A Better World Faster - Social Impact Challenge

Normally I do not toot the horn for superginormous companies figuring they have enough muscle already. But I want to give a shout out to Google for this one - To mark India's Independence Day this year, they launched the social Impact challenge in India - A Better World, Faster.

Copied from thier website below:

The Google Impact Challenge has launched in India in an effort to support innovators who are exploring new ways to solve the world's most pressing problems. If you’re an Indian non-profit, tell us how you would use technology and innovative approaches to tackle problems in India and around the world. Four selected non-profits will each receive a Rs 3 crore Global Impact Award and assistance from Google to help make their project a reality.

• 5th September 2013 - Final day to apply to the Google Impact Challenge.
• 21st October 2013 - Google announces the finalists, and the public votes online for their favourites.
• 31st October 2013 - Each finalist team will pitch its idea to an esteemed panel of judges at an event in Delhi. Four finalists, including the non-profit chosen by the public vote, will be announced as Global Impact Award recipients.

If you missed it this year I have heard it may become annual - so watch for it next year.

Social Entrpreneurs: Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor?

As a champion of diversity in the workplace, over the years, I have had sufficient opportunity to discuss glass ceilings with executive management as well as hold mentoring sessions around sticky floors - which is the tendency to develop roots in our comfort zone that makes every opportunity look like a glass ceiling. I (and many others) found the imagery evoked by glass ceiling/sticky floor to be quite effective in getting the message across.

Now that I've been researching the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, I have come to realise that the glass ceiling/sticky floor metaphor is one that can be dusted off and put to good use once again. The equivalent of climbing the corporate ladder in the social entrepreneurship scene is scale- If I can change the lives of a 100 people for the better, then can I move on to change the lives of a 1000? 10,000? A million? What must change? What stays the same? What part is process; what part passion?

Just as when articulating diversity as a business value (e.g. productivity, creativity, teamwork) it would serve us well to separate the challenges in social venture creation as institutional (glass ceilings) or personal development (sticky floor) and not allow one to masquerade as the other- the strategies to address the two are radically different.

I like the glass ceiling/sticky floor metaphor- its easy to remember and act on versus the other business buzzwords - or maybe its just in my comfort zone.

Boond: Micro-franchising for Achieving Scale in Social Impact

In October 2009, when I was a speaker at the Micro-Finance India Summit, I was truly humbled and awed by the entrepreneurs I met, some fresh out of college, who shared their business plans (ventures in various stages of development) with me. One thing that was common to all was that they took on great risk (financial, social, time investment) with amazing optimism and a can-do attitude. One such entrepreneur is Rustam Sengupta who has founded a for-profit social enterprise "Boond" (which in Sanskrit means a drop). I was captivated by the ambition reflected in the vision & mission: “Reach 1 million individuals with light, clean water and pest control by 2012”. But even more so by the fact that scale was integrated into the strategy and operations from the get-go. "Boond’s mission is to bring development to the poor living in remote areas of India through the specially designed Boond Development Kit. The specially designed kit consist of a Solar lamp, a water filter and a mosquito net and is sold through local villagers with 3/6/9 month financing schemes to make it affordable for the BPL household."
The unique aspect of Boond is its strategy to reach its market - the prepackaged kit is sold through the Boond Officer: Boond has put together a micro-franchising solution: a kit, a reseller and financing.

Boond development kit customers live in remote places that are hard to reach and without proper market infrastructure. So meet Boond Officer Bikash: a native of Manipur who teaches young children in the local school and earns about Rs. 2600 (US$58) a month. He is a talented singer and dancer, immensely passionate about Boond products, and has set a target for selling 30 kits in a month. The village he targets has less than 10% electricity coverage and no running water.

Boond has created a very low-cost solution: with just $20 a financier can empower a villager to deploy the kit.

I believe that the biggest development challenge for India is reaching, enabling and developing the rural market in spite of development in the metros. Boond has created a solution. "In India, nearly 300 million people still live in complete darkness while WHO statistics highlight that a million every year die from water borne diseases. Boond believes that these are the two biggest development challenges we face and can be surmounted by a collective effort of ordinary individuals. Malaria, nearly eradicated from the Western world still kills nearly 300,000 people a year and we believe that this is unacceptable since it’s easily preventable for a low cost. Boond is also trying to change the peoples mindset through its website and campaigns (www.boond.net) and encourages collective action to fight the biggest challenges faced by India today – Light, Clean Water and Pest Control" says Rustam.

