Insights

Select participants from Xynteo’s year-long leadership experience, The Leadership Vanguard, convened in Bangalore recently to reflect on the leadership and acceleration skills they’ve gained during the year, as they prepare to apply them within their organisations. For the final gathering of this year’s Leadership Vanguard, the participants embarked on field trips with innovative impact entrepreneurs, and reflected on insights and learnings from their year-long journey within the programme. Participants such as Patrick Boumalham, Global Head of Markets Products at HSBC, were reflective and overwhelmingly positive about their overall experience. “Working in an area outside of my expertise made it easier to improve on my growth edges, and overall I think the Leadership Vanguard offers a very different experience than a general leadership programme”, he said. Field trips exposed valuable lessons Key focus areas throughout the Vanguard year have been to enhance the participants’ leadership capacity and ability to understand and help address global challenges such as plastic waste and pollution. Throughout the journey, leaders have selected and analysed start-ups that have promising solutions, and then used their newly developed skills to deliver acceleration support to them. The result is a win-win opportunity – the Vanguard leaders are able to help scale promising innovative impact enterprises and develop strategic partnerships between their organisations and these entrepreneurs, while the start-ups are exposed to the talent, thinking and network opportunity of the Vanguard leaders. The leaders have been working in three different themes: Revaluing plastics, supported by Unilever, Financial inclusion, supported by Mastercard and Low Carbon Cities, supported by Shell. In Bangalore the Vanguard catalysts visited impact enterprises such as TrashCon, Hasiru Dala Innovations and Vogo, to enhance their understanding of their business models and identify common challenges and opportunities. Engaging with the entrepreneurs provided the Vanguard catalysts with valuable lessons to take back to their organisations. “Something for us in larger corporations to learn is to be more interactive and have more speed”, said Suchismita Sanyal, General Manager, Computational Science at Shell. One group of Vanguard leaders visited Hasiru Dala Innovations, an impact enterprise working with marginalized waste pickers to enable them to improve their livelihoods and Bangalore’s waste management. The Vanguard leaders visited Hasiru Dala Innovations’ aggregation centre, a typical informal plastic recycling facility where they make granules. In addition, a meeting was held with TrashCon, the award-winning start-up that separates unsegregated municipal solid waste, including food, plastics, cardboard and diapers, into biodegradable components which can be recycled into biogas or compost. The leaders visiting TrashCon learned about their waste segregation solution and how it can help reduce landfill in India. Vogo, a dockless scooter rental company working to improve mobility in Bangalore was visited by the final group of leaders. The leaders that went to Vogo’s docking station were given a demo and presentation of Vogo's bikes and business model. Aligning on purpose of the partnership is key Following the field trips, the Leadership Vanguard participants received expert advice on creating impactful business partnerships and bringing innovation back to their companies. Clive Allison, Global Director of Innovation and New Business Models at Unilever, emphasised the need to scale existing ideas through creating partnerships. He highlighted the importance of aligning on purpose. “For partnerships to deliver at scale, the partners must have a clear and aligned view of where they share corporate purpose". “Learning and leading by doing is also key for success. This involves creating real platforms and operational mechanisms to do stuff together”, Allison said. The Leadership Vanguard Exchange in Bangalore marked the end of this year’s programme. In January 2020 the Year 6 of Leadership Vanguard will begin, with a new cohort of leaders from a diverse group of global companies. These leaders will embark on a highly challenging year, delivered by the Xynteo team and with support from experts and thought leaders around the world. Each leader constitutes a significant part of the Vanguard programme. They all contribute to the mission of applying leadership and commercial muscle to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.  

