#Women2030: Sustainable Career Development

Feb 4, 2022 | The Latest

#Women2030: Sustainable Career Development

Friday, February 4, 2022, by Prof. Analia Pastran and Evangelina Colli

When you are a woman it becomes complex to define the professional development you would like to achieve, since in some way the family, the traditions and customs were preparing us mainly for family assistance tasks. In these times, we are experiencing a global paradigm shift in which the proposal that is promoted with expansive force is to abandon that role for another that puts the core of beliefs in tension.

In this context, being able to see yourself as an economically independent professional woman who can express her own thoughts but at the same time strengthen the foundations of a society by thinking in community, it requires an effort that you must be willing to make, but also of a boldness that is achieved through alliances.

From the observation and experience of the Urban Thinkers Campus (UTCs) in Mexico and Ecuador carried out since 2019 to date, we can point out that when innovating and advancing in issues that concern humanity, such as life in cities, women have been the most tenacious allies. Women face challenges that are replicated regardless of the region, country, culture or belief, and whose solutions are global given that local problems are global.

The Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) model is an initiative of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign, conceived as an open space that includes a series of plenary sessions with debates at the level of international experts, with the aim of bringing together governments, civil society, researchers and personalities from academia, local authorities, professional organizations and youth groups, to propose solutions to urban challenges and achieve green, productive and more inclusive cities.

From this logical framework, we can analyze the real and effective possibilities that women have to access knowledge and power, to apply technology to personal and community development, and to generate alliances during and after these urban thought encounters.

On the other hand, we observe then that the generation and escalation of alliances represent a great challenge to be addressed, since there is a vocation and intention to carry them out but the routines of the organizations and personal objectives make them a difficult and harsh matter to specify and to hold.

Women 2030, a Smartly initiative, comes to propose a scheme of alliances between women to achieve sustainable career development. During the campuses we emphasize the importance of Women Promoting Women, aware that the model of women that we propose is resisted by society and by the women themselves who are already in decision-making positions.

The analysis postulated so far will be under the scrutiny of the social, economic and environmental model that the political systems of the region propose for our democracies.

This series of articles is based on the experience of the Smartly #Women2030 program, and the conclusions published in the UTC online Reports: Vibrant and Inclusive Urban Life First and Second Edition.

*Article written by: Prof. Analia Pastran and Evangelina Colli, Executive Director and Director of Localizing the SDGs of Smartly, Social Entrepreneurship on the SDGs, Partner of the UN Habitat’ World Urban Campaign. #Mujer2030 desarrollo de carrera sostenible

4th Industry and Humane Entrepreneurship

Sep 26, 2021 | The Latest

4th Industry and Humane Entrepreneurship

Sunday, September 26, 2021, by Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy

As our society moves through Industry 4.0 and acclimates to manufacturing automation, this 4th Industrial Revolution is throwing our world into uncharted waters where cold, uncompromising technology meets the warmth and unpredictability of the human experience.

Within the context of humane entrepreneurship, we understand that each entity has its histories, values, and cultures that inform how they do business and interact with their peers. However, any time we approach a different way of operating, there are new questions that arise. Chief among them, we must ask ourselves what the role is of humane entrepreneurship at this unfamiliar intersection of technology vs. the human experience and how we can consider the lessons we have learned from the past to embody the society we want to be in the future.

According to academic and researcher Ivea ZeBryte, we must keep sight of the human element in all that we do. ZeBryte says, “When teaching entrepreneurs, we should be working through a matrix where empathy is understood as the ability to put oneself into the place of another, to identify and be sensitive to others that we recognize as different from us.” Therefore, it is precisely the differences that challenge us to come together for the greater good. To move forward together into the next realm of entrepreneurship, ZeBryte lays out the road map to follow: reevaluate, or delineate what we value as humanity; reimagine, or work out the plurality of futures ahead of us; and reset, or build a new system of value creation and exchange based on these agreed-upon ideas.