Is All Entrepreneurship Social?

Carl Schramm makes the case in a Stanford Social Innovation Review article that all entrepreneurship is social. "Let’s not overlook what traditional entrepreneurs contribute to society" he worries and provides several cases (largely in a US context) to support the thesis.

This is a question I used to struggle with but in the last year I have developed a position: All entrepreneurship is not social. That is because we do not live in an ideal world. The cost of development is disproportionately born by the poor (think toxic e-waste for one), often willingly, in the name of progress. In India, despite high growth rates in the last 10 years and a burgeoning middle class, the poverty indicators as measured by opportunity (i.e. basic food, education and health-care access) have actually declined- creating social tension that rips the very fabric of the unique Indian ethos. So like quotas and affirmative action - in an ideal world we wouldn't need them; but till there is equal opportunity for all we do. Similarly ideally, all entrepreneurship is social - but only if there is equal opportunity. Till then, it is merely obfuscation to blur the line between business motivated by social impact and business.

The irony is that in India where entrepreneurs actually do social good, creating local jobs, innovation and creating a market at the bottom of the pyramid, the term social entrepreneur is relatively unknown and if known draws wonderment - because isn't all entrepreneurship social? In their case I agree. It takes a lot of guts to be an entrepreneur in a developing econnomy because the cost of failure is high while there is safety in a job or joining the family business that serves the developed economy.

Social Entrepreneurship During Stanford E-week Feb 21-28

The annual Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford, is February 21-28, 2010 and this year we have more events dedicated to celebrating social entrepreneurship and clean-tech than ever before. These are 2 events I am helping organise which are free and open to all:

February 26, Cordura Hall,9-6: Relief 2.0 in Haiti: Enabling Agile Crisis Response with Entrepreneurship In Relief 2.0 we'll take an inside look at an emergent phenomenon - Agile Crisis Response made possible by social ventures, social media, crowdsourced solutions and other entrepreneurial approaches. We will look at lessons learned and how we might rethink and redesign the way we approach disaster relief and rebuilding, starting with Haiti’s reconstruction effort.

February 28, Wallenberg Hall, 3-5: Structures for Social Enterprise: Panel and Showcase- this lively panel discussion features social entrepreneurs Kjerstin Erickson (FORGEnow.org), Eve Blossom (Lulan.com), and Esther Kim (REDF.org). Moderated by Kriss Deiglmeier, executive director for the Center for Social Innovation, the panel will discuss nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid models for starting and growing a social enterprise. From 4-5 p.m., mingle with entrepreneurs at a fair showcasing their intriguing early-stage social ventures. Social entrepreneurs available for interaction during the showcase are:

Lloyd Nimetz: Blitz Bazaar: Starting and Creating a Movement
Akshay Kothari, Kapeesh Saraf: Design for Extreme Affordability Workshop
Varun Jain: E4SI: Engineers for Social Impact
Anu Mahal: Development Alternatives
Carlos Miranda Levy, Margarita Quihuis: How Social Media Allows Us to Instantly Organize for Crisis Intervention
Viji Dilip: Bookshare International: Reaching Out to the Print Disabled in Developing Nations
DC Jayasundera: Rural Returns: Better Value Chains for the Rural Poor
Rodrigo Santibanez: Puentes Global: Non-Profit International Employment Agency for Low-Income Workers

Additionally the Graduate School of business has a panel discussion on social entrepreneurship on 26th afternoon as part of their annual entrepreneurship day

Argument Vs. Opinion: How do You Negotiate?

