Translator: Marco Gonzalez Reviewer: Antonio Aguilera
The next speaker is Francisco Suárez,
with the talk: "Entrepreneurship, a vehicle for sustainability".
Francisco Suarez has a PhD in Business Administration,
with a concentration in strategic management.
He is currently sustainability director at FEMSA
and an advisor for the UN Environment Program.
Please a round of applause for Francisco Suarez.
(Applause)
Good afternoon, thank you very much for your attention,
the invitation, Marco, and the organizing team.
It is a big effort to organize this event and I congratulate you.
I am Francisco Suarez, they already told you a little about me.
I am from Ensenada, Baja California.
I am glad to see friends from Ensenada here in Morelia.
There are two subjects that I am passionate about:
Entrepreneurship
- and I was a young entrepreneur, I started 30 years ago -
and sustainability.
And these are conduits - Entrepreneurship and sustainability - that I see
as examples of how we can solve problems in the world.
If we look at the world, there are very few entrepreneurs.
And if we close in a bit more,
in Latin America, in Mexico even in this hall,
if we take it as a reference, we have about 100 people here.
Out of these 100 people, next year only 12 are going to start a business.
And out of those 12 very few startups are going to survive,
very few businesses are going to stay alive.
This proves that entrepreneurs,
are few the ones who start a business.
And out of those who do it, very few do well in their business.
Now, sustainability, I think it is a very well known subject,
the planet is warming up, but what effect does it have on us?
If we consider only the next 10 to 20 years,
the temperature rising one or two degrees,
cities that are located on the coast, such as Ensenada,
like many other cities, from Miami to Boston, are going to be affected.
It is 100 million people around the world,
who will be affected only by the rising seas.
Additionally, the lack of water in the world.
And we are going to need even more by 2030 we are going to need 40% more water.
It is incredible, that we will be drowning,
and on the other side we will need more water.
Now, if we look at the year 2050,
25% of the species that inhabit the world will be gone.
So, we keep adding problem after problem,
if we don’t take on the different challenges we face at this moment.
Now, if we go into the social aspect,
We’ll be 1.4 billion more people of the 7 billion we already are.
That means 8.4 billion people,
that will need a lot more food.
Mexico will be an affected area.
Why? Because we are going to get hit by climate change.
Also, we’ll need more food and it will be more expensive,
from 70 to 90%.
Now, I didn’t want to just start talking about entrepreneurship,
without, defining what it is.
Something so simple, as to start with an idea and then transform it into action.
And sustainability, it is also simple to say but complicated to do.
How do we create economic, social and environmental value simultaneously?
If we map Mexico,
we, the people who are trying to support entrepreneurship, there are some of us,
universities, NGOs, governments, but we are just a few.
And it’s sad that we do not communicate with each other.
Also, entrepreneurs are coming out with products that have no market.
Here we see, how we can work to strengthen the entrepreneur.
I can’t talk about entrepreneurship without mentioning the digital revolution.
If we just consider, the telephone we have in our hands,
it is much more powerful in information,
than the ones the President of the United States had 15 years ago.
People in villages,
have more information than President Clinton did in his time.
If we look at Google cars, they are cars moving around in California.
They have driven more than a million miles, without accidents.
They are cars driven by robots or computers.
This is going to transform completely how we move people,
how we move goods, raw materials.
Now, computing processing-power doubles each year and a half,
every 18 months it is doubling.
Why do I say this? Why is it important for an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur that does not have in his hands the latest technology,
will not be an innovator.
An entrepreneur who is not an innovator will not be successful.
What we need is to make sure that the entrepreneur,
in Mexico and in the world, has the best resources,
the state of the art of technology for him to be an innovator.
The road of the entrepreneur I think we all know it.
An idea, turns to training, and then the idea turns into a marketable product.
Again, what we would like to do,
is how we help that 88% to launch their business,
the 12% that did it,
that they do a lot better with their idea.
And when they launch their businesses, provide for them a stronger ecosystem.
Now, if we talk about very successful entrepreneurs in the world,
we have, for instance, Terracycle.
This Canadian young man transformed an opportunity in garbage into a business.
Recycling products that nobody dared to do before,
solid waste, plastic, converting this into a business opportunity.
