Vision(ary) Entrepreneur

Vision(ary) Entrepreneur

Posted by Christopher Gergen on August 14, 2008 10:21 AM

Here's the basic formula for entrepreneurship: Understand a problem, grasp its full context, connect previously unconnected dots, and have the vision, courage, resourcefulness, and persistence to see the solution through to fruition.

Case in point...

Today, over 400 million people worldwide live in poverty. Most depend on the use of their hands and their eyesight to provide for themselves and their families. As they age, near-sightedness threatens their livelihoods. For more than 40% of these people, a pair of over-the-counter glasses sold in any Western drugstore would substantially increase their productivity and quality of life. But many people don't have access to these eyeglasses.

During dozens of medical missions to the developing world, Dr. Jordan Kassalow, a practicing optometrist and public health expert, saw the problem firsthand. It was obvious that scores of near-sighted people languishing in poverty needed glasses. But Dr. Kassalow also realized that if a member of a community had the right tools and skills as well as access to inexpensive glasses in a range of standard prescriptions, he or she could become that community's optometrist.

That's a classic "win-win": motivated workers gain access to a promising entrepreneurial opportunity (paying twice the wages of typical local jobs), and their customers get inexpensive, yet potentially life-transforming eyeglasses. Dr. Kassalow saw the problem, understood the context, and connected the dots. He founded the Scojo Foundation, now called VisionSpring; its mission is to "reduce poverty and generate opportunity in the developing world through the sale of affordable eyeglasses."

With seed capital from George Soros's Open Society Institute, VisionSpring launched a pilot program in India. Additional support came from a high-end reading glasses company that Kassalow and his business partner, Scott Bernie, started, which donated 5% of its pre-tax profits to the endeavor. As the for-profit organization grew, so did the non-profit.

Today, VisionSpring operates in 13 countries and has trained over 1,200 "vision entrepreneurs" who have in turn sold over 100,000 pairs of glasses in communities with an average daily income between $1 and $4. In 2007, the group also committed to tripling its impact in three years as part of the Clinton Global Initiative. But how?

One of Kassalow's strategies for growth involves an innovative franchise operation in which more than 30 non-governmental partners are plugging the "Vision Entrepreneur" program into their existing economic development activities, reducing VisionSpring's need to build out costly infrastructure.

VisionSpring also launched a five-year, $5 million initiative to build a fully sustainable enterprise, dramatically reducing its ongoing fundraising burdens. (Incidentally, this strategy is becoming increasingly popular among rapidly scaling social enterprises such as College Summit.)

In retrospect, it all seems so obvious and elegantly simple. If one man armed only with eyeglasses and an innovative plan can change so many lives, what other exciting opportunities are out there -- and who's next?

Worksheet: Assessing Your IT Capability

Worksheet: Assessing Your IT Capability

Posted by Susan Cramm on August 8, 2008 10:57 AM

At one time or another, all leadership roles involve some type of IT responsibility, such as serving as an IT liaison, subject matter expert, project or program manager, system or process owner, project sponsor, or participant in IT governance.

Leaders who have worked in these roles do so with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. On the positive side, the prospect of charting new territories is incredibly stimulating. On the negative, it's also frustrating - navigating IT can be like traveling in a foreign country without an interpreter or a guidebook.

It doesn't have to feel this way. IT is just like any other business function - challenged with developing and delivering products and services to demanding "customers" in the context of constrained resources and changing competitive, organizational and technological landscapes.

As a business, the key to success is to understand the lay of the land in order to make smart decisions about how to get the right people working collaboratively on meaningful objectives in a way that delivers against short and long term needs.

Of course, to get the lay of the IT land, you need to ask the right questions. The following is a short assessment worksheet that's useful in understanding current IT capabilities and identifying opportunities for improvement.

The assessment is organized by "the four key IT imperatives", each with a set of questions about the supporting behaviors that contribute to stronger performance. You can download a copy of the worksheet here: IT Assessment Worksheet.doc

Don't try to answer these questions on your own. Cozy up with your IT counterparts and benefit from their expertise. For each question, collectively make a best guess as to performance and impact. Then brainstorm how to address the low performing/high impact behaviors.

