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10 most relevant founders traits

I have been asked countless times, what it takes to be a good entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur and so forth. Questions came from Quora, in meetings, on events and is one of the most asked questions from young people who are interested in building a startup.
As a precursor let me try to define success, as I see it, to put all this in context:
Success is when I achieve or exceed my very own dreams – not what others tell me I should do to be ‘successful’. No dream no success. Yet, to achieve or exceed an entrepreneurial dream is a successful entrepreneur.

What traits make truly successful entrepreneurs?

Founders are often seen as magicians. And maybe they are to a certain degree. The more we see and interview, the more we understand about their key traits. Here are the 10 most relevant founders traits, I observed by working with some of the top CEOs and over 1,000 startups.  Each of the traits are not ‘sort of having a little bit of that too’ – instead are especially standing out as extremely developed trait. If any one is missing or weak – it seriously weakens the entrepreneurial profile. You may also notice an important interconnection between these traits – again missing one cripples the complete concept.

1) fearless / risk taking
Absolutely does not fear anybody or anything. There is no higher up person for an entrepreneur. There is no rule that is respected and no definition that is taken just as that. They fear no failure, they fear no total loss, they fear not to be laughed at.  They do not fear to risk everything they have for their vision – and they do risk everything they have.
[Related with: (2) creative, (3) determined, (4) curious, (5) independent, (6) confident, (7) connected, (8) communicative] Corresponding habits: making fast and determined decisions

2) creative / compositive
The ability to be creativity means finding a gazillion bits and pieces in your brain and composing it in no time to a new picture. Creativity requires maximum inputs, from travel, discussions, reading… Being compositive is the ability to very quickly identify opportunities and turning them into business cases or even innovation. Experiment fearlessly, no matter what the outcome maybe.
[Related with: (1) fearless] Corresponding habits: Seem to change course over and over again. But never lose sight of the ultimate goal. Knowing there is never a straight line to get to the top.

3) determined
Determination is a mindset. Doing anything, whatever it takes to make something happen. No irritation from others, no distraction, no uncertainty. Determined entrepreneurs never give up – ever. If you are bankrupt, you still have 3 to 6 month to repair and get up again.
[Related with: (1) fearless, (2) creative / compositive] Corresponding habits: Consistency – Pushing the direction in everybody’s mind – every day. There is only one vision, one ultimate goal and they let everybody know. They plan their days towards their goals – not towards responses to others.

4) curious/open
Wide open mind. Wanting to really know in detail how things work, how people do things, how we live, what the barriers are, where the limits maybe if any. Listening to others very carefully, without constructing an argument half way through.
[Related with: (1) fearless] Corresponding habits: Playful – They look very quickly at all kinds of things, want to know everything without ever going really deep. 20% of the knowledge is all they need to know 80% of what there is to know.

5) independent
There is nothing and nobody that prevents the entrepreneur do their things. No friend, no family, no lack of money, no rules, no legislation can get into their way. Societal rules, conformism and alike fences are respected but do not apply to entrepreneurs. [Related with: (1) fearless, (3) determined] Corresponding habits: Super-Focus – There seem to have no family, not even seeing other people with certain personal needs. It’s important to understand that independence often feels like ruthless – but it is the vision that is much larger than live that drives these people to almost impossible results and that means independent behavior. Most people only begin to understand when such a vision was fulfilled.

6) confident
Once an idea is manifested, true entrepreneurs have no doubt that it will work. They just know it will. The extraordinary confidence comes from a ‘brain defect’ that spills emotional knowledge from the right brain half into the brain without consulting the rational part of the brain.
[Related with: (1) fearless, (3) determined, (5) independent] Corresponding habits: Decision Maker – fast decision making, often others feel to be run over, turns sometimes into arrogance. They don’t deal with devils advocates and uncertainty of others. They simply have that trait to know.

7) connected
True entrepreneurs are always highly connected. Connected with their market, connected with the player, connected with customers or targeted customer, connected with investors, influencers, industry associations and so forth. Entrepreneurs have no issues to connect to anybody.
[Related with: (1) fearless, (4) curious, (6) confident] Corresponding habits: Networking – They connect with almost everybody, then maintain only those that are relevant. May sometimes feel a bit superficial, yet they make almost everybody feel important. They know that connections are more precious than gold and they know how to deal with it.