What can I say about Muhammad Yunus? A Nobel Laureate,
he has given micro-loans to women so that they can start a business.
These women, head of their homes, now bring resources into their homes.
This gentleman started this in his home country,
and he is already in 22 other countries.
Another example of how things are possible if we multiply our efforts.
An entrepreneur from Tijuana, very close to my hometown Ensenada, Jordi.
He is producing drones, he is selling them to NASA,
and to universities like Harvard.
But Jordi, where does he have his startup now? In San Diego.
What can we do to have a Mexican entrepreneur
stay in Mexico?
What do we do to have our Mexican talent,
make the ecosystem stronger here?
These are 3 different examples of people looking to make the world a better place.
And yes, it is possible.
We were talking a little about here, Michoacan, about Morelia.
We do find additional barriers,
additional barriers on the road of the entrepreneur.
There is public insecurity, and when you want to bring your product to the markets,
you can face a problem on the streets.
As interesting information, according to some statistics and studies,
it is very difficult for us Mexicans to agree on something.
We don’t work in teams.
So, just as we are such innovators,
when we organize a barbecue party with friends,
in 5 minutes, or a party,
why don’t we do this with entrepreneurship?
Why don’t we apply this Mexican resourcefulness on positive things?
And this wrong road that a young entrepreneur can take, the wrong road,
transform it into a social detonator, so he can start a business,
in favor of the environment and the world.
I was telling you that in Morelia, Baja California, Nuevo Leon,
Mexico City, it is difficult to start a business.
But we have cases, such as the ones here in Morelia,
these guys, their project is called “Que Limpio” .
They are bio-detergents made from tree leaves, and basically,
they are used to wash housewares, cars,
and they generate an income for them, and obviously for the project.
They are young people from here, Morelia.
“Ponte Trucha” another group of youngsters from Morelia.
They are making digital platforms,
to help local artisans, to market their products out of the state and the country.
"Pan Para Una Comunidad", these are young people from Monterrey Tech,
they are basically using their skills
to start projects in communities,
and help the community be more productive when they make bread,
they also bring marketing tools to help them sell their products.
These are three groups of youngsters, three projects from Morelia,
that are helping to change the business environment.
I am sorry, I have problems with technology today.
Now, how do I know the teams from Morelia that I mentioned before?
They are “Jovenes con Valor”, a project we have been working on,
already for three years here in Morelia.
We all joined together, Ashoka, many universities,
and we basically helped them to start with an idea
and transform it into a project.
We give them seed capital, we accompany them,
we already have 210 projects of this type in Mexico,
in Nuevo Leon, Veracruz, here in Morelia.
They are 210 projects and we are going for 520 more in 4 years.
We have just committed with Bill Clinton’s Organization,
The Clinton Global Initiative, to prove that it is possible.
It is possible, but on the other hand it is not enough.
We need to join together with many more, with government,
with NGOs, universities,
because to really achieve scale we need to join together.
Now you can ask yourselves "What can I do?"
You, entrepreneur, if you have an idea, invite another person,
if you have an idea, transform it into action.
You, as an academic, what can you do
to have the latest technology in your classroom
so that young students can turn an idea into a business plan?
It depends on you, as a mentor, to be able to work with young people.
You as a business person, you have a social mortgage,
a commitment to help others.
Open your doors, so that young people can sell their products, be a mentor.
You as a government official, state, local or federal,
open the doors as well, so that you can
buy products from a young entrepreneur or sell your products to them;
open your doors to offer financing.
You as an NGO, make sure that in your programs,
entrepreneurship is included, join our ecosystem.
You, as communication media, make sure to communicate
stories of successful entrepreneurship in social media.
It is the best marketing that we can have.
When media communicates the good stories.
Anyway, I could end here.
I could say, OK, we know what to do, we know each of us what we have to do.
But we are still 88% of people that didn't take the leap.
What can we do to inspire those 88 to take the leap?
And taking as a reference the initial map,
we, as parents, what can we do to have our children be entrepreneurs?
What do we do, so that everyday we teach them how to launch a business?
A solution, from home, from your community with your friends or from school?
What do we do so that this map really turns into
this great army of entrepreneurs that we need?
What do we do? And that is my calling, to turn an idea into action.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)