Think Big Act Small Edward Rubesch, Ph.D IMBA Program Thammasat Southeast Asian Venture Competition MetaMo
What I would like to share today: 1. I m focusing on all the stuff in the world which are not apps or webpages. 2. What is important is what you do before you try to scale. 3. Two opportunities for us to work together.
A Quick Intro To Me In SE Asia 23 years. Started four businesses since 1997, in automotive sector. Professional background: combination of engineering design, distribution, and technology marketing. Education: PhD from Thammasat University, Thailand MM from Sasin Graduate Business Institute, Thailand SB and SM from MIT in mechanical engineering, USA
My Most Recent Past Launched two entrepreneurship programs in Thailand (at Mahidol University and Thammasat University). Goal: to create innovative spin-offs. Director of the Technology Licensing Office of the National Science and Technology Development Agency Director of the IMBA Program, which focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship. Director, Global Social Venture Competition, Southeast Asia. Founded an entrepreneurship development program called MetaMo (which is the basis of our activities).
Projects/technologies I ve been involved in Shrimp biotechnology, and other shrimp projects Agricultural crops (fruit, rice) Rubber Alternative energy (biodiesel, rice husks) Biological waste water treatment Local medicinal products
Laos-Cambodia border crossing, south of Pakse, north of Stung Treng.
Cambodia border post, south of Pakse, Laos, north of Stung Treng, Cambodia
Commercial traffic near Stung Treng. (We re traveling in the vehicle on the right.)
Ph.D. Research
About Scaling.
My focus... An organization that delivers physical goods (products) or services...instead of a purely Internet or app business model. These scaling challenge in these types of business models is simply user adoption, and network effects are the desired outcome, and a vision of infinite scale is a requirement.
What is scaling? It s not just getting bigger It s getting better at what you do (less effort for more output. First (or second) customer) Result Early growth Mature operations Effort
Why scaling? Don t think in terms of business. Think in terms of value or impact. Business is simply a set of tools, or mechanisms, for managing the scaling process (delivering efficiencies of scale).
In our MetaMo Program we believe... Scaling is made possible by what happens at the very start of your opportunity.
Q: How do we dare to take bigger Leaps of Faith, while having more faith in our chances of success? A: Think Big, Act Small.
Think Big Imagine your desired future, reached by Innovation, Impact, and International Opportunities. MetaMo Think Big, Act Small Act Small Explore and Experiment in many fast, cheap steps, before you Execute.
Think Big Innovation Solve big problems with innovative solutions. Impact Big opportunities come from high impact solutions for society s problems. International Scale opportunities so they reach more people, even across borders.
Think Big: Innovation Innovation opportunities Deliver greater value to customers, Provide rewards of greater profits, Shield you from direct competition.
Think Big: Impact Impact opportunities Solve the major social and environmental problems that are arising in rapidly developing Asia and Southeast Asia: Disparity between rich and poor. Disparity between cities and rural areas. Needs to improve education, health, social welfare of women and children. Similar climate and agriculture: a technology breakthrough can be applied across the region. You immediately have customers.
Think Big: Impact Impact opportunities Solve the major social and environmental problems that are arising in rapidly developing Asia. You will soon have investors. USD 700 Billion seeking impact investments. More money than entrepreneurs.
Think Big: International International Take your innovation and impact to more people. Southeast Asia: A potential market of 600 million people (3rd largest, behind China and India).
Act Small Explore Lower risk by exploring what others have done and learning from their experience. Experiment Find quick and cheap ways to test assumptions about value, target customers, stakeholder s needs. Execute Find the first customer, who needs you the most then figure out how to expand to a significant group of people.
Think Big Imagine your desired future, reached by Innovation, Impact, and International Opportunities. The Challenge: This is not a linear process. Act Small Explore and Experiment in many fast, cheap steps, before you Execute.
This is not a linear process. What KPI do you give a worm?
Explore Forever Exploration is driven by curiosity and has no clearly defined ending point. Things that you might want to explore include: Things that inspire you. Things that depress you. What you would like to do. What you don t like to do. What you are good at. What you are not good at. What you would like to be better at. Problems and needs that others have. Groups of people that you can help. Interesting technologies, methods, products, distribution systems, marketing communications, ways of doing business. Groups and organizations that you would like to work with or would like their help. Existing products, services, companies, or organizations in industries that you are interested in. The Internet is an ideal tool for launching exploration: the initial search of a new area of interest can start with INTERESTING IDEAS ABOUT XXXX.
Experiment Every experiment is a learning opportunity: they should be done quickly, cheaply, and through many iterations to maximize learning and allow a concept to move forward towards a successful opportunity. Ways you might experiment Have an informal discussion with someone. Do a structured interview. Observe what is going on in the situation. Participate in the situation. Create a Prototype (A prototype is worth 10K words). Make a video and put it on Youtube. Create a website or FB page. Devise prototypes for shape, color, function, retail (Pop-up), service method (layout).
