Entrepreneurship and

Sustainability Innovation Analysis

MBAC0036
An Entrepreneur?
 An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a
new business, bearing most of the risks and
enjoying most of the rewards.
 The process of setting up a business is known as
entrepreneurship.
 The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an
innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services,
and business/or procedures.
 Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy,
using the skills and initiative necessary to
anticipate needs and bringing good new ideas to
market.
Entrepreneurial process :-
1. Idea Generation: every new venture begins with an idea.
An idea to be a description of a need or problem of some
constituency coupled with a concept of a possible solution.
2. Opportunity Evaluation: This is the step where you ask the
question of whether there is an opportunity worth investing
in. Company should ask five basic questions :---
• Is there a sufficiently attractive market opportunity?
• Is your proposed solution feasible, both from a market
perspective and a technology perspective?
• Can we compete (over a sufficiently interesting time horizon): is
there sustainable competitive advantage?
• Do we have a team that can effectively capitalize of this
opportunity?
• What is the risk / reward profile of this opportunity, and does it
justify the investment of time and money?
3. Planning: Once company have decided that an
opportunity, they need a plan for how to capitalize on that
opportunity. In the planning phase you will need to create
two things: strategy and operating plan.
4. Company formation/launch: Once there is a sufficiently
compelling opportunity and a plan, the entrepreneurial
team will go through the process of choosing the right
form of corporate entity and actually creating the venture
as a legal entity.
5. Growth: After launch, the company works toward
creating its product or service, generating revenue and
moving toward sustainable performance. The emphasis
shifts from planning to execution. At this point, managers
continue to ask questions but spend more of their time
carrying out their plans.
Linear Thinking?
• Linear thinking—or vertical thinking—is the traditional
mode of ideation that assumes businesses create and
sell, each business focusing on its own operations.
Supplier or customer activities are relevant only to the
extent that understanding them can generate greater sales
and profitability.
• Therefore, conventional linear thinking in business
ignores consideration of the product’s origins; the raw
materials and labor input to make it; and the chemical,
engineering, and energy-consuming processes required to
convert raw materials into constituent components and
the ultimate finished product. In addition, it does not
consider the effects of the product’s use and the impacts
when it is discarded at the end of its useful life.
Systems thinking :--
• Systems thinking applied to new ventures reminds us that
companies operate in complex sets of interlocking living
and nonliving systems, including markets and supply
chains as well as natural systems. systems thinking can be
applied to new ventures whether the firm sells products or
provides services.
• In other words, systems thinking asks you to see the larger
picture, which, in turn, opens up new opportunity space.
• Let’s look more closely at the systems view through an
analogy. When you imagine a river, what do you see? A
winding line on a map? A favorite fishing spot? Or the
tumbling, rushing water itself? Do you include the
wetlands and its wildlife? Do you see the human
communities along the water?
• Sustainability applied to new ventures incorporates
systems thinking. If you think only about the fish or
the single stream, you miss what makes the river alive;
you miss what it feeds and what feeds it.
• Similarly, your venture is part of a set of interlocking
and interdependent systems characterized by suppliers
and buyers as well as by energy and material flows.
• The more you are aware of these systems and their
relationships to your company, the more rigor you
bring to product design and strategy development and
the more sophisticated your analysis of how to move
forward.
• Systems thinking can encourage and institutionalize
the natural ability of companies to evolve—not
through small adaptations but through creative leaps.
• Molecular Thinking
• encourage to think on the micro level. It tend to focus on
Invisible material components and contaminants. When
we do examine materials we tend to focus on visible
waste streams, such as the problems of municipal waste
etc. and, forgetting that some of the most urgent
environmental health problems are caused by
microscopic, and perhaps nanoscale, compounds.
• Thinking like a molecule can reveal efficiency and
innovation opportunities that address hazardous materials
exposure problems.
• molecular thinking enables entrepreneurs inside large
and small companies to differentiate their businesses and
gain competitive advantage over others who are less
attuned to the changing market demands.
• Thus thinking like a molecule asks business managers
and executives to examine not only a product’s
immediate functionality but its entire molecular cycle
from raw material, through manufacture and
processing, to end of life and disposal.
• Merck & Co., for example, uncovered a highly
innovative and efficient catalytic synthesis for
sitagliptin, the active ingredient in Januvia, the
company’s new treatment for type 2 diabetes. This
revolutionary synthesis generated 220 pounds less
waste for each pound of sitagliptin manufactured and
increased the overall yield by nearly 50 percent. Over
the lifetime of Januvia, Merck expects to eliminate the
formation of at least 330 million pounds of waste,
including nearly 110 million pounds of aqueous waste
• The principles of green chemistry give you the tools
to act on such opportunities.
• Give by Paul T. Anastas & John C. Warner
• Green chemistry efficiency principles in
manufacturing processes uses a metric called E-
factor to measure the ratio of inputs to outputs in
any given product.
• In essence, an E-factor measurement tells you how
many units of weight of output one gets per unit of
weight of input.
• This figure gives managers a sense of process
efficiency and the inherent costs associated with
waste, energy, and other resources’ rates of use.
• In this section, we focus on one such factor:
strong ties versus weak ties. Strong ties exist
between close-knit members with frequent
interactions, such as family and close friends.
By contrast, weak ties are typified by distant
social relationships and infrequent
interactions, which are commonly observed
between acquaintances or strangers (
Granovetter, 1973).
• Sustainability innovation and entrepreneurship
involves traveling across new ground.
• Weak ties need to be developed with
unconventional partners who provide you
with increasingly essential strategic information.
• These ties are called “weak” not because they
lack substance or will disappoint you but
because they stay outside the traditional
network of relationships on which you or the
company depends.
• Typically, strong ties are to people and
organizations you see often and to which you
frequently turn for input.
• In the case of large firms, important strong ties
may be those formed between heads of
independent business units within the same
organization.
• Alternatively, they might be ties to reliable
suppliers or even to the board of directors and
the people with whom that group associates.
• It is likely that information from strong ties will
add only minimal value to the information you
already possess.
• In contrast, weak ties bring new or previously
marginal information to the forefront.
• They enable you to reach outside the normal
boundaries of “relevant” strategic information.
• Weak ties trigger innovative thinking because
they bring in fresh ideas—viewpoints likely to
diverge from yours or from senior management’s
—and data otherwise overlooked or dismissed
because they have not been a priority historically.
• Adaptive Collaboration through Value-Added
Networks
• Value-added networks (VANs) are necessary to
implement sustainability innovation strategies; VANs
are the means to translate your strategic vision into
competitive products or services. VANs are action
oriented and results driven.
• VANs are distinct from weak ties. The primary
contribution of weak ties is new and diverse information
that links strategy more coherently with broader
systemic forces. Weak ties bridge the corporation to the
“outside” world’s events and stakeholders. In contrast,
…………….
• …..VANs are composed of closer and stronger ties
within your firm and its inner circle of collaborators.
They are ties that can be intentionally and
strategically joined to add value throughout the
implementation process.
• The purpose of weak ties is information access
beyond the known and the predictable, while the
purpose of VANs is to take action.
• VANs can offer a wealth of creativity in the
implementation process. They are an untapped,
underappreciated resource for implementation ideas,
feedback, and adaption as a plan is implemented.
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative
solutions to society’s most pressing social
problems. They are ambitious and persistent,
tackling major social issues and offering new ideas
for wide-scale change.