Meanwhile, taking a more micro-level view, we must also consider what influences entrepreneurs and their decision-making processes, both internal and external. Psychological factors include personality, mindset, and level of cognition, while non-psychological elements encompass affiliation to a group, religion, culture, and friends and family. Additionally, one could underscore three main orientations: entrepreneurial, emphasizing innovation; human resource, regarding empowerment; or sustainability, highlighting environment. “When taking all of these factors cumulatively, it creates a multi-dimensional construct that is humane entrepreneurship,” says Indu Khurana, Assistant Professor at Hampden-Sydney College. Without consideration for the individual and the society, including the influences behind our decisions, we lose the value of humane entrepreneurship.

In the meantime, it is essential to reconcile these humane concepts with new technology that is rapidly advancing this current industrial revolution. Take, for example, the travel industry. With tourism contributing USD 8.9 trillion to global GDP, it is closely linked to countries’ social, economic, and environmental well-being. The opportunities to make it even more innovative and efficient through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are endless. Still, it is essential to consider what cost they may come, particularly for these citizens for whom so much is at stake. As Dr. Jugho Suh, Assistant Professor at George Washington University School of Business, warns, “AI-based off of Big Data is not a panacea for all problems…AI can read patterns and behavior, but it cannot read attitude, values, or underlying motives for action.” Therefore, while it is essential to lift the travel industry in this current age of technology, we must not do so at the expense of human lives.

At its core, technological advances have brought us to the current era and given countless opportunities to those living today. However, we are experiencing an important crossroads right now, one with immense ramifications for future generations, and it is up to us the future we choose to orient ourselves toward. Although there will always be significant differences across cultures, we must find common values to move into the future that we desire together.

Watch the session below for more on the impacts of colonialism on Chile, religion in India, and AI technology on the travel industry.

Investment Choices and The Power of Gold Shield

Sep 21, 2021 | Gazette, The Latest

Investment Choices and The Power of Gold Shield

Tuesday, September 21, 2021, by Dr. Mariya Yesseleva-Pionka, PhD

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management was created to establish an international currency regime. The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference took place in 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. At that time, the delegates from 44 countries established two significant institutions – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, now known as the World Bank Group. It took a long time and only in 1958, the Bretton Woods system was in full operation. The responsibility of the United States was to keep the price of gold fixed at USD 35 an ounce and make sure the supply of dollars was at adequate levels to maintain future gold convertibility, as the gold was the basis for the U.S. dollar. Participating nations were required to settle international balances in dollars. The Bretton-Woods system did not last long and officially ended in 1971 when President Nixon confirmed that the United States would not continue exchanging gold for the United States Dollar, mainly due to the fact that at that time, the U.S. balance-of-payments deficits contributed to the level of dollars in circulation surpassing the level of U.S. gold stock[1].

Is gold still an attractive investment 50 years later? How has the price of gold been fluctuating over the years? The price of gold is affected by three important factors- supply, demand conditions and investors sentiments. Gold is one of the precious metals that has been a subject of great attraction for investors worldwide. For many, the gold represents a treasured investment and demand for gold is exceptionally high during times of economic and financial crises, such as the Great Depression, Global Financial Crisis and the most recent COVID-19 global pandemic. The supply of gold also has an impact on the price of gold. Gold mining has been continuing for centuries and one could assume that, if there is a higher supply, the price should be lower. This is not always the case as the increasing demand for gold is explained by the growing number of jewellery items, the higher level of gold added by central banks to their reserves and gold investments in commodity markets, with many investors choosing to have gold in their investment portfolios as a shield from unstable economic circumstances.

In 2020, during COVID-19 global pandemic, the price of gold was driven to new heights, reaching above USD 2,000 per ounce. Due to volatile economic conditions worldwide, investors rushed to choose gold and other precious metals as a reliable and recession-proof store of value, further driving up the price of gold. Another contributing factor to the surging price of gold was the severe disruption in the gold supply chains worldwide, due to the pandemic restrictions with the decreased production levels, deliveries and suspension of work in refineries. Nevertheless, to this day, gold is a well-known investment choice for diversifying investment portfolios and it is used it as a shield from uncertain economic conditions.