8) communicative
Communication is the most important skill humans developed. We can communicate with words, text, pictures and even preserve past events. That helps us learn beyond any animal. Top entrepreneurs are masters in communication with others, drawing an imaginary world that they are seeing in the future and attract others. At the same time they can sit and truly listen for an hour and construct the situation they hear into a solution and opportunity. Learning and sharing – in this order – are the keys to entrepreneurial communication.
[Related with:  (1) fearless, (2) compositive, (4) curious, (7) connected] Corresponding habits: Extroverted – They ask anything they need to know right at the moment they want to know. They listen and learn very intensely. They also tell everybody and their dog what they are up to, why it’s important. They spread the word about how they will change the world and expect everybody to do so too.

9) involving
Entrepreneurs are very involving. Involving their team, their customers, their market, their investors and their business partners to actively participate in their undertaking. Entrepreneurial involvement of others go way past the concept of delegation but truly inspire others and fearlessly pulling others into their gravitational powers.
[Related with: (1) fearless, (2) creative, (3) determined, (6) confident, (8) communicative] Corresponding habits: Engagement – They don’t worry too much if people have time for them. They simply ask and get people’s involvement. Sometimes it feels like they think they are the only important people on earth. And what they really think is they are one of the most important people on earth – often they actually are.

10) intelligent
While we may debate what intelligence is, here is our definition: “Intelligence is the ability to comprehend a never before experienced situation, abstract the essence and developing a solution by simply thinking through as many as reasonable options without trial and error”. In that sense, true entrepreneurs are intelligent and involve others to solve the problem.
[Related with: (4) curious, (8) communicative, (9) involving] Corresponding habits: Simplification – Breaking the most complex things down into a few or only one simple aspect. Pretty hard for some people to follow and ignore that everything else is just work to be finished.

Fearlessness is the most important glue in between all the key traits. And it is not just generally fearless – it means unconditional fearlessness. Top entrepreneurs have a lot of respect for others and other things, they do experience uncertainty but quickly and clearly decide where to go. Decision making is not a ‘trait’ but a skill – one can learn to make decision. However traits like being fearless, creative, determined, open, independent, confident, connected, communicative, involving and intelligent are key traits for making good decisions and getting them executed.
It sounds like a very demanding profile – it is. As it turns out, only 0.007% of humans are actually successful entrepreneurs.

Few interesting things about this list:
a) None of it can be really ‘trained’ people my change towards, it but not necessarily trained.
b) They are all interconnected, not one goes without some of the others
c) If one or even more are missing the ability to be a successful entrepreneur is decaying very quickly
d) This is uniquely dedicated to entrepreneurs. Any other career or engagement has some of them but never all – and may have others, but they maybe not relevant for entrepreneurs. At least our finding when we compared it with Scientists, Artists, Politicians, Actors, Musicians, Architects, Athletes and so forth.

All in all, fearless, creative, determined, curious, independent, confident, connected, communicative, involving and intelligent are the top 10 traits for entrepreneurs.

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How you can help

Help from the GROUND UP

Getting 3,5 Billion people out of poverty is a daunting task. But 150 years ago most developed countries were seriously poor too. We think we found a very different way to get countries out of poverty.
We are supporting entrepreneurs in emerging countries like Vietnam, Ghana, Peru, do – what the founders in Silicon Valley, Germany, UK, South Korea did: building a strong economy and prosperity from within a country. We do not help building wells. We help local entrepreneurs what they need to build for their country – whatever it is – and it maybe wells.

How YOU can help

The WIForums project, “Prosperity for all nations” needs the help from many

1) VOLUNTEERING

Join us as volunteer or supporter
http://wiforum.org/join/volunteer/

2) SPREADING THE WORD

Join our online presences, share our content, contribute and comment
Twitter @WIForumORG – Please follow and tweet us that you joined
Quora – Lots of answers
Facebook Page – Give it a like, if you like it
Facebook Group – Join our community group
YouTube Channel – Please subscribe and check out some videos
LinkedIn Org Profil – Please follow us
Our hashtag: #WIForum

3) LEAD IN YOUR COUNTRY

We do not have ambassadors in each country
If you are interested, join us and lead the initiative in your country.
http://wiforum.org/join/ambassador/

4) MAKING INTRODUCTIONS

We are expanding into these countries
Africa: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda
Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam
Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, Peru
If you know people from the startup and innovation scene, including business angels and startup mentors –  an intro would be appreciated.

