Can a Company Have Universal Ideas and Local Pride Simultaneously?

Not only can a company have both, a successful company MUST have both.

We at VP.Start create data-driven IoT-empowered solutions for the power management system, innovative solutions for increase efficiency and sustainability, based on universal ideas and, indeed, based on nature itself. We often say that, “Innovation belongs to no one person, no one company or no one country.” In a sense, everything that we do and create and innovate is “open source.” The strongest NDA protocols in the world cannot keep universal ideas for one company or once country. It is impossible. As the ancient proverbs puts it, “it is trying to grasp the wind.”

As we return from our business mission to Laos, we are thinking back on the past. When VP.Start was founded 12 years ago, we were a small enterprise with 3 employees working out of a tiny rented room, without financial resources or support, without prototypes or production lines. What we did have were universal ideas. A very small local tech firm with global aspirations. We believed that our ideas compelled us to go and grow and show the way. 12 years later, our journey has brought us from Cambodia to Laos and Myanmar with plans to go to Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India. 

We have grown from 3 to more than 150 team members. 

We have grown from a tiny rented room to a state of the art campus. 

We have grown from a company with ideas but without tangible products to a company with more than 11,000 devices implemented with the utilities in Cambodia. 

We have grown from a local entity to an international company. 

We have grown. For 12 years, we have grown.

But we have never outgrown our love for our local roots. We do not discriminate and disadvantage anyone from anywhere for any reason. We respect all countries, cultures, religions, orientations and perspectives. 

At the same time, we honor our proud Angkorian tradition of innovation. If you go to Angkor Wat, please be sure to note the amazing architectural and stonemasonry innovation on display. If you look at the Cambodian flag, we have Angkor Wat in the center. In other words, innovation is at the heart of everything we do and everything we are.

More than that, we are people who live in Cambodia. We use electricity. We want a more reliable electric supply with fewer outages and problems. We want electricity that is affordable and available. We want electricity that is increasingly generated from renewable sources. We want greater energy independence. We want sustainability. In other words, we, the people of VP.Start, want the solutions of VP.Start at a very personal level as well as a professional level.

The professional level makes us logical and hardworking.

The personal level makes us passionate and powerful.

The professional level makes us skilled and talented.

The personal level makes us creative and extremely positive.

The two levels combined together make us VP.Start.

How about you, my business brothers and sisters? Do you have universal ideas? Do you have local compassion? Do you have the winning combination of these two factors?