The thing to know before negotiating is: its not about winning; its about compromise. This is no secret. The thing about a successful negotiation is that everybody comes out of it feeling like a winner. That is the secret. If even one party feels like a loser, it is not a successful negotiation- because if you feel like a loser, you don't buy into the followup action and you don't trust the other party - ever! That's how we are.
How do you negotiate?
Do you distinguish between an argument and an opinion? Keep personality, judgement and value systems out of it? Approximating Samuel Johnson - opinion is like an arrow shot from a bow; as strong as the man who draws it. "Argument is like an arrow from a cross-bow, which has equal force though shot by a child.... You cannot help paying regard to their arguments, if they are good." Conduct negotiation with arguments, not opinions. Arguments stand on their own (like proofs in geometry) and open doors for learning for all parties and in taking the discussion forward. Opinions are shutouts implying judgement, a value, around which there can be no acceptable compromise, thus forcing the other party to get further entrenched into their starting position. To help yourself do this in real time, enter a negotiation with the idea that you will learn at least one new thing. Identify assumptions and preconceived notions (consultants call it frames of reference) if you can before getting into a negotiation.
Fortunately, on the way to acquiring a win-win mindset, there is immediate help in the form of value neutral language. Yes, watch your words. Is a value judgement inherent in the word? Get rid of it. One person's irritant is another's joy. A rose bush in a wheat-field is a weed but a wheat-stalk in a rose garden is also a weed. Pollution implies bad stuff but emission is value neutral (emission can be good or bad, e.g. breathing is a good emission).
And lastly, when a negotiation fails, it is generally a failure of process - since nobody goes into a negotiation unless desirous of a solution (the other type is called posturing :-) or just to lose. So when things do fail, let it go; don't let it stop you from going back to the table.
Relationships allow you to work things out, even becoming stronger in the process. A negotiation is the first investment in building a relationship.

How to change our education system: From Scarcity Mentality to Abundance Mentality

When asked what he thought was wrong with the education system, Ravi Gulati answered with a story. "It is well known that Gandhi ji, was always smiling, cheerful, always full of hope. When pushed one day to say one thing, just one thing that depressed him Gandhi said - the heartlessness of the educated." This year (Jan 15,16 2009 at Stanford) the annual King Holiday celebration theme was Education for Global Liberation. Among other events, there was a panel discussion with three educators/activists from India. These educators have developed educational curricula different from traditional models in that social awareness and justice is built into the classroom experience starting grade 1. From Riverside School in Ahemdabad, for children from relatively affluent backgrounds, to Manzil for urban lower middle class children to Manav Sadhana for the poorest of kids, each school is a product of inspired leadership. Ravi Gulati says his MBA education, with its focus on increasing consumption to increase market, as having been the catalyst in seeking alternative economic models which led to an examination of the education system. What happened to the values he learned as a child in an average middle class family, where frugality was the ethic of choice? Encouraging consumption as a market driver, leads to a scarcity mentality where no matter how much you have , you never feel you have enough, he says. He wants to create an education system based on an "abundance mentality". Viren Joshi spoke about a child from his slum school who returned a large sum of cash he found in the street simply because "it was not his" a natural behavior of the values learned in school.
So how does one instill ethics and social justice into young minds? How does one get away from the "don't know = don't care" syndrome? I got some answers from these educators who talk about the values they instill "To whom much is given much is expected"; They ask their students to ask themselves "what am I doing to "preserve" my rights?" "What am I doing to "deserve" my rights". Speakers’ Bios are:
Kiran Sethi is the Founder/Director of Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India, which focuses on social justice curriculum and experiential learning. She was elected a 2008 fellow by Ashoka, the world’s leading authority on social entrepreneurship for her innovative “aProCh – A Protagonist in every Child.” (http://www.aproch.org/)
Ravi Gulati is the founder of Manzil, (http://www.manzil.in/) a youth empowerment and learning center in New Delhi. Operating out of Gulati's home, Manzil is a unique resource designed for local low-income youth. It offers classes in traditional subjects such as English and Math, but also fosters the creative arts and leadership capacity building to provide a more holistic approach to critical thinking and learning.
Viren Joshi is co-founder of Manav Sadhna http://www.manavsadhna.org/ in the Gandhi ashram, Ahmedabad. Inspired by Gandhian ideals of truth, non-violence, uplifting the oppressed, and promoting health, sanitation, and education, Manav Sadhna strives to adapt these ideals to the complex issues facing India and the world.