5) INVESTORS

If you are interested in “Foreign Direct Investments” helping fund outstanding teams in emerging countries, check out our new project: http://wiforum.org/projects/icn/

6) Donations

And of course also we need help to help others. Introductions to CSR executives, HNI Donors or donating NGOs are always welcome.

 

And so forth :) Lots to do !!!!

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Who is in the top 1% of wealthiest people?

Quite a lot of the readers of this blog actually are one of the top 1% wealthiest people in the world. But because the majority of our readers lives in developing or emerging countries, they are not. There have been countless discussions why or why not, what we can do to stop the rapid widening of the gap between rich and poor. But what can we actually do? How can somebody help while in their own career stress?

Source: Washington Post chart

Enjoy your wealth – seriously do. Just also recognize your share of responsibility.

Since 2017 we are working on that question. Since 1960,  $4.7 Trillion have been donated to development aid with little result. The number of annual donations is growing rapidly to approx $ 1 Trillion per year now. An income of $32,400 per year would allow someone to be among the top 1% of income earners in the world. Multi billionaires today are what was a multi millionaire in the last century.

As part of our work, we met with many members of emerging – or developing countries and realized some shocking situations. We selected the top three reasons and some conclusions together. In late 2018 we completely reworked our approach of helping entrepreneurs. And we realized a path in development aid that has never been touched before.

Identifying the root cause(s)

We were working hard to identifying root causes. We realized, it didn’t happen just randomly. It happened because of many individual reasons. And there are three reasons with the biggest negative impact as far as I can see.

1) GROWING DONATIONS

Mankind donated enormous sums of money to help the poor. Over time as some got richer, they donated more and more. More NGOs have been created to help distribute the aid. All in the very best intentions. Only rarely money goes elsewhere. On the surface it looks good. But when looking under the hood, it looks very different – even dramatic. The money donated did not make a difference. Nobody really know where to start, whom to give it to and so it was given t the poorest. They consumed it, survived, but did not change the economy. A dramatic development happened. As long as donations were flowing into the country, the people got smarter about what to do to get donations and even more donations. Not because they are greedy and lazy – simply because that has become part of their “economy”. The system that we (the developed countries) instituted was simply wrong. Instead of helping the strongest to build an economy we helped the weakest and built nothing. I feel this is the hardest part to admit – but we have to. I spent time with people in Vietnam, Nepal, South Korea, Peru, Germany, Switzerland, Albania…. In the end I came to the conclusion: We have to slowly but steadily stop random donations and make impact specific donations to help build economies if they are actually wanted.

2) ZERO EDUCATION ON WEALTH DEVELOPMENT

Children have on average 20,000 hours of school. This is true for developed countries as well as many emerging countries including Ghana, Nigeria, or Peru. They learn reading, writing, calculating, and learn about history, geography, physics, biology and so forth.
However – not a single hour is given on how to acquire wealth. Creating wealth can now be easily found on the Internet. It’s used by some and the number of rich people is growing rather quickly. In accordance to Investopedia, 75% of the wealthiest people created their wealth as entrepreneur. Every nation is hungry for innovative entrepreneurs. Not because when rich they pay a lot of taxes but their business will fill the tax pockets. In contrast, those who do not know, coming from a background where getting rich is still equal to be “bad and greedy” are obviously falling behind.  My conclusion: Offering just one hour to explain that the rich “invest” their money, while the poor “spend” it. Giving some basic information and how to search it on the web would make a huge difference.

3) DEPLETION (Materials & Talents)

The developed world and now the top emerging countries are big in exploiting natural resources from foreign countries for peanuts. But the biggest problem – by order of magnitude – is to get the top talents of the poorest countries out and invite them to more attractive nations. With that we not only steal some top brains but the very foundation of a nation to create their own economy. The top nations in the world had only a very few super smart brains like Alfred Escher, Robert Schindler or  Henry Nestle in Switzerland — Carl Benz, Robert Bosch or  Werner v. Siemens in Germany — Lee Byung-Chul, Koo In-Hwoi or Chung Ju-Yung in South Korea — or William Shockley, Gordon Moor and Steven Jobs in Silicon Valley. Today it’s easy because most politicians – even in the developed world – simply don’t understand the impact.

