新創社會企業成功關鍵要素研究－以2015霍特獎得主個案為例 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程 International MBA Program College of Commerce National Chengchi University. 碩士論文政治. 大. 立Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學得主個案為例. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 新創社會企業成功關鍵要素研究－以 2015 霍特獎 a. n. i v Starting Social Understanding Keyl C Success Factors nfor. hengchi U. Enterprises – A Case Study on IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winner. Student: Simon J. V. Billy Advisor: Professor Shari S.C. Shang. 中華民國一〇五年七月 July 2016.

(2) 新創社會企業成功關鍵要素研究－以 2015 霍特獎得主個案為例 Understanding Key Success Factors for Starting Social Enterprises – A Case Study on IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winner 研究生：畢西盟. 學. ‧ 國. 指導教授：尚孝純立. Simon J. V. Billy 政治 Student: 大 Advisor: Shari S.C. Shang. 國立政治大學. ‧. 商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程. y. A Thesis. er. io. a. sit. Nat. 碩士論文. n. iv l to International MBAnProgram Submitted. Ch. U. i e n g c hUniversity National Chengchi. in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration. 中華民國一〇五年七月 July 2016.

(3) Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to thank my thesis advisor Professor Shari Shang for sharing insights, providing valuable feedback and supporting me, always in a positive way.. Many thanks to Professor Samuel Chen and Professor Chester Ho for their pertinent questions, comments and suggestions.. 政治大. I would also like to thank all of the NCCU IMBA Professors for sharing their knowledge and. 立. experience, especially Professor S.H. Lee who inspired me this case study during his. ‧ 國. 學. Confucianism & Leadership course.. ‧. Thank you to the NCCU IMBA office for its on-going support, especially Li-chi Ho for her positive attitude and her precious help.. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. I am entitled to the four IMPCT co-founders: An-nung Chen, Andres Escobar, Juan Diego. i n U. v. Prudot and Taylor Scobbie, who I thank for their cooperation and from whom I am looking. Ch. forward to hear future successes.. engchi. I am also entitled to Ryan Yang and Martin David for taking the time to share their insights, and to whom I wish the best of luck.. Last but not least, a special thanks to Romy Fontaine, who made the writing process of this case study more enjoyable.. i.

(4) Abstract Understanding Key Success Factors for Starting Social Enterprises – A Case Study on IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winner By Simon J.V. Billy IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winner, is a successful starting social enterprise. Primary and. 政治大. secondary data were collected and analyzed. The data analysis reveals that IMPCT’s success. 立. factors as a starting social enterprise are condensed in four clusters related to each other,. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. influencing and influenced by an ever-changing macro-environment.. Team’s success factors: teamwork, dedication, resilience.. . Social business model’s success factors: a holistic and sustainable long-term. sit. y. Nat. . n. al. er. io. approach, making realistic assumptions, setting ambitious objectives and achieving. i n U. v. them thanks to replicability, a resilient social business model. . Ch. engchi. Network management’s success factors: having a praiseworthy purpose, honesty, integrity and sense of responsibilities, proactivity, friendliness, one-to-one communication.. . Social business development’s success factors: seizing opportunities timely, participating in a social business case competition and a social business accelerator, running a crowdfunding campaign, a convincing pitch, a global marketing strategy, implementing the project.. Keywords: Social Enterprises, Success Factors, Case Study, IMPCT, Hult Prize. ii.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1. 2. Background Information on Social Enterprises and the Hult Prize ............................... 2. 2.1. Social Enterprises and Value Creation ............................................................................. 2. 政治大. Non-profit organizations mostly create social value .............................................. 2. 立. For-profit organizations mostly create economic value ......................................... 2. ‧ 國. 學. Social enterprises create blended value .................................................................. 3. ‧. 2.2. Definitions of Social Enterprises ..................................................................................... 4. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 2.3. Examples of Social Enterprises ....................................................................................... 6. i n U. v. 2.4. Development of Social Enterprises ................................................................................. 6. Ch. engchi. 2.5. Who Social Entrepreneurs are ......................................................................................... 7. 2.6. Challenges faced by Social Enterprises ........................................................................... 8. 2.7. Support Available for Social Entrepreneurs .................................................................... 9. 2.8. Hult Prize ....................................................................................................................... 10. History, Mission and Overview ............................................................................ 10. iii.

(6) 2015 Competition Overview ................................................................................ 10. 3. Research Methodology ....................................................................................................... 13 3.1. Secondary Data Collection ............................................................................................ 13. 3.2. Primary Data Collection ................................................................................................ 13. Semi-structured Interviews ................................................................................... 13. 政治大 Open-ended Questionnaires .................................................................................. 14 立. ‧ 國. 學. Panel Presentation ................................................................................................ 14. ‧. 3.3. Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 15. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. 4. The IMPCT Story ............................................................................................................... 17. v. n. 5. IMPCT Key Success Factors ............................................................................................. 38. Ch. engchi. i n U. 5.1. Team’s Success Factors ................................................................................................. 38. Why is it a Success Factor? .................................................................................. 38. Teamwork ............................................................................................................. 39. Dedication ............................................................................................................. 52. Resilience ............................................................................................................. 62 5.2. IMPCT’s Social Business Model’s Success Factors...................................................... 67. iv.

(7) Why is it a Success Factor? .................................................................................. 67. A Holistic and Sustainable Long-Term Approach ................................................ 68. Making Realistic Assumptions ............................................................................. 69. Setting Ambitious Objectives and Achieving them thanks to Replicability......... 71. A Resilient Social Business Model....................................................................... 73. 政治大 5.3. Network’s Success Factors ............................................................................................ 74 立. ‧ 國. 學. Why is it a Success Factor? .................................................................................. 74. ‧. Important Stakeholders ......................................................................................... 76. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. Having a Praiseworthy Purpose ............................................................................ 77. v. n. Honesty, Integrity and Sense of Responsibilities ................................................. 78. Ch. engchi. i n U. Proactivity............................................................................................................. 79. Friendliness ........................................................................................................... 80. One-to-One Communication ................................................................................ 81 5.4. Social Business Development’ Success Factors ............................................................ 82. Why is it a Success Factor? .................................................................................. 82. Seizing Opportunities Timely ............................................................................... 82. v.

(8) Participating in a Social Business Case Competition and a Social Business Accelerator ....................................................................................................................... 83. Running a Crowdfunding Campaign .................................................................... 86. A Convincing Pitch ............................................................................................... 91. A Global Marketing Strategy................................................................................ 97. 政治大. Implementing the Project...................................................................................... 97. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 102. References ............................................................................................................................. 106. ‧. io. sit. y. Nat. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 106. er. Useful links ......................................................................................................................... 109. al. n. v i n Ch Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 110 engchi U Appendix A: In-person semi-structured interview guide ................................................... 110. Appendix B: Phone semi-structured interview guide ......................................................... 112. Appendix C: Open-ended questionnaire guide ................................................................... 112. vi.

(9) List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Blended Value ............................................................................................................. 4 Figure 2: Triple Bottom Line ...................................................................................................... 5. Figure 3: The IMPCT Team...................................................................................................... 18. 政治大. Figure 4: Comprehensive Framework of Successful Starting Social Enterprises .................. 102. 立. Table 1: Panel Presentation…………………………………………………………………...15. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vii. i n U. v.

