"Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible."

~ Cherie Carter-Scott

This is the challenge for most entrepreneurs is that we often gett caught up so much in daily things that we failed to see the big picture, focus on that and put it to work.

The startup business framework created by Tom Hulme, IDEO's Design Director at their London's office, is simple enough for anyone to use. Whether you just have this idea that you think is very interesting, to large companies. 

There are 5 steps to begin visualizing your business model:

Step 1: the most important bit.

This is the backbone for your business model. It deals with your value proposition and market segments. This is your how and why. What is it that you're creating and how it's going to benefit the people who are going to use them? 

Step 2: how you deliver and realize value. 

This is where you deliver it through channels, the distribution channels (how you're going to distribute it) and marketing channels (how you're going to communicate it) and pricing it. He said that the difference between successful and failing is just in the marketing channel. 

Step 3: how it's different. 

Think about who you are really competing with. Sometime the competition are not what we think they are. How are you going to enter the market and why you think you're going to win?

Step 4: how you create value.

This is how you're going to drive the value. It deals with process and capabilities: who are your teams, what skills needed to bring to the table, and what can you bring it on a temporary basis. 

Step 5: how will you grow.

Think this is probably the most important question of the day. How are going to grow the business? This is where most entrepreneurs have problems visualizing it. 

The framework of visualizing your business model is what IDEO uses to help their large (corporate) clients think like - startups. 

Take a look the how-to. (you can also download the framework, here).

HackFwd: Visualize Your Business Model in 15 Minutes Flat from IDEO on Vimeo.

How have we come so far in 10 years? In the 10 years since A.T. Kearney launched their Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) research, they learned that five countries consistently been on the top 10 and four big companies get more than half of their sales from international market.

Via A.T. Kearney.

Five countries. China, India, Russia, Vietnam and Chile have consistently been in the top 10 since the first GRDI(see figure). Population size, a growing middle class, increased wealth and consumer spending appeal are important factors. Favorable foreign investment regulations and openness to wholly owned foreign trade are also attractive to global retailers.

Four retailers. Four companies in particular owe a significant part of their success to global expansion: Carrefour, Metro, Tesco and Wal-Mart. France's Carrefour and Germany's Metro draw roughly 60 percent of their sales internationally; the United Kingdom's Tesco and Wal-Mart in the United States have also expanded rapidly, with annual international sales growth of 27 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

(emphasis added)

The four kings of global sales 

Carrefour: 57% of sales come from international market.

Tesco: for the second largest retailer in the world, sales from international market have grown 27% annually.

Walmart: the king of retailer goes where the populations are in Latin American and Asia.

(graphs: A.T. Kearney)

What population got to do with it?

I know it's hard to talk about population to fellow Americans, unless they've been overseas and see it with their own eyes. Because unlike other countries on the other side of the world, the U.S. is a relatively big country that sits on a continent. And there are states in the U.S. that are sparsely populated, for example Montana. Montana is one of the top 10 largest states in terms of size, but they have more population of cows than people.

Let's face it. Population is one of the drivers that's going to transformed how we do business. It's one of the reasons, how this external pressure would drive innovation.

Read more here. 

DuPont made the announcement of the winners for their 23rd packaging awards yesterday. DuPont packaging awards dates back to 1986. "The awards is the industry's longest running, global, independently judged celebration of innovation and collaboration throughout the value chain."

And welcome to social media! Because I learned about it via @DuPont_ability (their witter account for their sustainability news) and the winners was announced through a global webcast.

Participants at this year's competition are judged based on these three criteria: packaging innovation, sustainability and cost/waste reduction.

And the winners are..

Diamond winners (take three criteria)

These products show excellence in innovation, cost/waste reduction and sustainability

The Procter and Gamble Co. Be Green Packaging - USA

The pulp tray is made of renewable bamboo and bulrush fiber-based materials.

// Ecovative Design - USA

Gold winners (take two criteria)

Innovation and sustainability or innovation and cost/ waste reduction

// Greif/ Cimplast Embalagens and Cimflex - Brazil

It uses multilayer of agricultural bottles diverted from landfills and remade them into high-value products.

// Apeldoorn Flexible Packaging - The Netherlands; Cloeren Inc. USA

The flexible packaging uses microlayer technology to design a stretch film with optimal properties for beverage industry. It uses 30% less material and reduces damage products during transportation by 80%.