Xynteo’s Leadership Vanguard programme brought business leaders to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to explore partnerships to improve financial inclusion with the local impact enterprise Simusolar. On our first field trip to Tanzania earlier this year, we explored how financial inclusion could enable and stimulate broader economic development. This is part of the Leadership Vanguard's Financial inclusion theme, supported by Mastercard to explore how we can improve financial inclusion in the region. Our group made up of business leaders from Shell, Unilever, EDP, BHGE and ICRC, met with experts, practitioners and social enterprises from around Tanzania. These local stakeholders were all working on financial inclusion in several areas, including agriculture and energy. Financing and energy supply were key barriers Quickly, it become clear to us that limited access to banking, credit, loans and savings accounts severely hinders individual, community and business growth in rural Tanzania. A striking example of this was smallholder farmers, whose lack of access to loans and credit hampers their ability to invest in their farms and equipment.   Two common barriers we witnessed during the first trip were: first, financing productive assets, and second, providing energy to power those assets. Productive assets are equipment that can increase productivity or income, for example water pumps or grain grinding tools. In areas with limited access to power, productive assets can be hard to obtain and expensive to run. However, with the growth in development off-grid energy sources in East Africa over the last decade, there are increasingly new technologies, business models and financing options that can provide farmers with more affordable access to productive assets. For our second field trip to Tanzania, we aimed to explore such new promising business models, and examine how we could help them scale.    Partnership with Simusolar  During our second field trip, we worked with Simusolar, a social enterprise that aims to improve access to productive assets in rural Tanzania, by providing them affordably and expanding farmers’ and fishermen’s access to credit. Simusolar provides equipment such as solar powered irrigation and solar fishing light. The enterprise uses a pay-as you-go platform, and a payment solution that improves customers’ ability to afford the equipment. After successfully rolling out its products across Tanzania, Simusolar is now planning to expand into Uganda. Seeking ways to scale for impact Through a series of workshops and meetings, the Vanguard leaders explored how to best support Simusolar’s scaling ambitions in Tanzania and across the region. The trip gave us many insights, of which a few stood out: Last-mile distribution requires trusted partnerships: In remote rural areas, securing a customer base to sell and distribute useful productive assets, such as solar water pumps, is expensive. Demand from the famers is low, because they often don’t know of the benefits of new technology. Furthermore, the devices must be customised to the farm’s conditions, in order to be effective. Selling such equipment therefore requires time and engagement with farmers that doesn’t always turn into a sale. However, Simusolar have been able to identify partners trusted by specific groups of farmers, often small and local. These partners are skilled at building the farmers’ awareness, understanding and willingness to purchase Simusolar’s products. In order to scale, larger agribusinesses and corporate consumer goods companies can work with such partners to increase awareness and distribution of their products. Think beyond value chain partnerships, to entire ecosystems: In rural settings, where products and resources are scarce, it’s often not enough to simply scale the customer base of distribution. Often, to create a market for each new product, other dependent and complementary products and services must be in place. For example, solar pumps require boreholes to be drilled; the financial platform requires mobile networks: having enough farms to sell more solar pumps to, depends on the farmers having access to inputs (e.g. fertilisers and seeds). So, identifying and partnering with complimentary products and service providers, is an essential starting point for any imitative aiming to scale and provide broad economic benefits in rural areas.  “Financial inclusion” means different things to different customer groups: Providing key assets that can provide broader economic benefits often require upfront capital. In Tanzania, financial inclusion is increasing, as access to mobile money accounts expands. The big questions now become usage of those financial platforms and the masses’ ability to access other financial products, such as credit and loans. Banks still view famers as high-risk borrowers and therefore hesitate to lend them. So, Simusolar has developed its own underwriting service that provides credit to farmers who have never borrowed money to buy equipment before. Based on a detailed assessment of each farmer and insight into their situation, the underwriting service generates a customised repayment schedule based on the individual farmer’s income level. By truly understanding their customers and giving them highly personalised financing programs, Simusolar can support local development, while also distributing important and useful products.  Last-mile distribution is difficult. It requires the right partners, business model and financing to get it right. But when those elements come together, it can provide huge benefits to those communities and open a new and potentially fruitful customer base for business. As we approach the end of the Vanguard year, I am looking forward to seeing how the partnership between the leaders and Simusolar develops. A welcome result would be partnerships that benefit both the companies of the Vanguard leaders and Simusolar, while improving access to productive assets for small-scale farmers and fishermen. This blog is authored by Nick Moss, former theme lead of the Leadership Vanguard Financial Inclusion team. Read more stories from the Leadership Vanguard here.  ------------------ About the Leadership Vanguard Xynteo's 12-month acceleration and leadership development experience brings together leaders from Unilever, Tata, Shell, Mastercard, ICRC, HSBC, Energias de Portugal, Baker Hughes, a GE Company, and BASF. Under CEO sponsorship, participants collaborate intensively and combine capabilities, networks and knowledge to accelerate impact enterprises and develop new markets. Participating 'Catalysts' are divided into three themes, each focusing on a global challenge. In 2019, these challenges are: Financial Inclusion, supported by Mastercard Low Carbon Cities, supported by Shell Revaluing Plastics, supported by Unilever