(10) 1. Introduction In 2015, IMPCT was awarded with the Hult Prize among 22,000 teams. The Hult Prize is the biggest case competition involving students and focusing on social enterprises.. “We are living in an era where the opportunities and the challenges to improve the life of all people come hand in hand.” – Bill Clinton, Former U.S. President (2014).. 政治大 Social enterprises offer a fresh alternative for solving the world’s most pressing challenges by 立 turning them into opportunities. Thanks to ground-breaking ideas and well-rounded business. ‧ 國. 學. plans, social enterprises generate sustainable income through social wealth creation and. ‧. environmentally responsible operations. However, the extraordinary potential of social. er. io. sit. y. Nat. enterprises remains untapped.. al. This case study aims at providing starting social entrepreneurs with the detailed example of. n. v i n C h Hopefully, starting IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winner. e n g c h i U social entrepreneurs will inspire themselves from IMPCT’s key success factors and take action to make the world a better, more sustainable place.. Background information about social enterprises and the Hult Prize is provided and followed by the research methodology of the case study. The full IMPCT story is then narrated in details before digging deep into IMPCT’s key success factors analysis.. 1.

(11) 2. Background Information on Social Enterprises and the Hult Prize 2.1. Social Enterprises and Value Creation Non-profit organizations mostly create social value Non-profit organizations, whom as we know them today, function mostly thanks to charity.. 政治大 founder of Grameen Bank, society uses charities to ignore problems and decline responsibilities 立. According to Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-credit, Nobel Peace Prize winner and. ‧ 國. 學. instead of finding sustainable solutions (1999).. ‧. Today, non-profits are still vital to our society for they tackle worldwide issues that governments and corporations do not address. In other words, non-profits focus on “doing good”. y. Nat. er. io. sit. while setting aside profits. (Fisher, 1997). al. v i n Ch social or environmental value, in opposition i U value. However, non-profits do e n g with c h economic n. So what exactly does “doing good” mean? “Doing good” means that non-profits mostly create. create economic value as well. Consider for example Girl Scout Cookies’ sales. Although Girl Scout Cookies is a non-profit organization and its purpose is to create social value, their cookies sales also create economic value (Bonini and Emerson, 2005).. For-profit organizations mostly create economic value The main reason for-profit organizations exist is to make profits, they focus on “doing well”. Because innovation is needed to make profits, for-profit organizations need to innovate in order to make profits. (Baumgartner, 2015).. 2.

(12) “Doing well” means that for-profits mostly create economic value, in opposition with social or environmental value. Consider for example Walmart as an employer. Walmart is a for-profit organization and its primary purpose is to create economic value, but Walmart also creates social value by employing people (Bonini and Emerson, 2005).. For-profit organizations are now integrating the principle of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) more and more into their business model in order to generate more social value (Levick,. 政治大 could be defined as the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society (Europa.eu, 立. 2012). Many definitions of CSR exist. Although there is no one-fits-all definition of CSR, CSR. ‧ 國. 學. 2011). However, since the return on investment of CSR is hard to prove because of the lack of data, most companies treat CSR like an add-on and not as truly integrated to their core business. er. io. sit. Nat. Social enterprises create blended value. y. ‧. strategy (Rodgers, 2013).. al. Actually, all organizations create a blend of economic, social and environmental value.. n. v i n Generally for-profit companies C under-perform a social and environmental basis while h e n g c on hi U non-profit organizations under-perform on an economic basis (Emerson, 2000).. By following a Triple Bottom Line, social enterprises aim at being profitable through social wealth creation and carrying environmentally responsible operations (Spreckley, 2015). Therefore, social enterprises create blended value.. 3.

(13) 政治大. 立. Figure 1: Blended Value. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2. Definitions of Social Enterprises. ‧. A new kind of economy has been growing: the social economy. Social economy combines two. sit. y. Nat. concepts that are often opposed: making profits and doing good for the society. Social. io. al. er. enterprises are an important group of fast-growing social economy enterprises. Although there. v. n. is no single legal form for social enterprises, social enterprise can be considered as such when. Ch. the following aspects are covered: . engchi. i n U. The social objective of the common good is the purpose of the commercial activity (often in the form of a high level of social innovation);. . The profits generated are mainly reinvested for the purposes of achieving this social objective;. . The organizational system reflects the enterprise’s purpose while focusing on social justice.. (Ec.europa.eu, 2016).. 4.

(14) Social enterprises are known to follow the Triple Bottom Line of profitability, social wealth creation and environmentally responsible operations. The term Triple Bottom Line has been introduced by John Elkington in 1994, and has been transcribed by United Nations into 3 Ps: People, Profit and Planet (Spreckley, 2015).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 er. io. sit. y. Nat. n. a l Figure 2: Triple Bottom Line v i n Ch By nature, social enterprises are sustainable. e n g cBecause h i U customers, investors, banks, public authorities, want to do business with sustainable businesses, social enterprises are considered as good businesses, as long as they are transparent and can prove their performance against the Triple Bottom Line (Spreckley, 2015).. To put it in a nutshell, social enterprises combine the best of both the for-profit and non-profit sectors and are considered by many as the “NGOs 2.0”. Thanks to ground-breaking ideas and well-rounded business plans, social enterprises generate sustainable income through social wealth creation and environmentally responsible operations.. 5.

(15) 2.3. Examples of Social Enterprises The Grameen Bank is social enterprise. As a matter of fact, the Grameen Bank’s purpose is to reduce the poverty rate in Bangladesh, it is a social purpose. It does so by providing credit to the poorest in Bangladesh without any collateral. 97% of the borrowers are women and interest rates go from 20% to as low as 0%, depending on the type of loan (Grameen Bank - Bank For Small Business, 2016). By charging interest rates to the borrower, the Grameen Bank is able to. 政治大. generate economic revenues, hence to create economic value and to sustain economically.. 立. Toms is a social enterprise which embodies the concept of “One for One”. “One for One”. ‧ 國. 學. means that for every product purchased, Toms will help a person in need. For instance, for each pair of shoes purchased, Toms will give a new pair of shoes for a child in need. For each. ‧. eyewear purchased, Toms will contribute to restore the sight of a person in need. For each bag. y. Nat. sit. purchased, Toms will ensure a safe birth for a mother and baby in need (Toms.com, 2016).. al. n. items.. er. io. Therefore, Toms has a social purpose, but is also economically sustainable thanks to the sales of. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.4. Development of Social Enterprises. Social enterprises and social entrepreneurs have existed for many centuries. However, the terms “social enterprise” and “social entrepreneurs” have been introduced when Bill Drayton founded Ashoka (the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide) in 1981. Ever since then, the terms have grown increasingly popular (Poon, 2011).. Social enterprises have emerged and developed differently in different regions of the world. Social enterprises can be clustered in two main camps: the market-based form of social. 6.