// Aptar - France and USA

This is the first airless dispenser completely made of plastics.

// Scholle Packaging and Shell Global Lubricants - USA

Each bag-in-box packaging system removes 24 lt. bottles from the waste stream that reduces petroleum-based resin usage by 90%.

// Household Essentials, LLC - USA

They package their ironing board cover in a dual-function, sewn-in cloth pouch that can be used later as spray bottle. It reduces package weight by 14% and diverted approximately 375k lbs of PVC from going to landfills. Since package is 35% lighter, it reduces shipping costs and display space.

// Moneta S - Slovakia

It's an extremely thin film that reduces the weight of the packaging structure.

Silver winners

// H.J. Heinz and Multivac Co. - USA

The new design serves a dual-function package, for dipping or squeezing.

// Stonyfield Farm, Clear Lam Packaging Inc., and Arcil - USA

According to DuPont info, Stonyfield and Clear Lam broke a significant breakthrough use of PLA (polyactic acid) in a high-volume dairy application. PLA resulted in 48% lower greenhouse gas.

Check out the full list of winners of DuPont Awards here.

These are signals that show us that the next generation - Class of 2011 - don't watch as much TV as the general population (that's us). They use mobile for video viewing, blogs/ social networks for interaction and info.

Kids Today…

• Are the Heaviest Mobile Video Viewers: On average, mobile subscribers ages 12-17 watched 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month in Q4 2010, compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.
• Are More Receptive to Mobile Advertising than their Elders: More than half (58%) surveyed in September 2010 said they “always” or “sometimes” look at mobile ads.
• Out-Text All Other Age Groups: In Q1 2011, teens 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month, more than doubling the rate of the next most active texting demo, 18-24 year olds (1,640 texts per month).
• Talk Less on the Phone: Besides seniors 65-plus, teens talk the least on their phones, talking an average of 515 minutes per month in Q1 2011 versus more than 750 minutes among 18-24 year olds.
• Grew Up in the Age of Social Media—and It Shows: While they make up just 7.4 percent of those using social networks, 78.7 percent of 12-17 year olds visited social networks or blogs.
• Watch Less TV than the General Population: The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV on average (23 hours 41 minutes per week).
• Spend Less Time on their Computers: American 18 year olds averaged 39 hours, 50 minutes online from their home computers, of which 5 hours, 26 minutes was spent streaming online video.

via Nielsen Wire

However, don't dish TV yet, because it is still a good media. According to Nielsen, the number of  U.S. TV household estimated up by 1 million for 2010-2011 season. And more minorities are watching shows daily. Among minority groups, Asian American watch less of TV shows than African Americans or Hispanics.

Looking ahead to 2012 political landscape, expect to see more politicians blanket the airwaves. Because a large number of voters are still watching TV.

Construction and demolition debris makes up over half of our nation's solid waste. That's the problem that Community Forklift trying to solve with their business. They are not a forklift store, rather it is a thrift store that sells surplus, salvaged and new green building materials - with a social mission. Think of it as a combination of Home Depot and Goodwill thrift store wrap in one package.

So the other week I talked to Ruthie Mundell, Outreach and Education Director with Community Forklift, to get an insight from her about their business. 

Reduce, reuse, reclaimed is embedded into their business that provides affordable green options for people. If you look at their goals, these are what they are aimed for: to lift up communities by making repairs and renovation more affordable; reduce construction industry waste, reuse materials; promote environmentally-friendly building materials and method; and develop career opportunities for communities around.

Part of our inventory comes from deconstruction, in which a building is carefully taken apart by skilled laborers instead of demolished. This creates jobs, and can cost less than traditional demolition. Instead of paying dumping fees, property owners earn tax deductions. Construction careers are created through job training in deconstruction. The materials can be sold cheaply, so homeowners and small businesses can afford repairs – making neighborhoods cleaner and safer.

Ruthie said that for inventory of products, the store accepts all kinds of home building materials donations with few exceptions. Inventory of products varied depending on what they receive at that time. It could be doors, windows, lumbers, wood flooring, sinks, etc. - anything that you can find from home improvement or hardware store. Though, they're not big box home building retailers, so don't expect them to have whatever you need in supply at all times. Sometime donations would include brand new stuff still in a package.

