Young entrepreneurs should ‘think big’, but stay focused

RWANDA has an incredibly powerful development story that sets the stage for ‘thinking big’. Vision 2020 set out to transform Rwanda from a nation with per capita income of about US$220 per year back in 2000, into a middle income status economy with US$ 900 per year which will require an annual growth rate of at least 7 per cent. Such is the confidence in the success achieved so far that this per capita target was recently raised to US$1,240. Underlying this, however, Vision 2020 is about challenging the nation to redefine itself in a positive manner through creating psychological as well as structural foundations for future prosperity. This level of ambition has clearly proved infectious. In Musanze, I recently spotted a ‘Vision 2020’ branded restaurant and, in Kacyiru, there is a ‘Vision 2020’ shoe shop although I may be mistaken as admittedly the latter was glimpsed on a passing moto trip.Yet this enthusiasm goes beyond simple branding gimmicks. Through my work with the African Innovation Prize in the last three years, I have been fortunate to meet lots of highly ambitious and intelligent young Rwandans. Moreover, during this time I have been able to see how students generate their ideas, watch as those ideas develop and ultimately help try and turn some of those ideas into reality.As a result, I have received a minor snapshot of the entrepreneurial Rwandan student mind at work.Amongst the very many fantastic ideas that these entrepreneurial minds produce two common tendencies continue to emerge.Students either think too small or too broadly. Let’s first examine what I mean by ‘thinking too small’. Despite the broad scope and encouragement to ‘think big’ of ‘Vision 2020’ many Rwandan students continue to focus their energies on small problems and local markets. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this in theory but in order to rise to the challenge of ‘Vision 2020’ young people need to find solutions to the big problems and bring these solutions to regional and global markets. For example, if your local community has a rubbish disposal problem why not consider exploring whether this is also a broader national or regional problem and design your value proposition accordingly. Adopting this ‘think big’ mentality is even more important in the ICT sector where the internet provides you with direct, low cost access to markets across the rest of the world.When ‘thinking big’, however, it’s crucial that this thinking remains focused. The other primary tendency of the student entrepreneurial minds I have encountered is the temptation to come up with businesses that try and do everything. In other words you become a ‘Jack of All Trades but a Master of None’. The classic example of this is the all conquering I.T. services firm. This heroic I.T. services firm is going to provide the fastest fixed and mobile broadband coverage, the flashiest website and graphic design AND the most reliable PC and laptop repair service all for an unbeatable price! Obviously this sounds fantastic but in reality setting out from the beginning to be competitive let alone profitable in all these areas is near impossible. The example of Google is perhaps the best case of starting out focused whilst maintaining a larger vision. Google began with the sole aim of creating the most effective algorithm to search and index the internet in order to improve the utility of the internet. From this vision, however, Google has gone on to shape almost every interaction we have on the internet from email, to videos and through the recent launch of the ‘Chrome book’ now even wants to sell you the very laptop that you will be browsing the internet on!The merits of ‘thinking big’ whilst staying focused are thus clear for all to see.It’s worth emphasizing I am not seeking to prescribe a ‘correct’ way to approach thinking about entrepreneurship and I certainly can’t claim to possess a magic personal formula for entrepreneurial success even if such a thing existed.What I can say, however, is that all the best ideas and businesses I have seen, both in Rwanda and elsewhere, started out by thinking big but remained clearly focused on the specific problem they set out to solve. The author is Co-founder and Trustee of the African Innovation Prize.