(16) enterprises and the hybrid-based form of social enterprises (Poon, 2011).. Market-based social enterprises have developed mostly because of the withdrawal of governments’ funding for social activities and the emergence of private foundations funding NGOs and other social initiatives. Market-based social enterprises can be found mostly in North America and Africa (Poon, 2011).. Hybrid-based social enterprises developed because poor economic and political conditions led. 政治大. to an increase in social issues, especially increased unemployment. Social enterprises saw an. 立. opportunity to solve these social issues and governments supported the initiatives, as they saw. ‧ 國. 學. in social enterprises a solution in problems they were not able to solve. Hybrid-based social enterprises can be found mostly in Europe and Latin America (Poon, 2011).. ‧ sit. y. Nat. Because social enterprises have different legal forms and various objectives, reliable data is. io. al. er. hard to come across. Likewise, because of the relatively recent introduction of the term, many. n. organizations function as social enterprises but do not recognize themselves as one yet (Ec.europa.eu, 2016).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.5. Who Social Entrepreneurs are Social enterprises are created by social entrepreneurs. Bill Drayton, one of the fathers of social entrepreneurship and founder of Ashoka, stated: “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry”. Thus, one may think that social entrepreneurs are unreasonable, and one may be right. Quoting George B. Shaw, the Irish Nobel-prize winner for literature, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to. 7.

(17) himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Social entrepreneurs are game changers for they do not take the world as it currently is and are changing the system as a whole. They are widely ambitious and most of them have been called “crazy” at various points of their lives (Elkington, 2008). While considering them as “insanely ambitious”, Elkington (2008) argues that social entrepreneurs are not patient, want to drive change and would not take no for an answer.. 政治大. However, Elkington insists that social entrepreneurs do it because they are sincerely trying to help people and the world.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Actually, social entrepreneurs go into business because they are driven by emotion. It does not sound like the typical business pitch that venture capitalists want to hear. However, venture. ‧. capitalists actually respond well to people with real passion. The real difference with. y. Nat. sit. conventional entrepreneurs is that social entrepreneurs are engaged in a different set of. n. al. er. io. challenges, they are not driven by money or competition, but rather by the idea of a better world.. i n U. v. In the case of social entrepreneurs, profit is not just a financial profit, but rather a blended value.. Ch. engchi. For instance, in addition to providing money for its borrowers, Yunus’ micro-lending institution Grameen Bank also increases its borrowers’ self-confidence through entrepreneurship, new connections within the bank’s network, etc.. 2.6. Challenges faced by Social Enterprises Social enterprises face capital-related issues as they do not fit the traditional financing framework. In their quest of blended value creation, social entrepreneurs struggle with inefficient financial markets characterized, among others, by high transaction costs, lack of market responsiveness or lack of adequate information flow (Emerson, 2003). 8.

(18) Social enterprises also need appropriate measurement and performance metrics for the blended value they create. Such tools are being developed currently such as IRIS, a catalog of generally-accepted performance metrics for impact investing developed by the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN). However, there is no tool of reference which determines the data or indices to track (Emerson, 2003). Without appropriate measurement and performance metrics, social enterprises are not able communicate the value created objectively, which makes it hard to communicate with stakeholders such as investors or donors (Douglas, n.d.).. 政治大 Governments’ regulations, policies or tax codes do not have significant impact in assisting 立. ‧ 國. 學. social enterprises creating blended value (Emerson, 2003).. While essential, it is difficult for social entrepreneurs to remain true to their mission on the. ‧. long-term. Social entrepreneurs may be tempted to fight fires and not focus on the long-term. y. Nat. sit. goal (Douglas, n.d.). Likewise, because of ever-changing multi-dimensional environments,. er. io. resilience can be hard to reinforce.. n. al. i n C 2.7. Support Available for Social h e nEntrepreneurs gchi U. v. With increasing amount of research and more accurate tools, social entrepreneurs can also rely on the support of wealthy people and foundations. For instance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently took a $52 million stake in equity in CureVac, a medical social enterprise (Field, 2015). Each year, the Jeff Skoll Foundation awards with $1.25 million social entrepreneurs whose significant impact has already been proven (Skoll.org, 2015). Ashoka provides start-up financing, professional services and network connections for social entrepreneurs dedicated to changing the world (Ashoka.org, 2016).. 9.

(19) 2.8. Hult Prize History, Mission and Overview The Hult Prize is a non-profit organization dedicated to launching “the next wave of social entrepreneurs”. Around 20,000 teams from global universities compete each year to get funded. The Hult Prize was founded by Ahmad Ashkar in 2009, a former student of the Hult International Business School who is now CEO of the organization. The Clinton Global. 政治大. Initiative (CGI), established by former US President Bill Clinton, partners with the Hult Prize. 立. (Hultprize.org, 2015).. ‧ 國. 學. The teams competing in the Hult Prize tackle a different issue each year. Education, clean water crisis, energy poverty and global food crisis are such themes debated among teams. The 2015. ‧. challenge was about early childhood education in urban slums (Hultprize.org, 2015).. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 2015 Competition Overview. i n U. v. Teams of three to five students can apply and the pitch time limit is eight minutes.. Ch. engchi. The 2015 Hult Prize challenge of “Early childhood education in urban slums” was announced on 2014, September 24th. Over 22,000 teams registered for the 2015 edition.. The first round of competition is either a local round which takes place in universities or an online round.. If their university hosts a local round of competition, then students can form a team and compete among other teams from their university. The winning team from each university gets a ticket to the regional round of competition. Non-winning teams or non-competing teams can. 10.

(20) apply online. If the projects are selected by the Hult Prize, then these teams can also access the regional round. For the 2015 edition, everything happened between 2014, October 31st and 2014, December 21st.. There are five regional rounds of competition, each taking place on a different campus of the Hult International Business School (Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai or Shanghai). Only one winning team is elected from each regional round to access the final round of competition.. 政治大. For the 2015 edition, regional rounds were held on 2015, March 13th and 14th.. 立. Non-winning teams from the regional rounds still have a chance to access the Hult Prize final. ‧ 國. 學. through an online round. Indeed, one ticket is awarded to the team which runs the best crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The Hult Prize elects the winning team based on four. ‧. criteria: total dollars donated, number of donations, unique donors, social media engagement.. Nat. er. io. sit. y. For the 2015 edition, the online round happened between 2015, March 16th and May 8th.. al. The winning teams from the regional rounds as well as the online round winner participate in a. n. v i n C h in Boston, especially seven-week long accelerator program e n g c h i U tailored for social entrepreneurs.. During the Hult Prize accelerator, the finalist teams live in the same residence for six weeks and will develop their respective concepts with professional mentors. For the 2015 edition, the Hult Prize accelerator took place between 2015, June 30th and 2015, August 15th.. After the accelerator program, teams will meet again in New York for the Hult Prize final. The Hult Prize final takes place during the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting. Teams pitch for eight minutes in front of eminent judges. For the 2015 edition, Hult Prize judges were Julia Gillard (former Prime Minister of Australia), Mo Ibrahim (founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation), Charles Kane (chairman of One Laptop per Child) and Muhammad Yunus (Nobel 11.

(21) Peace Prize laureate and found of the Grameen Bank). In 2015, the Hult Prize final took place on 2015, September 26th.. The winning team is awarded by US$1 million in seed funding, donated by Betil Hult, a Swedish self-made entrepreneur billionaire, as well as a one-year free membership to the Clinton Global Initiative. The Hult Prize accelerator provides continued support, mentorship and advisory to the winning team, while the winning team has to submit semi-annual reports to the Hult Prize.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 12. i n U. v.

