Andreas Brenner: Can you briefly summarize the history of SUN_D again? How and when did you come up with the idea?
Jonas Burki: The idea of SUN_D was born at the beginning of my diploma year in late 2006 being a graduating student at Institute HyperWerk at the Academy of Art and Design of the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). Each student had to phrase his core question about what he/she will research for the degree. Thus my question was: how can we display information utilizing light and shade by means of mechanical manipulation.
After I had phrased three concrete Ideas and built a functioning prototype for each, I applied for the NEXT IDEA Art and Technology Grant of ARS Electronica and luckily I won the tendered 4 months scholarship at Ars Electronica Futurelab. Futurelab provided human and financial resources as well as their knowledge to implement my concept and develop a system which then was presented at the international Ars Electronica Festival in Linz in September 2007.

A.B.: When was the first time that you realized the economic potential of your “arts project”?
J.B.: During my time at the institute I have always dreamed to come up with a diploma idea which will have enough commercial potential in order to be continued after finishing studies. But it was at the Ars Electronica Festival when I first realized that there may be a real economic potential. Although I’m still doubting from time to time, the feedback from coaches and partners has been way better than I expected so far. So I keep meeting people and one thing follows the other.

A.B.: What are the most important headlines we are going to read about SUN_D in the near and mid-run future?
J.B.: I don’t think my project will generate huge headlines, but I hope to give people an input and to change their way of thinking. The combination of existing things bears a lot of potential, that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel to create something new. Just take two existing things and combine them to one.

A.B.: Looking back, did the participation in the Synetgies event create any value for you?
J.B.: I enjoy meeting creative people in general. I definitely met them in my first Synetgies visit. I was surprised about how open and uncomplicated the group was. After my presentation some came up with new ideas and their feedback was very useful. It’s always great to talk with competent people which are new to my project.

A.B.: Thank you very much for briefly answering the questions. Anything you’d like to add?
J.B.: I would like to thank Synetgies for the valuable contacts I was able to get through this network. But let me add one thing: An idea is an idea only if other people know about it. Until then you have no plan whether it’s worth to invest your time. Don’t be afraid that your idea might be stolen by mean people. Just spread your message and you’ll find what you have been searching for.

© Andreas for Synetgies, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Featured, Sustainable development, Technology.

Entering the room at the main building of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Dr. Jane Goodall raised interest of many school children of international schools who seemed to be engaged in her project “Roots and Shoots“. The slightly built woman got invited to the stage by the dean of the faculty of social sciences and immediately started talking in a calm and friendly voice:

Giving the audience a very brief overview of her recent engagements, she started her presentation with greeting the audience in “chimpanzeeish”, or as she would probably prefer to express it: Had this sound have been invented by a human, would it’ve been called “hello”. This way of expressing her observations is what, as she claimed, had enabled her to start and was a key success factor during her scientific career. She participated in a PhD program without having any prior academic experience. Until this point of time she had only been giving chimpanzees names and had been describing in her own words what she had seen. Since chimpanzees showed very human-like behaviours and capabilities, the definition of human had to be re-thought. It was not believed that animals could have emotions and as Dr. Goodall states, at this time it was not known that:

• chimpanzee DNA differs only one percent from the human DNA
• chimpanzees have the same immune system as humans and can therefore receive and distribute all human infectious diseases
• the anatomies of chimpanzee and human brains are almost identical
• blood transfers from chimpanzees to humans is possible if they have the same blood group

What’s the story behind this “living legend”?

Being born into a poor family in London just before the Second World War, the young Jane Goodall was dreaming of living like Tarzan in the jungle. She said that the most important thing her “wonderful mother” had taught her, was that if one really wants to reach any goal, then one’d had to:

• Really want something
• Take advantage of opportunities
• Work hard
• Dream

You have to really want something

Since she was young, her mother had provided her with books about animals. Moving from the city of London to a farm, Jane, for the first time in her life, got in contact with real animals. At the age of four the wanted to explore the origin of the eggs and after several fails, finally hid from the hens in the stall in order to observe them. From that point of time, she says, she wanted to live with animals. The story of Tarzan and Jane was it, what set the course for her to become one of the first to examine chimpanzee lifes. Ever since she deeply wanted to live in the jungle.

