Using SMEs as a Force for Good

I believe SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are uniquely positioned to identify issues that have a negative impact on today’s society, and are able to use business in order to address those issues as a force for good.  This is the sentiment behind B-Corps, and the size and foundations of SMEs give them the motivation and flexibility to pursue this sentiment.   According to the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer, 80% of people agree that “companies can take specific actions that both increase profits and improve the economic and social conditions in the community where it operates”.  This proves there is a want and a need for companies to use business as a force for good.

Many times, SMEs are founded on personal desires to do the right thing.  For example, the company Swell, which makes fashionable yet durable water bottles, was created because the owner wanted to “rid the world of plastic bottles” – a bold statement, but one that could truly lead to a positive environmental impact.  This was the owner Sarah Kauss’s personal desire that also benefited society, but she is also able to make a profit; in 2016, the company generated $50 Million in sales.  The small size of Sarah’s company (22 employees) allows her to constantly adapt to changing needs in society, and to always be innovating new products for her customers.

When it comes to benefiting society, Swell has been able to create partnerships with NGOs such as UNICEF USA to respond to current needs in vulnerable societies regarding clean water and water management.  One of Swell’s programs which looks beyond vulnerable societies and addresses the nation’s environmental well-being, is the partnership with American Forests, as Forests are an integral component to providing clean water.  The Swell design team created a fashionable water bottle with a wood-like décor, and every time one of these “wood” bottles are purchased, Swell plants a tree to combat deforestation which helps preserve our water supply.

I believe that as we continue to face environmental challenges related to climate change, SMEs will be a core force in combatting these challenges.  Smart SMEs will identify these challenges as opportunities, and create businesses that will benefit society, all while making a profit.  After founding a company on a personal desire to combat these environmental challenges, SMEs will likely also be able to take advantage of tax benefits or subsidies if their product aligns with government legislation regarding the environment.  The small sizes of SMEs can allow them to be adapt, to be mobile, and to quickly respond to challenges, which is important when many of these environmental challenges are becoming increasingly global.

Enviar comentario / 22 Mar 2017 por Ashley Hodges
IMSD /

A look from the inside: Chinese political and economic system

After spending 12 amazing, incredible but exhausting days in China I figure it out how complex is this country. You can find an amazing country with drastically contrast: you are in a small street with small buildings mainly with local shops and not precisely a wealthy neighborhood and you turn around the corner and you can find an impressive street that can make you thing that you are in New York with that spectacular buildings and luxury shops.

China is a country of contrasts or at least that´s the feeling that a Spanish girl like me have.

But carry on with the theme that bring me here today, the Chinese political and economical system cannot be explain without mentioned the well-known for Chinese citizens: the FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The five-year plan is the plan that the government brings every five years to planned the main objectives that they are going to follow in that period of time.

Nowadays China is in the 13th five year plan (2016-2020) and they are focus in five main themes:

–Innovation: focus on scientific research and achievements, invention patents, and important foundation technologies.

–Greening: make development more sustainable, clean up, environmental problems, build a national competitive advantage in CleanTech.

-Coordination: streaming administration and cooperation across the government, delegating power to lower levels.

-Opening: opening up to the outside, encouraging more investment abroad, retaining incoming investment.

-Sharing: to make society more equitable, healthier and happier.

As a student of sustainable development I am particularly happy that they include in their five-year plan a greening part where they are trying to be more sustainable and fix environmental problems, taking in consideration that they have big problems with the pollution. This is not a myth I can prove myself the effects of the pollution in your health and daily life.

Some important targets inside the Chinese political and economical system included in the 13th five year plan are the objective of double the GDP and per-capita income for urban and rural residents, more infrastructure and more modernization of manufacturing and communications.

In this last target the internet + have an important role: Chinese government is really interested in internet of things, big data, AI, etc. but they have a tough task I can personally confirm that the speed of the internet in China is a disaster. Besides the censorship made by the government is not exactly making things easier.

This theme about the censorship is a big surprise at least for me, what is really unexpected is how Chinese people “love” their government or at least they do not say nothing bad about it. I will let you decide if this is truth or just fear, we cannot know the answer.

Continuing with the theme the Chinese government is really involved in creating new jobs for their citizens, they are strongly trying to fight against unemployment this is so strong that even create new projects just to create more jobs. For example they are developing what we can call the new cities tiers. They create cities before there are people to live there, but surprisingly these cities are not ghost cities for a long time. Government use this cities too to fix the urbanization process that is taking place in the country.

We cannot forget the impressive project that Xi Jinping, China´s actual president, have created: One Belt-One Road or the Silk road initiative, this means that China aims to build a global infrastructure network. Some people say that is wonderful other are afraid of the consequences, I am not going to involved myself in the discussion we will se what happens in the future.

