With the recent launch of “Asia Pacific Future 100” by Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship (FYSE), i-genius interviews Executive Director, Andrea Krause to find out what all the excitement is about.
i-genius: Tell us about FYSE and what is “Asia Pacific Future 100”?
Andrea: FYSE started by providing social entrepreneurship courses to university students in China. While teaching those courses we realized that a crucial step in developing more young entrepreneurs is missing in Asia: raising entrepreneurship awareness among young people and inspiring a large number of young people to become entrepreneurs, because only than we can train a crucial mass of aspiring entrepreneurs. In order to focus on awareness raising and inspiration we started the Future 100 program, with its first round implementation in Asia Pacific in 2009/10 and subsequent plans to take it to other regions within the next 5 years.
i-genius: Who is eligible to apply and what do they win if they are selected?
Andrea: Any young person of maximum 30 years of age who founded an NGO, business or social enterprise and has been running this venture for at least 12 month. For the Asia Pacific program only young entrepreneurs from this region are eligible to apply. Selected fellows will be profiled as positive role models to young people and gain benefits through far-reaching promotion, mentorship, consultancy and by building their network with other young entrepreneurs.
i-genius: Why does Asia Pacific region need social entrepreneurs?
Andrea: Many young people in Asia Pacific, like young people in other regions in the world, suffer from an employment crisis with very limited employment opportunities being available to them. On the other social and environmental issues are still prevalent and require a new kind of entrepreneur, who is passionate to bridge disparities, to solve social and environmental issues while approaching the solution with a business mindset. Becoming social entrepreneurs is a solution for young people to find their path into meaningful and impactful employment while making a living for themselves.
i-genius: Do entrepreneurs have a good image in the region?
Andrea: It really depends which country. We find that young people in India have a very positive image of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as a career path, while it is definitely not top of the career list for young people in most other countries like China, Japan, Korea or Indonesia as either entrepreneurs have a really bad image in those countries, as successful entrepreneurs are repeatedly involved into various scandals or simply because no young entrepreneurs are prominent in this societies to solve as positive role models to young people.
i-genius: How do you think the “Asia Pacific Future 100” initiative will really help young social entrepreneurs?
Andrea: Asia Pacific shall create a twofold impact: firstly it should promote young social entrepreneurs as successful entrepreneurs and managers. Young entrepreneurs in Asia often face various challenges due to their age, and by profiling them with their success stories we aim to influence the perception that young entrepreneurs cannot be reliable business partners, suppliers, recipients of donations etc.
Secondly, while young entrepreneurs are often passionate to start their own venture, they often hit early on a ceiling where their lack of business knowledge and experience binders their business growth. Selected fellows will benefit throughout the fellowship year from mentorship and consultancy to improve and grow their venture and to break through that ceiling.
i-genius: Your promotional material talks about the need to develop entrepreneur’s “soft skills.” What do you mean by this?
Andrea: Its not only the business knowledge that will help young entrepreneurs to succeed but also their soft skills in terms of their communication, self – esteem, leadership and management skills. During our workshop and the fellowship conference we will largely focus on developing those soft skills in additional to business knowledge such as marketing, finance, sales techniques etc.
i-genius: Rank in order of importance: Inspiring role models, developing self confidence, developing management skills, and developing ‘soft skills’
Andrea: Inspiring through role models, developing self confidence, developing ‘soft skills’, developing management skills
i-genius: It’s hot now in Beijing. How do you keep cool?
Andrea: My fridge is full of cold Coke. Shame on my unhealthy lifestyle. ☺
i-genius: Thank you!
**i-genius is an official media partner for Asia Pacific Future 100. Find out more on http://www.fyse.org
