Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble Problems - Tides Canada

Growing OpportunityThe Business Case‘Revolution ThroughCompetition’X Prize Foundation77www.xprize.orgPanel 3.1Time to s-t-r-e-t-c-hA significant proportion of those wespoke to outside the fields of social andenvironmental entrepreneurship see a keyimpact of all this effort as being a usefulspotlighting of the need for all parts ofbusiness to be more innovative andentrepreneurial in meeting social,environmental and governance challenges.But for a real stretch, try the X PrizeFoundation, which really encouragesinnovators and entrepreneurs to thinkoutside the box. 77 They create and manageprizes that encourage innovators to solvesome of the greatest challenges facing theworld today. Their motto: ‘RevolutionThrough Competition.’ Now the Foundationis moving beyond aerospace (its originalarea of focus) to tackle some of thechallenges that social and environmentalentrepreneurs are concerned about.We asked Tom Vander Ark, the Foundation’sPresident, what lay behind this shift.First, how did the decision to move beyondaerospace happen? ‘Larry Page, Google cofounder,believes in the power of prizes andjoined after we awarded the Ansari X Prizefor space,’ Vander Ark recalled. ‘He thenencouraged the board to consider a broadermission.’ And how are the next generationpriorities being selected? ‘We’re attemptingto identify the world’s biggest problems,particularly those susceptible to innovationthrough competition, where it’s possibleto set a difficult but achievable objective,and where it’s likely that we can secure aprize purse.’Evolving at the moment is the AutomotiveX Prize, which will encourage car designersworldwide to design, build and sell superefficientcars that — crucially — peoplewant to buy. Why?29There are at least five reasons, they say.First, ‘because 40% of world oil outputfuels the automotive industry — and, inthe US, 65% of oil consumption is in thetransportation sector.’ Second, because‘automotive emissions contributesignificantly to global climate change.’Third, because ‘there are no mainstreamconsumer choices for clean, super-efficientvehicles that meet market needs forprice, size, capability, image, safety, andperformance.’ Fourth, because theautomotive industry is stalled — legislation,regulation, labor issues, manufacturingcosts, legacy costs, franchise laws, obsoletetechnology, consumer attitudes, and manyother factors have combined to blockbreakthroughs. Fifth, because ‘increases inengine efficiency have been “spent” onincreased vehicle power, acceleration, andweight, rather than on increased fueleconomy.’ And sixth, and fundamentally,‘because we believe there is greatopportunity for technological change.’The obvious next question: is it any harderto pick suitable targets for social andenvironmental challenges? ‘Setting goalsand writing rules is hard in all cases —it’s the secret to a great prize,’ VanderArk answered. ‘The difference betweeninnovation and revolution is large scaleadoption. We attempt to create goals,rules, competitions, and public campaignsthat result in revolutionary change, notjust awards for good ideas.’Any guesses as to where all this is goingto take the Foundation? ‘By next year,’ hesaid, ‘we will have launched prizes in fourareas (space, genomics/medicine,transportation/energy, and education/poverty reduction), will have full prizeteams, and well-developed shared services.By 2009, we will have developed severalrevenue engines that will make it asustainable world class prize platform.’Watch this space.