The College of Management at the National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) aspires to be the model of business management education in Asia. The school is committed to the education of ethics, social responsibility, sustainability, and cultivating relevant talents. Since 2018, NSYSU has published its annual report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for four consecutive years. The Office of Sustainability and Social Responsibility (ORSA) was also established to support NSYSU’s vision. To raise the school’s effort in social responsibility, the Office of Career Development under the College, assisted the students and the Hult Prize Club in organizing a sharing on “Primer on College Life: Impact Investment” on 5th October 2022.

We were pleased to have the Co-founder/CEO of Taiwan Impact Investment Association cum Associate Professor of Fu Jen Catholic University, Mr. Dao K. Wu, share with the students his experience in impact investment.

Starting his sharing with the quote “opportunity is an unmet need”, he goes on to explain the meaning behind this through a case study, “D.light”. “It's really hard to imagine a day without electricity at all, but there are 800 million to 1 billion people in places like this…’’. This is where D.light seized the opportunity to venture into this market. Starting back in 2007, D.light saw the lighting needs of low-income households and decided to use the latest solar and LED technology to design portable, energy-efficient, and affordable for the poor. D.light raised about US$100 million in capital from many commercial and impact investors which allowed them to serve up to 5,000 distributors and approximately 100 million people. D.light’s service helped addressed several issues classified under the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” such as “reduce disease and death (SDGs 3)’’,  “enhance education (SDGs 4)’’, and “closing the gap between the rich and poor (SDGs 1)’’.

So one may ask, what made D.light successful? According to Mr. Wu, it was broken down into 3 different aspects namely “business mind - feasibility’’, “market power - scalability’’, and “not rely on mercy - sustainability’’. Throughout his sharing, he emphasized the importance of innovation and creativity, and concluded that for D.light’s case, “investments and donations can change the world’’. He then asked the students “Is product or operation the key to determining impact?”. Mr. Wu cited many domestic and foreign impact investment examples, and discussed with emphasis on “Product’’ or “Operation.‘’ Examples of highlighted product categories include: Uwin Nanotech Co, Ltd, who deals with E Waste by recycling precious metals, and PackAge+, who makes online shopping eco-friendly by leasing and recycling packaging bags. On the other hand, examples of highlighted operations include: Liberty & Justice, a factory built to employ women. More than 90% of their employees are women whose salary is 20% higher than the others. Also there are Sunshine Car Wash and Children Are Us Bakery, both of them only hire mentally challenged people as their employees. The impact of all the above enterprises includes a number of SDGs, and both “product” and “operation” are the key to determining impact, they only differ in the part of their business model that focuses on impact investment. Summing up all these examples, Mr. Wu mentioned that there are three characteristics of impact investment for enterprises. First, focus on Social Benefits (SDGs) and Investment Profits at the same time. Second, Multi-asset classes include: Listed, Unlisted and Entity. Third, multiple sources of impact including operations, products and investments.

Towards the end of his sharing was the Q&A segment. One of the questions that stood out was “is it only recommended to invest in innovative industries?” Addressing this, Mr. Wu believes that the answer is no. When making an investment, one needs to take into consideration multiple factors such as industry foresight and market development possibilities, before deciding whether the investment is worth the risks involved.

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(Written by Hult Prize Club, proofread by College of Management 2022.10.9)