Another of the many things that surprise me during my trip was the total control that the government have over everything, definitely if you want to create your own business in China you have to consider this.

According to policies on foreign investments you have some restrictions, logistics is something trendy nowadays in China but we can summarize in you are free to operate in whatever you want but if the government say something you have to “obey” them.

So In conclusion we can see how it is really important to understand China through its different politics and how China strongly trying to be achieve the idea of the Chinese dream where they want all the people to have access to the basic things, at the same time that they fight agains corruption but eve with that they are aim to achieve a monopoly. This that not have any sense to me, if you want to fight against corruption stimulate the creation of a monopoly is not the best way, but we will leave this conversation for another moment.

You cannot understand their politics, economics and foreign investment system without understand or at least their five year plan. That´s why I briefly try to explain it here.

It has been a wonderful trip that gave me the opportunity to discover a new whole country and culture, and even if I am not a big fan of chopsticks I for sure want to come back not only as a tourist but also in a future as a posible helper to develop sustainability and CSR there, we can not forget that China is known as one of the most powerful countries in manufacture what gives them a huge power in our actual world.

Lara Sastre-Estevez de la Torre.

Enviar comentario / 17 Mar 2017 por lsastreestevez
IMSD /

Mysterious China

 “In one of the more entertaining moments of COP22, the global climate conference held in Marrakech last week, the Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin, gave the absent US president-elect a short lesson in the history of climate diplomacy. Climate change, he explained, was not a Chinese hoax. In fact, long before the issue had been discussed behind the high vermillion walls of Zhongnanhai, China’s contemporary Forbidden City, it had been put on the global agenda by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1980s, supported by Ronald Reagan and George Bush (senior).”[1]

The whole world was waiting for the reaction of china once Trump declared to not continue with the Paris agreement to fight climate change. All fears disappeared when China stepped up as the new global climate leader after Trump’s victory. An explanation of this (unexpected) leadership role China is willing to take on can be found in the government’s 5-year plan, much of their political

An explanation of this (unexpected) leadership role China is willing to take on can be found in the government’s 5-year plan, much of their political behavior can be explained trough this plan. The new 5-year plan (2016-2020) boosts global sustainable development. It is not something that is just a political goal, also the Chinese people (living in cities) are quite engaged with sustainable development due to the high level of pollution in their cities, which affects their health and daily live’s. If the governmental data is reliable, China is definitely putting their money where their mouth is. The country’s coal consumption dropped in 2016 for a third year in a row. But since it is widely known that there is a lack of transparency of governmental practices, one must keep critical when seeing this data.

An other interesting political and economical aspect of China is that the government moves heaven and earth to provide jobs for their people. Big projects such as The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, also known as one Belt, One Road, are being developed. The One Belt, One Road is a development strategy and framework, proposed by Chinese Xi Jinping (the general secretary of the Communist party of China) that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among mostly Eurasia countries.

An other interesting political and economical aspect of China is that the government moves heaven and earth to provide jobs for their people. Big projects such as The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, also known as one Belt, One Road, are being developed. The One Belt, One Road is a development strategy and framework, proposed by Chinese Xi Jinping (the general secretary of the Communist party of China) that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among mostly Eurasia countries. This enormous project reflects the role of the Chinese government. The government is everywhere. It takes fast, drastic and huge decisions in no time. I found it remarkable that when speaking with Chinese people, they all had nothing negative to say about their government and its actions. I have traveled a lot and in every country there is at least some negativity towards governmental institutions, but not in China.

Described aspects are just a tiny part of a larger whole of information we where given and things we explored in China. I came to China with a lot of questions, and I left the country with even more questions. What an interesting, totally different world it is.

 

 

 

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/donald-trump-success-helps-china-emerge-as-global-climate-leader

Enviar comentario / 17 Mar 2017 por easbeck
IMSD /

Establishing a Business in China

Establishing a Business in China

Having spent 12 days in China, amongst haggling in markets and attempting to eat with chop sticks, have learnt about some of the major aspects of Chinese governance, with one process in particular being discussed in nearly every class: The Five-Year Plan.

Every five years, China brings out a new version of this documentation varying the content based on the key topics the government, community and citizens will focus on in the coming years. The latest version of the plan covers 2016 –  2020.

As a Chinese citizen or a foreigner trying to establish a business in China, if your strategy is in line with the five-year plan it can act as a catalyst to help the business establish and make a significant headway throughout its development.

