What are some of the common challenges faced by ethnically diverse entrepreneurs in Hong Kong?
On 20 September, we put that question to the mentees of our Mentorship Program for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs at our workshop on the Creative Process of Ideation.
Ideation, said Vivian Seo, Program Manager at Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI), is the creative process of forming ideas and concepts, and it is a process used for problem-solving, setting strategies, and innovation.
Needless to say, ideation is an integral step in entrepreneurship. The fact that our mentees are gathered together for our program is a testament to that: a mix of founders of incorporated companies and aspiring entrepreneurs, our mentees are here to ideate for solutions to the problems they want to solve, such as the type of entity they should establish, effective ways to raise brand awareness, or financial sustainability to maximize the impact of their work.
Having learnt the differences between divergent (generating and expanding creative ideas) and convergent (evaluating and shortlisting a few solutions) thinking, as well as vertical (abiding by the rules) and lateral (ignoring the rules) thinking, our mentees were asked to ideate for solutions to a scenario: attracting more local customers for an art studio.
A Full Whiteboard of Creative, Impactful, and Practical Ideas
On a whiteboard, our mentees stuck their Post-its notes of ideas to practise divergent thinking. After filling the whiteboard with their wildest ideas, our mentees were then asked to select the most practical, socially impactful, exciting, creative, and the craziest ideas in an exercise on convergent thinking.
But ideation is just one element of design thinking, a process that is crucial for any entrepreneur who would like to innovate a solution to intractable problems in the world. Design thinking is typically composed of five stages:
- Empathize: Understand the pain points of the people you want to serve
- Define the Problem: State the needs and problems faced by your users or beneficiaries
- Ideate: Bring out all your creative and crazy ideas
- Prototype: Create and refine your solution
- Test: Test your solution to reveal its potential, effectiveness, and limitations
Common Entrepreneurial Challenges, Upcoming FSI Workshops
In different breakouts, our mentees then worked on defining their problem statement and identifying potential solutions. For example, in the breakout where the problem statement was the lack of diversity and inclusion in Hong Kong, our mentees identified misinformation and the lack of intercultural awareness and education as the root causes of the problem. On these, some innovative and feasible solutions were brainstormed: creating an ‘Idealized AI’ to combat misinformation on online platforms, hosting intercultural awareness events such as movie screening, and humanizing dehumanized online interactions etc.
In another breakout, expanding brand reach beyond the current segment of audience was cited as a challenge by our mentees. From their brainstorming session, mentees in this breakout identified building a consistent brand message and storytelling as a solution.
But how can we tell good stories to effectively market our brand? Our mentees will learn more at the three upcoming workshops on How to Pitch Your Business, Marketing 101, and Digital Storytelling.
Amongst the most common challenges faced by our mentees seems to be getting funding as an entity that is yet to be incorporated. Perhaps because financial sustainability is so crucial to their entities’ survival, our mentees were unable to practise blue sky thinking during the breakout.
But as our mentees would soon find out at our next workshop on Funding & Financing Opportunities, held in collaboration with FundFluent, being creative and open-minded is paramount to building their funding strategy.
Stay tuned to more updates on our Mentorship Program!
*Interested in supporting our work on helping ethnically diverse entrepreneurs start and scale their business? Donate to us or get in touch with us on cbs@shared-impact.com!