(22) 3. Research Methodology This case study aims at understanding clearly what were the success factors of IMPCT, the 2015 Hult Prize winning team. The data needed to conduct the case study properly was solely qualitative data.. 3.1. Secondary Data Collection. 治政大 from Andres Escobar’s IMPCT Before collected primary data, secondary data was collected 立. business plan as his final thesis required for graduating from the International-MBA program at. ‧ 國. 學. National Chengchi University. Videos such as IMPCT’s Indiegogo campaign video or the Hult. used.. ‧. Prize final video were also watched. Other sources of information from the Internet were also. sit. y. Nat. er. io. 3.2. Primary Data Collection. al. n. v i n The purpose of the data collection C hwas to enable theUresearcher to get a general insight as engchi. accurate as possible. The desirable outcome of the data collection was to get relevant. information that would enable the interviewer understand IMPCT key success factors. The undesirable outcome was to get irrelevant information that would distract the interviewer from key information.. Semi-structured Interviews Semi-structured interviews allow interviewers to prepare questions ahead of time while allowing the interviewees to express their views in their own terms (Qualres.org, 2008).. 13.

(23) Because the interviewer wanted to get insights as deep as possible while directing the interviews towards the needs of the project, the interviews were semi-structured and open-ended questions were mostly asked, as reflected in the interview guides (Appendix A & B).. In order to get a holistic insight, the interviews were realized individually in a private space. All of the interviews were carried-out in person but one, which was carried-out through the phone.. 政治大. Every interview was recorded with the agreement of every respondent in order to facilitate the. 立. 學. ‧ 國. transcription process.. Open-ended Questionnaires. ‧. When panel members could not be interviewed for practical reasons, open-ended. sit. y. Nat. questionnaires would be sent via e-mail. Open-ended questionnaires enable respondents to. io. enable the interviewer to clarify the respondents’ answers.. n. al. Ch. engchi. er. provide qualitative data using personal wordings. However, open-ended questionnaires do not. i n U. v. Open-ended questionnaire guide was developed after the interview guide and included solely open-ended questions (Appendix C).. The responses gathered via open-ended questionnaires were sent via personal voice messages and then transcribed into a Microsoft Word document.. Panel Presentation The following table summarizes the names and positions of the panel and specifies the date, duration and type of data collection.. 14.

(24) Table 1: Panel Presentation. Name. Date of data. Duration of. Type of data. collection. interviews. collection. 2016/4/14 and. 1 hour 38. Semi-structured. 2016/4/18. minutes. interview. 1 hour 28. Semi-structured. minutes. interview. Position. Taylor Scobbie. IMPCT CEO. IMPCT COO An-nung Chen. 2016/4/14 Taiwan. 政治大 1 hour 10 2016/4/18. Juan-Diego. IMPCT. Prudot. Chairman. 立. minutes. Semi-structured interview. ‧ 國. 學. 1 hour 10 2016/4/26 and. minutes. Open-ended. Latin America. 2016/5/1. (voice. questionnaire. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. messages). Taipei Angels Ryan Yang. ‧. IMPCT COO. Andres Escobar. Ch. Chairman. 2016/5/24. engchi. i v minutes 13 n U. Semi-structured interview (phone interview). 3.3. Data Analysis The data collected from interviews and questionnaires was transcribed and analyzed on NVivo 11. Nvivo 11 is a software for organizing qualitative data. NVivo 11 is useful when dealing with qualitative data because it allows the researcher to code text from multiple documents such as interviews or open-ended questionnaires on a single document. Coding text can be defined as. 15.

(25) identifying recurrent themes in key words, sentences or paragraphs. The text coded is called a node. A node is defined as a collection of references about a specific theme, place, person or other area of interest. Several children nodes can be aggregated in one parent node. (Help-nv10.qsrinternational.com, n.d.).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 16. i n U. v.

(26) 4. The IMPCT Story Forming the IMPCT team It is in September 2013, within the walls of the Commerce Building of National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei, Taiwan, that the four IMPCT co-founders met. An-nung Chen, Andres Escobar, Juan-Diego Prudot and Taylor Scobbie all used to be International MBA. 政治大. (IMBA) students of the Taiwanese institution.. 立. An-nung Chen (30) is both the only female and the only Taiwanese member of the IMPCT team.. ‧ 國. 學. She has multiple degrees, including an MFA obtained in San Francisco. When she registered in NCCU’s IMBA program, Chen had been working for three years in the food industry as the. ‧. COO of her family-owned business. She was well-paid and a promising professional career was. Nat. sit. y. awaiting her. As a matter of fact, the food industry was growing and Chen was the one. n. al. er. io. designated to take over the family business once her father retired. This is the reason why Chen. v. registered for NCCU’s IMBA program in 2013. When she joined IMPCT, Chen was still. Ch. engchi. working full-time for her family-business.. i n U. Andres Escobar (30) is originally from El Salvador and has a diverse background. After graduating high school in El Salvador, Escobar studied hotel management in Argentina but he did not like it and quit. Then he studied business as his undergrad in France and in Louisiana, USA. Escobar came back to El Salvador and worked in the manufacturing industry for two years. He didn’t like it and switched to work in the telecom industry, for which he was sent to work to Senegal where he stayed during one year. Then the IMBA opportunity in Taiwan showed-up in 2013 and Escobar took it.. 17.

(27) Juan-Diego Prudot (30) is originally from Honduras. He used to occupy a software engineer manager position in his family-owned business, in Honduras. Like Chen, Prudot was designated to take over the family-business after his parents retired. When the IMBA opportunity showed-up in 2013, Prudot’s plan was to go to Taiwan and come back to manage the family business.. Taylor Scobbie (30) is originally from Canada and has degrees in both business and philosophy.. 政治大. Before joining the IMBA program at NCCU, Scobbie used to work as a business consultant in. 立. Canada.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 3: The IMPCT Team (From left to right: Prudot, Chen, Escobar, Scobbie). 18.

(28) Although the four co-founders met during their first year of IMBA in 2013, it is during the fall of 2014 that the IMPTC team was formed. Prudot, who always wanted to participate in a business case competition, initiated the whole project by selecting the competition and by forming the team. When researching business case competition, the Hult Prize stood-up for Prudot who was attracted by the focus on social enterprises, the prize of one million dollars and the opportunity of meeting former USA President Bill Clinton. The previous year, a team from NCCU had already made it to the Hult Prize’s regional round, in Dubai.. 政治大 It was a clear choice for Prudot to sign-up for the Hult Prize. Prudot knew that he could provide 立. ‧ 國. 學. for technological skills but obviously, he needed a team. Prudot exactly knew who he wanted in his team and already pictured how all the teammates could get along in their different skill sets.. ‧. Since he used to hold a managing position in his family business, Prudot developed a sense of. y. sit. io. n. al. er. expectations.. Nat. feeling people and learned how to work with people, understand their motivations and. i n U. v. Prudot firstly reached out to Escobar, who was his roommate and good friend. During the first. Ch. engchi. year of IMBA, they worked on a few group projects together, and Escobar had always made great presentations. He was known for his designing and presenting skills among his classmates. Escobar immediately accepted Prudot’s invitation. For him, opportunities to travel and to meet people were great rewards.. Prudot wanted Scobbie in his team for his strength in finance. Although Prudot had never worked with him, Scobbie was very outspoken during classes and was known for his financial skills. At first, Scobbie did not seem very motivated to join Prudot’s team. He gave Prudot excuses like the project would take too much time from him. Prudot reassured Scobbie and told. 19.