You have to take advantage of opportunities

As Jane’s friend’s family moved to Kenya, Jane got invited and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Due to a lack of financial resources she had to take on a job as a waitress and save the tip to finance the trip. Finally having arrived in Africa she got to know her later mentor Louis Leakey, who hired her and let her fulfill her childhood dream of living with chimpanzees, which, at this time, was an uncommon job for females to do. She had no prior experience and therefore just noted what she saw and how she perceived it - probably the reason for why the meaning of the word human had to be redefined.

You have to work hard

Jane worked at a a family hotel where she made “sure, that by the end of the week everyone would know that [she] was saving [her] tip for a trip to Africa in order to get a higher tip or to get a tip at all.” Later on she had to fight for the funding of her first research project and found herself in a situation that sounded similar to the one of truly innovative startups looking for venture capital: She had no experience, was too young to have any credibility and had an idea to do something that nobody had ever done before and most people considered to be absurd. But, most importantly: She got the money and only half a year later she got backed by National Geographic. As one can guess from her current reputation, she was right and the early investors took the right decision in financing the young Jane. Until today (her 73rd and her foundations’ 30th year of existence), she keeps travelling in her function as embassador of Roots and Shoots, as UN embassador for peace and as a researcher.

You have to dream

Since being a child, Dr. Jane Goodall had the dream of once living with the animals in the jungle. She kept dreaming and her dream has evolved to a vision of every species of life living in a balanced world, where humans do take care of the environment and do not fight wars. She dreams of everyone taking action with the means he or she’s got and in the field of action that suits him or her best. According to Jane, when dreaming it is most important to share the dream, work hard to realize it and keep an open eye on opportunities that arise in one’s environment.

Dr. Jane Goodall ended her presentation by asking herself and answering one of the most important question people have raised in the past:

Jane, considering the mess in today’s environment, do you still hope?

And she wouldn’t be called an entrepreneur if she didn’t keep on hoping (or shall I say dreaming?) for the following four reasons:

• The tremendous enthusiasm of young people
• The evolution of the extraordinary human brain with intellectual capabilities that enable us to realize the mess
• The human capacity to forgive
• The amount of passionate and dedicated people that surround her

Her final call went out to everyone to take action in whatever way he or she could, be it in the framework of her organization roots and shoots, by supporting any other organization or by just taking action for the sake of making the world a better place.

Further information about the story of Jane Goodall can be found at:

• www.janegoodall.org
• Wikipedia article about Jane Goodall
• www.rootsandshoots.org

Andreas Brenner ist currently completing his bachelor degree in general business administration at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) by spending one semester abroad at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is a co-founder of Synetgies.

© Andreas for Synetgies, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Featured, Sustainable development.

Please note that the following numbers are rough estimates with lots of potential rounding errors. Just interpret them as a rough indication that might point in the right direction - not more and not less.

Facebook
Andreas stated, that Facebook is worth:
- $50 Mio. per employee
- $217 per unique visitor
- a hundred times it’s revenue
- five hundred times it’s income (Google 52 times, Microsoft 22.5 times)

Alibaba.com
(approximate market cap of $25.7 bio.)
- $66 mio. per employee
(careful: based on figure from 2006)
- $141 per unique visitor
- 20 times it’s 2006 sales (2006 sales growth was 68%)
- 306 times it’s 2007 projected profit (Source: FT asia)
- 55 times it’s 2008 projected profit

Alibaba.com, part of the Alibaba group that also includes auction website Taobao and e-payment system Alipay, raised US$1.5bn in the world’s biggest internet offering since Google’s flotation in 2004.
(Source: FT asia)

PetroChina
Note that the PetroChina stocks are partly listed at the Hong Kong stock exchange and therefore (Mainlanders are not allowed to buy stock in Hong Kong and vice versa) the valuation here is far below the one in Shanghai. I use 1 trillion USD as the approximate cumulative value of PetroChina.
- $2.3 Mio. per employee
(1 trillion divided by the number of employees as of december 31st, 2006)
- $944 per barrel of oil equivalent produced (total crude oil and gas)
- 11.2 times it’s revenue
- 51.5 times it’s 2006 profit

Even though the numbers might not look as odd as Facebook’s, note that it’s worth almost as many times it’s profit as the often “bubbleized” Google and that it’s worth $944 per barrel of oil equivalent produced, which, in my opinion, is quite a lot. Furthermore Facebook still didn’t go public and therefore the valuation is just a rough estimation whereas PetroChina has gone public and these numbers are facts!

© Andreas for Synetgies, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us digg
Who's linking ? Technorati BlogPulse Google
Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under Sustainable development.