[1] www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/bretton-woods-created

Author

Dr Mariya Yesseleva-Pionka is Global Certificates Manager at ICSB, a Higher Degree by Research Supervisor at Excelsia College and Adjunct Academic at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Dr Yesseleva-Pionka held teaching and senior academic management positions in Central Asia (Kazakhstan) and Australia. She specialised in general investments, personal and corporate superannuation investments while working for Westpac Banking Corporation and BT Financial Group in Australia. She was invited to join The Housing Connection, a not-for-profit organisation in Sydney, Australia as Treasurer and Board Member from November 2019. Her research interests include entrepreneurial finance, traditional and alternative ways to finance small and medium enterprises (SMEs), corporate finance, policies for the small business sector, innovation and SMEs, FinTechs and Blockchain. Dr Yesseleva-Pionka is the Associate Editor for the Journal of the International Council for Small Business (JICSB).

The Entrepreneurial Journey Part 5 – Can You Execute?

Sep 7, 2021 | Gazette, The Latest

The Entrepreneurial Journey Part 5 – Can You Execute?

Tuesday, September 7, 2021, by Dr. Frederick Crane

Go-to-market strategies for most new ventures are usually fatally flawed. And, they are usually fatally flawed because they are not grounded by voice of customer (VOC) research. You cannot execute successfully without truly vetting the elements of your go-to-market strategy. This is where the rubber hits the road. Planning is nothing without execution! And, executing based on assumptions and guesswork is folly. So, your execution must be validated by your customer.

First, determine your suite of offerings for your addressable market. Find out exactly what the customer wants In terms of a product/service suite. Single offerings are considered one-trick ponies to investors. They want to see a portfolio of offerings to different types of customers with different use cases. Yes, your starting point is a beach-head with a core customer and a core use case. But, you have to plan for adjacency plays – new customers, new applications etc. So, determine what will be your first offerings to the first customers and then build out from there.

Second, determine you pricing strategy using VOC. Do not use cost-plus pricing or competitive-based pricing, instead use demand-based pricing. In other words, back into your pricing using customer input. Find out exactly what your customers are willing and able to pay. In essence, do not say “our costs are X therefore are price should be Y.” Or, “our competitors are priced at ABC, therefore we should price accordingly.” No, allow your customer to set your price ceiling. They will tell you the value that they attach to your product/service.

Third, determine your channels of distribution using VOC. Engage your potential customers and determine where they currently shop for solutions like yours. And, are they happy with where they have to shop for them? You need to gain market access to your customers so find the right channels and then slot your products/services in those channels. Also, be mindful that most investors want a venture that has planned on multiple channels of distribution. Multi-channel is actually a must today so forget your notion of a single D2C channel – your own website only. Pure-plays such as this limit your access to customers; cost a lot of money re: customer acquisition; and scare investors!

Fourth, determine your marketing communications strategy by using VOC. This execution element is perhaps the most critical. The wrong media mean missed opportunities. Remember, no one knows you, your venture or your brand. You need to reach your customers. So, you need to determine exactly what media your addressable market consumes – what they read, listen to, and watch. You will not have enough budget to shotgun this. So, narrow-cast – focus – and hit your customer directly. If you know precisely the type of customers that are part of your addressable market, talk with them and ascertain their media habits. If they say, “we watch Oprah”, then, you better advertise on Oprah. If they say, I learn about product/services like this on Instagram”, then you better be on Instagram!\

A cohesive, integrated execution strategy is a must if you are going to have a successful entrepreneurial journey. And, it is possible. Just do the work and enjoy your success!

Author

Frederick Crane serves as a Senior Project Manager for the International Council for Small Business (ICSB).

Dr. Crane is an Executive Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the College of Business at Northeastern University; Former Editor of the Journal of the Academy of Business Education; and co-founder of Ceilidh Insights LLC – an innovation management training, intellectual property consulting
and consumer insight company. He was formerly a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of New Hampshire and a Chair and Full professor at Dalhousie University.