(29) him it would only be a couple of weeks of work. Scobbie finally gave-in and told Prudot that if he wanted him, he would help him. It was a requirement by the Hult Prize to have at least one local student from the team’s school’s country. Therefore, Prudot needed a Taiwanese person to join his team. Once again, Prudot knew exactly who he wanted to recruit. Prudot and Chen used to talk about their respective family businesses and Prudot sensed that she was able to work with people, which he considers. 政治大 recruiting Chen, Prudot’s team would get a female perspective; not for the sake of being diverse 立. as one of the main challenges in any company. In addition to getting a Taiwanese perspective by. ‧ 國. 學. but because diversity actually brings benefits. Chen who was working full-time in addition to her studies welcomed this opportunity with open arms. Her life was too stable for her and the. er. io. Hult Prize’s local round at NCCU. n. al. Ch. sit. Nat. Now that he had his team formed, Prudot had to make it work.. y. ‧. Hult Prize opportunity sounded exciting.. engchi. i n U. v. The 2015 theme of the Hult Prize was “Early Childhood Education in the Urban Slum and beyond”. The challenge was to provide quality early education to ten million children under age six in urban slums by 2020.. None of the team members had experience in education, but they had to come-up with an idea. The team chose Roots as its name and started to research on the topic. The first assumption that Roots came-up with is that the best way to educate kids is in schools. After further research, Roots found-out that revenues are a problem for schools. Hence, Root’s idea was to build sustainable schools. Eventually, Roots came-out with the concept of building schools in El. 20.

(30) Salvador with a special curriculum while letting schools be Wi-Fi hubs for telecom companies so they could sell the W-Fi to the surrounding communities. Prudot, who had made the team come together, had already worked on similar projects in Honduras and initiated the idea. The Hult Prize at NCCU took place on December 6th. Among eighteen teams, four teams made it to the final round, where twelve academic and corporate judges were responsible for electing the winning team. The academic judges were professors at NCCU and the corporate judges. 政治大. were holding managerial positions in international groups such as BCG, Citigroup, HPMG or. 立. Sercomm Corp.. ‧ 國. 學. The competition was fierce but Roots made it to the final and had to present in front of the twelve judges. One of Roots’ competitors called Sprout stood-up from the others. Team. ‧. Sprout’s idea was based on vermicomposting and had very ambitious objectives. Team Roots. Nat. sit. y. was so impressed by team Sprout’s presentation that some of Roots team members even. er. io. believed that Sprout was going to win.. al. n. v i n C h skills and a U However, thanks to great communication e n g c h i convincing presentation delivery style, Roots stood-up from the competition and convinced the judges to elect the team as the Hult Prize at NCCU winning team.. Although Roots obtained its ticket for the Hult Prize regional round in Dubai, Roots wanted to improve its social business model. There was still work to be done.. Getting ready for Dubai. When Roots was elected as the Hult Prize at NCCU winning team, one of the academic judges. 21.

(31) named Chester Ho came-up to offer his help to Roots. In addition of being part of NCCU academic team, Ho was the chairman of the Taipei Angels, a large Taiwanese angel investment group. Team Roots immediately accepted Ho’s invitation to the angel group’s office. All along the Hult Prize journey, the Taipei Angels acted as mentors to the team, providing them with feedback and expertise in all business areas. Indeed, the Taipei Angels count over eighty members with different backgrounds and specialties.. 政治大 course on social enterprises. Actually, Roots’ initial social business model came from one of 立 Roots was also inspired by the classes its members took, especially professor Sandra Liu’s. ‧ 國. 學. professor Liu’s classes.. Thanks to ICDF, the organization which provided a scholarship to Escobar and Prudot for their. ‧. IMBA studies, Roots reached-out to the Taiwanese Ministry of Education, which gave the team. y. Nat. sit. advice for the curriculum it was trying to develop. In addition to expertise, the Ministry of. er. io. Education provided Roots with enough money to buy the flight tickets to Dubai.. al. n. v i n C hof competition in UDubai, Escobar went back home to El Before the Hult Prize reginal round engchi Salvador for the winter break. Escobar took advantage of his time in El Salvador to go on a research trip to a far-away community called La Cuchilla. Escobar could not go there by himself, it was too dangerous. With the help of a local NGO called Fusal, Escobar went five times to La Cuchilla and witnessed the actual living conditions of the people living in the community. During his multiple trips to La Cuchilla, Escobar took pictures, interviewed some of the mothers living in the community and did short questionnaires.. Upon his return to Taiwan, Escobar showed to his teammates the pictures that he had taken and the data that he had gathered. Chen and Scobbie, who had never been to an urban slum before, 22.

(32) realized better the extent of the issues encountered in urban slums. The whole team realized that the problem it was trying to solve was more complex than what was assumed. Actually, most of the communities living in urban slums do not even have electricity. Therefore, the Wi-Fi idea was abandoned and Roots started to focus more on the financing part of building schools, capital being a huge problem for urban slums communities.. After many hours of brainstorming in NCCU meeting rooms, Roots firstly came-up with the. 政治大 schools. The capital problem would be overcome and the schools could get revenues from 立. idea of acting as a micro-lending institution so that communities could buy Roots franchise. ‧ 國. 學. tuition. However, this idea changed after many other hours of brainstorming. Roots thought that instead of acting as a micro-lending institution, Roots could connect people wanting to buy. ‧. schools with lenders through a Roots platform.. y. Nat. sit. One week before going to Dubai, Scobbie realized that his passport had less than six months. n. al. er. io. before it expires, which meant that he could not go to Dubai. It was a bad hit for the team.. i n U. v. Indeed, Scobbie is very convincing in the pitches he gives and the questions he answers. After. Ch. engchi. weeks of preparation, Roots had to change its plan. In order to handle the crisis, IMPCT went to the Taipei Angels’ office to ask for guidance and came out with a plan of action. Instead of Prudot and Scobbie giving the pitch, it would be Prudot and Escobar. Although the latter has good public-speaking skills, it takes time for him to learn a new pitch. Scobbie and Escobar spent time together re-writing the script in order to adapt it to Escobar’s style and facilitate the pitch learning process. Prudot, Chen and Escobar got to Dubai on March 11th, two and a half days before the regional round kicks-off, where fifty-eight teams from the world’s top universities would be competing. 23.

(33) fiercely. Some of the teams were made out of PhD students, some others advised by consultants, and everybody was very well dressed. It was an intense environment.. The only thing that Roots team members saw from Dubai was a sign on the road from the airport to the hotel, saying “The answer is you”. Convinced that they were the answer to the Hult Prize’s challenge, Prudot, Escobar and Chen spent two and a half days locked in their hotel room to practice their pitch. After Scobbie’s administrative issue, there was no time to lose.. 政治大. In order to be the most prepared, they improvised a theater in their hotel room and inflated. 立. balloons with angry faces drawn on them, so they seemed like angry or confused judges. Chen. ‧ 國. 學. would also jump out of nowhere to distract Prudot and Escobar. Everything was done in order to get ready for the unexpected.. ‧. sit. y. Nat. March 14th, was the day that Roots had to present. Instead of rehearsing for the last moments. io. er. available, Prudot suggested to his teammates to stop practicing. He was afraid that more. al. practice would get them confused. So instead of practicing again, the team played some music. n. v i n and started to dance in their hotelC room released all the negative pressure. h eand ngchi U. The first presentation took place in the morning. A video including the media recorded by Escobar during his research trip was supposed to be played at the beginning of the presentation. Unfortunately, an informatics problem played tricks on Roots, who had to present without the video. Roots’ presentation still made a great impression on the Hult Prize’s judges who picked Roots among other teams to answer additional questions. Prudot took advantage of the situation and convinced the judges to let him play the video, although he was not allowed to play any media. 24.

