Some people want to start a business because it sounds like a cool thing to do. They want to be entrepreneurs to have ‘[their name], Entrepreneur’ on their business cards. However, this concept lacks a lot of logic. Becoming an entrepreneur for the reason of being one will not produce success. Entrepreneurs need to be super passionate about what they’re trying to do. They shouldn’t care about the title because the title itself will not motivate them to keep moving forward after experiencing failures.

This is one of the many things I’ve learnt from my mentor, Spencer Thompson. He became an entrepreneur because he wanted to solve a problem. Spencer saw that many students from his high school either didn’t know what do with their lives or were being influenced by parents, peers, and guidance counsellors to head into career fields that most probably didn’t suit them. And so, Spencer created Sokanu, a career match-making service that uses science to match you with your dream career. Though his entrepreneurial journey has not been an easy one, it’s three years since he started, and Spencer is still on his quest to help people find their true calling.

For years, people have erupted in uproars when coming across schools that run as businesses. Many argue that schools cannot benefit when bringing profits into the equation. They don’t believe that change in the education system can be implemented through a business perspective. I agree that schools shouldn’t lose sight of their purpose: to allow people to learn and grow. However, as a proud former student of the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), I can testify that running a school as a business can be effective.

FLVS is the best education institution that I’ve encountered and much of this is because it’s a business. This aspect of the school has given it an incentive to grow. It opened countless franchises, employs thousands, and annually teaches over 130,000 worldwide. Unlike typical schools, FLVS constantly improves its quality by testing countless variables. It responds to feedback from students, teachers, and parents by implementing new and more effective teaching styles. Also, its goal of profitability has allowed it to become efficient, reducing costs and needs for more tax dollars.

By acting as a business, the Florida Virtual School has become an innovative pioneer among education institutes, benefitting stakeholders, from students to governments.

In its early days, Hewlett-Packard (HP) was respected by the world as an innovative technological leader. Flash forward to today: HP is now a company that has been jumping on bandwagons, struggling to make profits. Having acquired 35 companies in the past eight years, HP has been trying to do too much, which compromises the quality of its products. The company seems to have lost its originality and vision—two things required by successful tech companies. This has caused public confusion as to what this disorganised mess of a company is and what exactly it does.

HP’s CEO, Meg Whitman, who has been attempting to restructure the company to cut costs, has been criticised to the point of being named the most underachieving CEO. However, investors are starting to have faith in her promise to stabilise the company. HP’s stock price has recently increased, despite its decreases in revenue.

It is still possible for HP to become successful again. Apple, for example, had once been in a position worse than HP’s current one. There may be doubts, but if the symbolic founder of Silicon Valley manages to turn itself around, the world will be watching a comeback to be written in history books.

200 words will not cover even a simple explanation of the things that The Coca-Cola Company has done to create shared value. Perhaps the biggest of the partnerships the company has in order to create shared value is with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In 2007, the two organisations became partners and, together, took on the challenge of freshwater conservation. Coca-Cola, with the support of WWF, promised to conserve seven of Earth’s most vital freshwater basins, improve water efficiency in operations, reduce CO2 emissions, promote agricultural sustainability, and educate the world about the issues it would be addressing.

Coca-Cola has not only fulfilled its promises, but it achieved its goals years ahead of schedule. For example, it surpassed its goal to improve its worldwide water efficiency by 20% since 2004. CO2 emission levels in developed countries were reduced by 9%, compared to 2004’s results. (Its goal was to reduce levels by 5% by 2015.)

Together, Coca-Cola and WWF have inspired individuals, businesses, non-profits, and even governments to address environmental issues. With both companies showing off their partnership’s successes, it cannot be doubted that they truly support each other and are proud of their achievements in saving local communities and the entire planet.

Just 48 hours after golf’s governing bodies—the US Golf Association and R&A—proposed a ban of anchored strokes (i.e. putters cannot be affixed to players’ bodies while they putt), Odyssey Golf responded by announcing an extension of their Metal-X line, serving as alternatives to anchored putters.

Their two Metal-X Arm Lock Putters conform to the regulation change, and by allowing the grips of the putters to rest on forearms, these putters prohibit unnecessary movement of players.

After more R&D, Odyssey found the perfect way to redistribute the weight of putters to successfully mimic the stability felt when putters are anchored. In March, these highly praised Tank Putters (pictured below) were introduced.

Odyssey took advantage of the now-confirmed anchoring ban. They welcomed change. And rather than negatively view the ban for potentially decreasing the demand of their anchored putters, they saw an opportunity to create new products that would have even greater demand. Odyssey has shown that they are very adaptable and are constantly thinking ahead. Odyssey marketed anchoring alternatives before their competitors while still maintaining their high-quality standards—therefore proving that they truly are deserving of their brand’s famous tagline: #1 Putter in Golf.