Below I will discuss the key elements of the plan, they have been placed in order of importance according to the Chinese government:

Innovation

Moving Chinese core businesses and economy away from the previous low cost manufacturing with low margins and towards high-tech and modern information based services.

Co-ordination

The second part of the five-year plan is aiming to reduce the welfare gap between the rural and urban areas, through the distribution of administrative and financial resources in an efficient manner. This means that the countryside is not left to fend for themselves without a significant input from the local authorities.

Greening

This third section of the five-year plan has been put in place to develop the environmental technology industry, as well as ecological living and ecological culture in China. To support this, China is offering tax breaks for start-ups businesses with an environmental protection mind set.

Opening

In order to increase the economy and open the country to international development and investment, china is working on additional co-operation methods. This encompasses having an increased co-operation with international businesses, governments and people.

Sharing

I believe the sharing element is in line with the co-ordination, it aims to share the wealth of China across the entire country and, as previously mentioned, bridge the welfare gap.

What next

If your business idea is in line with the 13^th five year plan and you want to take plunge to enter the Chinese market, the simplest way as a foreign citizen is through a Joint Venture. I learnt that in 1979 a significant law was passed concerning foreign and domestic companies which means they should have a strong partnership with a Chinese entity.

Firstly, to encourage a successful business your general manager should be a Chinese partner, to allow for their active and substantial control in the business strategy and tactics. But be aware that the Chinese partner often enter these joint ventures in order to acquire full control of the foreign partner at a later stage.  Therefore, you must be willing to at least consider selling and/or giving away full control of your company once it reaches a certain level and becomes a particularly interesting investment from the Chinese side.

In terms of financing, the loans available to the business are directly proportional to the starting capital invested in the company, therefore do not expect unlimited opportunities for financial injections from the Chinese banking system.

To summarise, establishing a business in china is a very complicated process and having spent 12 days in China learning about this topic, I believe it the brave who decide to set up offices in this country. There is a myriad of formal, social and economic parameters to adhere to which I feel are most likely to be discovered only after acting in the incorrect manner… Therefore the key to establishing a business in Chain is research, research, research!

Enviar comentario / 17 Mar 2017 por jyoung
IMSD /

What plan? The five year plan!

During our trip in China and during our lectures there was one topic that was referred  to every time, the five year plan. China’s government works with 5 year plans in which they set out different points the country will focus on during five years. Because it was mentioned to us so many times I decided it should be the topic to write about. Officially my assignment was to write about the Tax system in China but because Shanghai does not only have interesting business opportunities but also interesting nightlife I missed the lecture on on that topic. Enough about nightlife and missing lectures, I want to focus on this “great” five year plan which China has. The reason I put the word great in parentheses is because it seems that because of governmental propaganda everyone in China believes or maybe pretends to believe that it is the greatest and most effective way of political planning possible.

To clarify this I want to introduce you to fidelia one of our guides during our trip in China. Fidelia is Chinese and told us all the wonderful things about China, but it became quite clear she would not say anything negative about the government or about the development of China. When the five year plan was introduced to us during our lectures Fidelia clapped very enthusiastically and looked very proud. This made me wonder if the people in China really have this much trust and love for their government or if they might fear this very government. I believe that as long as the government structure is the way it is I will never find out if it is trust or fear, so I will continue elaborating the five year plan.

The current five year plan is the thirteenth five year plan issued by the government. The five year plan focusses on five points written down in order of importance.

1. Innovation:

China wants to  innovate further from a manufacturing economy to a service economy to become more globally competitive through technological advances.

 2.Coordinated Development:

China wants to move people from the rural areas into the cities to promote development.

3.Green Growth:

China wants to reduce emissions and make the country a more attractive place to live to attract and keep talent. The pollution levels are very high and this causes talent which would contribute to development to leave and potential talent to stay away. Cleaning the country is therefore a priority to continue the fast paced development of china.

4.Openness:

China wants to open up to the world to promote globalisation and their economy. They want to increase import and export, but personally I believe China’s government needs to also open up their strict policies within the company in order for this to work. It needs to be easier for foreign companies to do business with China with less regulation and restrictions.

 

5.Inclusive growth

China wants to move each citizen of china to the middleclass and by doing this eradicating poverty. This seems like a very good plan but in my opinion it will be very difficult with the transition to a service economy and the urbanisation. Many jobs will be lost and the lower educated people will have a problem in this five year plan. I am curious to see how this turns out.

This post summarises our lectures in China because business, politics and it seems like everything in China revolves around this five year plan. But why write a super long post about the five year plan whilst the Chinese government has posted an amazing, wonderful, perfect, fantastic and inspiring video explaining their five year plan.