DEVELOPMENT FROM WITHIN

With all that said, I personally and wholeheartedly trust that we need to broadly start inspiring and supporting the strongest entrepreneurs in each nation to stay there and realize their entrepreneurial dream, building successful businesses and export their ware as soon as possible. Their genuine creativity, coupled with their few of the local problems and the problems of other developing countries will bring solutions that can turn any of the nation into a developed country – and it won’t take much longer than 20 years. Yes, this goes against all the artificially created ideologies of inclusion and helping all the the ideas of equality and so forth. But the past 70 years has proven that this model did not work – despite 4,700,000,000,000 (4.7Trillion)  Dollars investment. At the same time the best of the best get nurtured and funded in Silicon Valley who then continue the rich/poor widening process. If we continue diluting the capital of the rich to just provide charity for the poor, instead of taking at least some money to build out economies that help them develop prosperity from within their society and provide education how ALL members of any given society can participate in that wealth – we will never have enough money to donate.

There are certainly more problems that cause the rich/poor gap. One of the biggest reasons is often pointing to corruption. The more we have been analysing that issue, the more we came to realization it is simply just another loud cry for helplessness, based on poverty and hunger to survive. I’m not defending corrupters but we can do better than pointing at them to find a somebody we can blame (Prosperity Paradox by Clayton Christensen (Harvard), is a good read). And then there are hundreds of tiny issues. But all those issues have been very present in the 1800’s Germany or Switzerland, in the 1950’s farmland of Northern California and even more so in one of the poorest Asian countries: South Korea in the 1960’s.

Consequence

Of course we do not expect that the world is following our concept. For us, the consequence is to build strong and innovative entrepreneurship from within the countries. This is a long and painful path as any startup in the west or in the east, north or south, is taking approximately 10 years to grow from zero to an economy relevant size. But we feel it’s better to start now than hoping for a majical shortcut to become “rich in 30 days”. NGO projects usually go 1 – 4 years. Far too short to actually get anything notable done. And so we are looking for philanthropists, donors and other giving organization that go this long path with us. If you like to help as a volunteer, donor, international investor (investing in promising startups) or in any other capacity – your support is deeply appreciated.

 

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Our work in Vietnam Spring 2019

Meeting with the ITP leadership team of the University of Ho Chi Minh City. An impressive presentation where Vietnam is planning to go what innovative businesses concerns.  We also had some great meetings with students, who are very ambitious and eager to learn everything possible about innovative thinking and entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs Workshop with roughly 20 top startups and scaleups from Ho Chi Minh City. It was great fun to work with these super engaged and highly competitive teams. One of the things that all of them have in common with any top startup in the world: determination to win.

Investors meetings at the Kova facility. We discussed investor strategies, ways to select startups, due diligence processes and post investment mentoring. We also talked about the necessity to keep top companies in the country to not loose the innovative edge to somebody else.

A wonderful and very personal dinner at the Kova house. We enjoyed traditional Vietnamese food cooked by the lady of the house herself. This was an unforgettable evening.

Great discussions about innovative thinking, investment opportunities, ways to stimulate more innovation and getting startups better supported to be able to compete on a global scale. It was an amazing evening with amazing people.

HANOI

The future of innovation in Vietnam, Conference. Great and an amazing diverse speakers, high energy and very ambitious. We talked about the innovation paradigm and the value of going global for the national prosperity and wealth development.

We were invited by the University of Hanoi to speak about the Innovation Paradigm, the value creation for the national economy and what Vietnam can do to create an innovation economy within the country.

Interesting discussions about how to stimulate innovation and making innovation an even stronger point within an economy. Also we spoke about the value of speaking English as a prerequisite to participate in the global economy.

Meanwhile, Marita ran a workshop for female entrepreneurs. The interest to participate was so overwhelming that the initial 12 people roundtable had to be turned into a 70 attendee  presentation and podiums discussion.

Full house at the female entrepreneurs meeting in Hanoi

A very interesting meeting at one of the largest mobile phone providers. The organization is determined to innovate and bring all new ideas to their customers. It is absolutely amazing to see how Vietnam turned from a rather poor country, dependent on donations, just three decades ago, into a vibrant emerging country.


An equally great meeting at one of the top business banks of Vietnam. Also here, business transformation, innovation and moving from an industry follower to an industry leader is an amazing transition. We talked about how innovative thinking is not just improving the status quo but how to get to an idealistic model and back to reality.

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Working in South Korea

One week with great teams, jar dropping innovation spaces and top notch universities.