Business Approach to Social Good - Rule #1: Don't Get Greedy

I have a good reason, for promoting NBC re-broadcast "Tech Awards for Global Uses of Technology to Benefit Humanity" Sunday, Dec. 28, at 9 pm PST. The show is also available online from the NBC web site billed as: "When technology is applied to philanthropy...Vision is turned into action....".
It so happened that I read an op-ed "The Sin in Doing Good Deeds" by Nicholas Kristof. It is the story of the failure of an event management company- unique in that the events raised money for charitable causes. The reason provided for its failure is about how the (stupid) world is against a business approach to philanthropy. It is a familiar tirade, a false argument, entirely unworthy of discussion. So I let it go. But then I read comments on the article and wondered how many potential social entrepreneurs would get discouraged by reading the story of Mr. Pallotta and his company? So I feel compelled to post this link to the tech laureates show - profitable businessmen doing social good. For one Mr Pallotta there are many more social entrepreneurs doing good and doing well. See for yourself.
The key to success in running a profitable business with a mission of doing social good is to not get too greedy - It sounds like that was the issue with Mr Pallotta - his argument being - "Greed is good - its Okay in regular business so its okay here too". First of all its not okay in regular business though they do get away with it (witness the mechanics of the current financial meltdown). Second - the money raised for social businesses often comes, at least initially, from charity sources -like people digging into savings- so moderation in business expense is key in keeping their loyalty. The parallel for regular business would be "delivering customer satisfaction" which obviously Mr Pallotta did not do. BUT - here is my issue - when his business failed - instead of being a good sport and fessing up, he becomes a cry-baby and writes a book about how business approach to "charity" does not work and then Kristof writes an op-ed, generalizing from this single data-point, instead of calling it something like "Pallotta Palaver" which would have been far more accurate.

Social Capital is Good Economics: Invest in Technology for the Next Billion

This Sunday, reading the Times of India article - What MFIs can teach Wall Street by Swaminathan Aiyer (of Swaminomics fame) made my day! He writes "Big financial institutions of all sorts are in dire straits across the globe. But one category remains unaffected — micro-finance. Even as the global financial system freezes and giants like Lehman Brothers collapse, microfinance institutions (MFIs) are expanding unfazed. Famous financiers face defaults big enough to wipe them out, but MFIs report virtually zero default. This is extraordinary. Big financiers lend against collateral, a back-up if their borrower defaults. But MFIs lend with no collateral at all. Big financiers lend to the most creditworthy corporations. MFIs lend to poor women whom nobody in history considered creditworthy before. Yet, the secured loans to big corporations are bombing, while unsecured loans to poor women are being repaid in full."
And may I add that stimulating the BOP markets besides being a safe bet is also profitable - a double bottom line - social as well as economic good.
I want to build on this article to make two points not made by Mr Aiyar:
1. Portfolio diversification - In my view social capital is a good way of diversifying your investment portfolio and I think there IS a silver lining to this meltdown - I hope investors will go back to thinking about value creation in more than pure dollar terms.
2. Capital Gap - Currently there is a gap in the range covered by MFIs (loans must be under Rs 35,000 or so) and traditional business lending (loan must be above Rs 10 lakhs or so). Entrepreneurs that start technology based social businesses need loans in this range and they have nowhere to go. This is actually the sweet spot for social capital - it is a new area - call it "investing in technology for the next billion". There is great economic potential in this space- like the VCs who invested in technology startups in silicon Valley. It is the same story -except since the new market it is not in the traditional VC backyard, they are not jumping in. Somebody else needs to step in and I am hoping it will be the future leaders - Social Capitalists.
One can see that some new gen leaders who are now big boys (e.g. Google Foudation) are stepping into this space but it is not enough - traditional thinking needs to change too.
From my perspective, the meltdown is a wake up call for change and I hope Mr Aiyar's article is just the start of this new thinking.

Stanford Offers Entrepreneurship Podcasts - Free!

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program has just updated and renamed what used to be called Educators Corner, a free podcast and video website for the entrepreneurship community. We are trying to get the word out about the new name and features – Entrepreneurship Corner (ECorner). We have a creative commons license, so it’s very easy for people to insert the content into their own sites and use almost at will. Obviously you may also use the material in your sites. We’ve had over 2 million podcast downloads alone, so the site is clearly providing something useful! Details below:

Stanford Offers Free Entrepreneurship Podcasts and Video Clips

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) in the School of Engineering at Stanford University invites you to visit its Entrepreneurship Corner (ECorner) web site. The site includes over 1,200 free, high-quality podcasts and video clips of entrepreneurial thought leaders from Silicon Valley and beyond. Recorded during guest lectures at Stanford University, the speakers offer important insights on all aspects of entrepreneurship. The content is great for classroom instruction, research, and general enrichment. Formerly called Educators Corner, the site has added many new, innovative features and has just launched under its new name. See the Creative Commons license under Terms of Use for guidelines. http://ecorner.stanford.edu.