• Rather than leaving societal needs to the government

or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is
not working and solve the problem by changing
the system, spreading the solution, and persuading
entire societies to take new leaps.
– Creating Social Value is at the centre of being a
social entrepreneur.

– “The use of entrepreneurial behaviour for social

rather than profit objectives.”

– “A business that is established for a social purpose

not, primarily, to maximise financial returns to their
investors”
• Innovation to create sustainable, scalable
solutions to our most pressing social
challenges.
• Working at the intersection of business,
nonprofit, and government, social
entrepreneurs/social innovators blend models
and create mission-driven ventures to effect
positive social change.”
• Social innovation looks to new ways, from
strategies and concepts to processes and
organisations, of attempting to address the needs
of society.
• Social entrepreneurship takes into account the
“double” or sometimes even “triple” bottom line,
not just individual gain but also social and
ecological good.

Bindeshwar Pathak
Harish Hande
Indian Social Entrepreneurs
 Analysis of how corporate
leaders/businesses are approaching
sustainability innovation.
• Research into the practices of Global Fortune
500 companies revealed a common set of
activities companies use to tie sustainability to
the creation of business value.
• five steps are the core of the CLEAR Model
• Craft Sustainability Strategy
– 1. Who are the stakeholders most impacted by my
company and its operations (e.g., employees, local
communities, etc.).
– 2. What does sustainability mean to these
stakeholders?
• Lead Strategy and Management Efforts
• Central sustainability team
• Cross-department committee(s)
• Stakeholder advisory panel
• Board level sustainability oversight
• Embed Sustainability into Value Chain Activities
– Sustainability doesn't always require large, disruptive
change. Nor does it require significant amounts of cash.
Often execution requires taking tasks and activities
companies already do to a new level of efficacy.
• Analyze and Communicate Sustainability
Performance
– Well thought-out and designed metrics guide
companies to make smart, CLEAR decisions. Some
companies are going beyond analytics-as-smart-
decision-making-tool to analytics-as-identifier-of-
savings-and-growth. The path from point A to point B
need more of employees engagement than you might
think.
• Renew Sustainability Management Efforts
• No company gets their sustainability efforts right the
first time. Or third, fifth, or tenth time. The important
thing to remember is that sustainability is both
relatively new and continuously evolving.
Sustainability Leader
 Strategic vs. Project-Based Approach to
Sustainability