(34) content. While waiting for the judges’ selection, Chen kept updating Scobbie, who was still in Taipei. Scobbie was sad not to be able to help his team. The only way he could think of supporting his team despite the distance was to wear the suit that he was supposed to wear on that day, made out of the same fabric as his teammates’ attire.. The judges finally downsized their selection from fifty-eight to six teams, including Roots. The. 政治大. six selected teams would present again on the evening of the same day, in front of all of the. 立. seventeen judges and all of the other teams.. ‧ 國. 學. The Hult Prize judges all held executive positions in companies such as Booz & Co., Philips,. ‧. McKinsey, Natixis and others.. y. Nat. sit. After Roots’ presentation, the theater was buzzing with excitement. While waiting for the. n. al. er. io. judges’ delivery, many teams came-up to Roots telling them how much they loved their. i n U. v. presentation. Actually, before going to Dubai, Escobar and Prudot had promised themselves. Ch. engchi. that they would try to make as many friends as possible throughout their journey. It is no wonder that Roots received so much benevolent support.. With so much support, Roots was confident about its chances to win the regional round. However, it is the Attollo team from the University of Toronto who won the first place with the idea of talking stickers as a way to close children’s word gap. Attollo already had pre-orders placed for their products, which is what made the difference. Roots came-in second of the competition, so close from a ticket in the Hult Prize’s final. During. 25.

(35) the after party, Roots asked each and every judge why they did not win and how they could enhance their social business model. The judges gave the team a lot of good feedback and encouraged Roots to pursue its effort.. Crowdfunding of the IMPCT project It was a mixed feeling of sadness and motivation upon the team’s reunion in Taipei. Sadness because the team was so close from getting its ticket for the Hult Prize final, and motivation. 政治大. because there was the online round opportunity.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. All the support and positive feedback that Roots got in Dubai was determinant in continuing the adventure. The team members started to realize two things. Firstly, that early childhood in. sit. y. Nat. solving this issue.. ‧. urban slums is a crucial issue in the world. Secondly, that they have a true potential to help. n. al. er. io. The team changed its branding and model when it started the online round. The team was not. i n U. v. called Roots anymore, but IMPCT. The new model consisted in having people co-owning a. Ch. engchi. school through micro-equity. A member of the local community would run the school and the capital would come from people who would invest on entrepreneurs through the IMPCT platform. Depending on the success of the entrepreneur, the investor would receive a share of profits proportional to his or her investment and would invest in other IMPCT projects thanks to the money received.. The new micro-equity model idea came to Scobbie when he was taking a shower. On the next day, he talked about his idea to his teammates. At first, his teammates did not believe in his idea. However, Scobbie does not take no for an answer and argued with it enough that his team. 26.

(36) adopted his idea as the new model.. None of the team members had any experience in crowdfunding. Therefore, the first thing IMPCT did was to research successful Indiegogo campaigns and analyze what made them successful. The Hult Prize helped in providing the competing teams with a handout about successful crowdfunding campaign. Following the research, each team member contacted personally all the people he or she knew two weeks before the launch of the campaign in order. 政治大 money. The team knew that if a large amount of money was raised on the launch of their 立 to let them know about the upcoming launch of the crowdfunding campaign and asking for. ‧ 國. 學. campaign, the project would get featured.. All the contacting was done in a personal fashion, via personal messages, personal phone calls. ‧. or one-on-one discussions. Personalizing the message was key for committing people. Escobar. y. Nat. sit. was the one who got the most donations from its network. He would contact dozens of people. n. al. er. io. every day trying to remember something about the person he was contacting and asking for. i n U. v. only one dollar. Some of them did donate only US$1, but the others donated more, sometimes even US$500.. Ch. engchi. Escobar also did all the arts of the crowdfunding campaign, including the logo, all the charts and videos. Since he is a boy, Escobar knows how to handle basic informatics programs, such as Microsoft Paint. Escobar did many of the campaign designs using Microsoft Paint. He also used more advanced programs like Corel Paint Shop Pro, but did not know how to use Photoshop, which is considered as the best design software. For the video editing, Escobar did it himself too, although he was not experienced in the matter. Escobar thought that by hiring a designer, the team would not only spend money, but also that the message would be lost. Therefore, the. 27.

(37) team spent a lot of time figuring out how to do the arts by themselves and convey the message they wanted. By having someone exterior from the team doing the arts, the team estimated that the risk of losing both the message and money was too high. However, IMPCT hired someone to do the voice of their campaign video through a website called Fiverr. IMPCT wrote the script and a brief. Because the cost was low, the risk was acceptable for the team.. Once the arts were ready and people were aware of the launch of the campaign, the Indiegogo. 政治大 was US$25,000. Perks were part of the Indiegogo campaign. Depending on the donation 立. could officially start accepting donations. The first donations goal set by IMPCT on Indiegogo. ‧ 國. 學. amount, a donor could get a personalized postcard, IMPCT t-shirts for the donor’s family or even having his or her name displayed on a plaque in an IMPCT school.. ‧. 30% of the US$25,000 objective was funded on the first day of the campaign launch, end the. Nat. sit. y. IMPCT project got featured on Indiegogo’s home page. This money mainly came from the. er. io. co-founders’ immediate network.. al. n. v i n Although IMPCT quickly startedC to h trend on Indiegogo,U e n g c h i there was no time to celebrate. IMPCT started its public relations campaign by making use of its network. Ann Li, a famous blogger and influencer, and friend of Escobar’s, was reached. With Li’s help, IMPCT launched a #IMPCT contest on social media. Anyone could participate in the contest. The contest consisted in people posting pictures including a #IMPCT on social media like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. The winners were the ones who had posted the best pictures and were awarded with school-related perks: Herschel backpacks for guys and Longchamp Paris tote bags for girls. Li also got IMPCT featured in a fashion show, enabling the team to reach out to even more people. On the NCCU campus, the team’s IMBA classmates volunteered to help selling t-shirts and. 28.

(38) raising awareness.. IMPCT went to more and more meetings with the Taipei Angels. The Taipei Angels helped IMPCT improving the way the message was communicated rather than the project itself. Actually, the model did not change much during the online round, but the communication of the IMPCT message improved. Every time IMPCT would go to the Taipei Angels, the team would practice its pitch in both English and Chinese languages in front of professionals, specialist in. 政治大. different areas and working in different industries.. 立. Sometimes, harsh feedback would be given. For instance, the CEO of Eureeca, a crowdfunding. ‧ 國. 學. platform, gave IMPCT technical advice, warning them that their project would be hard to implement. This harsh feedback did not discourage the team, but rather forced it to take more. ‧. technical aspects into consideration. Some of the key words used by Eureeca’s CEO were even. y. Nat. er. io. sit. used by the team in order to sound more professional and convincing when pitching.. al. Every given occasion to raise awareness was taken and IMPCT tried to convey the image that. n. v i n doing good was cool. After everyC presentation, h e n g cthehteam i Ustayed to have one-on-one discussions with the attendees and make them want to give to IMPCT. One evening, Chen pitched in front of Executive-MBA alumni, who were from her father’s network. Thousands of dollars were given during this one evening.. After every pitch, questions would rise from the audience and IMPCT would identify every question asked as points that were unclear in the presentation. The objective was to get to a stage where the message was clear and easily understood by people.. 29.