The world faces systemic challenges, despite our wealth of brilliant ideas, availability of capital and outstanding talent. At Xynteo, we are creating a tribe of remarkable organisations and individuals to scale impact in an unprecedented way. Our solution is to connect all three elements, to accelerate the rollout of scalable solutions to the world’s toughest problems. After hearing from business, community, government and thought leaders in the Square, the Xynteo Exchange transforms into The Marketplace: a lively enterprising and interactive area made up of zones, ranging from responsible food systems to transport. Here, impact entrepreneurs showcase their initiatives and compete for the Impact Maker Award – a €50,000 cash grant. The Lavo! This year's 36 entrepreneurs (our Impact Makers) connected with potential partners and investors capable of helping grow their businesses and scale their impact. The venue was ‘The Lavo’, a giant Norwegian-style tent that functioned as centre stage for new voices to show how they’re solving specific challenges, along with a mix of Master Classes, where experts shared their secrets on how to become better agents of change.   The intimate and empowering talks featured impact entrepreneurs working on a wide range of issues.  “Recovery of waste in India is driven by its informal labour,” said Siddarth Hande, CEO of Kabadiwalla Connect. “We map the informal supply chain, trace the materials and develop a clean and healthy way of collection to upgrade the supply chain.”  “Nearly 70% of female-owned SME’s in the world are unfinanced. Women in places like Ecuador have less chance to accelerate our businesses and are systematically excluded,” said Ana Monteverde of Mujeres Wow, an application aiming to solve the credit gap suffered by female entrepreneurs, “The strength of our application is the community - there’s nothing more powerful than women empowering another.”  No one could resist the doughnut wall! #XE19 “I’m solving the waste of precious fruit in Botswana. Over two million Marula trees produce fruit that mostly goes to waste,” said Bonolo Beverley Monthe, CEO, Maungo Crafts. “People are not so excited by indigenous fruits in our country! So I wanted to try and change that. We are fuelling the growth of reforestation and sustainable food industries”.  Amongst these stories of entrepreneurs working to break through barriers , it was comforting to hear reflections on creating and working towards change.  Spirituality expert Bob Thurman discussed the value of awareness in helping one find a purpose. “My question to everyone is: how does what you do fit in this context of doing something really meaningful in the next 10 years?” said Thurman. Listen to Greta Thurnberg, who has a connection to what’s actually happening on the planet. Most of us are living in denial!” Capping it off was some inspiration from Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta’s CEO Kjetil Thorsen, who encouraged bravery when facing immense challenges. “You have to accept that every idea is complex,” observed Thoresen. “As architects, we package complex ideas and requirements, turning them into beautiful structures that contribute to society.” TrashCon Labs leads a new wave of innovators scaling sustainable solutions Created in 2018, as an integral part of the Xynteo Exchange/Norway, the Impact Maker Award was presented by Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry Torbjørn Røe Isaksen to TrashCon Labs, one of our 36 astounding market-based solutions all vying for The Impact Maker Award 2019, working towards solving our Impact Challenges, TrashCon Labs, a startup that segregates unsegregated municipal solid waste automatically and generating value out of it. TrashCon Labs is currently part of the Leadership Vanguard's acceleration programme.   TrashCon was awarded a cash prize of €50,000 to help bring its solution to the next level. “No one else was solving the waste epidemic, so I had to. Thank you! Every one of those digits will impact thousands of lives!” Said TrashCon Labs founder, Nivedah RM accepting the award. The prize was awarded by awarded by Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry. Isaksen praised TrashCon Labs for leveraging the dynamics of the business community to solve huge social and environmental issues. “Scale is the important thing here!”, said Isaksen, “You can learn a lot from business.” Congratulations to TrashCon Labs! We look forward to your vision of making future generations ask: “What is trash?”  Follow Xynteo Exchange 2019 at #XynteoExchange and #XE19. Learn more about Xynteo Exchange 2019

Four inspiring leaders challenged us to join forces for real life impact at the Xynteo Exchange We’re at our most powerful when we work together across industries, sectors and borders. In the final session at this year’s Xynteo Exchange, we heard from Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju and his wife, producer and director Gry Molvær Hivju. The Hivjus, exemplifying a powerful collaboration, explored the strength of working together to see the change we want to see in the world. The duo shed light on how we can start to address global challenges at the local level. Even in a well-functioning society like Norway, we experience negative externalities from the system, they told the 500+ leaders in the room. Kristofer, best known as “Tormund Giantsbane” from Game of Thrones, and Gry, compared real life problems to the survival of heroes in the HBO hit series.  Gry asked: “How did the heroes of Game of Thrones solve the problem? Let’s take an everyday challenge from our world: we throw away a third of the food that’s produced worldwide”. Kristofer noted that Norway throws away 45 million kilos of food every day. “So what we have, instead of an army of the dead, is an army of waste,'' he said. Continuing the Game of Thrones analogy, the Hivjus pointed out that to tackle a tangible problem like this, we must understand, think and combine forces. “The heroes of the world - are all of us working towards a greater cause. Because that is what heroes do!”, concluded Gry.  Collaboration hacks In the last part of the session, two leaders, both with a track records of successful combining forces to drive action, investigated the art of truly collaborating across systems.  Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (formerly known as IKEA Group), and Ingrid Røynesdal, CEO of Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, provided the audience with practical advice to strengthen their ability to collaborate between typical and atypical actors. Brodin, who is driving IKEA’s ambition to become people and planet positive by 2030 while growing its business, used his time on stage to emphasise the importance of pushing for sustainable business practises.  “We work at a certain pace at IKEA, and it's not easy to achieve change. But we’re all working together on a shared vision, “ Brodin said.  He continued: “there are misconceptions that sustainability will come at a premium! That’s a mistake - it’s the low cost solution of tomorrow”.   The key word is trust Røynesdal set the focus on sustainable consumption. “How can we build a more sustainable future with quality of life, with less focus on buying?” she asked. She compared solving such challenges with being in a concert hall or a theatre, actively listening.  “It’s not only about finding technological solutions - it’s about how we fill ourselves. We have to listen,” she said. “To protect the world, we have to see the bigger picture - arts/education/business have all to come together to succeed at achieving these goals,'' she emphasised.  How can we orchestrate these unusual partnerships to achieve better solutions? “The key word is trust, and how we talk about each other and the whole picture - being a leader today and for the future!” Follow Xynteo Exchange 2019 with the hashtags #XynteoExchange and #XE19. Learn more about Xynteo Exchange 2019.