• There are two “standard” ways to implement a

sustainability program. Organizations are
inclined to either establish a sustainability
team or task a certain department to carry the
weight. More often than not, the approach is
hybrid. Firm should try for the ideal balance
between taking the strategic versus project-
based approach to sustainability.
 The Strategic Approach

• Sustainability leaders and sustainability teams

often get stuck in planning and strategizing for
too long — not taking action or assigning
specific parties responsible for implementation
soon enough. In turn, they develop these
things called “BHAGs” pronounced “bee hag” (Big
Hairy Audacious Goals).
• a long-term goal that everyone in a company
can understand and rally behind.
 Pitfalls Precautions

Biting off more than you can chew be conservative, critical, and pessimistic as
to what activities make it on the final list.
Define what is important — now, and in
three years.

Disconnect with the “do-ers” including the end user, staff, customers, and
client.

Lack of business benefit profit does not always come as direct

financial profit - consider the benefits due
to quality, experience, or service

Lack of measurability or ability to quantify Even if at the end goals are not met and
projects have failed, measurement creates a
record for future learning
 The Project-based Approach

• Sustainability success is realized through a

series of independent projects and tasks. This
often proves as a way to show small
achievements and make the case for larger
projects. Because this approach typically
results in short-term success with a narrow
scope.
 The Project-based Approach

Pitfalls Precautions

Acting without planning or have a clear plan that is

vision incremental

Working in silo critical to involve multiple

stakeholders

Strapped to Short Term get out of the mindset of the

Benefits quick fix. Consider the
durability and efficiency over
the life cycle of your project.
 Three-part approach to develop company’s
sustainability strategy.
• Tracking the tangible indicators: energy and water
consumed, and wastes produced, in physical buildings;
employee travel; electricity use & emissions Example;
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) , Carbon Footprint
• Engaging, educating and empowering your employees -
Organizations need engaged, educated and empowered
entire organization to pursue corporate sustainability
strategy.
• Greening your core products and services
 UNIT V
The industrial revolution and the role of human induced global
warming.
The whole concept of global warming
revolves around the fact that the Earth is
getting warmer, and a significant part of this
rise in temperature is attributed to
anthropogenic causes, i.e. human-induced
causes.
Human-induced Vs Natural Causes
Whenever this topic comes to the debating table, the
blame game between human induced causes and
natural causes of global warming reaches its peak.
Natural causes of this phenomenon do exist, but they
have always been there. In fact, they are necessary to
maintain the ideal balance in the climate of the Earth
as they trap the sunlight and help in keeping the planet
warm enough for humans to thrive..
• Without these natural factors, Earth would have been much
more colder - perhaps not even suitable for human
inhabitation.

• The major problem the planet is facing today is human

induced global warming. Over the last few decades, i.e.
since the industrial revolution to be precise, the use of fossil
fuels for power generation has been on a tremendous rise.

• Burning of these fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases,

like carbon dioxide, which remain in the atmosphere for
thousands of years and trap sunlight to cause global
warming. Other anthropogenic causes include deforestation,
mining, use of vehicles etc.
 Is Global Warming Fact or Fiction?
• Not everyone is ready to believe that global warming is
actually happening. In fact, the world is divided into two
groups - people who understand its hazard and people
who feel that the whole issue is a hoax.

Global Warming Facts

Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane,

have formed a layer in the atmosphere. As the sunlight
enters the Earth's atmosphere, it is trapped by these gases
and due to this trapping of sunlight, global temperatures
are rising.
• Industrial Revolution
• The Industrial Revolution was a period of major
industrialization and innovation during the late 1700s
and early 1800s. The Industrial Revolution began in
Great Britain and quickly spread throughout the
world.
• The American Industrial Revolution commonly
referred to as the Second Industrial Revolution,
started sometime between 1820 and 1870. This
period saw the mechanization of agriculture and
textile manufacturing and a revolution in power,
including steamships and railroads, that affected
social, cultural, and economic conditions.
 Effects of industrial revolution
The historical record shows that the climate system
varies naturally over a wide range of time scales. In
general, climate changes prior to the Industrial
Revolution in the 1700s can be explained by natural
causes, such as changes in solar energy, volcanic
eruptions, and natural changes in greenhouse gas (GHG)
concentrations.
• Recent climate changes, however, cannot be explained
by natural causes alone. Research indicates that natural
causes are very unlikely to explain most observed
warming, especially warming since the mid-20th
century. Rather, human activities can very likely explain
most of that warming.
• This graph shows the increase in greenhouse
gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere
over the last 2,000 years. Increases in
concentrations of these gases since 1750 are
due to human activities in the industrial era.
• Concentration units are parts per million (ppm)
or parts per billion (ppb), indicating the
number of molecules of the greenhouse gas
per million or billion molecules of air.
•
The role of human induced global
warming.
 Human-caused global warming

