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本文是《青年创业者打造新世界》（Young Entrepreneurs Remake the World）系列文章之一。ShareAmerica刊发的这套系列文章有助于增加你的商务英语词汇，请点击阅读简明英语原文。

原有创意行不通时怎么办？

没有几个企业家以肖恩·利奥（Sean Leow）那样令人眼花缭乱的方式创办企业。2007年，他在上海为推出“新茶”（Neocha）主持一场豪华的招待会。“新茶”是中国新潮艺术家和音乐家的网络社区。

但广告收入进项缓慢。利奥不得不削减人员和其他开销，同时寻求一个更好的商业模式。

随后，他结识了亚当· 舍寇拉（Adam Schokora）。舍寇拉也是美国人，专门从事网上营销，并建议公司转型为一个由可参演各种活动的艺术家组成的联合体。

2009年，利奥和舍寇拉共同创办了一个专门推荐“新茶”网络中的艺术家和音乐家的公司“新茶锋潮”（NeochaEDGE）， “新茶” 当时拥有三万多名会员，还拥有力争以有创意的方式在当地市场占据优势的公司客户。艺术家们得到公司客户付给“新茶锋潮”的报酬中的一部分。

利奥说：“我们认识到了中国艺术家能给多国公司带来的巨大价值。”

这个新型商业模式取得了成功。“新茶锋潮”现在的主要客户包括可口可乐公司（Coca-Cola）、盖璞公司（Gap Inc.）、耐克公司（Nike）和沃尔沃汽车公司。

很多投资者难以找到市场

马修·斯科特(Matthew Scott)在商学院上学时便设计并研发了可供商用建筑和飞机使用的太阳能灯具。但他后来读到的一本书让他产生了一个不同的创意——为12亿用不上电的人口服务。

斯科特请求在斯坦福大学求学时的老朋友阿米特·丘格（Amit Chugh）帮助他针对丘格的母国印度的贫困人口重新设计这种灯。在印度，千百万人使用既危险，又产生污染的煤油灯照明。

斯科特和丘格组建了一家合资企业，取名“点燃宇宙创新公司”（Cosmos Ignite Innovations）。斯科特从一家风险投资基金那里获得融资方面的支持，而丘格则在印度的古尔冈（Gurgaon）建立起设计与装配的业务。

丘格说：“这是在高科技中心与千百万渴望更美好生活的贫困人口的市场之间架起的桥梁。”

2006年，点燃宇宙创新公司开始在印度出售这种灯具，每件售价50美元。他们通过非政府组织、国际机构、印度政府和商业分销商来出售强光灯。

当渔民和织布工开始使用强光灯来延长工作时间时，丘格知道他与斯科特选对了道路。近几年，点燃宇宙创新公司把灯具产品同利率低的小额信贷结合起来，让这种产品更经济实惠。公司还扩展到了巴基斯坦、阿富汗、危地马拉、卢旺达和菲律宾，迄今为止已经售出了15万个灯具。

How can a business regroup when its original idea doesn’t fly?
 

This article is part of Entrepreneurs: The Next Generation, a ShareAmerica series written in simplified English and designed to help you develop your business vocabulary. Click each underlined word to see its meaning. 

What do you do when the original idea doesn’t work?

California native Sean Leow started his businesses with razzle-dazzle. In 2007, he hosted a lavish party in Shanghai to launch Neocha, a networking site for alternative Chinese artists and musicians.

But advertising revenues were slow. Leow had to cut staff and other expenses while seeking a better business model.

Instead, he found Adam Schokora, another American, who specialized in online marketing. Schokora suggested turning the company into a consortium of artists for hire.

In 2009, Leow and Schokora started NeochaEDGE, a company that matches artists and musicians in the Neocha network — more than 30,000 at that time — with corporate clients that seek a creative advantage in local marketing. The artists get a share of what the corporate clients pay NeochEDGE.

“We realized the tremendous value that Chinese artists can bring to multinational corporations,” Leow said.

The new model worked. Today major NeochaEDGE clients include Coca-Cola, Gap Inc., Nike and Volvo.

Many inventors struggle to find a market

As a business student, Matthew Scott designed and developed a solar lamp for use in commercial buildings and aircraft. But then he read a book that gave him a different idea — make the 1.2 billion people without electricity his customers.

Scott asked his old Stanford University friend Amit Chugh to help him redesign the lamp for Chugh’s home country, India. Millions of poor Indians rely on hazardous, polluting kerosenelanterns for light.

Scott and Chugh formed Cosmos Ignite Innovations, a “joint venture,” or commercial enterprise undertaken by two or more parties. Scott secured financial backing from a venture capital fund, and Chugh established design and manufacturing operations in Gurgaon, India.

The company “was a bridge between a high-tech hub and market of millions of poor craving a better life,” Chugh said.

In 2006, Cosmos Ignite started selling its MightyLight multifunctional lamp for $50 through nongovernmental groups, international agencies and the Indian government, and later through commercial distributors.

When fishermen and weavers began using MightyLights to extend their work hours, the partners knew they were on the right track. In recent years, the firm combined the product with microcredit, small loans at low interest, to make it more affordable. It also expanded to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Rwanda and the Philippines. So far, Cosmos Ignite has sold 150,000 lamps.