People who get the best stuff are those who pop-in once in a while. The store have flex rules that allows prospective buyers to put item on hold, if they're not sure about the measurements. In the event, they decided to buy, they can come back with their truck at later date, or store their stuff there in the meantime until they're ready to get their stuff - for a maximum of two weeks.

Reusing building materials just make more sense in times like this, especially for everyone looking for affordable green options. In addition, we have less waste to deal with that would otherwise end up in landfill. Less waste help municipality saves money. And for builders, if they can avoid or reduce paying dumping fees, it lowers the cost of their projects.  

When it comes to pricing of their products, Ruthie says "it depends on the condition and demand." Normally items are priced around 40 to 90% below market value. Occasionally, you'll find some free items, too. Like doors, dishwashers. Whenever they get too many items that they don't have enough room for, they'll put them on sale. More like fire sale. She said last month they have doors that were selling for $10! 

CF do have a separate division that handles the sale of salvage art, of which their items are priced much higher - than the other type of materials they have in stock. But considering the price, it's still a good deal.  

Their business have double in size during recession. In the five year they're in business, they've grown from 3 to 17 employees. That's pretty good. In addition to creating their own green jobs, they work together with another organization for the training of green jobs. 

Some of the success stories come from small remodelling business owners who are able to survive during recession because they get hired to do the jobs - at affordable rates. Thanks to the supply of products they could get from the store. 

You can learn more about their green jobs training, how-to deal with challenges and customers' success stories in this interview. Alternatively, you can also subscribe via iTunes. 

Ecotwist_interview_with_Ruthie_Mundell_Comm_Forklift.wav

(download)

Click here to download:

Ecotwist_interview_with_Ruthie_Mundell_Comm_Forklift.wav (31.58 MB)

Check out this city of Guangzhou, the economic hub of China's eastern coast, for its transit systems. In a country that have more than 1 billion people, even a city the size of Guangzhou has population in the 10 to 15 million range that equal population of probably some of the big cities in Asia. It is "the fastest growing city in the fastest growing province in the fastest growing country."

With the kind of population like they have, the city have to offer an integrated transportation system. They've got too. Traffic jams is common problems in many of cities in Asia. The streets there are not like here, which is wide and have 4-6 lanes. Over there, you'll be lucky to find cities that have more than 4 lanes.

Via Streetfilms.

The Guangzhou BRT system opened in February 2010. It now carries 800,000 passengers a day, seamlessly connecting riders to both the metro system and the city's new bike-share network. For these innovations, Guangzhou won the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy's 2011 Sustainable Transport Award. Watch this Streetfilm and see how one of the world's most dynamic cities is "winning the future" on its streets.

Bus Rapid Transit in Guangzhou, China from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

The other day I posted about population growth, here and here. And here is CNN with the report on Americas looking for jobs - where? In Asia. Where. The. Growth. Is.

Check it out. 

The 7 billion questions. According to National Geographic, by the end of 2011 our population growth will reach 7 billion. What are the consequences for the shift in population? How does population growth have an impact on business and career development? This is something that we all need to think about the implications of, as we witness the shifting of population growth and economic clout from developed to developing nations. 

You might not realize that big corporations have 'quietly' building their presence at places, where they see having the most potential to grow in the emerging markets. Because they see that emerging markets is the place to go to maintain their growth.

These are the five population trends that can have an impact on the way you do business or your career path. 

POPULATION TRENDS

1. Most populous countries in the world

image: Population Reference Bureau (click on image for larger view)

With the exception of United States and Japan, every country on the list is part of developing nations that sometimes also refer to as emerging markets. The most populous countries in emerging markets in 2010: from Asia - China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh to Brazil in South America and Nigeria in Africa. Memberships of most populous countries predicted to change with India on top of the chart follow by China, US, and the rest of the developing nations by 2050. 

In 2010, there were 2.4 billion people living in 'just' two countries - China and India. For businesses, the sum of population in these two countries alone represents a "huge" market filled with opportunities. Wonder why US companies busy building presence there? That is the reason why. 

#2. Age groups: developing vs. developed countries

image: Population Reference Bureau

As you can see from the chart above, it's obvious that all of the population growth will take place in emerging markets. Multinational companies have poured resources there, left and right. They're looking at keeping their businesses busy for many years to come.  