At Northeastern, he developed the graduate new venture creation course; the undergraduate innovation course – which is now taught campus-wide; and developed the online MBA course on innovation and enterprise growth. He also serves as the Faculty Advisor for the Private Equity and Venture Capital Club. Every semester at least one of his teams from his new venture creation course goes on to commercialize a business.

Citation of Article:

Crane, F. (2021, September 7). The Entrepreneurial Journey Part 5 – Can You Execute? The International Council for Small Business, Small Business Gazette. https://icsb.org/the-entrepreneurial-journey-part-5-can-you-execute/

Education and Humane Entrepreneurship

Sep 5, 2021 | The Latest

Education and Humane Entrepreneurship

Sunday, September 5, 2021 by Dr. Ayman El Tarabishy

Education sits as the cornerstone of creating socially and environmentally conscious entrepreneurs. When we imagine the future of humane entrepreneurship, it includes empowered employees and well-educated entrepreneurs making intelligent decisions to heal the environment and benefit the world. To enable entrepreneurs to make these changes we envision, we must educate them on the issues that truly matter, such as integrating social entrepreneurship with sustainable entrepreneurship and employing business practices that protect our planet, communities, and future generations.

First, we must consider the significance of climate change and the role that government officials and entrepreneurs play in preventing further damage to the planet. Although governments are making changes to reduce negative impacts on the environment, we are still concerned about whether profitability and sustainability can coexist. We must educate all stakeholders about climate risk and their duty to promote sustainability in response to this. As observed by Dr. Mariya Yesseleva-Pionka, Global Certificates Manager for ICSB and adjunct professor at University of Technology Sydney, “With every new business venture comes a great responsibility for making climate-friendly decisions.” Therefore, we need to continue developing and supporting eco-friendly solutions such as green start-ups, fin-techs, and sustainability reporting and educate entrepreneurs on how to implement SDGs and sustainable business practices properly. It is imperative to note that long-term profits will not matter if the planet deteriorates due to climate change.

This sustainability education is inherently tied to education about social entrepreneurship, as both of these entrepreneurial approaches target issues on a human and environmental level. Although there exists an increasing amount of research on social entrepreneurial intention (SEI), or the motivation of entrepreneurs to build new social enterprises, we still lack knowledge about different SEI antecedents, such as personality, cognition, and experience, as well as variables moderating antecedent-SEI relationships, including economic and social influences. According to Dr. Phillipp Kruse, a scientific staff member at the Dresden University of Technology, the solution to these research issues lies in examining SEI in countries with different cultures and economic situations and developing a validated instrument with which to measure SEI. Additionally, social entrepreneurship educators must include more psychological input in university courses to strengthen participants’ motivational ties to social entrepreneurship.

With the amount of power entrepreneurial learners possess to change the future of business and the environment, we owe them the best education, educators, research, and settings. We must listen inclusively to the voices of these learners and new and small businesses alike. As stated by Dr. Norris Krueger, Senior Research Fellow at the College of Doctoral Studies, UOPX & Entrepreneurship Northwest, “Students are our secret weapon. In terms of learning and educating, and especially in terms of the ecosystem.” To provide entrepreneurial learners with the best resources, we must shift from top-down systems to bottom-up, from institutions to people, and from hierarchies to networks. Inclusivity and active listening are the keys to discovering what our entrepreneurial students need to flourish, improve their communities, and shape the future of humane entrepreneurship. In educating entrepreneurs and stakeholders on their sustainable responsibilities, increasing students’ ties to social entrepreneurship at the university level, and providing high quality, comprehensive education, we grant entrepreneurs the tools necessary to implement safer business practices and create long-term, positive change for our environment, communities, and ways of life.

For more on the importance of entrepreneurial education, watch the session below.

Human Transformation: Beyond Digital Adoption

Aug 30, 2021 | The Latest

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