The intuition of young people to engage in business is profiled as a status to them. With regardless of their lack in business skills, ethics and competence but with their confidence at the burning age they are ready to jumpstart in the hard way.
Their devotions inspire us all as they are our future generation, although we know that the business world has never been easy for the soft souls at the start-up stage. Surviving after the start-up race has been a tough profession to most of upcoming envisioning pioneers in the business world. And just within the first five years of piloting a few can survive as many see the only light at the end of the business tunnel is to shut down. Poor understanding of the market needs is whispered to be the top constraint, where most start-ups only seek to “wow” customers and friends with technically sophisticated products and services. Instead of striving to create good quality solutions that deliver value to customers at the lowest cost.
Not to mention, the lack of financial sustainability could be another man-made problem to them. But then it isn’t, if they see resource constraints not as a liability but as an opportunity. And this is the mount of frugal innovation, opting agility over efficiency. Most start-ups businesses today operate in a way that after using their products they end up in the landfills. Whilst their value chains are linear. These types of process are pricey, wasteful and not environmental friendly.
But as an alternative, to be a resource-efficient start-up business, you must reinvent the value chains of your business to operate in more sustainable form. Start-Ups in our developing countries still face terrific problems that are chaotic and complex for their business enviroment. Depending solely on your own resources and proficiencies for growth cannot work as a tactic anymore. Business leaders need to encourage their start-ups to economically crowdsource frugal solutions from peripheral networks of other entrepreneurs, technology hubs, or suppliers. There is a need to connect to the global brain of other start-ups(partners) with whom you can co-create solutions quicker, cheaper and better. There is enough room for everyone to benefit. Working or partnering with other businesses also offers a room for your employees to change their perspectives and fast-rate the cultural change.
As the school of economics continues to remind us that resources are scarce, its is important to know that we need to proselytize the “do more with less” mantra. Generate and use key performance indicators to encourage and sustain frugal conduct in your business. Even the tallest tree in Africa, was once a seed.
Be a good seed that will mutate and do what good business leaders do. Hold confidence as you radiate through the challengeable hemisphere because nobody said it will be easy, but worth it.
