Recently, I was very fortunate to meet with Calvin Chin on his recent trip to Los Angeles. Calvin is the CEO and Founder of a truly innovative Chinese company called Qifang. Qifang is an open platform and online community with the singular purpose of giving everyone a way to pay for their education. Qifang provides student loans by connecting borrowers and lenders through advanced web and community technologies.
As described in The Economist, Qifang takes existing peer-to-peer lending models and adds a twist. Borrowers in China using Qifang must provide family details when getting a loan, which is additional social pressure that keeps borrowers from defaulting and losing face in the community. Additionally, risk for lenders is reduced because money is paid directly to the educational institutions.
Currently, Qifang focuses on students at Chinese 3 or 4-year universities or colleges and post-graduate training programs and their tuition needs. Any Chinese undergraduate who has received an admission letter or valid student ID can post their needs at Qifang. Lenders are banks, companies, non-government organization, non-profit organizations, philanthropists and individuals seeking investment returns. In the future, and in strict adherence to relevant national laws and regulations, Qifang will support other education types and other education related expenses with funding from a broad array of sources.
Despite the worldwide attention from publications like The Economist and BusinessWeek, as well as an aggressive growth plan, Calvin’s mission remains quite simple – education for all.
Calvin grew up in Michigan, was educated in the Ivy League, and worked on Wall Street. Now, he’s using all of these experiences to help create positive change through an innovative business model. Calvin is the epitome of a globally competitive entrepreneur!
In today’s eco-friendly world, both companies and consumers are looking at ways to be friendlier to the environment. Big-box retailers are systematically rolling out programs with suppliers that require reductions in packaging content, as well as recycled content requirements.
These requirements are environmentally beneficial, but what if the packaging would have secondary uses?
Recently, one such innovation really impressed me. Over the past year, I have been in search of innovative packaging for wine bottles. My company focuses on selling California wines and specialty foods in China, and one key differentiator is packaging. In the wine industry, I found that it was much of the same in the way of packaging. I found many variations of paper tubes and wood boxes, but nothing really struck me as unique or innovative.
A customer referred me to ICON Design Group. ICON had developed a patented wine rack that blew my mind. The wine package holds 2 bottles of wine in a very convenient carrier. Once you get the wine carrier home, you can disassemble the carrier to create a wine rack that sits on your table, bar, or counter. Unlike other packages that are discarded, these racks serve a secondary purpose.
ICON has thought of everything. The carriers can be palletized without damaging the individual bottles, and the rack is structurally very sound. ICON actually built a “master wine rack” with a glass table top for a recent trade show that withstood the test and showed the innovation behind the design. The racks are typically laser-engraved or screen printed with a winery’s logo, so that the winery gets continued brand exposure. The best part of the wine rack – IT”S MODULAR! That’s right, your wine rack can expand every time that you get another shipment of wine.
There are many variations of the packaging; one unique design includes a wine starter kit that features a bottle of wine, 2 glasses, and a corkscrew. ICON has secondary use packaging designs for other products ranging from food to fashion.
It’s no wonder that ICON has the attention of some of the leading wineries and consumer product companies. MY BOLD PREDICTION is that we will be seeing much more secondary use packaging for some of today’s most popular products in the near future.
Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times about governments encouraging innovation. I agree with the attendees of the meeting put on by John Kao, a former professor at Harvard Business School and founder of the Large Scale Innovation. They said the ideal role for the government is one of “stewardship,” not command and control.
INNOVATION — the tricky, many-step process by which ideas become products and services — has typically been seen, studied and celebrated at the micro level, as a pursuit for entrepreneurs and clever companies.
But governments are increasingly wading into the innovation game, declaring innovation agendas and appointing senior innovation officials. The impetus comes from two fronts: daunting challenges in fields like energy, the environment and health care that require collaboration between the public and private sectors; and shortcomings of traditional economic development and industrial policies.
1: the introduction of something new2: a new idea, method, or device :
Innovation, innovation, innovation. How many times have you heard that we need to focus on innovation in order to become more globally competitive? I couldn’t agree more with this statement, and I am fascinated by the innovations that continually change our lives. From a simple apple slicer to the iPhone, I am an avid user and follower of all things that are innovative.
Innovative products and ideas do not always have to be high tech or involve technology. Here’s a very simple concept that I came across recently when visiting a friend at the Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. This is a beautiful hospital complete with ocean and harbor views in most rooms; however, the most interesting aspect was the parking garage. After I parked in the garage, I walked to the elevator and found a pad of notes that displayed the floor number. You can take one of these notes and put it in your pocket when you leave the garage. When you return to the garage, you have a nice little reminder of what floor you parked on.
What comes to my mind is taking this concept one step further and selling advertising on the back of each piece of paper. Since these papers are used in high quantities, it could be a value to local merchants. We’ll see if that happens in the future…
Innovation is everywhere, and I am in search of it. If you have an interesting innovation (from software to services) that can enhance or change our lives, I would love to hear about it. Please email me at brian@globallycompetitive.com.
