the Asia Business Conference, I heard entrepreneurs discuss the traits that they believe contributed to their success. I heard many common qualities, including:



Looking at this list, I wonder about the implications of our challenged U.S. educational system on entrepreneurship in this country. If the above are the qualities that contribute to entrepreneurial success, are we building the foundation for future generations of entrepreneurs and innovators in our country? I’ve read how certain school districts are modifying curriculums to better prepare students for standardized achievement tests, by so called “teaching for the test.” Won’t this type of education suppress creativity? I have also read that grade inflation has become rampant in some school districts, which certainly doesn’t build tenacity or commitment in students. Structured curriculums emphasizing math and science at the expense of art, music, history, or literature stifle innovation and creativity as well. Will future generations of Americans exhibit these qualities that today’s entrepreneurs have found key to their success?

I also wonder about the implications for entrepreneurship in other countries. At the Asia Business Conference, speaker Jimmy Hexter touted the importance of China to the international business community, citing Chinese startups that now compete with multi-national companies. However, I would be curious to know what implications the Chinese political system and culture have on entrepreneurship there. For example, I recently read a New York Times article about Chinese citizens subverting the Chinese Government’s rampant censorship by using double-entendres to convey political messages that escape censorship algorithms. How well can entrepreneurs truly thrive in an environment that lacks transparency and true knowledge sharing? In addition, during the entrepreneurship panel in the Asia Business Conference, panelists noted that failure is not acceptable in many Asian cultures. If qualities that American entrepreneurs site as contributing to their success are difficult to find in China, how will Chinese entrepreneurs innovate the way Mr. Hexter proposes?

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to hear the thoughts of so many seasoned entrepreneurs at these two events! I don’t have much stake in China, but I do hope that the U.S. continues to provide children with educational experiences that will inspire and grow future generations of entrepreneurs. I believe that the quality of the entrepreneurial environment will be critical to our future success as a nation.

-- Lauren


Here are some links to interesting articles I read recently in the New York Times:

Chinese subversive responses to censorship
President Obama’s Educational Policy
David Brooks Op-Ed Educational Policy

Here are the entrepreneurs I heard speak at these two events:
Women in Leadership Conference: Judy Estrin- CEO Jlabs; Wendye Robbins- President & CEO Limerick BioPharma; Danae Ringelmann- Chief of Finance & Customer Development, IndiGoGo; Ann McCormick- CEO, Learning Friends
Asia Business Conference: Liam Casey, CEO PCH International; Saeed Amidi- CEO Plug and Play Tech Center; Umair Khan- CEO Secret Builders; Yangbin Wang- CEO Vobile; Yumiko Yamaguchi0- US Office Manager, Medical Create

International Business Strategy: Why China?

I had the privilege of hearing Jimmy Hexter, Director of McKinsey & Company, Beijing Office, speak at UC Berkeley’s recent Asia Business Conference. From his extensive experience doing business in Asia, he addressed the audience with a talk on why companies that want to stay competitive in a global marketplace need a strategy for business in China. I found his description of the importance of China to be fascinating. I will definitely keep this information in mind as I enter future business roles.

Why is China so important for global business strategy?

1- Size of the market
650 Million Chinese now live in urban areas. By 2025, China is projected to have 1 Billion urban residents. Each year 20 Million Chinese people either move to cities or are swallowed by them. After a house and a car, the first purchase of a typical Chinese family is a 50” big-screen TV. China is a hotbed of demand, and offers huge opportunities to leverage economies of scale.

2- Local competition
Multi-national companies that sell their products in China now find that local businesses are their biggest competition for market share. When multi-nationals first outsourced manufacturing to China, they relied on inexpensive labor and neglected best practices. Local competitors now understand design and manufacturing best practices so relying on inexpensive labor alone is no longer an option. Companies that fail to leverage industry best practices often face competing Chinese products that offer better value.

3- Emerging Talent
China has 1.3 Million college graduates each year. Multi-national companies are now empowering local R&D to design products in China for its own market, other emerging markets, and for global markets.