Our work in South Korea, with our ambassador and team was very exciting. South Korea is certainly no longer an “emerging country”. It bypassed many of the developed countries.

Startup ecosystem of the superlative. South Korea’s brand new Innovation hub is certainly the most mondain, most modern and best equipped incubation campus in the world. Startups, scaleUps and SME’s on hypergrowth don’t miss anything here. Whether its a photo and video studio, conference rooms of any size, offices of any shape, restaurants and countless other amenities. This is very hard to top.

Introduction to the Seoul Innovation Ecosystem, it’s focus to take business global and its quest to build more Samsung, LG or Hyundai type companies.

Entrepreneurs Workshop at the University of Seoul. A variety of students, even from foreign countries participated to learn all about innovative thinking, the innovation paradigm and how most innovative companies became the core of a country’s economy.

Investor Workshop for South Korean Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists and institutional investors.

A great view onto Seoul by night from one of the largest towers in the South Korean metropoly

Private World Innovations Forum Dinner with industry leaders from both Asia and Europe. We were discussing how Innovation is not just a way to build new technologies but innovation being the economic foundation of any leading nation.

And a final Entrepreneurs Event with pitching contest in the Seoul Startup Hub. This incubator just complete the expansion and is now good for almost 1,000 startups. Five selected startups pitched in front of an audience from the SSH and showed their ability to innovate.

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Whats all about this “vision” thing

Do you really need a vision for your business? You don’t NEED anything, it’s YOUR business! But here is what a VISION can do for you.

  1. You don’t “create” a vision for yourself
         Hopefully, you already envision where you want to take your business. And if you don’t have one, ask yourself why you are doing it? Why would you risk your employees careers? Why would you risk your investor’s money? Why would you risk to waste the time of your customers? Why would you jeopardise all the people’s time and money you will deal with?
    But given you have your vision, here is what it can do for you:
  2. Have a vision to attract co-founders
    If you have a very interesting case or cause you may attract people joining you on your journey that you would never ever be able to hire otherwise. You will need top notch people to create an amazing business – any business. You only can get those if you have a powerful and very meaningful vision.
  3. Have a vision for your customers
    Customers get asked to buy a gazillion products every day. Why should they buy yours? There is always a cheaper product around the corner. If not today tomorrow somebody gets up and makes it even less expensive than anybody else in the world. But your amazing idea and long term view of the impact of what you and your exceptional team is doing, will help your customers also tomorrow, next year and the years to come. Customers buy either the cheapest or the most compelling product or service. And if it is your vision to make sure you will be always the cheapest – well than that is your vision.
  4. Have a vision to attract top talents
    As a startup you usually have a very tough time to attract these amazingly smart top talents who seem to walk on water, get things done while others still wonder what the best way would be or try to consult others how to even start. You want talents that are almost impossible to employ by anybody. You look for people, where everybody is afraid of to even train them because they would be hired away in no time. But if you have an impressive vision and show a way to get there, you find the very people you even need to get there. And you find people who know it’s them to shape the organization, it’s them who makes it happen. You may ask: Why don’t they do it on their own? Because what you bring to the party is an amazing VISION that makes them tick. Of course, they will ask to get a piece of the cake – and that is totally ok.
  5. Have a vision for your market
    People in your industry or market should know about you and your amazing business. You will never have enough money to advertise. But your amazing vision will be carried around by media and other people. Let them know how you change the world for the better by doing what you do.
  6. Have a vision to attract investors
    If you have no vision where this business can grow to, why should anybody invest? Why should people risk their hard earned money, no matter how much they have, to put it i your business and not in some of the other 1 million startups around the world? Your vision gives the indication of the opportunity down the road.
  7. Have a vision to attract anybody who matters to you
    There are millions of businesses out there. All competing for a tiny slice of the market. Most struggle to keep their business alive – because why them and not somebody else. Do not use the buzz words of the day – don’t even TRY to be attractive. You ARE attractive when you explain what matters most yo you and why you believe what you are doing is important to many others – more important than what is out there today.

You can only lead a market if you can actually ‘envision’ where you want to lead it to. And a very personal super positive ‘side effect’:  You even have a MUCH more fulfilling life if you know what it is that you really really really care about and make it happen — no matter what, and no matter how impossible it may appear. In the end it makes the difference between LIVING or just EXISTING.