Uniqlo, a Japanese retail company, made its golf debut in April, when the company sponsored the very marketable Adam Scott—Australia’s top ranked golfer, currently No. 3 in the world. The sponsorship announcement came in perfect timing, for, not one week later, people all around the world watched the Aussie, who was donned in Uniqlo’s clothing, as he achieved his first major victory during a sudden death playoff in golf’s biggest stage: the Masters. Adam Scott, of course, wasn’t the only winner at Augusta; Uniqlo’s logo got plenty of airtime, with viewership peaking at 13.4 million. The company made sure they took advantage of what was perhaps their biggest marketing boost this year, as they further advertised their clothing through videos and interviews with Adam’s help.

Luck may have played a part in Uniqlo’s huge marketing success, but their move into golf was, without a doubt, a great strategy. The retailer’s simple, stylish clothing, targeted to people of all ages, aligns with the values of the classy sport that can be played by an 8 or 88 year old. More importantly, golf had given Uniqlo an enormous new customer segment, providing aid to the company in its quest for global brand awareness.

Medeo, a startup led by Sauder graduate, Ryan Wilson, is a great example of a company that doesn’t lose sight of its brand promise.

The Vancouver-based company has removed the inconvenience of having to wait for an appointment, clear your schedule, and travel out of your way to meet a doctor. Medeo gives you the freedom and comfort of meeting doctors online, whether on a computer, iPad, or iPhone; it is a cost-saving and time-saving solution.

Medeo has also demonstrated that it will strive to provide its customers with increasing value. Last month, the company extended their availability hours, now opening both earlier and later. As well, Medeo’s recent partnership with London Drugs will allow you to pick up your prescription from your preferred location of the countless corners occupied by the retail giant.

People wishing to create successful startups should follow the example Medeo displays. It is incredibly important for businesses to create unique services that consumers will value. Companies attract customers by having strong value propositions, which help define brands and make them stand out from competing organisations. And, most importantly, by upholding brand promises, companies are able to gain and retain customer trust and loyalty.

Apparently, it is not only indigenous people or threatened species who are harmfully affected by the deliberately lit forest fires that clear way for new palm oil plantations—something I wrote about in a previous blog post.

In July, a forest fire in the Indonesian province Riau, caused a record-breaking haze that spread throughout Southeast Asia. Deadly smog travelled to Malaysia and Singapore. Schools closed down, masked public servants evacuated children from playgrounds, and tensions arose between governments of Southeast Asian countries.

People wearing masks in Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping area
© Edgar Su / Reuters

What can be done to resolve such issues? 

Doing what is right may not always be easy, but when one is obviously doing more bad than good, action needs to be taken. Fault needs to be recognised. Palm oil businesses need to take responsibility for the harms they have caused. Leaders of the corporations need to think about what they’re doing. They need to remember that their priorities lie in satisfying their stakeholders: consumers, local communities, and regional and national governments, who have all been crying out for better management practices. Only when palm oil corporations recognise and respect their stakeholders will they listen to them, and through this, they can promise to better their ways.

About a year ago, I joined the TYE Program, a teen entrepreneurship competition in Vancouver. Teams were to create business plans and present them in a venture challenge—the winner competing again in the global competition in Washington DC.

What I learnt in this experience, however, was not that business plans are necessary. Simply surveying a landscape and writing a report does not help start up a company. Because business plans have to be specific, they may be rather make-believe. No matter how extensive your research is, there are too many things you have to assume. I felt this when my team—consisting of my four siblings and myself—created a business plan. We won both the local and global competitions for our written and presented business plan, but that didn’t matter in the real world. Things didn’t go the way we wrote our plan. Of course they didn’t. For example, we didn’t know if suppliers would work with us. Things don’t go as planned almost all of the time, so it doesn’t help when you measure your success based on how close you are to your business plan. In this sense, I believe that business plans aren’t a useful tool for startups.

I have a bone to pick up with the palm oil industry. I believe that the biggest of this industry’s issues concerns the way corporations expand palm oil plantations.

Palm oil, deemed the world’s most popular vegetable oil, is used to produce a variety of products, from shampoo to margarine and biodiesel. 90% of the world’s palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, with production increasing 7% each year.

Because of the increasing demand for palm oil, companies figured that they needed to expand their plantations. Hand in hand with the industry comes deforestation. Logging, however, did not satisfy the wishes of the corporations. Businesses then decided to burn down forests to create land for their plantations—the already disappearing forests with critically endangered species and diminishing biodiversity; forests with native people, who are forced to relocate.

Dead maroon leaf-monkey lying in a new palm oil plantation in Kalimantan
© Alain Compost / WWF

Why does this happen?

Leaders of palm oil corporations obviously have more than sufficient knowledge of what happens in their businesses and their businesses’ hazardous nature. The only logical explanation is that they simply don’t care enough about things that won’t benefit them because no decent human being would ever be okay with profiting from such horrors.