Think like a Startup. Visualize Your Business Model.. in 15 Minutes

“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 get 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.

5 Countries, 4 Retailers Rule the (Global) Retail Landscape

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.

DuPont Packaging Awards Show Sustainability Drives Innovation

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.

TV is so the ’90s

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

A Thrift (Home Improvement) Store with Social Mission

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.

BW: Subaru’s Sustainable Drive

via images.businessweek.com

Who knew? All these years, we heard the success of Toyota. But Subaru we hardly hear anything about their success and how they embrace (more like embedded) sustainability to their core of their business.

In a nutshell, Subaru has zero layoffs (despite recession), zero paycuts and zero waste. Practicing sustainability must be good for their business!

Guangzhou’s (China) Innovative Transportation System

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.