Quick Takes is our summary of news and readings in management, sustainability and intelligent enterprise.
The $200k award of the MIT Clean Energy contest is “a head fake to get entrepreneurs to eat their vegetables”
A profile of the annual MIT contest by the Boston Globe notes that of the 50 teams that been in the contest during its three years of existence, 16 are operating companies today. “It was a great proving ground,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, CEO of EnergyHub to the Globe. “As a first-time entrepreneurial team, you have a lot of bad ideas, but you get paired up with mentors, successful entrepreneurs, and business executives. They really help you focus.”
Last month, the Clean Energy Prize went to C3Nano, a Stanford University start-up that has developed a new transparent electrode material that they believe will make photovoltaic solar panels both cheaper and more efficient, according to the a contest press release.
As the Globe notes, the goal of the competition isn’t only to promote new technologies, it’s to help founders develop the skills to bring products to market. Competitors must submit a 30-page business plan. A one-minute-pitch contest and two-page executive summary competition help reinforce skill development through trial by fire.
The $200,000 prize “is a head fake to get them to eat their vegetables,” said Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. The real focus is “how do you find customers, build a team, raise money, and build a sustainable clean energy business?”
“Judges come from different backgrounds, so the questions range widely,” continues the Globe. “For example, one of this year’s judges, [Boston utility] NStar vice president of customer care Penni McLean-Conner, said she focused on target markets: ‘Who are you selling to and how are you going to persuade customers?’ Another judge, Susan Tierney, managing principal at Analysis Group, a consulting firm in Boston, said she frequently asked the entrepreneurs, ‘Is there enough here to be game-changing?’ That’s what ultimately separates winners from runners-up, judges said: the size and potential of the idea. They’re not looking for small-to-medium deals.”
Prize money comes from NStar and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Links:
- “More than the money,” Boston Globe
- MIT CEP press release on C3Nano
- General info on MIT Clean Energy Prize
Sustainability quick take from Norway’s Gro Harlem Brundtland
As her bio at BigThink.com reads, “Gro Harlem Brundtland was the youngest person and the first woman ever to hold the office of prime minister in Norway.”
Brundtland also established and chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development for the United Nations, was director-general of the World Health Organization and is Special Envoy on Climate Change for the U.N.
In this 3:19 min video from March, Brundtland says that sustainability conversations are overly focused on carbon. We should be talking about equity issues, she says, and looking to innovation and social awareness for solutions.
Links:
U.S. Air Force’s big goal: Cut by half the petroleum-based jet fuel it uses in the U.S. by 2016
Hybrid air vehicles are well underway. According to an Air Force report posted on its Web site, “an A-10 Thunderbolt II flew March 25 solely on a blend of biomass-derived fuel and conventional JP-8 jet fuel.” Jeff Braun, the Air Force’s alternative fuels certification office director, said that the Air Force Research Laboratory has invested in researching the lifecycle of greenhouse gas footprints from developing alternative fuels.
To help meet the scientific and cultural-change goals, the Air Force convened a forum in Washington May 27 and 28 of scientists, researchers and energy specialists to talk about alternative supplies.
According to the Boston Globe, the U.S. Air Force not only “spends nearly a third of its $9 billion annual energy budget on jet fuel,” but it’s “the single-largest user of fossil fuels in the federal government.” Shifting its reliance in just six years by cutting in half the petroleum-based jet fuel it uses in the U.S. by 2016 is a big goal. The Air Force’s 3-year-old Alternative Fuels Testing Office is working with the Army and Navy to certify the alternative fuels, which are mixed with conventional jet fuel, according to the Globe.
Want to know more? DoD Live has a 13-minute statement by President Obama from March 31 about the efforts. Also available are an mp3 and a 15-page pdf transcript of a DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable with U.S. Air Force Materiel Command fuels experts Jeff Braun, director of the USAF Alternative Fuels Certification Office; Tim Edwards, a senior chemical engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate; and Betty Rodriguez, chief engineer for the Alternative Fuels Certification Office.
Links:
- USAF report on A-10 Thunderbolt II flight
- “Air Force attempts to enlist alternative fuel partners,” Boston Globe
- Agenda for USAF Energy Forum, with list of speakers and session topics (pdf)
Sustainability is a megatrend, and the best guidance for dealing with it is to study past megatrends
That’s the conclusion of Daniel Esty and David Lubin of Esty Environmental Partners, writing in the May 2010 Harvard Business Review.
Their story, “The Big Idea,” posits that most executives are “flailing around” on the issue of sustainability, “launching a hodgepodge of initiatives without any overarching vision or plan,” and that they’re flailing “because they think they’re facing an unprecedented journey for which there is no road map.”
Esty and Lubin make the case that there is a road map, and it’s the map that comes from “understanding how firms won in prior megatrends.”
“In both the IT and quality business megatrends — as in others we’ve studied — the market leaders evolved through four principal stages of value creation,” they write. Stage one: focus on reducing cost. Stage two: redesign products or processes to optimize performance. Stage three: drive revenue growth by integrating innovative approaches. And stage four: differentiate value and competitiveness through a focus on those innovations in corporate culture and brand leadership. In their 4,200-word essay, Esy and Lubin detail how those four stages played out in the quality movement, specifically.
Their findings parallel those of MIT SMR’s Business of Sustainability report from last fall.
Esty and Lubin also provide advice for first movers, including this about leadership: “When CIOs first came on the scene, the role was ill-defined and narrowly focused. A limited set of problems was seen as suitable for IT solutions. Now CIOs play undisputed strategic roles with implications for all functions and business units. Strategic sustainability initiatives need similar C-level leadership. While many companies now have chief sustainability officers, the role varies tremendously from firm to firm. CEOs must make a commitment to institutionalizing this new executive position and allocating the necessary resources and responsibilities.”
Link:
- “The Big Idea,” HBR (subscription required)
Posted in: energy, high-tech start-ups, MIT, Sustainability
Copyright © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1977-2011. All rights reserved.