 

Enjoy the video,

Tim Wierks

 

Enviar comentario / 17 Mar 2017 por Tim Wierks
IMSD /

3 Tips to Establishing a Business in China

Going to China was an amazing experience to understand firsthand what it would be like to do business in such a unique country.  We learned key tips and concepts in order to establish a business in China, and we were able to ask other entrepreneurs how they became successful in a country with such strong regulation and state involvement.  The 3 takeaways for establishing a business in China, for me, are the following:

• Study the 5-year plan to understand what business opportunities would be financed
• If you are representing an existing business with capital, starting a joint venture would be the best way to position your business to acquire the entire company in the long run
• If you are starting your own business, understand what incubators are available to you

5 Year Plan

China is a planned economy, and the 5-year plan literally spells out how the government plans to grow the GDP in the next 5 years.  The 13^th 5-year plan is focused on the following:

1. Innovation
2. Greening
3. Coordination
4. Opening Up
5. Sharing

If you want to establish a business in China, align your business with the 5-year plan, as the government is much more likely to support it.  In the 13^th 5-year plan, businesses that focus on innovation through scientific research, invention patents, and technologies, or businesses that focus on greening through sustainable development and the clean-up of environmental problems, are very likely to receive support.

Joint Ventures

China is a very unique market; even though there are 1.4 billion people in China, your company will never be able to reach all these people.  You will always have many Chinese competitors to your product, so it is important to focus on a targeted, niche market.  It is also important to understand the best way to reach your Chinese target market by communicating a relevant message that will be well received, and how to work with all of the state regulation.  If your business is already established and you have the capital, starting a Joint Venture with a Chinese company allows you to understand how your business would be run abroad, learn about the Chinese market, regulations and taxes, and position your company to eventually take over once you fully understand the market.  Tax regulations and laws can change almost every year in China, and it is difficult to keep up with this changing regulation, so partnering with a Chinese company that can help navigate this tax regulation in the beginning years will prove to be beneficial once your company is in the position to take over the business.

Incubators

If you want to create a start-up in China, that of course aligns with the 5-year plan, there are state funded incubators that could accept your project.  We had the opportunity to visit one of these incubators called NeoBay on our trip.  NeoBay is a global entrepreneurship and innovation community in partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Government of Shanghai Minhang District, and Shanghai Land Group (SL).  All 3 of these partners together provide the land, investment and resources needed to run the incubator.  Connecting with one of these partners, like the university, can open up opportunities for your project to be accepted by the incubator.

In conclusion, establishing a business in China is tricky, but if done correctly, it can be rewarding; even though your market would be a niche market due to all of the competition and the fact that not everyone will want, or could afford, your product, a niche market in the market of 1.4 billion people still has a lot of potential.

Enviar comentario / 16 Mar 2017 por Ashley Hodges
IMSD /

Climate Change: now or never

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.

 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

 

Climate change is real, even if nowadays there are still people that refuse to believe that this is happening even if we have clear evidences of this
You and I are burning too many fossil fuels. We are the only agents who can turn it around. That means using alternative energy sources. If each and every one of us takes action, then we can avoid the above desolate scene which could haunt our children and grandchildren.

When we talk about climate change we are not talking about something theoretical we are talking about a process with evidences and the evidence for rapid climate change is compellin-Warming oceans, global temperature rise, shrinking ice sheets, declining Arctic sea ice, glacial retreat, extreme events, ocean acidification, decreased snow cover.
Climate change not only affect the environment, climate change affect all of us, affect our economy, society, etc.
We just have to consider what is going to happened when in 2050 the population reach the 9 billion people in the world. How are we going to feed this amount of people without destroying the planet and ourselves in the process.

As Ban Ki-moon´s said:

There is no “Plan B” for action as there is no “Planet B.”

We need to care about climate change, what it is more important we need to act about climate change. We reach a point where thinking about that it is not even enough, we need to star acting about that and protect our planet

As Romina Picolotti, President of Fundación Cedha said:

“My message is: Do whatever you can, small or big, to help us fight against climate change!”

Big or small everything helps, it is not inly a matter for governments and countries, even if they must be aware about this and act in an effective and useful way. All of us as citizens of the world can help .

As Michael Jacobs, Senior Advisor of Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris (IDDRI) said:

 “Acting on it brings us all kinds of good things. It brings us jobs, livelihoods and profits.”

Care about climate change and the most important thing acting about that it is not something bad or a complication.

I strongly believe we are still on time to slow down climate change and look for a solution, several organizations, governments and countries are forming alliances in order to fight against it.

Climate change is real, is affecting all of us and in every sector. We are part of the problem but also part of the solution.

