GE and the Three Models of Sustainability Venturing | SUSTAINABILITY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND THE FUTURE OF VALUE

Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, and the Future of Value with Eric Lowitt

GE recently announced the next phase of its $200 million Smart Grid Challenge at the 2011 CES. This phase, focused on crowdsourcing "ideas for harnessing and managing energy at home," is the latest in a line of entrepreneurial efforts used by market leading companies to accelerate their sustainability efforts. In fact, since the beginning of 2010, GE and several other companies turned to the venture playbook to connect capital and know-how with ideas to further pursue sustainability.

While sustainability venturing is en vogue, the tactic isn't right for every company. My review of companies with sustainability venturing efforts underway -- GE, Nike, Marks and Spencer, Vodafone, 3M, GM, and Virgin among them -- suggests two large steps must be completed before venturing can be effective.

First these companies made powerful connections between sustainability and corporate and competitive strategies. Specifically, they've adopted the view that sustainability is a means to grow, not solely a source of new risks to be managed. Second these companies adjusted business processes to improve their processes' environmental and social impacts. These adjustments have been very well covered elsewhere.

The completion of these steps increases the likelihood that venturing efforts will pay off. The next step is to be precise about the goals of your sustainability venturing plans. Are you looking for ideas to grow into new businesses? Are you looking to fund potentially disruptive sustainability innovations in your value chain? Or are you seeking access to start-ups that could provide a range of benefits for your company?

These three options have led to the creation of three sustainability venturing structures. Crowdsourcers engage the open public to provide ideas to solve a particular challenge and ultimately lead to business growth. Amplifiers are developing networks of venture capital firms, value chain partners, public sector partners, and even competitors to bring about systemic change in an environmental or social issue. Investors place an investment in either an incubator or similar firm that funds start-ups in a sustainability related market.

Crowdsourcers. These companies look to the open public to help solve a particular challenge. The best ideas are provided with a modest to significant level of funding. Perhaps the most prevalent example is the GE Smart Grid Challenge. GE sees the development of a smart grid -- a network that delivers electricity using digital technology -- as a massive growth opportunity.

The company has long been lauded for its ability to scale great ideas into successful businesses. By partnering with four preeminent venture capital firms to bring its Smart Grid Challenge to life, GE is turning to the open public to provide ideas to accelerate the development and adoption of a smart grid that the company can then scale.

Amplifiers. These companies have internal captive funds focused on sustainability. Nike and Marks and Spencer are examples of companies in this category. Nike's Sustainable Business and Innovation (SB&I) function created an "Innovation Lab," called the SB&I Lab, to identify and fund disruptive technologies that can provide sustainability solutions.

The SB&I Lab works with a range of partners to increase the impact of its investments. Similarly Marks & Spencer launched a 5-year, £50 million fund, called the Plan A Innovation Fund, to bring sustainability solutions to life. Like Nike's SB&I Lab, the Plan A Innovation Fund develops partnerships to maximize their investments' sustainability impact.

Investors. These companies invest in start-ups focused on bringing new sustainability solutions to market. At least two methods for these investments have emerged. The first method is an investment in a sustainability focused incubator. In January 2010 3M New Ventures invested in Germany based MAMA Sustainable Incubation AG.

MAMA, which opened in early 2010, invests in "green entrepreneurs" to bring innovations to market. The second method is the establishment of a branded investment firm. Associated with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Virgin Green Fund is a private equity firm "investing growth capital in the renewable energy and resource efficiency sectors in North America and Europe."

As companies transition from internally focused sustainability initiatives to investments that can bring about systemic change, sustainability venturing efforts are likely to become more prevalent. Companies will increase the likelihood of success by choosing the right structure for their sustainability venture efforts.


Eric Lowitt is a student and teacher of strategy and sustainability – how companies grow, innovate, and become more agile by embracing sustainability. His first book on the topic, The Future of Value, will be published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint, in September 2011.
Learn more about Eric Lowitt at EricLowitt.com and follow him on Twitter @EricLowitt

For more information, please visit Eric's TNNWC Bio.

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---

Capital, Traffic Building, International Customers and unique SERVICES.
The National Networker Publications™ produced by TNNWC Group, LLC

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

GE and the Three Models of Sustainability Venturing | SUSTAINABILITY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND THE FUTURE OF VALUE

GET PUBLISHED NOW! The Secret of Author Branding

Get Published Now! with Beth Barany

I’m coming out of the closet. I am an author marketer and branding specialist.

My business didn’t start out that way. I intended to help authors write their stories and their books. But one thing led to another and now, I help authors get to market. This means not only helping them write and publish, but also market their books. And developing their brand is a key component to marketing.

You may think that a brand is something only to do with products and companies. But actually, branding is now a concern for entrepreneurs and authors, alike. If you understand how to create your brand, and implement it consistently over time, you will create more value for your audience and hence more sales.

We will start the brand inquiry with this article.

What is a Brand?