By getting the lay of the land as a first step in tackling an IT role, you will be able to work smarter, not harder, and in the process improve IT relationships and contribute to the greater good by making progress against the four key IT imperatives.

How Olympics Branding Is Shaping China

How Olympics Branding Is Shaping China

Posted by John Quelch on August 11, 2008 8:47 AM

The Olympics have long been seen as China's global coming out party. But the event is more than that: The Olympic Games will change China forever.

In preparing for the Games, the Chinese have had to embrace Western standards to meet the promises made to the International Olympic Committee. Many factories have now been shuttered to reduce pollution and improve air quality in the run-up to the Opening Ceremony. Legions of Chinese soldiers have been enlisted to clear algae infestations from coastal waters where yachting races are to be held. Beijing taxi drivers have been ordered not to spit in deference to visiting tourists.

The deadline of the Games gave government officials an event to forcibly accelerate the modernization of Chinese society. World class architectural design and construction standards have guided the building of Olympic venues. Airports, highways and other infrastructure have been upgraded not only in Beijing but in all the cities where Olympic events will be held. Chinese pride and ambition demand that they be the best ever, no matter what the cost, and that Chinese athletes win more medals than any other country.
But when the athletes have gone home, and the polluting power plants come back on line, what will remain beyond the memories and good impressions? The answer is brands. 2008 will not merely be the year of the Olympics. It will be the year of brands. Not only brand China being promoted on the world stage, but also the commercial brands of Olympic sponsors driving home their brand advantage in the domestic Chinese market.

The Chinese are already in love with brands. How can you stand out in a nation of 1.3 billion with high population mobility? Young Chinese are known by the brands they can afford and the brands they display. Via fashion accessories, cell phones and now cars, brand choices are stratifying a hitherto unified communist society. The billions of daily purchases of trusted brand names are an increasing part of the social glue that holds Chinese society together.

From Coca-Cola to McDonalds, from Visa to Samsung, a record 63 brands have paid the IOC more money than ever for their category exclusive sponsorship rights. And, given the size and growth of the Chinese economy plus the undercurrent of concern about China in the West, these sponsors have allocated more of their global Olympics budgets than ever before to marketing their brands in the host nation.

The Chinese are being subjected to a deluge of brand advertising by Western multinational brands seeking to expand their geographic reach beyond the major cities to the outlying provinces. Olympics-related advertising by these brands could exceed $6 billion. Most of this advertising is not directly promoting brand features and attributes. Rather, it aims to wrap the Western brand in the cloak of Chinese nationalism. From Volkswagen's "honk for China" campaign to Pepsi's limited edition of red colored cans accompanying the slogan "Go red for China", Western brands are taking the "act local" mantra to a new extreme. Few brands are implementing a unified global campaign for this Olympics. Instead, they are typically running two campaigns, one for China, another for the rest of the world.

The same applies to Chinese brands such as Lenovo and Haier that are seeking to leverage Olympics sponsorships to enhance their global stature. Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC business three years ago, has invested around $100 million as the first Chinese company to become a global sponsor of the Olympics. Through doing so, Lenovo expects to increase its brand reputation and market share in China as much as in the rest of the world.

But where will this vast consumption of brands lead? Choice is good. Engaging with brands is fun. Media diversity, fueled by brand advertising, is welcome. But one can't help wondering whether too many Chinese are consumers first, and citizens second. Perhaps more economic freedom will lead, as many hope, to increased demand for political freedom. Or will the fruits of a growing economy and the passion for consumption be the distraction, the narcotic that postpones the day of political reckoning for the still dominant Communist party?

Read more on the Olympics:

• 8 Simple Steps to Winning Eyeballs in Beijing
• The 3 Levels of Branding at Beijing

This post is based on Professor Quelch's August 11, 2008 article in the Financial Times entitled "Brands Act Local To Woo A Billion Chinese Consumers"