If we do nothing what will be left?. We need to act

 

Enviar comentario / 13 Feb 2017 por lsastreestevez
IMSD /

Why should me/you/she/he/we/they care about climate change?

It has been confirmed that humans are 95% responsible for climate change. We should care about this because it affects everyone, it does not care about race, religion, location or economical power. The problem is that most of the time, the people that are causing climate change don’t see or feel the real consequences of it and sadly the most affected ones are vulnerable people that have contributed less to this issue.

People constantly complain about gas and oil companies, but still consume what they produce. I don’t think that to reduce our impact in global warming we should start making drastic sacrifices, but I do believe we should begin to change our lifestyle starting by changing the way we consume, choose and dispose the things we buy.

We arrive to the never ending paradigm about, who is responsible for climate change? The consumer? The government? The companies/industries? Who should be addressing this subject?

Any answer is correct, but what we should be focusing now is not pointing fingers on who is responsible because we all are, the important thing is to take action.

We have to work together, starting by making the consumers aware of the problem so they start demanding products and services with low or non GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions that contribute to climate change.

On the other hand, some governments and NGOs are doing their part for climate change through the Paris Agreement. They have set the goal to prevent the temperature to rice 1.5°C. I strongly believe that governments should start making new policies or taking mandatory measures to stop the pollution. From the side of the industries some of them are starting to follow the tendency of low carbon economies to decrease their GHG emissions, but more companies will join this movement if costumers start demanding this and if the governments implement new measures to regulate them.

I hope that soon we all collaborate because time is not on our side. I can imagine a society united for one single goal for the wellbeing of the planet and its habitants.

I recently read a phrase form Eduardo Galeano an Uruguayan activist and writer that had an impact in me:

“Utopia lies at the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps. No matter how far I go, I never reach it. What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It is to cause us to advance.”

Change is possible

Enviar comentario / 13 Feb 2017 por aespana
IMSD /

Climate change in my own words

Climate change in my own words

…

Human being couldn´t exist without the planet, but at the same time human being can put in danger his own planet as it is known nowadays. The consequences of our behaviour as specie not only affect us, but to all species lives in the earth, and those to come, our children, our

future.

Climate change is the biggest problem that the human being have to face in their history, a threaten that could cause millions of deaths, disasters and

damage.

I really believe that climate change will be the problem that will join us as specie again, where economy will be at the serve of the society in the fight against a problem that if is not solve, it

won´t be.

Climate change is the change that challenge us to

(If we) change.

Enviar comentario / 13 Feb 2017 por arodriguezbolanos
IMSD /

Why should we care about climate change?

Climate change is a phenomenon which will affect future generations and not us, right? Many people live with the misconception that we can continue to emit greenhouse gases and deplete the earth’s natural resources without any negative consequences. When in reality there is a myriad of climate change impacts affecting nearly every person on Earth today; from alterations in temperatures, extreme weather events to world-wide food production reductions and food scarcity.

Climate change owing to anthropogenic sources has the biggest negative consequences towards vulnerable animals, delicate ecosystems and poverty stricken regions. A voice needs to be given to those in poverty who cannot communicate widely enough the devastating effects that climate change is having on agricultural crop yield and water quality. Changes in global weather conditions is giving way to an increase of vector borne diseases and malaria in poverty stricken countries such as India.

Not only do we need to care about vulnerable people, but by taking action to combat climate change today we can avoid costs for tomorrow. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases will improve air quality standards, which are posing a huge health risk through respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. The air pollution in China, a leading manufacturer of the world’s electrical, clothing and plastic products, has astronomical levels. Beijing has even reported air pollution concentrations 36 times above acceptable levels.¹

Investment into renewable energy technologies is growing every day, seen as the energy provider for the future as the earth’s resources are being increasingly depleted, helped by a growing competitiveness over coal with falling technology prices. We cannot go backwards on this topic, despite sceptical politicians, as the general public we must care about climate change and make our voices heard. We need to enact concrete actions to continue reducing carbon dioxide and methane emissions, whilst phasing out harmful hydrofluorocarbons (HFC). Despite the obvious benefits from reducing climate change it can also create jobs, financial growth, reduce poverty, help with education and improve health.  Not only does it make environmental sense, but there are also sound economical reasoning to care about climate change.

References

¹Soft Pedia (2016), http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Can-Forecast-China-Air-Pollution-with-Windows-Phone-App-New-Website-483998.shtml#sgal_0 accessed 12/02/2017

² China imagehttp://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Can-Forecast-China-Air-Pollution-with-Windows-Phone-App-New-Website-483998.shtml#sgal_0, accessed 12/02/2017v

Enviar comentario / 13 Feb 2017 por jyoung
IMSD /