• Human-caused global warming is often called

anthropogenic climate change.
• Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution
have greatly increased atmospheric
concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide,
methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse
gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface.
• Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans
can absorb it.
• These gases persist in the atmosphere for years,
meaning that even if such emissions were
eliminated today, it would not immediately stop
global warming.
• Some experts point out that natural cycles in Earth's
orbit can alter the planet's exposure to sunlight,
which may explain the current trend.
• Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling
cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to
these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred
over the span of several centuries. Today's changes
have taken place over the past hundred years or
less.
 Climate Change
• The increasing number of hurricanes is perhaps the
biggest evidence of climate change induced by global
warming. More importantly, a look at the data of the
last 10 years shows that summers have been warmer
and winters colder than usual. In fact, 11 of the last 13
years feature in top 25 warmest years on the planet.
• These variations in global temperatures are also
causing droughts, floods, heat waves, cold waves and
changes in the precipitation patterns around the world.
• The rise in global temperatures also mean that certain
disease carrying insects, which thrive in warm climates,
will spread to newer regions on the warm planet, thus
propagating the spread of the diseases they carry.
 Extinctions

The list of animals extinct in the last 100 years include

mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects as
well. A large number of this extinct animals were
wiped off the planet due to sudden change in
temperature levels and loss of habitat due to climate
change. One such example is the Monteverde toad,
endemic to the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica.
• It became extinct in 1989 as a result of
unusually warm climate, wherein sudden
evaporation of water bodies killed all the
tadpoles before they matured. Another
example of an animal fighting for its basic
survival against the odds of global warming is
the polar bear. Melting ice caps is resulting is
loss of habitat for these bears, forcing them to
migrate further north towards the pole.
 Effects on Humans
• The hazards of global warming haven't yet started to
affect us directly, but the indirect effects have already
started to surface. Basically, all the things on the planet
are related to each other, and therefore the effects of
global warming are also interrelated. We humans are
most dependent on nature, which we have been
exploiting continuously over the years, so any alterations
in nature are bound to impact us either way.
• Crop failure induced by climate change will leave us
without food. Extinction of tigers will increase the
number of herbivores, which will feed on the vegetation
cover, and loss of vegetation cover in turn will impact the
rains as well as the ground water source.
• Global warming induced sea level rise and melting
glaciers are bound to disrupt the fresh water
supply, thus leaving us with no water to drink. Rise
in sea levels will also submerge coastal areas and
tiny islands. More importantly, most of the
prominent cities in the world are located in the
coastal areas.
• Submerging of coastal areas of Bangladesh, sinking
of Maldives islands, flash floods in the Himalayas,
etc., are just some examples coming from different
parts of the world. Such evidence is more than
enough to prove that global warming is fact, and
not fiction.
• These global warming facts can help you in realizing
how serious the issue is. As the skeptics rightly point
out, it is difficult to rely on climatic models to
predict what the future has in store for us.
• Even though we are armed with some of the most
sophisticated machinery, it is difficult for us to
predict tomorrows weather, so how can we predict
what would be happening 10 or 100 years down the
lane. That, however, doesn't mean that we don't take any
precautionary measures to save planet Earth. We can't
just pray that the global warming myth never comes true,
nor can we take some stance like we will act only when
its starts affecting us.
In response to such findings, the United Nations and other
international organizations gathered in Geneva to
convene the First World Climate Conference in 1979.
In 1988, a year after the Brundtland Commission called
for sustainable development, the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) and the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) created the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
The IPCC gathered 2,500 scientific experts from 130
countries to assess the scientific, technical, and
socioeconomic aspects of climate change, its risks, and
possible mitigation
• Certain greenhouse gases (GHGs) are more
effective at warming Earth (“thickening the
blanket”) than others.The two most important
characteristics of a greenhouse gas in terms of
climate impact are how well the gas absorbs
energy (preventing it from immediately
escaping to space), and how long the gas stays
in the atmosphere.
• The Global Warming Potential (GWP) for a gas
is a measure of the total energy that a gas
absorbs over a particular period of time (usually
100 years), compared to carbon dioxide (CO2).
The larger the GWP, the more warming the gas
causes. For example, methane’s (CH4) 100-year
GWP is 21, which means that CH4 will cause
21 times as much warming as an equivalent
mass of CO2 over a 100-year time period.
• Carbon dioxide is assigned a GWP of 1 to serve as a
baseline for other GWP values. Carbon dioxide
emissions cause changes in atmospheric CO 2
concentrations that persist for thousands of years.
• Methane has a GWP more than 20 times higher than
CO2 for a 100-year time scale. Methane emitted
today lasts for only about a decade in the
atmosphere. However, on a pound-for-pound basis,
CH4 absorbs more energy than CO2, making its GWP
higher.
• Nitrous oxide (N2O) has a GWP 300 times that of CO2 for a
100-year timescale. Nitrous oxide emitted today remains in
the atmosphere for more than 100 years, on average.
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), perfluorocarbons
(PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are sometimes called
high-GWP gases because, for a given amount of mass, they
trap substantially more heat than CO2 . Some HFCs remain
in the atmosphere for only a few years, while SF6 can
remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years.
• Seven of these indicators would be expected to
increase in a warming world and observations
show that they are, in fact, increasing. Three
would be expected to decrease and they are, in
fact, decreasing.
 The challenges ahead: Energy for
sustainable development
Our society currently faces immense challenges
across a number of different dimensions in the
area of energy, which include: providing
universal access to affordable clean cooking fuels
and electricity for the poor; limiting air pollution
and health damages from energy use; avoiding
dangerous climate change by limiting greenhouse
gas emissions; improving energy security through
supply diversity and independence; and reducing
energy’s impact on natural ecosystems (land,
water, biodiversity, minerals).
 Energy scenarios