Mr. Hexter told the story of a U.S. semi-conductor company who attempted to design and manufacture a chip for the Chinese market. Once their product was launched, they found that a Chinese company was producing better chips at lower cost. In response, the U.S. company improved the design of their chip and lowered their costs and prices. After these changes, the chip was such a resounding success that it was exported to other markets. Today, only 20% of these semi-conductors initially intended for the Chinese market are actually sold in China.

How can companies incorporate China into their strategic plan?
According to Mr. Hexter companies should treat China like a second home market. Few multi-nationals understand Chinese perceptions of their products and tailor their value proposition to Chinese consumers. Companies should appoint board members from China and develop personal relationships with their largest Chinese customers.

To illustrate his point, Mr. Hexter told the audience a statistic about pianos. There are 60 Million piano students in China, he said. Chinese need pianos for small spaces, and they prioritize getting a good value for their money. Who will design and manufacture a piano to satisfy this demand, he asked us? Then, why wouldn’t that piano be well-suited for export to other markets around the globe? How will piano manufacturers in these markets recognize and respond to this competitive threat?

Sustainability: Transparent, Desirable, Invisible

Sustainability can be an elusive concept. At the recent Capitalism Next Sustainable Design panel, Ted Howes, Sustainability Lead at Ideo, challenged us to bring 30 sustainability leaders into a room, ask them to define sustainability, and find less than 30 different definitions. But, one story that Mr. Howes told really resonated with me. One of the legendary success stories at Ideo, which I have heard several times before, is the design of a bestselling child’s tooth brush in 1991. Noticing that children put their whole fist around their toothbrushes, Ideo designed the first big, fat toothbrush so that children could better grip on their toothbrush than with a smaller version of the adult one. Their design was the top selling toothbrush for 18 months and has since been imitated by many other toothbrush manufacturers. For the designer of this toothbrush, however, the concept of sustainability hit home on a vacation in Mexico when during a walk on the beach, a big, round plastic child’s toothbrush washed ashore. While it can be a challenge to define sustainability with words, like the designer of Ideo’s toothbrush, we all have moments where we realize the impact we have on the world around us.

Though a common definition of sustainability may elude us, I heard three words echoed frequently by the panelists as they discussed sustainable design: transparent, desirable, and invisible. Though working for different organizations on a variety of types of products, Damien Huang, VP of Design for Patagonia, Bryant Bainbridge, Director of Nike Considered, and Ted Howes, Sustainability Lead at Ideo, echoed many similar concepts in their discussion of sustainability.

Transparent
First, sustainable design requires transparency. Companies should communicate information about product lifecycles and document the tradeoffs made in its design and production to customers. For example, one way Patagonia creates transparency is through its Footprint Chronicles, an area of the site that tracks the environmental footprint of selected products. Patagonia acknowledges that difficult tradeoffs frequently occur and even highlights areas of its value chain where it lacks sustainability.

The sustainability of a product also involves its entire lifecycle. Mr. Howes gave the example of companies choosing one less harmful component and wanting to brand their entire product with a “green” sticker. Select companies are really just beginning to look at their entire value chains starting with the upstream chemistry of their products. Nike has created tools and metrics to analyze the complex upstream footprint of each product from its multitude of suppliers. Closer partnerships with vendors can help to create this transparency. A large company like Nike and smaller organizations like Patagonia both play critical roles in creating these partnerships. Patagonia is on the front-line bringing up the conversation about new ways to be sustainable with vendors. Nike is large enough to drive big changes with their suppliers. In addition, organizations should not neglect considerations about the end of the product life. Patagonia, for example, has launched the Common Threads, to make its products recyclable, allowing consumers to return used products to their stores for recycling.

Invisible
Secondly, at the same time sustainability must be transparent so that stakeholders can see and understand the value chain, sustainability must also be invisible. Sustainable products must be well designed, performing as well or better than their non-sustainable counterparts. Companies should be able to sell product even if customer did not know it was “sustainable.” At Patagonia, designers assume that the customer will not pay a premium for sustainability, and that its other attributes will sell the product. After the session, I compared the price of an organic cotton dress at Patagonia to a comparable cotton dress at J.Crew without organic cotton and found the dresses to be very similarly priced. (The Patagonia Netty dress is $85, and J.Crew's Cabana dress is $78. J.Crew also sells non-organic cotton dresses for as much as $118.)

