Unlocking Unicorns by Michael Bervell

My interest in emerging markets first started with Jaqueline Novogratz's novel, A Manifesto For A Moral Revolution, in which she went through the incredibly impactful work being done by Acumen's portfolio companies. The tales of reimagining enterprise to lift people out of poverty came from countries all across like Colombia, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia. I was so motivated by the stories and visions for change from Novogratz's portfolio entrepreneurs that I couldn't stop myself from reaching out to every single one of them.

I have since made some solid headway into understanding emerging markets and the various relationships they have with developed markets. My 4 weeks of going to the offices of high-growth companies and unicorns in India supplemented theories into understandings. Traditionally, the global south leapfrogged technological advances and use them to plug gaps in their own economies. Baidu -- The Google of China, OYO -- the AirBnb of India, Careem -- the Uber of MENA... to name just a few. Because of the success of a few major unicorns in each market, most of the major developing economies have setup the basic ecosystems to support entrepreneurship. The coming decades will be a time for the West to learn from the grit, business model innovation, and unique value capturability of emerging economies.

To be clear, this is a book for inspiration, not execution. It's a narration of the past meant to help dreamers move forward and see visions in new places. While most of the "lessons" in the book are more elementary than detailed, Michael Bervell has done a good job at keeping a holistic approach to multiple diverse markets. I personally admire Bervell's motivations for writing and diligence with following up with it. It feels like something I've never had, maybe because I'm so much more comfortable keeping my writing like a stream of consciousness than a well-formed set of ideas and theses (*cough cough Arham does this a lot better than me*). At the end of this book, Bervell can confidently say he went through 388 sources -- that must feel great.

Unlocking Unicorns covers the stories of:

• Jack Ma, Alibaba (China)

  • Guanxi: your network is your net worth

  • Embrace strategic failure... fail forward with intentional learnings, useful connections, and transferrable skills

• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon (India)

  • Contrarianism is an invaluable trait when building in environments where the odds are against you

  • Being a generalist and cross-applying skills can lead to timely and unique business insights

• Michael Elegbe, Interswitch (Nigeria)

  • There are three types of seeing: Hindsight, Insight, Foresight

  • Foresight -- think big, start small, scale fast

  • Insight -- if you ask the wrong question, even if you get the correct answer, you've executed the wrong thing

  • Hindsight -- past experiences will shape the kind of insights you get which will influence the kind of foresight you have

• Mudassir Sheikha, Careem (UAE)

  • Focus on everything local: local talent, products, services.

  • Give investors homework assignments to help grow the business

  • Life is like a boat with two oars. One oar is your hard work, and the other is prayers or blessings. If you just work hard and you don't have the blessings, then you're going to go around in circles. But if you simply keep on praying, hoping the great things will happen to you, you go around in circles as well. You actually need both of these things to push ahead.

• Cher Wang, HTC (Taiwan)

  • If you have a vision, no matter how difficult things are, it will just become a process

  • Reframe problems in new ways by combining the information available to you -- being a consumer of novel industry content and developing businesses before the broader market catches wind

• Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Andela (Nigeria)

  • It is a sense of responsibility that says if my brother is down then I am down. It is a deep understanding of the idea that "I am because we are" (Ubuntu)

• Robin Li, Baidu (China)

  • The poem compares the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one's dreams while confronted by life's many obstacles

    "... Hundreds and thousands of times, for her I searched in chaos / Suddenly, I learned by chance, to where the lights were waning, and there she (Baidu) stood." Baidu, whose literal meaning is "hundred of times," represents a persistent search for the ideal.

  • The art of the pivot and finding light in a perfectly timed change of direction

• Ritesh Agarwal, OYO (India)

  • Whenever I have two opportunities, risking it versus regretting it, I will always invariably choose risking it because I will never want to regret that I did not pursue something that I really want to do.

  • Excellence lies in strategic ambition: minimizing regret, expanding world views, and trickling down inspiration.

  • Trickle-down ambition creates lasting teams

• Hooi Ling Tan and Anthony Tan, Grab (Malaysia)

  • Rather than adopting the traditional "Build, Buy, Partner" model, Grab adopts "Partner, Build, Buy." The 1+1 = 3 mentality has led to quick roll-out and govt approvals for what would normally be controversial features

  • Hyper-localization: door to door campaigns, localized marketing campaigns, and innovations that Uber hadn't yet implemented like cashless payments

  • Uber Ice Cream vs Grab Durian Fruit campaign

• Bang Si-Hyuk, BTS / Big Hit Entertainment (South Korea)

• Content-market fit: develop great content that could be tested and tweaked through social media engagement with fans --> BTS ARMY is a feedback mechanism to create music with massive appea

• Two key insights: transformed a failing Big Hit Entertainment (1) most entertainment companies do not effectively use tech to mpull people together and (2) while idols are important, the most crucial part of success for any media business are the fans.