Changing The World: Project Better Place

I enjoy spreading the news of people who change the world...

One such person is Shai Agassi... Agassi, a former SAP executive, has launched a company that focuses on one of the 21st century's biggest challenges - developing a sustainable, environmental solution for converting country-wide transportation systems toward electricity and away from fossil fuel.

Agassi's company, Project Better Place has $200 Million Backing to transform countries from Oil-based transportation to electric vehicles through electric recharge grid infrastructure.

The planet is running out of natural resources and mankind is running out of time - Project Better Place has the vision, plan, investors and the partners to make scalable electric transportation a reality on a global scale and reduce the world's dependency on oil. They to make the world a better place - one electric car at a time.

An eye-opening fact is a statement by Agassi on his blog that the cost of the average used car in Europe is now cheaper than the cost of gasoline to drive it for a year!

In terms of its business model, the Project Better Place Fact Sheet states:

The business model for the electric cars will be similar to that used by mobile phone operators. In the same way that wireless operators deploy a network of cell towers to provide an area of mobile phone coverage, Project Better Place will establish a network of charging spots and battery exchange stations to provide ubiquitous access to electricity to power electric vehicles. The company will partner with car makers and source batteries so that consumers who subscribe to the network can get subsidized vehicles which are cheaper to buy and operate than today’s fuel-based cars. Consumers will still own their cars and will have multiple car models to choose from.

Kudos to Shai Agassi! A visionary entrepreneur with an intent to change the world and create a better future. Go check out Project Better Place and Shai's blog... inspirational and though provoking stuff. O yes, the video of Shai's presentation at the launch of Project Better Place is also a must-see.

Growing Interest in Corporate Entrepreneurship

The growing interest in the use of corporate entrepreneurship as a process for companies to enhance the innovative abilities of their employees and increase corporate success can be ascribed to factors such as intensifying global competition, corporate downsizing and de-layering, and rapid technological progress that heightens the need for compaies to become more entrepreneurial in order to survive and prosper.

Subsequently many large companies are seeking ways of reinventing or revitalising their entrepreneurial roots, and fostering intrapreneurial behaviours and practices has taken priority in the strategies of many companies where innovation is perceived as an important means of establishing and maintaining competitive advantage.

The ultimate objective is to gain competitive advantage by encouraging innovation at all levels in the organisation, and refers not only to creation of new business ventures, but also to other innovative activities and orientations such as development of new products, services, technologies, administrative techniques, strategies and competitive postures.

Research identifies 5 Dimensions of Corporate Entrepreneurship, namely Innovativeness, Risk-taking, Proactiveness, Competitive Aggressiveness, and Autonomy. Collectively these dimensions permeate the decision-making styles and practices of a company’s employees and work together to enhance entrepreneurial performance.

1. Innovativeness: A willingness to introduce newness and novelty through experimentation and creative processes aimed at developing new products and services, as well as new processes.
2. Risk-taking: Making decisions and taking action without certain knowledge of probable outcomes; some undertakings may also involve making substantial resource commitments in the process of venturing forward.
3. Proactiveness: A forward-looking perspective characteristic of a marketplace leader that has the foresight to seize opportunities in anticipation of future demand.
4. Competitive aggressiveness: An intense effort to outperform industry rivals. It is characterised by a combative posture or an aggressive response aimed at improving position or overcoming a threat in a competitive marketplace.
5. Autonomy: Independent action by an individual or team aimed at bringing forth a business concept or vision and carrying it through to completion.

Perhaps, in your own context, the time has come to seriously consider corporate entrepreneurship as a means of enhancing your competitiveness. Many leaders today acknowledge that corporate entrepreneurship is not an oxymoron, but rather an antidote to large company staleness, lack of innovation, stagnated top-line growth, and the inertia that often overtakes the large, mature companies of the world.

The Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time

On June 27, 2007 BusinessWeek published an article, "The Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time."

They acknowledge that a lifetime could be spent compiling a list without ever agreeing on who deserves a mention, as there are far too many figures to choose from to give anyone the final say. In other words, they acknowledge their list's inherent subjectivity. To compile it, they consulted with professors, authors, and BusinessWeek staffers. Their criteria for entrepreneurs to be considered among the greatest was simple: If they had the vision to create new markets or tap into underserved markets, changing the way people lived in the process, then they were candidates for the list.