Leadership Skill for Social Entrepreneurs

The leadership definition I like is from Charlie Pellerin, former Dir Astrophysics at NASA: “Leadership is influencing people to do willingly, and do well, that which has to be done.”
Doesn't that sound like what social entrepreneurs have to do?

On August 2, I had the opportunity to moderate a professional development workshop hosted by IWE and sponsored by Fujitsu called "Cultivating Influence: How to Influence and Deliver Results". The tech-savvy panel covered a range of expertise - large corporation (Nina Bhatti - HP, Peggy Zagelow - IBM), triple-bottom-line startup Meemli (Usha Sekar) and entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and MicroPlace (Ashwini Narayanan). The panel was followed by a interactive skills building experience session led by Improv artist Susan Snyder of BATS. Some highlights:

There is no right way, nor is there only one way to influence others. Everything is a factor when influencing people. And we are, all of us, influenced by organizations, actions, people, places, events and situations at all times. Sometimes we are affected more or less by these things, but we are continually being influenced by what happens around us. So what about the specifics in the workplace?
Your job requires you to influence people just about all of the time. It may take the form of gaining support, inspiring others, persuading other people to become your champions, engaging someone's imagination, creating relationships. Whatever form it takes, being an excellent influencer makes your job easier.

* think win-win - articulate the benefit for organisation, individual, group
* self-empowerment: be self-aware; take responsibility for managing the perception people have of you - e.g. stop acting "fresh-off-the-boat"; build your "new" sphere of influence
* manage your career; manage your boss - build trust but don't be a threat to him/her
* lead by involving others in problem solving by posing the problems and asking "how"
* Make coworkers feel positive, can do empowered (e.g. through use of positive attributes as nicknames)
* make it "their" idea
* Make an abstract concept personal
* Power of education -to make a change in a belief system provide education/information
* Reposition points of view - e.g. microfinance is not a "handout" but a "hand up"
* Compliance - make others to "feel good" like a superhero especially if doing something difficult/different for them
* Create websites/images to convey "higher purpose" to get alignment
* Negotiate the detail only after "shared goal" has been established first
* think positive and use positive language - ex. organisational understanding - vs. "politics"
* Do uncover the problems but always from a "what could be a solution" attitude without blame

An interesting point about people, who use their influencing skills well, is that other people like being around them. There's a kind of exciting buzz, or sense that things happen when they're around.

Check out Peggy's blog on the subject for a personal account of the workshop.

SKG Sangha - Uses Award for Training and Education

The Sustainable Energy Futures on-line case study competition resulted in a $5000 cash prize to SKG SANGHA in India for their innovative program using agricultural waste for biomass and biogas production.

Mr. Sagar writes the following:
"If we use this money for our projects, your contribution will not be reflected anywhere. Whereas, you are giving us this money as a token of appreciation which we want to be in a memorable shape. Hence, we shall use the money as part finance for our proposed training centre planned to train our beneficiaries, staff, students etc. We shall write your name as part funders for this training centre by that the contribution given by you will be visible for the years to come.

As part of our work we have to train each and every beneficiary on the running, maintenance of our units provided to the beneficiaries. We also can use the same facility to train the students who are coming to us for training from various Indian and foreign Universities as part of their Engineering/agricultural/social work. We also can use this facility for training our staff as well as staff from Government or other Institutions. The estimation for the training centre is about $40000. Last year we received £10,000 as prize money from Ashden Awards, London.
We have kept aside this amount also for our training centre. Now we have some Engineering Students from France who have come for practical training as part of their engineering course. Tomorrow we are getting two more students for training from France who are studying Agricultural Engineering. This training centre will help students from many countries apart from India. So, far the major beneficiaries are students from France. I believe education is the major tool for achieving socio-economic growth and to instill peace all over the world. I appreciate your support to a great cause."

Thanks to Mr Sagar for pointing out the importance of training and education in creating successful social enterprises.
Our case study was a good exercise in determining whether an on-line process of voting works - based on this thoughtful letter - I would say the process yielded a true winner.