@AxelS

 

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Eradicating Poverty

Instead of trying to help 3 Billion people from the 75 poorest countries to survive, we decided we want to focus on 1,500 innovative minds, the 20 best from each country to build their own self propelled economy.

PAST DEVELOPMENT AID EFFORTS
Since more than 50 years, the developed world is helping less developed countries by donating money. In a large portion of the world, even though donations have been increased, poverty has risen. In many cases due to corruption or bad management or due to the fact that we actually educated societies how to receive more donation and failed to educate them how they can become autonomous. In those poorest countries the main innovation is to find better ways to increase the level of donations.

It’s not about a possible waste of money – the old model is simply not sustainable when the population is growing as fast as it does.

NOT ALL NATIONS SEEK TO GROW
We – the World Innovations Forum leadership team – decided to split the world into two groups: Those who desire to bring their country to more prosperity and industrialization and those who decided to continue live their lives as their past generations did. There are countless tribes and even nations who just do not want to enter into a “developed life”. We see this even as part of some developed countries like the Amish in the United States. We feel nobody should have the right or ambition to force them into “our way of living”.

GROWTH NATION DEVELOPMENT
For those who are interested in rapidly evolving and catching up with the developed world, we see a chance to help them build their own economy from the ground up themselves and with their own ideas. By working with literally thousands of startups from around the planet we saw brilliant entrepreneurs from Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Bosnia and pretty much any country. Today they leave their country and let a nation behind with no way of getting their innovation potential in order.

SUCCESS PATTERN
Whether it was Silicon Valley in the 1960’s, Germany in the mid/late 1800’s or recently South Korea after the year 2000, all innovative countries have the same pattern: An astounding small number of entrepreneurs started the innovation era in the respective country. All those nations were open to let them do their experimentation and had investors one way or the other to finance their growth. And if capital was not locally available FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) have been possible. The real wealth in all those countries have been driven be their ability to create a solid brand and then export into any conceivable market.

MISSION & ACTION
Based on our learning, we decided to embark on a mission to help build innovation ecosystems, train and select the best possible innovators and help them build a brand and export their solutions as good as humanly possible. To help finance their  growth, we started to build a global investor network and also work with local investors to invest through those top talents until they are globally successful. We focus on helping develop some handful of global minded entrepreneurs of the likes of Benz, Intel or Samsung. Rather than remotely trying to help billions of people, we are trying to build up an economy that is strong enough to help their population themselves.

TIMELINE
We believe for the next 15 years we still need development aid organizations who help in immediate support cases. At the same time, the World Innovations Forum is trying to create the basis for any country that wants to grow into prosperity. While doing so we help develop the next generation entrepreneurship that makes those countries self sufficient down the road. By 2035, we envision that all nations are on eye-level with each other and have similar levels of prosperity.

 

 

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Self propelled economies

We have roughly 200 souverain states on earth, depends on who is accepting which country. The 10 wealthiest countries together represent more than half of all export/capita value from around the world.  The 25 poorest countries do not export anything at all. It appears that the ability to export indicates the level of prosperity. The higher the export volume per capita the higher the prosperity in the respective country.  For that reason we took “Export volume / Capita” as the single most important “Key Performance Indicator” or KPI for a countries prosperity. However: WE DO NOT suggest that we “help” countries to grow their export in order to create economic growth and prosperity. But we DO help those who have made a conscious decision to grow and develop their nation’s economy.

We chose the term “self propelled economy” for an ‘economy development method’ using innovation and entrepreneurship as a way to ignite prosperity. Rather than helping a nation to create jobs by launching foreign tech companies, train and hire the best people, we inspire their entrepreneurs to build innovative solutions themselves.

Example 1 External Scenario (push economy)

Assuming a country with 35 Million people and primary products being split between agricultural, tourism and textile production. Assuming further, that a tech company from any developed country comes in and offers to train 2000 people to become software engineers and computer scientists to later on hire them and maybe others, creating a total of 20,000 jobs in the next 3 to 5 years. The hope would be that possibly another 10 companies would come and do something similar, ending up with about 200,000 people working in high tech jobs, paying a nice chunk of taxes and a first step in prosperity could be seen. It also would mean that roughly 2% of the work force is covered and unemployment rate goes down. Moreover, that soon upper 2% of the population would consume more and keep other people busy as well. It is a great start – no question.