They eventually came up with a list of 30 players. I think the value of the list of 30 lies in the key learning points we can take from it. Here is BusinessWeek's list of Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time, with a key learning we can take away from each of these:

1. Admiral Zheng He (b. around 1371, d. 1433): He's journeys matched the risks taken by the boldest entrepreneurs - and the payoff set a high bar for six centuries of risk takers to follow.
2. Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706, d. 1790): Franklin's idea that people can improve their lives through their own hard work and enterprise, as he did, continues to encourage the American Dream.
3. Mayer Amschel Rothschild (b. 1744, d. 1812): In an era of nation-states that were just beginning to industrialize, Rothschild created the world's first multinational. Because his company crossed borders, it was not beholden to any one ruler.
4. John Jacob Astor (b. 1763, d. 1848): Astor built on one successful enterprise by investing the profits into another.
5. Andrew Carnegie (b. 1835, d. 1919): Recognizing the innovations that will catalyze an industry means the difference between shutting down the competition and getting shut down.
6. John D. Rockefeller (b. 1839, d. 1937): Rockefeller used economies of scale and vertical integration to modernize an industry.
7. Thomas Edison (b. 1847, d. 1931): Innovation is crucial, but new ideas alone will not make a business successful. Ideas need to be focused into products that customers will value.
8. Milton Hershey (b. 1857, d. 1945): Hershey created an iconic product at a price that let millions enjoy what once had been reserved for the wealthy. Selling "low-cost luxury" became a viable business model.
9. W.K. Kellogg (b. 1860, d. 1951): Kellogg's accidental discovery, promoted with savvy marketing, transformed the way Americans ate breakfast.
10. Joseph Horn (b. 1861, d. 1941) and Frank Hardart (b. 1850, d. 1918): Horn and Hardart saw a change in the way people worked and delivered a product that fit that new lifestyle.
11. Henry Ford (b. 1863, d. 1947): Ford made a product once considered a luxury available to a mass market by transforming the manufacturing process.
12. Ray Kroc (b. 1902, d. 1984): Taking the long view rewarded Kroc, even though he might have made more money earlier by milking his franchisees. Entrepreneurs who invest in the long-term growth of their businesses at the cost of short-term profits can look to him as an example.
13. Madam C.J. Walker (b. 1867, d. 1919): The era's ingrained racism left a huge part of the population underserved by the market. Walker profited by making them her customers.
14. Estée Lauder (b. 1907, d. 2004): Lauder became a giant in the nascent beauty industry by making sure the quality of her products exceeded the expectations of her target market, namely wealthy society women.
15. Ernest Gallo (b. 1909, d. 2007): Gallo took what had been an exclusive product and aggressively sold it to a mass market.
16. Thomas Watson Sr. (b. 1874, d. 1956) and Thomas Watson Jr. (b. 1914, d. 1993): Watson Sr. built up a global corporation from nothing by investing in his employees and research. His son built on that success to develop and market a technology that transformed the world.
17. Sam Walton (b. 1918, d. 1992): Walton never wavered from his strategy even as other discounters broke into midmarket products, and low prices won out in the end.
18. Earl Graves (b. 1935): The civil rights movement aimed to achieve equality under the law, but the struggle for equal economic opportunity goes on today. It's a fight Graves continues to lead.
19. Andy Grove (b. 1936): Innovation, adaptation, and being in the right place at the right time allowed Grove and Intel to transform the way information is delivered to consumers.
20. Ralph Lauren (b. 1939): Lauren imagined a market for men's fashion as large as that for women.
21. Muhammad Yunus (b. 1940): Yunus imagined what would happen if a bank extended credit to those people who would never traditionally receive it. In the process, he created a system that empowered the poor by helping them become entrepreneurs.
22. Martha Stewart (b. 1941): Stewart profited by making her name into an attractive lifestyle brand.
23. Azim Premji (b. 1945): Premji built a leading IT company as the industry was growing and he expanded into the global market by adhering to rigorous standards.
24. Richard Branson (b. 1950): Branson is aggressive in pushing his companies into new industries - an approach that has made the Virgin brand bigger than any one of his individual holdings ever could be.
25. Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954): Oprah combined charisma and business savvy to become one of the most powerful people in media.
26. Steve Jobs (b. 1955): Jobs recognized that style and ease of use are as important as substance for a certain type of customer. No one had built a computer for that buyer until he did.
27. Bill Gates (b. 1955): Once Gates began to transform the PC industry, he developed a two-prong strategy of expanding the market while maintaining a stranglehold on competitors.
28. Jeff Bezos (b. 1964): At a time when the Internet was still new to most Americans, Bezos realized how quickly it would change the way the world does business and seized the opportunity.
29. Michael Dell (b. 1965): Cutting out the retail middleman and custom-building computers to suit buyers' needs put Dell at the front of the class of PC makers.
30. Pierre Omidyar (b. 1967): Omidyar created the infrastructure of e-commerce for individuals.

View the full article at: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070627_564139.htm

View the slideshow of the 30 players at: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/06/0628_greatest_entp/index_01.htm

Intrapreneurship: Key to Innovation & Growth

What do we mean by “innovation”? Innovation is both the creating and bringing into profitable use of new technologies, new products, new services, new marketing ideas, new systems, and new ways of operating

Intrapreneurship, the term coined by Gifford Pinchot that refers to entrepreneurship within an existing organisation, is the key driver to innovation and growth.

