Re-Imagining Entrepreneurship… “Winning is Winning”
“The current technology and venture capital structure is broken. It rewards quantity over quality, consumption over creation, quick exits over sustainable growth, and shareholder profit over shared prosperity. It chases after “unicorn” companies bent on “disruption” rather than supporting businesses that repair, cultivate, and connect. – Sex & Startups.
Many entrepreneurs strive to become the next Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos or Jack Ma- unicorns, who can disrupt the business world and generate significant wealth for themselves, investors and selected employees. Most are “solo” advocates and promoters of their startups. Some achieve their goal for material success, but their effect on the world is disbalancing, contributing to deteriorating trust for our leaders , broken institutions, and a growing list of human, economic and political challenges. Many entrepreneurs are “winning but the Next Generations are losing.”
Is their success a winning formula for our future?
But is change coming? For the NextGen (Millennials and Z Generation) entrepreneurship is the top desired career path with Gen Z as the most entrepreneurial. Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017 (25,000 people aged18 -35 from 186 countries) found that 40+% of NextGen think sense of purpose/impact on society is one of the most important criteria when considering a career opportunity. Moreover, they share a strong propensity for social responsibility and sustainable products.
As digital natives they are brought up in a world of sharing, collaboration and transparency. NextGen can reinvent entrepreneurship and fuel a winning formula.
Sustainable Entrepreneurship replaces the goal of optimal financial success with mutual benefit and equitable generation of resources. It’s estimated that there are currently 170 million purpose-driven businesses worldwide. In 2018, these social enterprises will start to head mainstream as businesses recognize that delivering sustainable value is essential to their NextGen customers. Traditional businesses and new ventures will continue to participate in the shared economy, transforming their value propositions and business models. Values which were focused on greed or winning at all costs are replaced by trust, empathy, sustainability and transparency. Winning must be redefined in terms of measurable Sustainable Performance Indicators (SPIs) not traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Sustainable Entrepreneurship can become a powerful force for job creation and re-balancing the current economic inequities in our world. The values that underlay personal intention and business purpose are the key factors that drive sustainable action.
Can you imagine… if the next 100 successful NextGen entrepreneurs expand their purpose to optimize social/ community impact as part of their business model. The business model becomes the catalyst for change. The outcome is a quadruple bottom-line, where their business enterprises or social ventures generate sustainable outcomes impacting: People(consumer, employee); Planet (ecological systems); Profit (investors); and Prosperity (community resources related to the product or service).
Furthermore, the NextGen is gifted with instant global communication to spread their message through interconnected networks. Network thinking has transformed industries (hospitality via Airbnb); consumer buying (distribution systems via Amazon); education (online training to the masses via Coursera) and unfortunately terrorism (global propaganda via ISIS).
Can you imagine … translating this powerful Network phenomena to drive sustainable entrepreneurship and social impact outcomes? Entrepreneurs would become part of a global network sharing best practices, business models, and success and failures with other entrepreneurs across the world. Social solutions and businesses designed and tested in one country (e.g., Brazil) can be shared, developed and implemented across the globe (e.g., Indonesia).
The technology is available … shared economy is projected to grow from $14B (2014) to $335B (2025)…emerging NextGen entrepreneurs are driving this change. The investor community is hailing impact investing as a necessity for a sustainable future. Experts are offering to guide sustainable win-win ventures.
Global Transformation Corps (GTC) is designed to integrate these three forces (entrepreneurs, investors, experts) to reinvent entrepreneurship by integrating values with catalytic thinking and current technologies in a network format. GTC is in the selection process to launch the global network for the first 100 social venturers.
Can you imagine… the impact of such a network locally and globally? GTC is striving to change the world’s current entrepreneurial model from “winning is losing” to “winning is winning”…generating sustainable social ventures that realign our ethical compass and fuel positive social outcomes.
The global business community is being challenged by NextGen who want to change the world…
What is your response?
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Ira Kaufman, PhD is a Digital Transformation Strategist, CEO, Social Entrepreneur and Educator. His company, Entwine Digital, has been working with midsize and multinationals to design Digital Transformation strategies and train World Class Digital Leaders and Transformative Leaders. His team has a strategic alliance with Legacy International (NGO specializing in training future leaders) to develop the Global Transformation Corps as an interactive network of executives, experts, impact investors and emerging leaders to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of our 4th Industrial Revolution.
