Day 2 ⏐ Session 3
Visible Attractors:
how entrepreneurs make new markets
Entrepreneurs hold a unique place in systems shifting work. These trailblazing panelists have been putting mission before market, and in so doing have been defining entirely new markets, constructing new ‘minimum viable systems’, while building thriving initiatives.
In this session we heard from Nikishka Iyengar, The Guild (US); Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi, TROTRO Tractor (GH); Nora Bloch, the Centre for Community Investment (US) and Marc Ventresca, Saïd Business School, Oxford University (UK) on how entrepreneurs build systems.
“We are very fundamentally positioning ourselves to repair harms and inequities that the current system has engendered… We’re not just entrepreneurs, but we’re also community organisers… building that new narrative and building something that is so tangible, that then spreads and gets amplified.”
Resources
Nikishka Iyengar
Nora Blotch
Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi
Marc Ventresca
Quotes from the session
“It's not just that the system isn't working for black and brown people. It's that the system was designed to exploit them. And so I think if you start with that understanding, you have to know that reform is not enough. Reform is going to lead to more of the same problem. And so we very much need a complete design and building of a new system and so that's where we're at and that's what our work is focused on today.” (Nikishka Iyengar)
“We've all seen that there's actually plenty of money around and resources in the US system. It's just a question of where they're going” (Nora Bloch)
“Enabling environments… It's everything from policies and legislation to also practices and day to day processes, relationships needed, changes that make the pipeline to the vision possible. A more standard way of doing business so future projects are easier, so it's not an uphill battle every single time...” (Nora Blotch)
“...you need to find a balance and make sure that yes, the greater goal is to see the country or the community progressing. So not just you, not just your immediate family, but the collective web” (Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi)
“The recipe for entrepreneurs is often to figure out a location, a value creating stream and then do that well, and in doing that well, people find a lot of inertia... I think what we've been interested in is understanding how over time, those same entrepreneurs have to reimagine who they connect with, where they put energy. So it's not only growth in a linear sense, but it's realising if you're actually trying to change systems, you actually can't escape it.” (Marc Ventresca)
“Scaling systems is different from changing systems and I think a lot of conversation in the last few years has begun to make scale coterminous with systems change. And as valuable as that is, it's not the same thing.” (Marc Ventresca)
“Karl Popper basically said, make bold conjectures, and then find out if they're wrong, and when you find out why you're wrong, you've learned something.” (Marc Ventresca)
Emerging question
How do you balance the work of running a business and the work of shaping the system that you’re a part of that also needs to change to do the work that you're doing?