Example 2 Internal Scenario (self propelled economy)

Assuming the same country with 35 Million people and primary products being split between agricultural, tourism and textile production. Now assuming further, that the country decides to stimulate an innovation development program and trains 2000 people to become software engineers and computer scientists and another 2,000 people with rather conventional business education to form 2,000 startups. During the first 5 years they would hire possibly 50 people each, or 100,000 in total – this is only half of the previous scenario, still making some nice money and reducing unemployment rate at least by 1%.  However those businesses would sooner or later start to export their products to other countries. Each product exported brings additional money into the country. And in the following 5 years the growth rate of those companies will most likely surpass the number of people hired by foreign companies in Example 1.

The Big Difference

If example no. one, is highly successful, the foreign company’s success is part of the success story, export/capita and wealth development of the country of origin. The country where they started to setup their business is nothing more than an indirect outsources operation and the value chain leading back to the country, that company is coming from. For our emerging country a nice lift but essentially the biggest imaginable loss: The loss of innovation and entrepreneurship for their own nation. In Switzerland for instance people had been proud that products like Google Maps have been developed in Switzerland and later on purchased by Google. In Germany people are proud of their globally leading robotics company Kuka, which has later on be purchased by a Chinese company. In Nigeria a sales person selling water to Chinese miners digging out copper and gold from the earth is very happy to have that job. All with the same argument: We wouldn’t been able to do it ourselves. Yet, in all cases the macroeconomic loss is not even recognized. While in Scenario 2, the country may “suffer” the slower growth – very much like the developed country before they have been developed,  but in example 2, the emerging country took the most important leap in its history: From self feeding to producing for others – to become autonomous and propelling their economy by its own ingenuity, innovative thinking and execution. Europe’s prosperity is based on innovation that is more than 50 and up to 200 years old. China’s prosperity is based on its ability to produce what Europe and the US had developed at much lower price. California’s prosperity is based on high margin products that will dominate the future.

Over the past 5,000 years, global leadership came and went away. China may become the very first nation in history that actually repeat it’s global glory – but only if they can manage to become again a innovation powerhouse as they have been some thousand yeas ago when they introduced porcelain, gunpowder,  compass, nudels, paper making, silk, the mechanical clock and so on to the world.  And as we continuously embrace: the act of invention is not the point, it is the skill to distribute an innovation and a brand that creates prosperity.

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Back in Asia

After a very successful Asia roadshow in 2018 we are on our way to Asia again, Feb 27 – Mar 30th 2019.
Please come meet with Axel and me, if you are around in one of the 5 cities in 4 countries:

Feb 27 – Mar 5 Vietnam HCMC
Mar 6 – Mar 10 Vietnam Hanoi
Mar 11 – Mar 15 South Korea Seoul
Mar 18 – Mar 23 Bangkok Thailand
Mar 24 – Mar 29 Nepal Kathmandu

With the help of our local country ambassadors, we will meet and have talks with Entrepreneurs, Investors, Universities, Governments, Media, and Innovation Hubs. The main purpose is to exploring opportunities to increase the level of innovation, inspire young entrepreneurs, discuss innovation economy topics and best ways to increase prosperity.

After the first Asia trip in 2018, we began to work together with our country ambassadors and representatives of local innovation groups, some government and academia. The common goal we all agreed on was to stimulate innovation, and the whole innovation process and bringing every country successfully to the global markets, create jobs, and spark new businesses.

Much has happened between our start in June 2018 and now

The first global online event: “World Innovations Forum Kick Off 2018‘
The initial construct of an “AI Leadership Framework for countries”
Researched the “Most wanted engineering skills for the future”
Welcoming the new “Innovations Age”
Described in more detail “Self Propelling Economies”
Many Initiatives, Programs, Events and Insights have been prepared – ready to engage.

And the latest development:
Highly focused, data driven Innovation Classification rather just counting patent applications.

Now we like to invite everyone to join this journey – either by visiting the local Entrepreneurs Nights. You can find them easily on Meetup. Also in each city we will have time to meet with entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, enablers and governments.  If not yet done – please contact your  local ambassadors.