A brand is a promise.

For an author and speaker, your brand is a promise to your readers and listeners.

To discover and uncover your brand, I invite you to explore you, your author self, and your book through a series of questions.

There is no right answer to creating your brand. Only what is right for you. If you fake it, we will know.

Based on information by professional branding specialist, Jenn Stark, (see resources below), I’ve created three categories: Your Core Brand, Your Functional Personal Brand, and Your Shadow Brand.

Your Core Brand

This brand is for you, and communicated to you by you. No one else dictates it, though others may influence it. However, you get to decide what this is. Knowing your core brand forms the basis for the second level of branding, Your Functional Personal Brand.

1. What do you tell yourself about yourself?

2. What is your taste in music? In food? In travel? In the kinds of places you call home?

3. What are your goals for the next 3 years? (Examples: travel to Paris, speak to a national writer’s conference, get my fantasy novel published)

Your Functional Personal Brand

As an author, you have an author brand. You may also be a speaker or run a business, or both. Each of those roles has a brand. Answer this set of questions for each aspect you’d like to brand.

1. What motivates you to bring your message to the world?

2. What is your message to the world – in this book project, and overall?

3. List 5-10 adjectives that best describe you as it pertains to your message of your book.

4. What are your strengths as a communicator/teacher/coach/speaker in your topic area?

5. How do you want to be known? What words do you want people to associate with you?

6. When you imagine yourself in front of a room talking about your message, how do you see yourself dressed? How are you relating to your listeners?

7. What do you see as your promise to your readers and listeners?

8. What kind of emotional connection do you want to create with your audience?

9. What experience do you want them to have as a result of encountering you or your message?

10. What action would you like them to take?

11. What result would you like them to have?

12. What makes you different from your competitors?

13. What value above all others do you want to communicate through your work?

14. How do you want people to remember you and your message long after you have left the room, or after they have stopped reading your book?

15. If you could have anyone you wanted write a back cover blurb, who would that be? And what would your readers feel about that person?

16. How do you want to be perceived as an author?

17. Who do you admire and want to emulate as a brand? Creat screen shots of the sites you like and don’t like. You can use them as a model as you develop your brand.

18. What are some of the messages you absolutely want your audience to know? State them as phrases or sentences.

Shadow Brand

We all have messages emanating from us all the time, some unintentional. Our shadow side is often there to keep us safe. As much as we are able, it serves us to become aware of our Shadow Brand so that we may choose differently.

What is it that you absolutely don’t want to communicate to your audience? This could be an unintended vibe, or negative trait.

Now What?

Once you have answered all these questions, let the information sit. Come back a day or two later with fresh eyes. Cull through the information, noticing themes, words, and phrases that stand out. I suggest cutting and pasting them into a different document. Now, see if you can distill you Core Brand and your Author Brand into one phrase or list of adjectives.

In my last article, Get Published Now: Sell Some D*mn Books, I gave some examples, reposted here:

• Romance author Stephanie Tyler’: “Romantic suspense starring strong military heroes.” (http://stephanietyler.com/)
  
• Childrens and YA author Michael P. Spradlin: “Action. Drama. Humor. And stuff blows up.” (http://michaelpspradlin.com/)
• Mystery author Michael Connelly: crime journalist turns crime novelist inspired by Raymond Chandler. (http://michaelconnelly.com/index.html)
• Nonfiction author Malcolm Gladwell, Outlier, Blink and The Tipping Point, and now, What the Dog Saw (2009): Outlier Canadian journalist turns his cogent eye on the world. (http://www.malcolmgladwell.com/)

Your Turn!

Post your author brand below and I’ll post my reflections, comments, and probing questions. By posting you'll be testing the market. That’s the next phase: testing the market. And the subject of another post!

Resources

I’m grateful to these sites and blogs, bloggers and authors. Their information aided in the writing of this article.

http://www.knowyourbrand.com : Communications and Branding for Organizations, Authors & Entrepreneurs; site and blog by Jenn Stark

“Getting Your Brand On” http://wow-womenonwriting.com/32-FE2-AuthorBranding.html : Cathy C. Hall’s interview with author, Shelli Johannes-Wells

“Pre-Natal Care for Your Book by Lynn Sarafinn: http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2009/10/pre-natal-care-for-your-book-by-lynn.html (This blog created was by Tony Eldridge: http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/)

Malle Vallik's Blog about publishing, Harlequin, social media & entertainment: http://mallevallik.wordpress.com/tag/author-brand/

“How To Discover and Build Your Author Brand, article at the Creative Penn, by Joanna Penn: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/08/03/how-to-discover-and-build-your-author-brand/

PS. Last Note

Perhaps you don’t feel ready to consider branding. Then start with considering if publishing is right for you by reading my article, “Getting Published is Easy: 8 Things You Need to Know.

For more information, please visit Beth's TNNW Bio.

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

GET PUBLISHED NOW! The Secret of Author Branding