Starting a Filipino Technopreneurial Revolution

Amid the rising oil prices, economic instability, political upheavals and lumbering infrasturcture development, the Filipino people is faced with hopelessness in creating a better future for the Philippines. Scholars and economic experts have repeatedly emphasized the need for better roads, production facilities, availability of sources of capital, better market linkages and numerous economic and political reforms to set the country towards the path of economic recovery. However, despite efforts by the government, it is difficult to imagine, much more believe, that these reforms could be implemented in the next five years. It is even sadder that we can't see those reforms happening even in the next ten or twenty years.

Faced with this scenario, most Filipinos turn to a life as immigrants or workers in other countries. Their hope of a "magandang buhay and magandang kinabukasan para sa kanilang mga anak" (better life and future for their children) lie in moving abroad. But taking Filipinos out of the Philippines doesn't mean that you could take the Philippines out of the Filipinos. There are millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and Filipino immigrants abroad but they all yearn to someday return to the Philippines when they retire or when economic conditions are better. How could they ever return with our bleak economic outlook?

One answer, we at the Pilosopong Tasyo Technopreneurs' Cooperative believe, is 'philosophical' in nature. If we can't do anything with our physical reality, we can always change how we view them and how we react to them. Problems are said to be opportunities in disguise.

We offer an alternative approach to the problem which we can't solve using the current industrial economy concepts. We must realize that the world has entered a new age over the past decade. From an industrial economy, we have now entered the knowledge economy. The basis of wealth and wealth production has changed from availability of manufacturing resources to access to knowledge and information. Because of the power of the Internet and advances in transportation and communication, resources are now available to small entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers with little capital, that was impossible before.


About this Blog

The transition from being a scientist to an engineer to an entrepreneur is not an issue of skills, it is an issue of mindset. Each of this has a different answer to the question: "What do you want to accomplish in life?" A scientist who learns how to build a computer instead of just dealing with photons and electrons is not an engineer. He must change his view from undertaking research for science sake to using science for improving people's lives. An engineer who learns accounting and knows the 3R's of Marketing is not an entrepreneur, he must want to build a company and create wealth. It was a difficult transition. It might seem like common sense but these concepts were not obvious for a scientists or an engineer. This blog aims to guide and change the mindset or philosophy of fellow scientists or engineers who wish to follow the entrepreneurial path.

A boat can't fight the current if only one person is rowing. It must be a joint effort of everyone on board and it is not enough that everyone is paddling. They must also paddle in the same direction. Just as it is important to set the mindset of individual scientists/engineers/technopreneurs, the mindset of the people around them, working with them and supporting them, must also be changed.

A castle in the sky, no matter how beautiful and grand it is, wouldn't last unless it's foundations are strong. We need to lay the Groundwork for the Technopreneurial Revolution which is the Alternative Catch-Up Strategy. Using this strategy, we could build a tradition of developing better products and companies at a rate faster than our Asian neighbors. We can start where we are now, far behind and slow to progress, but gradually building momentum until we eventually catch-up and take a share of the global market.

We hope that the government, academe and industry will one day be able to work out a system to support each other towards the promotion of technology-based entrepreneurship. It is impossible for any individual to change the government or change how the academe works or change how companies conducts their business. But if we can't do that, let us start with smallest possible nucleus of change -- the technopreneurs. This is the Guerilla Technopreneur's Handbook to the Knowledge Economy. Using concepts of guerilla warfare, an individual technopreneur could harness limitless potential through the power of the knowledge economy.


The Technopreneurial Revolution

The Technopreneurial Revolution is about economic development, harvesting the technological capability of our scientists and engineers, tapping our natural resources, creating jobs, improving rural areas and global competitiveness. But beyond all these, the simple idea behind the Technopreneurial Revolution is the Creation of Money. What fueled the growth of Silicon Valley is that it is the Greatest Legal Mean of Money Creation in the World. If we are to create a Philippine Silicon Valley, we should strive to make Philippine technopreneurship also as the Greatest Legal Mean of Money Creation in the World.

This Blog aims to serve as a guide, a Handbook, for technopreneurs to use the advances in information and communication technologies and the Internet, moving alone or as part of a technopreneurial team, to collaborate and coordinate assistance from different groups for the purpose of forming an enterprise. With this guide, he will be unburdened by bureaucracy the limitation of limited capital through access to an unlimited amount of knowledge resources. This will give the Filipino technopreneur unprecedented business agility and innovativeness to develop an 'unfair' business advantage. This new concept is the key that will allow Filipino technopreneurs with limited financial capability to compete with big established companies abroad.

It is organized in six parts. The first part aims to set initial philosophical ideas on technopreneurship. Most critical of this is the Re-definition of term. Next we set forth an Alternative Catch-up Strategy that will allow entrepreneurs not just to become innovative but to innovate faster and better than entrepreneurs from other countries. The 3rd and 4th parts are on Untapped Potentials or resources available to the technopreneur but is usually ignored. It also discusses two methodologies for implementing the Catch-Up Strategy: the "Two weeks is a long time" Product Development Methodology and the concept of the Networked Company. The 5th part narrates concepts of Guerilla Technopreneurship. If we confront established industry players head on, we will definitely loose since they are bigger and has a lot more resources than start-up entrepeneurs. Through the concepts of guerilla warfare, they could carve a niche market and find areas and strategies to grow. The last part is about ideas to Sustain the Revolution.

If we can enable just one small Filipino company competitive in the global arena, we could inspire other small enterprises into believing that they too can compete. We envision a future where globally competitive Filipino companies will eventually be a norm rather than exemptions. For this, we are laying the 'philosophical' foundations of the Filipino Technopreneurial Revolution. It is just ideas but we hope it could lead to action. Creating a better Philippines. Creating a better future.