#3. The rising global middle class

By 2030, the global middle class is widely projected to at least double in size to as many as 5 billion - a surge unseen since the Industrial revolution. Asia, have the prospect of becoming the home of 2/3 of global middle class, a trend that would shift economic clout from the West to East. (Christian Science Monitor) 

#4. US population shifts

image: Pew Hispanic Center

Population in the US is changing. The 2010 Census counted 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States up from 35.3 million in 2000. This segment of the population making up 16.3% of the total population. According to Pew Hispanic Center's analysis, among children ages 17 and under, there were 17.1 million Latinos that represent 23.1% of this age group. Furthermore, the number of Latino children grew 39% the last decade. By the numbers alone they represent the largest and youngest minority group in the US. One in five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One in four newborns is Hispanic. (Pew Hispanic Center)

#5. More people living in urban centers

Today, only 600 urban centers generate about 60% of global GDP, in which half of global GDP came from 380 cities in developed world, with more than 20% come from 190 North American cities. But by 2025, the membership of this group of urban centers will change. One-third of these developed cities will no longer make up the 600 largest urban centers. 136 new cities are expected to enter the top 600, all of them from developing world with overwhelmingly 100 new cities - from China. (McKinsey Global Institute)

So, how are these trends going to impact us? We'll look at the 9 areas, where these trends could potentially have an impact either on your business or career.

Going forward

Here are the 9 areas, where population trends might have an impact:

1. Talent

Competition for talent would be fierce. Growing customer demand drive up the need for skilled workers and talent, as companies enter and expand operations across the globe. There is already a shortage of IT workers and the war for talent among tech companies in the US. 

2. Jobs

71% of US workers are in jobs for which there is low demand from employers, an oversupply of eligible workers, or both. (This is pretty scary to think of the consequences). The good news is there is a shortage for American workers with the skills to fill the jobs using technology and more complex organization skills. (McKinsey).

3. Products and services

Consumers in emerging markets have different needs for goods and services than those in the U.S. Then there is also a trend of value-conscious shoppers in the world. 

4. Resource management, competition for natural resources (or lack thereof).

Water, energy, raw materials, natural resources. For example, water is a local issue. And water is going to be the most difficult issue to deal with in the western part of the US. 

5. Education and training

This is the area where training for professionals and employees is much needed in keeping up with the demand. According to Deloitte, "emerging markets have become the place to turn for hard-to-find talent - driven both by low cost and technical experience." Faced with these challenges and offshoring, soon - we are all going to become lifelong learners within our profession/ passion. 

6. Marketing

How do you optimize your marketing dollars? Do you really know your customers? There's no 'average' Americans anymore. The market has become more ethnically diverse and mobile. What about marketing to green consumers and millenials?

7. Government policies

We're looking at least several issues on hand, i.e. land use, climate change, access to clean (fresh) water, pollution, and schools. 

8. Real estate

The two segment that stands out: workforce housing and affordable housing.

9. Mobile technologies

We're living in a wired world. According to a recent survey, 33% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy. In the US, smartphone penetration is higher within the minority groups - Hispanics (45%), African Americans (33%) and Asians (45%). In the world, six in ten people have mobile phones.

On the other side of the equation, these risks represent new challenges and opportunities - at the same time.

The world is undergone a transformation that we've never seen before. It's very exciting!

So now let's turn the table on you. What's your observations?  

According to the findings of "Leaders of Change" survey by EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit), gathered from 288 respondents (senior executives) "the focus of change management have shifted from cost conscious to more emphasis on growing market share and preparing for the future.

Sales and marketing also get more attention. 

As the chart shows below, the external drivers of change varies from industry to industry. For example, for consumer goods company, competitiveness is top on the list (56%), follows with customer demand (44%) and desire to increase market share (51%). 

Customer demand

We should put customers front and center. Because without customers, there won't be any revenues - or business. Take note of this. Today's customers are asking for more - better quality, service, variety of different products. 

This driver of change, customer demand, can impact no matter the sizes of your business from large all the way down to micro small business. With social media tools at their disposal, they have more power to say what they like and don't like. The thing is they carry their microphones around. For companies they can no longer have the luxury to control their messages. Ignore them, they'll take it to the web. One vocal customers in 2010 reached 1375 people. (click on image for larger view).