Closing out Square 2 at the Xynteo Exchange 2019 was a conversation between Olympic champion Johann Olav Koss, Nada Ahmed, Senior Manager at Aker Solutions and Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa. A signature of the Xynteo Exchange is the non-traditional approach, so our speakers were presented as guests on a talk show, hosted by Xynteo’s Rick Wheatley and 13-year-old Malou Wheatley, who put through the guests through a spirited game of”‘I have/I have never”.   Strive Masiyiwa with Nada Ahmed of Aker Solutions and former Olympic skating champion Johan Olav Koss. Mr Masiyiwa brought the breadth of his perspective as one of Africa’s foremost business leaders. As founder of Econet Wireless, he become one of Africa’s most prominent businesspeople (for context, his four million Facebook fans are among the most active and engaged for any business leader on social media). He spoke about his journey towards becoming a humanitarian. “I ran a company for 700 people and lots of people that were working for me were dying of HIV/AIDS - sometimes 10 employees a week getting ill”, Masiyiwa said.  He realised that education was key to helping solve these challenges. “My wife and I started to pay for children to stay in school, out of our salaries. The idea mushroomed. At the height we were supporting 40,000 kids a year in school. As we developed, we started more programs and we became engaged with education and started sending our kids to universities. It became a mission for us!”   In Masiyiwa’s view, we can succeed in tackling the challenges of a changing world by mobilising the right resources: “During the Ebola crisis, I dropped my job to mobilise money and resources to send healthcare workers to the affected areas. We ended up getting ten times the volunteers that we needed - people quit their jobs and were immediately on their way. People who stayed throughout the entire pandemic - these are the unsung heroes”, Masiyiwa said. Being brave Nada Ahmed of Aker Solutions, talked about her journey from underprivileged beginnings in Pakistan, to her current position. Now she is the founder  of the CitizensFoundation, which has resulted in 120 boys and girls going to school. Along the way, Ahmed pointed out, there were failures and lessons. Finding ways to create value Finally, former Olympic skating champion Johan Olav Koss reflected on what heroism and unlikely heroism means in today’s context for leaders.  Koss was himself a national hero, in the most traditional sense, when he won three individual Olympic gold medals on his home soil in Norway. But that was only a part of his journey. The bigger picture revealed broader motivations - and a focus on continuing to the lives of others. “As an athlete I didn’t think I could contribute much, but I could use the skills in sport to help these kids elsewhere. Koss said, “I took this discovery for granted in Norway, and it gave me a purpose to compete at the Olympics - bigger than myself. Children helped me find the reason to win!”  Koss later founded Right to Play, a humanitarian organisation that uses sports and play as a development tool for children and youth in disadvantaged areas. One example he discussed was their work in areas affected by the conflict between Pakistan and India. “We started from scratch - with networks but no funding,” Koss said. ”We went into areas like Pakistan to educate kids in where that was the last thing’s on people’s minds.”  “It’s our responsibility to create a space for opportunities for others,” Koss noted, “- if they get it, they use it”.  Koss’s message was clear, and enthusiastically received. The session, which closed out an incredible Day 1 at Xynteo Exchange 2019, provided inspiration and food for thought for the 500+ leaders and changemakers in the room. Day 2 continues with a new focus: “We must combine forces” at Square 3. Follow Xynteo Exchange 2019: #XynteoExchange and #XE19.  Learn more about Xynteo Exchange 2019.