Indeed, innovative talent is the hallmark of the entrepreneur. Given the rapid changes in contemporary markets, a successful organisation is marked by a continuum of "start-over points" at which the venture is "recast" in form or function to master the challenges and opportunities. As a consequence, business owners can never outgrow their entrepreneurial beginnings, and managers must learn how to perpetually perform as entrepreneurs. Each must be able to continuously identify opportunity, organise talents, assume risks and make ready decisions to profitably create value for the marketplace. Because of entrepreneurial innovation - by its owner and its managers - a firm will be ever-able to exploit new, different and more relevant resources, techniques, processes and product or service configurations.

Unfortunately, bureaucracy in organisations stifles the entrepreneurial spirit. When the freedom to think, reason and act entrepreneurially is not forthcoming, frustration can cause people to become less productive or even leave the organisation - even going into competition with the organisation.

The future belongs to those that recognise the importance of developing entrepreneurial leadership within their organisations. Far too many highly trained and experienced employees merely think and act as hired hands. Professional complacency, lack of innovation and avoidance of ownership can no longer be allowed to be as rife as it is in business today.

The message is clear: Those organisations that do not move with agility will fall over themselves. The leaders who do not develop others will have no followers. The executive who does not think like an entrepreneurs will lose.

If, then, the future demands more entrepreneurial groundbreaking organisations, then future leaders must ensure that they develop and instill the entrepreneurial spirit in others and create an intrapreneurial climate in their organisations.

To invent or to innovate?

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: It is important to recognise that innovation implies action, not just conceiving new ideas. When people have passed through the stages of creativity, they may have become inventors, but they are not yet innovators. Let's see why... For starters, the difference between invention and innovation is:

• Invention - is the creation of new products, processes, and technologies not previously known to exist.
• Innovation - is the transformation of creative ideas into useful applications by combining resources in new or unusual ways to provide value to society for or improved products, technology, or services.

So what are we saying? Well, in essence the elements in the innovation process are:

• Analytical planning - to identify: product design, market strategy, financial need.
• Organising resources - to obtain: materials, technology, human resources, capital.
• Implementation - to accomplish: organisation, product design, manufacturing, services.
• Commercial application - to provide: value to customers, reward of employees, revenues for investors, satisfaction for founders.

What is it to be... inventor or innovator? Personally I'd rather be an innovator than an inventor and have no one to share my new creation with. The adage, “necessity is the mother of invention” might be true. But that is only one side of the coin. The necessity will not be met without transforming the creative idea into a useful application. If it stops at invention, the need will remain.

Three Key Principles

Ewing Marion Kauffman in 1950 quit his job because of his treatment by the president of the company for which he worked. "The year before," Kauffman says, "I made more money than the president so he cut back my commission. The next year I made more money than he did again, so he cut back my territory. So I quit and started Marion Labs in my basement." His entrepreneurial genius created Marion Laboratories, Inc. which grew to $1 billion in revenues, $6.5 billion in market cap, and had over 300 millionaires among its 3,400 employees. Kauffman grew the company on three principles:

(1) Treat people as you would want to be treated.

(2) Share the wealth with those who contribute to its creation.

(3) Give back to the community.

Creative Destruction

Creative destruction: what kind of phrase is that? It sounds like a paradox - an oxymoron. How can the word creative, which has its origin in the root-word “create”, be linked to destruction, which in turn is rooted in “destroy”?

This dichotomy is, however, deeply embedded in the entrepreneurial phenomenon. Schumpeter (1942) outlined an economic process of "creative destruction," by which wealth was created when existing market structures were disrupted by the introduction of new goods or services that shifted resources away from existing firms and caused new firms to grow. The key to this cycle of activity was entrepreneurship: the competitive entry of innovative "new combinations" that propelled the dynamic evolution of the economy.

In essence entrepreneurship can therefore also be seen as a force of “creative destruction” whereby established ways of doing things are destroyed by the creation of new and better ways to get things done.

Just think for a moment of products and technologies that have become obsolete over the past 20 years or so... The floppy disk and stiffy making way for the memory stick; BETA and VHS video tapes making way for DVDs; on the brink of extinction one can think of the music cassette that is replaced by the CD. Also think of the development of the transistor and then the semiconductor.

Today Moore ’s Law – the power of the computer chip will double every 18 months at constant price – is actually being exceeded by modern chip technology. Combine this with management guru Peter Drucker’s Postulate: A tenfold increase in the productivity of any technology results in economic discontinuity. Thus, every five years there will be a tenfold increase in productivity. Author George Gilder recently argued that communications bandwidth doubles every 12 months, creating an economic discontinuity every three to four years. It does not take a lot of imagination to see the profound economic impact of “creative destruction.”