Working with corporates as an impact entrepreneur: Key Insights from ChangeNOW (part 3)

The INSEAD Impact Entrepreneurship Forum brought together Alumni and Graduates of INSEAD programmes at the ChangeNOW summit. This is part 3 of 3 exploring the knowledge shared with participants during the event.

In this 3-part story series we bring you the key knowledge shared throughout the INSEAD Impact Entrepreneurship Forum. Part 3 focuses on knowledge shared during the workshop “Working with corporates as an impact entrepreneur: challenges and opportunities” led by INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy Felipe Monteiro

Working with corporates as an impact entrepreneur: challenges and opportunities

Felipe Monteiro INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy led the final session of the Impact Entrepreneurship Forum. His session was an interactive workshop exploring, with participants, the challenges and opportunities of working with corporates as an impact entrepreneur.

It was divided into 3 parts: context setting, interactive work and finally a debrief. Firstly, to set the context Professor Monterio asked the crucial question “what is the motivation for corporates to work with entrepreneurs?”

Professor Monteiro gave us the example of pharma companies who started working with startups 30 to 40 years ago. Monteiro shared that pharma companies were experiencing patent cliffs. This is caused when patents expire, and then generic drug forms follow. Pharmaceutical companies felt like they were hitting large revenue loses (billions of dollars) when patents expired and knew the next solution would not come from them. So, rather than they started partnering with entrepreneurs to develop the next blockbuster drug.

Monteiro then pivoted to look at how corporates can work with social entrepreneurs. He used the example of Enel, an Italian utility company who are partnering with social entrepreneurs to become more sustainable. Enel is not facing a patent cliff like pharma companies and won’t lose revenues to generics, but they are facing an expiring business model. Enel are facing pressure from regulators and civil society to change. You can listen to Felipe and Felipe Tentori, Head of Innovation and Sustainability at Enel X talk about Enel and how they partner with impact entrepreneurs in this episode of Mission to Change . What is typically happening when corporates partner with entrepreneurs, if it’s not the product that’s not fit for purpose then it’s the business model that is not fit for purpose.

There needs to be more collaboration. When assessing what corporates have committed to do and where they are in terms of sustainability commitments, there is a big gap. ?Felipe, when working with corporates often hears “we [the corporate] are doing our midterm evaluation before 2030 and what we are seeing is not good.” There is a cliff of what companies have committed and where they are. Corporates need help. There is a big opportunity for social entrepreneurs to move in and bridge the gap.

With a wealth of knowledge in the room, participant broke into small groups to share their experience when it comes to working with corporates. They were also asked to come up with some dos and don’ts to work with them in successful fashion. Here is what participants recommended.

Don’t:

• Work for free.
• Move forward before aligning on desired outcomes.
• Compromise on your strategy.

Do:

• Make sure there's an alignment between the corporate with the vision and mission of your company.
• Have a hard line for what you as a social entrepreneur will and won’t accept.
• Be specific on what the outcome for success would look like.
• Have clear aligned communication.
• Be humble - it’s not about you but solving together.

Closing remarks

Following on from Felipe’s session, the closing forum remarks were given by Nancy Hsieh, Executive Director of Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship. She noted that the word collaboration had been heard over and over again throughout the forum and then shared a few key insights:

1. Capital exists but we need to re think how it is deployed and the impact it can have.
2. You are not alone. There is a community here to help not, just the INSEAD community. There is power in numbers.
3. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. There are good people committed?to carry this forward so “Find something that makes you angry and figure out how to solve that.”

INSEAD’s participation at ChangeNOW extended beyond the Impact Entrepreneurship Forum. We sponsored 6 booths for social entrepreneurs at ChangeNOW. They were: CycleCure, PRONOE, Mukuru Clean Stoves, Fabumin, Health Set Go, Kind Winter.

INSEAD also took part in the ChangeNOW main programme sharing cutting edge thought leadership:

Dean Francisco Veloso took part in a panel discussion SDGs in 2030: Collaboration Towards a Common Goal, Chengyi Lin, INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Strategy moderated “Financing the Transition: Can We Still Make the Shift?!' and Ludo Van der Heyden Emeritus Professor of Technology and Operations Management led the opening session of a Board Focused Programme.

To find out more about systems change from Professor Monteiro on working with Working with corporates as an impact entrepreneur, listen to our podcast.

The Forum was in partnership with the Hoffmann Institute and the Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship. It was sponsored by NEO Leaders

The Forum was one component in INSEAD’s participation at ChangeNOW. To find out more about the full programme, see here: https://www.insead.edu/events/insead-impact-entrepreneurship-forum-changenow-2024

The Hans Wahl Impact Entrepreneurship programme will next run in 2025. If you wish further information, please contact [email protected]

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