Entrepreneurial culture: Silicon Valley

Performance culture concept is at the front and center of entrepreneurial ecosystems such as Silicon Valley



Let's look back at the 110-years of Silicon Valey history



And stories like those of Leland Stanford -founder of Stanford University-



Frederick Terman



Hewlett-Packard



Shockley and Fairchild semiconductors





What lessons can we apply to our PII ecosystem culture?

Business and culture: a view of Mexico

This film presents a series of examples of how US and UK companies view Mexico's business opportunities:



How could we use these examples in our PII projects?

Culture dimensions: Fons Trompenaars

Fons Trompenaars uses a seven dimensions model to define culture:






Trompenaars describe his 4-type typology of organizational cultures:

Culture: Gert Hofstede dimensions

Gert Hofstede developed a model to analyze societal culture based on multiple dimensions

1. Power-Distance
2. Individualism
3. Masculinity
4. Uncertainity avoidance
5. Long term orientation

Power-Distance

Collectivism - Individualism

These cultural dimensions are particularly relevant when we engage in developing a new company based on a business model, ideas o practices that have been proven successful in a specific culture -usually developed countries- into a different one -frequently a developing counttry-

Understanding societal culture differences may be key for business success. Google managers discuss the difference between China and US negotiating styles:

Promoting Mexican food through cooking: Rick Bayless new restaurant in Chicago

After succeeding with his Mexican restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, American chef Rick Bayless has just launched a new restaurant -aplty named Xoco (Aztec name for "litte sister" -whcib Xoco is sitting at the corner of Frontera and Topolobampo), to introduce Mexican sandwiches and sweets to Americans.

Thanks to Bayless constant promotion of Mexican cuisine through his two other restaurants and his Cable TV show Mexico: one plate at a time -filmed in different locations throughout Mexico-



Xoco has been a huge success, with lines of customers waiting for a taste of what probably Mexicans take for granted.

Bayless enthusiasm for Mexican food and culture knows almost no limits and contagiates viewers and his own personnel -that spends one month a year in Mexico, training and learning new dishes.

How can we use this example for our PII projects in 2010?

Ecotourism: transforming natural capital into social and intellectual capital

This year documentarist Ken Burns produced a series of 5 films for television -Public Broadcasting System PBS- that are a good example of how art can attract tourism and support to promote, develop and also protect natural capital.

United States National Parks system started with pioneers John Muir and Gifford Pinchot included the development of lodges and touristic circuits as well as scenic roads and tourism and conservationism education.

Artists like photographer Ansel Adams -who captured the ravishing beauty of Yosemite with his photographies and introduced it to millions of Americans-, literally "opening their eyes" to the park and luring them to come and to preserve it at the same time through conservationist groups such as the Sierra Club

Or painter Georgia O'Keefe, who came to New Mexico from New York and built their home and studio there for 50 years, converting cities such as Taos and Santa Fe into art centers and developing communities and housing development following her art and the local traditions of adobe homes.

<O'Keefe and Adams collaborated also in promoting Taos

That created a style of housing and development that is today a prized characteristic of the town -Taos homes can command 500,000 dollar plus prices because of the appreciation generated by artists like O'Keefe and Adams-

How could we apply these lessons and examples to our PII projects?

The power of Mega and Intellectual capital: Innovation comes from BOP markets

A new article on the Wall Street Journal illustrates the new flow of innovation from BOP markets to the global economy.

As C.K. Prahalad anticipated in his 2004 book The future of competition: co-creating value with customers, BOP markets invite and force to review and reinvent products and services moving out of the box of conventional business wisdom paradigms.

As we explained in previous articles (Bernardez, M. (2009) Sailing the winds of creative destruction: using educational technology during economic downturns. Educational Technology), in economic downturn times, a Mega focus must take over.

Under the concept of Globality (Sirkin et al, 2008), "companies have no centers. The idea of foreigness is foreign. Commerce swirls and market dominance shifts. Western business orthodoxy entwines with eastern business philosophy and creates a whole new mindset that embraces profit and competion as well as sustainability and collaboration." (Sirkin et at., 2008, Page 2)

Reengineering must be turned on its head: "outside-in": instead of focusing on saving money to the company at the expense of poorer service and reduced value to the customer, products and services cost- and performance-improvement must operate the other way around: saving oney and adding more value for each buck to the customer.

Here are some examples of Indian engineering ingenuity combined with the new BOP business paradigm:

Reducing healthcare costs - the BOP/ Mega way

The GE Mac 400 heart monitor works on batteries, can be transported to wherever the client is and costs just $ 1,000 -a tenth of standard models cost-

GE is planning to take the new technolgy developed by 300 Indian engineers to the US and the developed world to help bring down healthcare costs. there as well.






"Cooking with (less) gas" and CO2:

The portable, 23 $ dollar Oorja stove reduces CO2 emissions for indoor cooking by using gasifier technology developed for new plants miniaturized.

A fan helps keep a steady flame ti deliver air to the burning pellets with less CO2 emissions and at at three times more efficient performance.

3 million consumers in India already use these ovens in slums and modest homes.


Water purifier for the poor

Unilever's Pureit purifies water for domestic consumption for just $ 43 dollars -a third of the $ 150 minimum previous systems costed to Western consumers-.

The most interesting feature is not the product, however, but the innovative distribution chain: instead of costly machine-based, uniform distruibution chains, Indian Unilever uses 43,000 women-dealers that can reach the most remote villages, keep distribution costs low and increase the social impact by self-sustaining themselves.
The idea of direct sales initiated in the 1950s by Tupperware and Avon in the US is reutilized and redefined to bring down costs and add quality of life (and health) to 3 million families.

BOP cool -smarter and cheaper-

Using just 20 pieces -instead of the 200 in average for standard refrigerators- and reducing the size to 1.5 feet tall by 2 feet wide, Chotukool (Indian for "Small cool") brings portable refrigeration that lasts longer without electric power for 70 $ dollars to Indian villages -instead of the $ 200+ that conventional, heavier refrigerators require-.

Indian engineers replaced the noisy and prone to failure compressors with fans and chips like those used to cool computers' CPUs.



Zero "zeroes" on costs and access to banking: ATMs for BOP

Using the power and ubiquity of 20 dollar-cell phones technology, Zero -named to honor Indian invention of the zero in the 6th century- is an alternative Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) that can reach the remotest villages in rural India and provide BOP dwellers with instant access to cash and banking transactions 24/7 at the lowest cots.

Like in other innovations, supplyh chains are in charge of women that visit villages with the cell phones and help BOP customers to set up banking accounts using the cell phone screen and digital fingerprinting identification.

Once the account is on, BOP consumers can draw or deposit money in their accounts using their phones -or those rented per call by Grameen's "phone ladies"- . The banking ladies go to the nearest conventional bank branches to retrieve and carry back the rupees every day.



These and others are good examples of the power that can be unleashed by combining Mega vision, client-focused reengineering and innovation and using BOP markets as testing grounds.

How could we apply these lessons to our PII projects?

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References

• Bellman, E. (2009) Indian firms shift focus to the poor. The Wall Street Journal
• Prahalad, C.K. (2004) The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers
• Prahalad, C.K. & Kirshnan, M. S. (2008) The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks.
• Sirkin et al (2008) Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything .Business Plus
• Bernardez, M. (2009) Sailing the winds of creative destruction: using educational technology during economic downturns. Educational Technology
• Bernardez, M. (2008) Capital Intelectual: Creacion de valor en la sociedad del conocimiento. Global Business Press
• Bernardez, M. (2009) Desempeno Humano: Manual de Consultoria, Vol, 1. Global Business Press

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