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Zi...Take things step by step. But the first step is the hardest!
EXPERIMENT QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? It gets you learning about your opportunity buy interacting with actual stakeholders. You learn quickly. You overcome the fear of making mistakes,. You lower the risk of making mistakes, by making lots of small, cheap mistakes, and learning from them.
EXPERIMENT IS ABOUT MAKING LOTS OF QUICK AND CHEAP MISTAKES TO THAT WE LEARN QUICKLY We want our project to proceed step-by-step. Fear of mistakes keeps us procrastinating until we have to make a big jump. Lots of quick, cheap tests allow us to develop our opportunity smoothly.
We need to visualize both the 1000 miles and the first step. Think Big, Act Small.
Execute When you have a customer who pays enough so you can make a profit, and when you confident that there are more, similar customers, it is time to scale. Grow your opportunity beyond your initial successful segment. Manage product, production, operation, distribution, and communication so returns increase faster than costs. International: For greater scale and impact, think how to grow beyond your home country (your competitors already are!). Define your measures of success.
Only 2 necessities 1.Give yourself permission to Think Big. 2.Push yourself to Act Small.
If one is persistent and heroic enough, one will generate so much heat that the gods will be forced to grant his or her wish in order to save themselves and the world from being scorched. --Parvati, wife of Shiva, and rebuilder of the Universe. (In other words, Think Big, Act Small.)
In MetaMo The one thing we want you to remember most: Be so heroic and persistent that the gods must grant your wish to keep the universe from catching on fire.think Big, Act Small
Two (Or More) Opportunities to Work Together...
GSVC--SOUTHEAST ASIA Developing Innovative Impact Businesses
The Global Social Venture Competition Developing high-impact, scalable, venture capital-backed...social enterprises.
GSVC Partnership London Business School Thammasat Business School Columbia Business School Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Indian School of Business
GSVC--SEA The challenges of Southeast Asian countries (and the opportunities of social entrepreneurs in those countries) are similar, no matter what the difference in language, culture, or religion: Disparity between rich and poor. Disparity between cities and rural areas. Needs to improve education, health, social welfare of women and children. Similar climate and agriculture: a technology breakthrough can be applied across the region. ASEAN pushing for a common market creates an entrepreneurial market that rivals India, or China. GSVC--SEA is a platform for launching businesses in this region, and attracting investors.
Activity Flow--GSVC Competition Process Incubation Round Preliminary Round Judging GSVC Southeast Regional Competition GSVC Global Finals Sept-Dec Jan Feb April
Incubation Round 25 Mentors from 5 countries. 50 Teams from Southeast Asia. 75% of finalists are from the program.
Our SE:SEA Symposium reaches more than 300 people.
The GSVC--SEA We develop businesses that actually launch (but Thailand is lagging!). Garbage Clinical Insurance founder accepting an award from the Prince of Wales. Garbage Clinical Insurance, from Indonesia, was a 2015 GSVC--SEA Winner and finished 4th at the Global Finals.
Companies Launched from GSVC-- SEA The Philippines GSVC--SEA Finalist in 2007
Companies Launched from GSVC-- SEA New Zealand GSVC--SEA Finalist in 2009 Best Global Social Impact Assessment Award.
Companies Launched from GSVC-- SEA Indonesia GSVC Winner in 2009
Companies Launched from GSVC-- SEA Thailand-Cambodia GSVC--SEA Winner in 2012
Opportunity #1: Compete in the GSVC The Incubation Round is starting now. Win up to USD10,000 in prizes and the chance to be one of two teams to represent Southeast Asia at the Global Finals (both teams in 2015 were from Indonesia!) Learn more, and apply at, www.gsvc-sea.org.
Opportunity #2: Host the GSVC Thammasat University in Bangkok has hosted this since 2008, partnering with UC Berkeley in the US. Our goal: Reach across ASEAN, providing a community of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors seeking regional problems and opportunities. In 2015, GSVC--SEA was run in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We are now looking for a GSVC--SEA Regional host for 2016.
The GSVC--SEA In 2015, we launched the GSVC--SEA in another country for the first time: Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We want to continue to move it around the region.
Invitation to Host We are seeking people or organizations who would like to host the GSVC--SEA in order to: Expand the reach of the GSVC--SEA by running the Competition in different countries throughout Southeast Asia. Allow new local audiences in each host country to see the GSVC--SEA and be inspired to become social entrepreneurs. Show outside participants and investors what is going on in the host country.
Any questions about MetMo GSVC Me Edward Rubesch, Ph.D. erubesch@alum.mit.edu +66-81-833-3993