Being at the HELIX Spotlight event at Seneca in North Toronto on 20th August 2018 — honouring four of the already hundreds of young entrepreneurs the Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ARIE) Department of Seneca is supporting — brought me fond memories of the past.
I went back
in time to 1985 when my cousin Viren Perera, a friend Pradip Jayewardene and I
embarked on a journey to establish a pioneering solar energy business in Sri
Lanka – to manufacture and market solar home systems to rural homes who had no access
to the power grid.A short story of that is here - https://canadiansrilankanpartnerships.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/solar-energy-canada-helps-sri-lanka-make-history/
I had graduated
from Seneca's, Mechanical Engineering Technology – Nuclear Option program in
1983 and a part-time Business Administration Certificate in 1984 and Viren with a degree in Commerce from University of Toronto - we were intrigued and inspired by a novel by James Michener called The Drifters.
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| The Drifters - Viren and Lalith in Paris - 1984 |
The journey ended where we were born – in Sri Lanka - to an idea of a
solar powered water pump by a cousin Micheal Mustachi, which eventually led us to establish a business to
manufacture and market solar home systems for lighting and TV for rural
farmers.
Having had a
good foundation from Seneca and U of T, this venture ended up being our real education. Apart from building a business
idea from scratch, convincing the skeptics - and there were many – was a big challenge.
The other
tasks of doing market studies, raise financing for investment and working
capital, purchase the appropriate technology, establish the manufacturing
plant, nurturing a team and the organization to make solar photovoltaic (PV) modules
and balance of system, and the most difficult – to develop, market and sell the
systems gave us an experience of a lifetime, that has turned us into serial
entrepreneurs and educators.
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| Dr. Sudh Varma of TPK Solar manufacturing the first SUNTEC solar module in Sri Lanka - 1987 |
Perils of Entrepreneurship
We encountered many challenges and barriers along the way, including irate
politicians who opposed us taking their power away by offering their
constituency a choice, where they became independent of the electricity grid. Add to that, international coal and oil industry
lobbies, surprisingly, felt threatened by a new technology where the sun was the
fuel.
We were demonized
in the media and public platforms denigrating our pioneering efforts. They
asserted that we were fooling rural people into paying money for an
insignificant technology that will not serve their needs. A newspaper article titled “Solar Power is
for Lotus Eaters” cast aspersions that we were following a pipe dream and the smear campaign continued until we got to the root cause.
We diffused the detractors by making personal connections with them to share our vision, values and understand their needs.
We diffused the detractors by making personal connections with them to share our vision, values and understand their needs.
These lessons
were most invaluable as we had not realized the power of vested interests. No matter how effective an idea is when a new
technology or a product is introduced, the status quo, the existing people
invested in it always gets impacted and may resist.
Therefore,
we have to be aware of the big picture - understand the whole system and it's
impacts or get blindsided by them, no matter how irrational it may seem.
Taking these powers head on is like swimming against the current - one has to swim with it and patiently find ways out to connect with the detractors at a human level and appeal to their conscience. All this requires thoughtfulness, time and effort.
Taking these powers head on is like swimming against the current - one has to swim with it and patiently find ways out to connect with the detractors at a human level and appeal to their conscience. All this requires thoughtfulness, time and effort.
The Inspiring Young HELIXers
This is why
I was inspired by the four young entrepreneurs who were under the spotlight, as
they seem to be aware of all this. I
applaud their courage to throw themselves in the deep end
for a life of uncertainty – the excitement, enthusiasm and the passion was
palpable.
They are
also fortunate to have the safety-net of a home at Seneca's Applied Research,
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ARIE) Department and more remarkable as Director of Entrepreneurship, Chris Dudley explained that their
services were free to these young leaders.
The most
difficult part of being an entrepreneur with a new idea, as mentioned earlier,
are those naysayers – ‘it will never work’ brigade, who were playfully referred
to by the young HELIXers as ‘shooting the puppy’.
This is
especially a challenge when those who hold the purse strings, the investors and
bankers, are skeptical.
Support for Our Idea
We were fortunate to have some mentors and well-wishers to balance the naysayers. Among them were family, friends and few corporate leaders who gave us insights into business, organizations, leadership
and especially, emotional intelligence - the need to know and manage self that is essential for an entrepreneur.
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| Sir Arthur C Clarke visits the SUNTEC factory - 1988 |
It was fortuitous that we were accepted by a USAID sponsored Private Enterprise Promotions
Project, where Coopers & Lybrand firm of accountants from Washington DC, USA
and Colombo, Sri Lanka to conduct a market and pre-feasibility study. This would have normally cost US $ 40,000 in
1985, which we got for a mere application fee of US $ 200.
At the end
of their elaborate study in which we played an active role in, the Coopers &
Lybrand team’s Roger Manring, Michael Trevor and Thilan Wijesinghe invited us to their Colombo
office to inform that the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) was only 4% and
suggested we go back to Canada and get jobs.
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| Marketing SUNTEC in rural Sri Lanka |
We passionately believed
in this venture from making connections with our potential customers who were
suffering with kerosene lamps – children breathing fumes as they studied under them to the the tragedy of occasional accidental fires – our hearts were with them and we intuitively knew that a potential
business was there.
We also had
the vision that solar PV used mostly for extraterrestrial applications at the time to
power satellites, had an important role on this earth to make our world greener, not only for rural areas but as an alternative for thermal power generation as
a whole.