Ted Howes gave an example of a sustainable product with poor design, which has received criticism from consumers. Walmart’s new milk carton saves significant energy and resources. However, despite saving money on each gallon, consumers are struggling to be able to pour milk from the new containers. To achieve maximum success, sustainable products should function as well as non-sustainable alternatives. Because good sustainable design must be “invisible,” Ideo even sometimes makes changes to improve sustainability of new products without telling its clients.


Desirable
Finally, when companies communicate the value proposition of sustainability products to consumers they should emphasize desirability rather than fear. Companies should avoid scare tactics, and instead appeal to customers with a value proposition based on the products many attributes, of which sustainability is only one. Companies should even communicate a better value proposition than financial ROI by creating new business or product models to simplify the lives of their customers. After the session, I tried to learn more about how Nike is making their sustainable products desirable to consumers. It seems that they have continued their tradition of athlete sponsorship of with their sustainable products. For example, Steve Nash, All-Star guard of the Phoenix Suns, is wearing Nike’s “Trash Talk” shoe. What sports fan wouldn’t desire a product worn by world-class athletes?


Challenges
Companies and consumers should remember that the pursuit sustainability for consumer goods is a complex and evolving process. Sometimes the choices designers must face in pursuit of sustainability are not black and white. For example, Mr. Bainbridge told a story of a soccer ball factory in Pakistan. When U.S. management learned that minors were employed by this factory, a large fence was installed and employees were more closely screened for age requirements. Because the impoverished families of these children still needed them to work, they found jobs in the only other local employer, a manufacturer of heavy metal parts. Children soon began to lose their hands in metal presses. So it seems in our pursuit of sustainability and social responsibility, the choices are not always so clear.

Towards the end of the session, Mr. Howes said something that really struck me. “The word sustainability has had its day. Let’s use a word like impact- equally powerful, less squishy.” I believe the words transparency, invisibility, and desirability are also powerful. Thank you to our excellent panelists for providing UC Berkeley students with powerful words to us in our pursuit of sustainability.

--Lauren

Sustainable Silicon Valley

Last week I volunteered at a workshop held by Sustainable Silicon Valley, a non-profit that promotes sustainability initiatives at Silicon Valley companies. This event was an opportunity for green team leaders from different organizations to discuss best practices and common challenges. While some of the green team leaders were hired by their employers to lead sustainability initiatives full-time, I was amazed by the number of leaders who were working in non-sustainability roles but because of their passion for the environment took the initiative to develop corporate sustainability initiatives in addition to their regular work.

I had the pleasure of taking notes at a panel led by Mike Lewman of Applied Materials. The session covered his company’s techniques to track and manage the success of its sustainability initiatives. Mr. Lewman and panel participants provided great insights into components of a successful sustainability program.

Organization

• When launching a new program, pick initial programs with impressive financial savings, to demonstrate to management the potential success of sustainable initiative to reduce costs. Executive sponsorship increases motivation of employees throughout the organization.
  
• Create an organizational chart to identify stakeholders, champions, owners, and participants for each sustainability initiative.
• When building green teams, include passionate volunteers as well as organization decision makers.

Metrics

• Set realistic goals and track progress against those goals. Publish goals to shareholders and employees to promote accountability.
• Use visual representations of status to engage all stakeholder groups.
• Create Scorecards to track metrics and targets from each site. Standardize core metrics across sites.
• Tailor the scorecard to use metrics that are already being tracked, rather than ask participating groups to capture all new data, in order to minimize the extra work required to launch a sustainability initiative.
• Hold status meetings between goal setting and target completion date to allow program participants to adjust progress if not on track to meet targets.
  

From my participation in this event, I learned that Silicon Valley organizations faced common challenges, including engaging and educating large employee groups, standardizing metrics across multiple groups and sites, and measuring impacts where data is not easily available. While some of these insights seem basic, I think they form a great template for companies to successfully launch new sustainability initiatives or improve the success of existing ones. I hope that more organizations like Sustainable Silicon Valley are created around the country to promote sustainability best practices.