When strategic consultant Cristie Zhao isn’t helping global businesses make their mark in China’s complex ecosystem, she serves as a judge for PIM’s Tech4Good program. The Tech4Good program is designed by PIM in partnership with Huawei’s Seeds for the Future and is focused on empowering students with the knowledge and experience to create meaningful change through technology.
To achieve this, the Tech4Good program features a robust curriculum based on methodologies such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Business Model Canvas. Students are then divided into teams and are assigned a seasoned mentor who guides them through the entire process of understanding a social/environmental problem, ideating solutions, testing, and creating a tech-based solution that can solve a pressing social problem. Then at the end of the program, the teams have the chance to pitch their solution to a distinguished panel of judges like Cristie, who evaluate their and score their pitches based on the innovation and feasibility of their projects.
Since its inception, the Tech4Good program has impacted over 6,000 students in over 100 countries and helped students create and pitch over 2,000 different social impact projects focused on tackling the SDG goals. And Cristie has been an invaluable partner in the program’s success.
Cristie’s Tech4Good Journey
Cristie’s first joined the Tech4Good program two years ago in 2021 because she saw it as a learning opportunity to help connect her to budding innovators and inventors. She explained that while traditionally it is the judge who imparts knowledge to the participants of a program, the uniqueness of Tech4Good lies in its spirit of open communication. By assessing projects from around the globe, Cristie is able to gain insights into diverse cultures and identify pressing issues that hold significance in various regions of the world. She is very impressed and thankful that PIM created a program where such meaningful conversations can happen.
For this reason, Cristie always looks forward to pitch day. When asked what criteria she keeps in mind when evaluating these projects on a time crunch, Cristie highlighted four components: target market, business model, competitive advantage, and financial matrix. For her, a well-defined project must have a sizable target market. Students must also ensure that through their business model, they convey exactly how scalable, repeatable, predictable, and eventually profitable their projects can be. Cristie also highlighted the importance of a strong unique selling proposition to underscore the project’s competitive advantage. Lastly, a concrete financial matrix, highlighting the estimated revenue, growth rate, and cash flow would be the icing on the cake for a pitch. Moreover, these social innovation projects need to have a balance between shared social impact and economic value.
When it comes to evaluating projects based on these four criteria, there are several innovative projects that have left a lasting impression on Cristie. But one in particular that has been deeply ingrained in her memory is Roll-On, which was developed by a group of undergraduate students in Ireland. Roll-On, which also won the Tech4Good Global Competition in 2022, aims to utilize technology to facilitate handicapped passengers to board trains autonomously.
What stood out to Cristie from this team was their meticulous planning of the project. The team clearly defined possible challenges at each stage of business and demonstrated to Cristie that despite the team being young, they had a clear vision and deep understanding of the problem they wanted to solve. The team also showcased a mature financial plan where they detailed their revenue streams and also explained their plans on redistributing the profit back to the disabled society. Their project comprehensively ticked all four boxes that Cristie was looking for and further instilling in Cristie the belief that this project is scalable and sustainable.
Apart from Roll-On, Cristie has also been impressed by the diversity of the various projects that she had the opportunity to judge. Among these, Crisite has observed some recurring themes with more and more projects that are focused on restoring and improving the condition of the environment with the help of technology. These include projects that deal with challenges in agriculture, climate change, the atmosphere, and pollution. “Farm-tech” is probably the next big thing for at least the next five to ten years,” says Cristie.
Cristie’s Advice for Future Social Entrepreneurs
When Cristie was asked how students could continue developing their ideas after the program, she highly encouraged the students to leverage the networks they built through the Tech4Good program. The mentors they have connected with in the program will be more than willing to help but the students must make the effort to reach out first.
Another key element that students should continue to foster is resilience. Students will need a substantial amount of resilience to navigate the murky waters of their entrepreneurial journeys while maintaining their unwavering commitment to their missions. Cristie suggests students chase any funding opportunity they come across so that financial constraints are not the limiting factor to turning their idea into reality.
Many students also fear that they do not possess the right credentials to be founders of their start-ups. To these students, Cristie says that the most important thing for a founder is to be confident in their dreams and to never believe that they are not enough. “Every morning, I wake up and remind myself that the most perfect thing about me is that I’m imperfect. My imperfection makes me unique,” says Cristie. Uncertainty is a part of the entrepreneurial journey but that should not stop the students from taking action. While confidence in their ability and idea is key to starting a project, the students must keep an open mind towards the mistakes they make along the way. The only constant in a start-up’s operation is change, thus it is important to be adaptable and “find your own rhythm along the way”.
Cristie also believes that when choosing teammates for your start-up, the primary determinant should be shared values. According to her, technical capability can always be developed but values are innate, thus you should always choose teammates who share the same values as you. She went on to state that as the start-up matures into different stages, it is important to assign roles to teammates based on their strengths and weaknesses.
In the future, social entrepreneurship will be more focused on empowering those affected by the problem to build the solution rather than bringing in external agencies. She believes those affected are more likely to have the right tools, skills, knowledge, and networks to effectively address the social and environmental challenges in their own communities. They are also much more personally invested and dedicated to developing solutions that can last.
As a parting note, Cristie advised the Tech4Good participants to take a moment to relax. Earning the opportunity to convey their ideas on such a platform is already a big achievement and thus by default, they are already all winners. And for all students and aspiring social entrepreneurs, the best time to make a change is today. Even making a small contribution can create meaningful change so take action today!
“The only constant in a start-up’s operation is change. So it is important to be adaptable and to be able to find your own rhythm along the way.”
Cristie Zhao
China
RÉSO – Founder/Managing Director
Cristie Zhao runs a Beijing-based consulting agency. Prior to starting her own company, Cristie has worked both in-house and in an agency with over 14 years of strategic consulting experience. She has helped companies across industries including technology, renewable energy, consumer goods, education and other sectors define and execute technology-driven strategies to drive profitability, launch new digital businesses, and enable large scale transformation. Cristie is obsessed with making things happen. She is a passionate, growth-driven, KPI-focused strategy expert able to attack complex tactical and communication challenges collaboratively, particularly in fast-rising tech firms in emerging markets. Globally minded, Cristie has extensive experience across 4 continents. She has spent most of her academic years in North America and is fluent in English and Chinese, she can also converse in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
