Big challenges hide big business opportunities. There is no need to look elsewhere to find visionary entrepreneurs or innovative businesses which provide global solutions. Each and every one of us and our organizations needs to have an empowering attitude which uses technological and market evidence to show that our solutions have the momentum and capacity to overcome the big global challenges.
Nowadays, these global challenges can represent enormous opportunities in sectors such as alternative energy, natural disasters, environmental issues, ineffective health systems, democratization of effective educational systems, inefficient governmental management, security, lack of food and poor water supply among others.
Let’s embrace the fact that we are now living in the revolution 4.0 era and we confront these challenges with exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital biology, neuroscience, nanotechnology, computer networks and robotics. This revolution is characterized by the speed, reach, and impact it has on consumer behavioral patterns as well as organizations. There are now billions of people connected by intelligent mobile devices with an unprecedented processing capacity and access to an unlimited amount of knowledge.
In contrast to previous industrial revolutions, revolution 4.0 is advancing at an exponential rhythm rather than a linear one. It is also considered to be a disruptive force in almost every industry, which will eventually transform the way millions of people live. Its overall impact will be so large that this exponential technology will have to be complemented by transformational practices such as: data science, entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational management, innovation policies and ethics. The probability of overcoming large global challenges will increase as long as we are proactive, and we make the most of exponential technologies with transformational practices in our organizations.
A lack of vision and leadership as well as an inability to tackle the challenges posed by revolution 4.0 are some of the reasons why 40% of today’s leading companies may no longer exist in a decade’s time. This revolution carries a threat to traditional competitive advantages of companies and new competitors could potentially take on the opportunities of new business that crop up to eventually wipe out the business models of today’s leading firms.
Incubators, accelerators, CVC funds and ‘unicorn’ startups
Some large businesses are already innovating, inside and outside of their organizations, with exponential technologies, by using open innovation. One of the most common models used by larger companies is based on interacting with innovative startups thanks to the establishment of business incubators, accelerators or the establishment of corporate venture capital (CVC) funds.
CVC funds allow large corporations to get better strategic returns in order to adapt to the 4.0 revolution. Some startups also get financial returns on their investments and become unicorns, which are startups valued at over 1 billion dollars. Startups offer technology and disruptive business models to large companies that are looking to differentiate in the market and gain advantages over their competition through innovation.
Large companies in Mexico are starting to establish incubators, accelerators and/or CVC funds. Cemex, Bimbo, Grupo Modelo, Telefónica, Cinépolis, Volaris, Axtel, CocaCola, Grupo Expansión, City Express Hotels, Grupo Lala, Proeza, ArcaContal, FEMSA, Grupo Salinas and Banregio are just some of the companies that have begun to take an impulsive initiative and interact with startups. In Mexico, the National Institute of the Entrepreneur (Inadem) has recently done a lot of work to increase venture capital funds from just two in 2006, to 55 in 2016. According to the Mexican Association of Private Equity (Amexcap) venture capital funds are now the ones with more fund administrators of the total 168 Private Equity industry.
We now need to have large Mexican corporations to support entrepreneurship. According to figures from the National Venture Capital Association, in the United States, almost 15% of venture capital comes from CVC funds. In Mexico, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at the EGADE Business School is looking to bring big business players together to kick start the use of exponential technologies and transformational practices so that the revolution 4.0 can be tackled head-on. This will create more clarity about the technology and practices that impact their organizations, creating a more investment driven atmosphere as well as increasing the amount of innovative business models used in their companies to reach growth and profit goals. This will not only aid their survival, but also help the transcendence of businesses.