(39) IMPCT had to find out the cost of one “playcare” (how IMPCT calls its schools). Escobar reached out to one of his friends who was an architect. The architect came up with a list of materials and the costs associated with building the playcare. Thanks to the detailed list of materials and costs of construction, IMPCT was even more credible when pitching in front of potential investors.. NCCU professors started to be interested in IMPCT. As a matter of fact, the team members. 政治大 who was stealing time at her office to work on the IMPCT project). NCCU professors noticed 立. were spending the majority of their time at school (except for Chen who had a full-time job but. ‧ 國. 學. all the efforts that the team was putting into its project. Some professors decided spontaneously to involve their own network to help IMPCT reach out to more people and get more donations.. ‧. Referred by Shari Shang, an IMBA professor, the IMPCT team appeared on the front page of. sit. y. Nat. the United Daily newspaper, one of the most influential Taiwanese newspapers. The. io. al. er. newspaper’s CEO then made a donation to IMPCT and also made his employees donate. Since. n. then, IMPCT appeared in newspapers, radio talks and TV shows in Taiwan and El Salvador,. Ch. thanks to Chen’s and Escobar’s respective networks.. engchi. i n U. v. The end of the crowdfunding campaign was approaching and other competing teams were also doing well in their respective campaigns. Escobar, who has a great network in El Salvador, had reached out to local NGOs and obtained two donations of US$5,000 and US$10,000. However, he did not let his teammates know about it. He thought that if he told them, they might work less hard. He also thought that if the donations were given too early, it would push IMPCT’s competitors to reach out to more donors. The timing of the donations was important. By accounting the donations at the end of the campaign, he was sure that the competitors would not have time to put in the extra effort. 30.

(40) When the campaign ended, IMPCT had reached 227% of its initial goal, meaning that enough money to build the pilot playcare was collected.. One week before the online round winner was announced, the Hult Prize put a picture of one of IMPCT’s competitors as its Facebook profile picture. Since the Hult Prize used to have only previous winners as its Facebook profile picture, IMPCT co-founders were devastated as they thought they had lost, although the results were not officially announced yet. However, the team. 政治大. continued to be active on social media.. 立. One day, Scobbie was on his way to school and received a phone call from Boston, USA. It was. ‧ 國. 學. Ahmad Ashkar, the CEO of the Hult Prize. Ashkar told to Scobbie that IMPCT won the online round. Scobbie waited to reach school and when he saw his teammates, he took a sad face and. ‧. told them that he had received a phone call from Boston. As Scobbie took a sad face, his. y. Nat. n. al. Ch. The IMPCT project got more serious now that. engchi. er. io. had won, they were so happy that they could not believe it.. sit. teammates thought it was to announce the defeat to the team, but when Scobbie told them they. iv n the Ucrowdfunding. campaign turned-out. successfully and that the team accessed to the Hult Prize final. Prudot and Escobar knew that since they were from Central America, it was easier for them to commit to the project than for Chen and Scobbie, who did not have any attachment in Central America. Prudot and Escobar promised themselves that they would accept their responsibilities and carry-on the project no matter what happens. Chen was considering quitting her job since the online round started. Indeed, the online round was equivalent to a full-time marketing job, and Chen even stole hours from her actual job to work on the IMPCT project. After the team won the online round and was qualified for the Hult Prize final, she decided to quit her job and to commit to IMPCT.. 31.

(41) The Hult Prize Accelerator On the first time IMPCT met his mentor, the mentor noticed the use of wordings such as “I believe” or “we think”. According to him, things should be presented as factual in order to be persuasive. IMPCT members followed his advice and tried the method during the Friday pitches.. Every Friday, the teams would pitch in front of professionals, each time at a different venue,. 政治大. such as at Microsoft campus or Google office. During these presentations, IMPCT noticed that. 立. they would often get a feedback saying that their model sounded like two businesses: one. ‧ 國. 學. education business and one micro-investing platform. IMPCT also took into account the feedback and improved its pitch.. ‧. sit. y. Nat. Like during the online round, IMPCT’s model did not change much, but the way the message. io. n. al. er. was communicated did.. i n U. v. During the Accelerator, all the competing teams were living in the same building. Although. Ch. engchi. they were competitors, IMPCT was fair-plat with other teams and tried to make as many friends as possible.. Because Chen used to have a full-time job, it was the first time that the team got to spend so much time together with every team member focused on the project. All the time spent together enabled the team to learn how to communicate better and to have more chances for mingling. Mingling was important for the team to bond, to entertain good relationships and share crazy ideas that could eventually turn into realistic ideas.. 32.

(42) Team’s first time to El Salvador. Two weeks before the end of the Accelerator, Escobar had to go to El Salvador to supervise the construction of IMPCT’s first playcare. Right after the Accelerator ended, the three other co-founders flew to El Salvador. Escobar had already made contacts during the first research trip and was in his home-country. He was bearing most of the responsibilities. All the logistics depended on him. It was a stressful time for him. One day, he said to his teammates that he was. 政治大 thought about all the children who needed his help. He could not give-up now the team was so 立 not liking it anymore and thought about quitting. Escobar quickly came back to reason and. ‧ 國. 學. advanced.. It was the first time in Central America for Chen and Scobbie. They both realized that the. ‧. people who live there have similar needs than them, the same sets of problems but that, unlike. y. Nat. sit. them, they were born in an unsafe and poor environment. They realized that it was not by giving. n. al. er. io. them free clothes or handouts that they would be empowered to break out from the poverty. i n U. v. cycle. They also realized that the difference between failure and success is huge in urban slums,. Ch. engchi. and that people would do a lot to break out of the poverty circle and be successful. The whole IMPCT idea about empowering people took all its sense, they realized that they were impacting positively people’s lives.. Urban slums can be a dangerous place, but no one tried to hurt the IMPCT members because the community knew what the team was doing. The team even met local gangsters who put IMPCT under their protection because they knew IMPCT was doing good to their community.. It was important for IMPCT that every member had been to the field. Each member had to experience the living conditions of the people they were trying to impact in order to understand 33.

(43) better their problems and motivations and walk towards a common goal.. The Hult Prize final After spending one month in El Salvador building the playcare and making sure it was running, the whole team flew to New York City, where the Hult Prize final took place.. The team spent one week in New York City in order to adjust itself to the time zone and to. 政治大 other teams’ pitch. The team thought of many details. For instance, all the team wore suits from 立. rehearse before the final pitch. IMPCT wanted its pitch to be perfect and different from the. ‧ 國. 學. the exact same fabric so that they looked as a team. They thought about the way they were going to stand and sit, where their hands were going to be, where they were going to walk, etc.. ‧. During its presentation, IMPCT wanted to stand-out from the other teams, to be different and. y. Nat. sit. assume the differences. They thought that the other teams would include many images and text. n. al. er. io. in their presentation slides. IMPCT wanted to use simple graphs. The team also noticed that its. i n U. v. project would differentiate itself from the competition if it collaborated with mature enterprises.. Ch. engchi. Thanks to the help of some IMBA professors, Chen collected Letters of Intents (LOI) from CEOs from the professors’ network. The two major LOIs supports came from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer Company (TSMC) and Taipei 101. The LOIs showed all the support from business owners and CEOs about their intentions to involve their enterprises and employees in IMPCT’s social business activities. If IMPCT won the Hult Prize’s million-dollar award, the Taipei Angels and the Rotary Club in Taiwan promised to donate respectively US$500,000 and US$300,000 to start operations.. Like in Dubai, the team created a stage to rehearse on and inflated some balloons and drew. 34.