Therefore,
our vision and mission was clear as we pushed Manring and Trevor back when they
advised us to pack our bags.
The next
day, they called us back and handed us a freshly minted feasibility study and
pointed us the page where the revised IRR was now 16%.
That is when I realized that even finance is not an exact science. It all depends on the assumptions - the enthusiasm, the passion, the reason and logic we brought to this venture also counted for a few percentage points. In the revision, they also considered better, how a micro-finance program would expand the market with better affordability of the systems.
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| The Coopers & Lybrand study |
That is when I realized that even finance is not an exact science. It all depends on the assumptions - the enthusiasm, the passion, the reason and logic we brought to this venture also counted for a few percentage points. In the revision, they also considered better, how a micro-finance program would expand the market with better affordability of the systems.
We had to
fight for all this and the C & L market and pre-feasibility study gave us a
platform to raise $ 1 million through Sri Lankan development banks - true government owned development banks, which were established to foster
innovation and new business. Those banks
have since been privatized, hence totally profit oriented and risk averse,
which is now stifling new entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.
Transforming Canada’s
Entrepreneurship DNA
Canada’s young
entrepreneurs will also need such support and goodwill from venture capitalists,
investors, banks and mentors.
This is
important as Canada, being a traditional resource economy, does not have an
inherent culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in its DNA. According to the Conference Board of Canada,
Canadians are ambitious when it comes to entrepreneurship, yet that ambition is
not realized when it comes to actual enterprise creation.[i]
Karen Sievewright in a
Globe and Mail article writes;
What this means is we have not developed a
codified model to train, develop and nurture our entrepreneurial talent. We
simply don't have the innovation 'farm system' which can systematically lead
entrepreneurs to success.[ii]
That is what David Agnew, President of Seneca addressed in his
opening remarks where he articulated Seneca’s commitment to systematically bridge
this gap. Mr. Agnew, being there at the
event, signaled its commitment from the top.
Vanessa Williamson, Dean of Applied Research, Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (ARIE) and Chris Dudley, Director of Entrepreneurship went onto explain the HELIX process and philosophy designed to lead
entrepreneurs to success and to change Canada’s DNA.
They highlighted HELIX’s dedication to
developing the entrepreneurial mindset through sharing knowledge, mentorship sessions, workspace access to like-minded peer community and experiential
opportunities.
According to the website, HELIX focuses on two
important outcomes:
- The development and
launch of successful, scalable and sustainable, young entrepreneur-led
ventures.
- Nurturing the
entrepreneurial mind set to allow participants to become intrapreneurs and
innovate from within companies.
The process begins with
a series of four entrepreneurial workshops and sector specific support
activities provided free to any interested person starting from; ideation, Business
Model Canvas, customer validation, pitch development and it continues to
provide support as required.
The follow up support
includes; mentorship, introduction to seed funding, conducting experiential activities
such as Startup Weekend, providing incubator space and facilitating links to
the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Seneca is reaching
out to the wider community and participates in international events such as
the European Innovation Academy’s (EIA) summer program https://www.inacademy.eu/ for students bringing people together from 75 countries and
leading schools around the world.
The HELIX Spotlight
event featured four of those who attended the 3 week intensive program at EIA.
Each of them; Kim Ng, Stephen Bourne, Cliff Benson and Christian
Navarro had great
stories to narrate as they led 5 member interdisciplinary, multicultural teams at
the EIA. They spoke of how they worked together to come up with their innovative ideas to be presented to potential investors.
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| Seneca's Chris Dudley mediating the four Helixer's dialogue |
Inspiration, Investing and Sharing Risk
As a Seneca Alumni, I am inspired by this program, especially as the approach seems holistic and it is grounded on great values and principles, and mostly the process seems to have an open-hearted approach, as that is what is required to change the Canadian risk averse DNA, especially in the finance sector.
As a Seneca Alumni, I am inspired by this program, especially as the approach seems holistic and it is grounded on great values and principles, and mostly the process seems to have an open-hearted approach, as that is what is required to change the Canadian risk averse DNA, especially in the finance sector.
I was happy
to see Scotiabank sponsoring HELIX and a contingent of TD Bank representatives at
the HELIX Spotlight event. I trust that
they will not assess these new ventures on a set of tangible numbers alone, but
be open to a much broader vision for the future of Canada.
They
will have to also consider the entrepreneurs for their passion, enthusiasm,
fearlessness, talent, capability and a commitment to hard work, apart from
numbers. That means investors and banks
have to share in the risk and be willing to lose in the process too, as failure
is an inherent component of the entrepreneurial process. Learning through failure is the only way
Canada will change its DNA.
I am
confident from witnessing this event, the commitment of the Seneca team, and who
they had gathered for this spotlight event from the community and within – a
selection of alumni-entrepreneurs, the private sector, investors, banks,
non-profits and the government - the HELIX program is on the right path to
helping Canada foster its culture of entrepreneurship.
The multicultural participants in this program are also an opportunity for Canada to look well beyond North America, as especially Asia, Africa and South America offer vast markets as they grow and develop.
The multicultural participants in this program are also an opportunity for Canada to look well beyond North America, as especially Asia, Africa and South America offer vast markets as they grow and develop.
I wish the HELIX program much success and look forward to
playing a role to make Canada a leading nation for innovation and
entrepreneurs for the future.
[i]https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/innovation/ambition.aspx
[ii]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/how-canada-can-build-a-champion-entrepreneurial-culture/article30851167/
