Entrepreneurship and Scale: Reworking Platforms

Alejandro Litovsky

July 2, 2009

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A few days back I led a session at the Tällberg Forum in Sweden on Entrepreneurship and Scale, which profiled four remarkable entrepreneurs. But rather than celebrating their heroism, this was in the spirit of a ‘reality check’. An extraordinary amount of hope is being placed on entrepreneurs around the world but time is running out. The large-scale transitions that are needed to more equitable, sustainable, and low-carbon economies demand far greater ambitions of scale. Hence our leading question: Can these entrepreneurial models be scaled and, if so, how?

I introduced the groundbreaking work we are doing with the REWORK initiative, a partnership between Tällberg Foundation and YES, the youth employment summit. Rework seeks to scale up youth green jobs by brokering scale-oriented partnerships between green innovators and youth movements, providing new propositions to investors, business and governments.

The innovators profiled are part of the REWORK effort, plus we asked a number of people working with larger infrastructures — from the financial system, international aid, and business — to give their views on how to marry the Davids and the Goliaths. Enter the entrepreneurs:

  • Iman Bibars, VP of Ashoka Egypt for her ‘Housing for All‘ initiative with whom we are working to generate entrepreneurship opportunities for young people;
  • Pepijn Steemers, Director of D.light Designs East Africa for a solar energy partnership we are facilitating involving ‘young solar entrepreneurs’ in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda;
  • Deepa Gupta of the Indian Youth Climate Network with whom we are planning to scale up their ‘climate solutions‘ programme by bringing in Indian business schools and investors;
  • Minou Fuglesang, Executive Director of Femina HIP, a multimedia platform in Tanzania which reaches 2 million young people on issues of lifestyle and reproductive health, and with whom we are exploring ways to use the media platforms to inspire young entrepreneurs to start green businesses.

Bringing in the “infrastructure” perspectives:

  • Carl Mossfeldt, Executive Vice President of the Tällberg Foundation who leads the REWORK initiative provided insights on the collaborative innovation being unleashed by the initiative and the methods behind it;
  • John (Elkington, of Volans) gave examples from big business and the ways in which business connects (partners, buys out or copies) ideas from from front-running innovators.
  • Herman Mulder, former Head of Risk Group at ABN Amro gave a clear set of ideas on how the financial system can be reworked to support entrepreneurs on the ground; and based on the cases of the different entrepreneurs profiled,
  • Mia Horn at Rantzien, the new Deputy Director-General of SIDA, the Swedish International Development Agency, provided a refreshing perspective on how aid agencies could support entrepreneurial environments better in developing countries.

The sessions was powerful, the contributors connected to one another and provided their piece of the puzzle in a compelling way. Among the 60+ participants there was a sense of possibility. These pioneers are implementing cutting-edge solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems. Connecting entrepreneurs with youth movements and networks, channeling youth energy to scale up green business models, and bringing in investors and business with new development propositions, has the potential to create impacts that don’t fall short of systemic change.