Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

But one thing is for sure: in this world, nothing is stable; it will always have ups and downs; nothing can be smooth and permanent!

From our life experiences and lessons learnt, we recommend embracing and empowering a few core values that can play a pivotal role in life, helping maintain better stability and dignity.

• Integrity
• Excellence
• Responsiveness
• Creativity & Team
• Performance
• Transparency
• Improvement
• Commitment
• Quality and Safety
• Cooperation and Diversity
• Dedication
• Beliefs and Respect

These 12 core values do not need to be applied at the same time, but if we can embrace them, they will reflect in our lives and our progress.

If we consider similar situations for investors and entrepreneurs, we can proceed with the demonstration and analysis below.

 

Investors’ Perspectives: Triple 3 Model


By default, investors feel threatened by 3Us: Uncertain risks, Unmeasured timeline, and Unknown return. This means investors are not aware of the return, duration, payback period, or risks. Once investors are convinced to invest and put their trust in specific start-ups, they begin to address their concerns and consider exit plan strategies, continuity, management, and governance through engagement. Investors need to see, foresee, or forecast their return on investment and secure a safe path of departure from the venture; other than this, they also tend to structure their management framework with the start-ups in a consistent and continued manner.

Lastly, once investors have made up their minds to invest, are convinced about the flow of operations and their engagement, they dive into the niche and focus on information flow, portfolio and competition management. That means this stage, investors and start-ups discuss the information exchange mechanism, the way to build a business portfolio to enrich business prospects and valuations, and review the market, understand the level of competition, and tackle it fairly.

 

Investors’ Perspectives: KPIs

 

 More or less, different investor groups consider the above indicators as their key performance factors. The arrows show the expectation of the investors; for instance, in Generally, they expect to increase their market positioning, and they would like to ensure Higher investment security, better return on investment, and scope of building the future human capital, expanding in the agility framework, adapting and then increasing the usage of information technology, always considering societal values and their impacts through actions, gradual improvements in profit-making ability, and more operational and business enhancements and expansions for growth, ultimately increasing the ecosystem by considering all factors and ensuring fair contributions and impacts. Meanwhile, investors also expect a reduction in their payback period and waste minimisation.

 

Investors’ Perspectives: Bridging 2Ps (Pains & Priorities)

The question is how to bridge the gaps? From the investors’ perspective, they need to align. The core corporate vision is national in scope and a global phenomenon. Moreover, they may strategically think of articulating a set of investors in one pool so that investment can always have a flow in action, and it impacts the movement of the circular economy. In regards to approaching this kind of strategic solution, investors may need to consider in building partnership-mentality with the start-ups, where they will provide freedom to the start-ups for their participation in the thinking process; also, they need to allow start-ups to share any innovative ideas and enlighten themselves with adequate understanding and encouraging any initiatives to enhance diversification without causing any destruction from the mainstream objectives. Here, investors need to value the values of independence, transformation and expansion for the start-ups.

  

Start-ups’ Perspectives: 7-Generic with 4-Identical Niche

 

Start-ups initially believe that sufficient capital can resolve all their issues. They would like to ensure smooth cash flow, a sustainable business environment, and less confusion. They also prefer to gather and gain experience, even at the cost of expenses. They expect quick wins; after witnessing wins, they certainly wish to grow faster and faster; some behavioural analysts call it greediness.

 

Start-ups’ Perspectives: Behavioural Transformation

For start-ups, a behavioural transformation is required. They need to have a good grip on the process and establish a strong ownership. In business process management, it is expected to see the start-up’s role as initiating business stability, which will play a balancing role for the relevant stakeholders, including investors. The sooner the venture sets its financial pace, the more likely sustainability is. At the same time, start-ups need to maintain basic practices in their professional dealings with investors; they are always looking for ways to reduce costs. As they are new to the market, goodwill and reputation are crucial to them; they would like to build those through trust with stakeholders and customers. It is a long journey: creating infrastructure, accelerating business growth, stabilising business performance, and then stabilising business performance. Both investors and start-ups, especially start-ups, need to create awareness about their initiatives and prepare themselves with caution. It is essential to mention that start-ups, at least for the first five years of their business, need to apply an agile strategy to standardise their processes through trial and error.

 

Start-ups’ Perspectives: Bridging 2Ps (Pains & Priorities)

 

It is understood that there are a few obvious and uncertain pains and priorities that start-ups need to address throughout their operations. For start-ups, it's better to consider the 3Gs: Grooming, Gaining, and Growing. That means they need to be well-guided and groomed by the investors, acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and mindset to deal with all pains and priorities, and also start-ups. The primary focus is to gain financially, stabilise the business, improve market positioning, and grow the business gradually. In this regard, start-ups need to align with multiple missions: the stakeholders’ perspective, the investors’ perspective, and their own perspective as a start-up to be authentic in the process. As a result, it is wise for start-ups to bridge their gaps by adapting to situations, embracing others through inclusion, and initiating natural business growth based on goodwill and organisational reputation. In this context, start-ups need to embrace and empower with three core values: branding, commitment, and sustainability.

 

Based on the Pains & Priorities of Investors & Start-ups 

Based on the pains and priorities of investors and start-ups, when we try to find a mutual ground of interests to bridge their initiatives and perspectives, we find a few common key focus areas which can be nurtured and well-tackled with core organisational values:

• Funding (Core Value: Integrity)
• Operations (Core Value: Excellence)
• Growth (Core Value: Responsiveness)
• Capacity Building (Core Value: Creativity & Team)
• Adapting Innovation (Core Value: Performance)
• Market Research (Core Value: Transparency)
• Profitability (Core Value: Improvement)
• Social Impact (Core Value: Commitment)
• Sustainability (Core Value: Quality and Safety)
• Agile Strategy (Core Value: Cooperation and Diversity)
• Decision Making (Core Value: Dedication)
• Cultural Alignment (Core Value: Beliefs and Respect)

 

Connecting 12-Value within UN 17-SDG to establish Value-based Sustainability Ecosystem

 

 

Therefore, the ultimate truth of success might be reflected in the connecting, embracing, and empowerment of core values with personal values, organisational values, and values that prosper within the socio-economic perspective.

Let us carry forward this food for thought and sentiment, without being judgmental, and keep it for future pathways and its applications.