World Innovations Forum Nights

February 27 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam https://www.meetup.com/wiforum-HCMC/
March, 06 Hanoi, Vietnam https://www.meetup.com/wiforum-HaNoi/events/259220407/
March 14 Seoul, South Korea https://www.meetup.com/wiforum-seoul/events/256358412/
March, 28 Kathmandu, Nepal https://www.meetup.com/wiforum-kathmandu/events/258402465/

Looking forward to see you :)

@MaritaR

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Ambassador Role Model Nepal

There is a lot we can learn from Nepal. The very beautiful and sometimes considered mystic country could not have more orthogonal dimensions. Nepal is at the very low end of the GDP list, is unfortunately high up on the list of “perceived corruption”, is a nation with the one of the most kindest people on earth, has exceptional talents, a still under developed infrastructure, is still dependant on donations from foreign countries, yet some extraordinarily ambitious people to turn the nation from a “receiver” nation into a fast emerging nation on the way to become a “giver” nation. When such a country, with a new generation of sheer infinite determination can organise to breed talents working on globally latest technology such as Artificial Intelligence, with goal to turn the nation to prosperity – we must ask shouldn’t that be possible in other countries too. We also must wonder if the combination of a new agile government, highly engaged academia, highly motivated entrepreneurs, all working together – is a superior model of the future? Or will the model of a public being permanently on confrontation course with their government, ego driven groups with nothing but steering up the nation with horror scenarios for their own good and media loving to confuse information consumer for the sake of popularity be the winner of the future?

Khem Lakai – Nepal

While we, the World Innovations Forum, has pretty much all ducks in the row here in Switzerland, a very active community in San Francisco, where it all started, and a very good start recently in Bosnia, great energy in South Korea, Vietnam, Germany, Macedonia, Nigeria, and other countries, our current Role Model is Nepal. Khem Lakai our Ambassador, had by far overachieved our wildest dreams. After our first Meetup in 2018, and a good exchange during the year, Khem understood, it was important to get top technology created in Nepal. Since natural resources are limited and industrial production is not too well developed yet, competition in other countries is fierce, he decided to help stimulate tech development. Together with Ranjan Mishran, a Nepali who is studying at ETH in Zurich they inspired a team of PhDs from Zürich and other Universities to come to Nepal. The Swiss Embassy in Nepal immediately recognized the importance and supported his actions.

Kathmandu, Nepal

In nearly no time, students in Nepal are being trained and built an AI systems and have been stimulated for Entrepreneurship. With yet another group of Nepali tech enthusiast in diaspora, lead by Prof. Bishesh Khanal who decided to quit his dream job in London to move back to Kathmandu and help Nepal move forward with other very successfully tech professionals and experts in the field of AI. Khem worked closely with various entrepreneurial enthusiasts in the nation, co-sponsored national events with Nepal Tourism Board and mentored youth in politics from all different political parties to raise awareness for a “visionary leadership”:  Nepal is to change the narrative of poor and sorry nation to a successful strong nation.

 

Premier Minister Khadga Prasad Oli of Nepal with World Innovations Forum Chairman Axel Schultze.

A few months later they invited Axel to speak with the Prime Minister Oli about the World Innovations Forum’s overall plans and also having talks with their Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada. The power play continues this year with a first International Investors Summit in Nepal. Now Axel is preparing to attract international startup investors from the US, Germany, UK, Switzerland and maybe a few other countries to Nepal. While the country is still perceived as a rather corrupt nation, we see already Nepali Finance Minister starting to bring the legal framework in alignment with International expectations. The extraordinary journey is just in the beginning.

Khem Lakai, the World Innovations Forum Ambassador, together with his connections and a very ambitious country is making the sheer impossible a reality. It’s the concerted effort with an exceptional leadership that made this work. It was only a spark of inspiration from the World Innovations Forum,  yet the highly focused, ambitious and self determined Khem Lakai did what he felt is right for Nepal, connected with likeminded people and relentlessly executed. It’s that mindset and the understanding what really makes sense for the larger part of a country that moves mountains. In the meantime a new innovation lab is in the making. Also a collaboration between another Swiss university with a Nepali University is considered to create an exchange between some top Nepali talents and Swiss talents to also shorten the distance between cultures.

Its the right time for the right action with the right people that makes a change possible. This is the spirit the World Innovations Forum is trying to embrace. Our most sincere THANK YOU to Khem and his team of equally ambitious team of exceptional people like Ranjan Mishran, Prof. Bishesh Khanal and many others to build this World Innovations Forum poster child.

Even though Khem is the prototype of a self starter, let us inspire all of you to do what is best for your country as every country is in a different situation. But we are all one world – together.

@MaritaR

 

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