Energy scenarios provide a framework for exploring

future energy perspectives, including various
combinations of technology options and their
implications. Many scenarios in the literature
illustrate how energy system developments may
affect global change. Examples are the new
emissions scenarios by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the energy
scenarios by the World Energy Assessment
(WEA).
• Some of these scenarios describe energy futures that
are compatible with sustainable development goals,
such as improved energy efficiencies and the
adoption of advanced energy supply technologies.
Sustainable development scenarios are also
characterized by low environmental impacts (at local,
regional and global scales) and equitable allocation
of resources and wealth. Energy scenarios can
provide a suitable framework for exploring
transitions toward sustainable development paths.
• For Example, by 2100, 6 – 8 billion additional people
— significantly more than the world population
today — will need access to affordable, reliable,
flexible, and convenient energy services.
Sustainable development involves solving
the four main energy challenges.
 Marching towards sustainable growth –
Renewable energy scenario in India
• India’s energy demand has been growing rapidly
since the last two decades. This demand has been
boosted by industrial growth and also because of the
rise in household consumption.
• On the other hand, energy supply has also increased
but has been outstripped by the ever rising demand.
India derives most of its energy from fossil fuels,
primarily coal. The coal reserves of the country are
limited and a growing number of power producers are
looking to import coal from resource rich countries
like Indonesia, Australia and South Africa.
• Climate Change is another important driver in the
renewed interest in renewable energy. India has taken
up this issue at the highest level, with the National
Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) being
formulated by the Prime Minister’s Office.
• Under this plan, the Government of India has set a
target of reducing country’s carbon emissions by 20%
to 25% between 2005 and 2020. Under the NAPCC,
India outlined eight goals to achieve sustainable
growth. In addition, it is crucial to encourage
investment in renewable energy.
• Accordingly, the Government has formulated various
policies to encourage businesses to install more
renewable energy capacity in the country. As a result
of an encouraging investment climate, wind power
has grown rapidly in the country.
• From just 41 MW in 1992, the total installed capacity
has reached almost 18,000 MW this year. Biomass
too has grown in the last few years. The Government
has now set a target of achieving solar energy
installations of 20,000 MW by the year 2020
(National Solar Mission).
• Renewable energy today constitutes a significant
part of India’s energy mix and is set to grow
further in the coming years. As shown in various
data, only one percent of the total energy mix was
contributed by renewable energy sources in 2002.
• In November 2021, India had a renewable energy
capacity of 150 GW consisting of solar (48.55
GW), wind (40.03 GW), small hydro power (4.83
GW), bio-mass (10.62 GW), large hydro (46.51
GW), and nuclear (6.78 GW). India has
committed for a goal of 450 GW renewable
energy capacity by 2030.