(44) angry faces on them. No matter how long each member’s part was going to last, they all would have to practice over and over.. The time was also important to get right. It required a lot of practice. For instance, Prudot recorded himself and walked in the streets of New York listening to his recording and talking at the same time.. Then came the D-Day. The Hult Prize final took place during the annual meeting of the Clinton. 政治大. Global Initiative. Before their pitch, the team was tensed and could not eat or drink anything of. 立. what was on their table. During their pitch, each member was really confident when talking. ‧ 國. 學. thanks to an extensive preparation. After Escobar showed a video of a drones flying over the playcare, Scobbie wanted to seem like he was impressed by how cool the video was, in order to. ‧. convey his emotion to the judges. He started his speech with a “Wow”, which was not part of. er. io. sit. y. Nat. the script.. al. Although the Q&As were unpredictable, the team handled them confidently. At each question. n. v i n C hask for a specificUslide to be displayed while Prudot or asked by the judges, Escobar would engchi. Scobbie answered the question. Each member knew exactly who should answer, depending on the topic of the question asked.. None of the IMPCT team members had regret after their presentation. They had done their very best and had raised enough money to continue its operations. Clinton finally announced the winner as the “online round winner”. The IMPCT team members did not realize instantaneously that it was them who had won. They all went on stage and greeted the judges. Prudot and Escobar’s families, who are from Latin America, also went on. 35.

(45) stage. Prudot’s mother even hugged Clinton. It was another happy day for IMPCT.. IMPCT Today IMPCT decided to be awarded the US$1 million in grant money, rather than all the money at once. In addition to the money, IMPCT also won reputation thanks to their victory in the Hult Prize. The Hult Prize is a big stamp of approval for social entrepreneurs.. 政治大 countries. Thanks to Techo’s size, it was relatively easy for IMPCT to open its brand new 立. IMPCT’s main partner is Techo, a building company operating in over twenty American. ‧ 國. 學. playcare in Honduras because IMPCT is still dealing with Techo.. Thanks to the money won in the Hult Prize, IMPCT now has the luxury of trying things that it. ‧. probably would not have tried without the million dollars. For instance, IMPCT is empowering. y. Nat. sit. the farmers from the communities within which it operates by transforming their raw products. er. io. into finished material like coffee or jam. The revenues would go directly to playcares funding.. al. n. v i n C h in Central America, Today, Escobar overviews operations e n g c h i U Chen in Taiwan, Prudot is working on the investment platform and Scobbie is doing the left-over tasks.. The main challenge that the team is facing now is distance from operations in Central America. The team uses tools such as Slack, Whatsapp or Skype to collaborate and communicate.. Another challenge faced by IMPCT is the implementation of their demand-dividend investment platform, the regulatory framework being so complex.. Recently, IMPCT encountered problems with one of its Salvadorian playcare. The teachers. 36.

(46) having a relatively good social position within the communities, jealousy arose and the teacher received death letters. IMPCT closed the playcare and thought of a new playcare model: the factory-based model (in contrast with the community-based model). The factory-based model consists in building playcares next to big factories such as maquilas in Central America (clothing factories where thousands of women are working). The factories would pay for IMPCT’s service, and the women working for the factory would leave their children to the playcare while they go to work.. 政治大 Throughout its journey, IMPCT has shown that anyone can dream big. What made IMPCT so 立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. successful? What can starting social entrepreneurs learn from IMPCT?. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 37. i n U. v.

(47) 5. IMPCT Key Success Factors Four clusters of key success factors were identified: . Team’s success factors. . Social business model’s success factors. . Network’s success factors. . Social business development’s success factors. 政治大. 立. The analysis aims at providing why the key success factors identified are considered as such. ‧ 國. 學. and how IMPCT managed to handle the success.. ‧. 5.1. Team’s Success Factors. y. Nat. er. io. sit. The team’s success factors have been clustered in three main parts including teamwork, dedication and resilience, all requiring a non-exhaustive set of attitudes, behaviors and. n. al. capabilities.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Why is it a Success Factor? The IMPCT team has been the basis for all the work done, leading to IMPCT being a successful starting social enterprise. The team has been responsible for developing its social business model, developing, committing and maintaining its network, as well as developing the social business.. 38.

(48) Teamwork Strategic Talent Management within a Diverse Team Challenges caused by diversity. IMPCT is a diverse team, team of people with different backgrounds, cultures and personalities. However, IMPCT got the best out of its four co-founders, each one of them bringing her or his set of talents to the team.. 立. 政治大. Diversity is a challenge for teams to manage. If well managed, diversity becomes an asset to. ‧ 國. 學. teams, especially teams of social entrepreneurs, who need innovative ideas to solve complex issues.. ‧ sit. y. Nat. The IMPCT is made of members with different backgrounds. It is exactly for the sake of. io. n. al. er. diversity that Prudot selected the other members when he first made the team.. i n U. v. IMPCT is not only made of people with different backgrounds, but also different personalities.. Ch. engchi. The different backgrounds, talents and personalities of the IMPCT team are what make IMPCT so unique. Even though diversity in background, talents and personalities made IMPCT’s strength, turning diversity into an asset took time. It can be explained by the teammates’ time of adaptation to others’ cultures. For example, Scobbie’s direct style of communication was perceived as too direct by his teammates, who come from a culture where indirect communication styles are more valued.. 39.

(49) “Latino people and Taiwanese people don't communicate directly. They have styles of communication which really values the way in which something is said and not saying certain things. I don't have that style at all. I'm very direct. Just the way I communicate is very North American.” – Scobbie “[…] sometimes [Scobbie] might be too straightforward and that's the time I have to jump-in or even [Prudot], and have a group discussion.” – Chen. 政治大. Likewise, Taiwanese may sound shyer to some. Therefore, while Escobar, Prudot and Scobbie. 立. 學. ‧ 國. were debating about some ideas at the beginning of the adventure, Chen would remain more quiet, keeping her opinion to herself.. ‧. “Taiwanese are more quiet, less likely to share anything. So it takes some time to accommodate. sit. y. Nat. and get everyone on the same page.” - Prudot. n. al. er. io. “A lot of times there were tensions, especially in the initial discussion and cooperation. […] I'm. i n U. v. the one that is always silent. I'm not a native speaker so I'm not really good at arguing and. Ch. engchi. defensive.” – Chen. Cultural misalignment was the toll to pay for IMPCT’s diversity. After the initial adaptation phase, IMPCT’s diversity became more of an asset to the team.. Diversity as an opportunity. The cultural differences were noticed as an asset to IMPCT especially during networking. In terms of network, Escobar and Chen are the ones who did the best jobs in El Salvador and Taiwan respectively. Their networking skills were sensed during the crowdfunding campaign,. 40.

新創社會企業成功關鍵要素研究 －以2015霍特獎得主個案為例 - 政大學術集成

新創社會企業成功關鍵要素研究－以2015霍特獎得主個案為例 - 政大學術集成