Social Entrepreneurship Leadership Myth #1

Social entrepreneurs typically put up with personal economic hardship to launch their dream enterprise. Some work for a while, save money and live off of that or they have small grants, or personal assets, or working spouses or the new trend of limited prize money etc. This breeds a habit of thrift and economy. So far so good. This factor is really important when applying for grants from foundations or public funds. It is a critical personal and organisational leadership skill for running an NGO or other non-profit where one uses limited financial resources - since no new financial resources are being created there is no room for any financial risk-taking. So in my experience social entrepreneurs come to believe in a "how can I save money?" versus "how can I make money?" mindset.

This is where leading a social enterprise is strategically different from leading a non-profit. Corporate or social investors want to know when the organisation will be financially self-sustaining. strategically, a social enterprise looks more like a for-profit venture. Strategic leaders will answer the following questions:
1- how much time to first enterprise revenue dollar
2 - How much time to break even
3 - how much time to first profit dollar (social enterprises typically reinvest revenue)

A business plan that includes a well thought out financial risk (e.g. trying out or investing in a new technology) may be acceptable even if sustainability takes longer. The reason for having the "how can I make money" mindset is that :
1. It makes a more convincing argument that eventually the enterprise will be sustainable. In this mindset, fiscal responsibility is a given as good operations management and positions the entrepreneur as being strategic.
2. Additionally, investors are well versed with for-profit business plan evaluation and thus more likely to commit.

So my recommendation to social entrepreneurs: do put as much energy into your revenue streams as to fiscal operational responsibility when it comes to developing your leadership style.

Social Entrepreneurship Defined

Social entrepreneurship is somewhat new. It is difficult to understand for people new to this area because it is not philanthropy and not quite business though it is known to masquerade as both. Hope the following characterization helps:

1. The motivation is social good and the means is business creation. Typically social good is in the purview of governments, foundations and NGOs. The area lacks financial instruments required by business. Legal structures exist but are not optimal.

2. In a typical social venture, financial return follows social return. Additionally, local social mores play a role in market creation and expansion – making the task operationally more difficult and slower in yielding results.

3. There are successful social entrepreneurs around but none are achieving scale at any significant rate. Possible solution is public-private partnerships but there are few success stories in this area and many failures. Another solution is venture capital but there is low (and slow) financial return to investor. On the plus side I think the risk is lower too.

Example success stories – (mentioned in this blog over time)
Micro finance: SKS, Kiva, Grameen-phone;
Health care – Aravind eye hospitals, Jaipur foot;
Energy – Selco, D.light;
Education- Barefoot College

For organisations interested in participating in this space - Examples of useful services (become a focal “go-to” place for social entrepreneurs and socially motivated investors) are from small to big-

Scholarships to attend conferences/ events
Special track at conference/events
Infrastructure services – create incubator - office space, legal, business plan review
Provide networking opportunities
education opportunities – for investor as well as entrepreneur
sponsored competitions – e.g. best business plan
Mentor services
Technology-social entrepreneur match ups
Social venture fund creation

...And The Winner is .....

Our casestudy competition came to an end Sunday with the winner being SKG - India - Biomass & Biogas -Mothers and daughters making income from selling fertilizer and making electricity.

Many who voted cited this case's ability to also address local sustainable agriculture- which given the recent global food shortages is becoming critically important.With our first event over and our group reaching the facebook imposed cut off limit of 1200 members we will be launching some new initiatives from the facebook fan page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bordeaux-Energy-Colloquium/8141228466 Two new initiatives we will start:
ANGEL INVESTING: Competition for groups looking for start-up funding for sustainable energy technologies
ACADEMIC GRANTS: Student research grants for projects studying sustainablity.Hope we can continue to build and reinforce this sustainable community we have created.

Three Things I learned From Mohammad Yunus

June is graduation month and I got to double dip -my niece's MIT graduation and commencement speech by Mohammad Yunus, in person - all at once.

For me, it wouldn't have mattered what he said- the symbolism of Yunus, with all that he represents, standing at the podium, was enough. By inviting Yunus, MIT faculty is publicly telling its grads, hey look - we know "Each of you has the power to change the world" and this is the direction - a better world for all. Maybe, I don't give enough credit to MIT but I was surprised when I found out. And maybe Yunus was too - because he started his speech with an ad lib that taught me lesson number one.

Relate first and find common ground: he started by thanking MIT for making him feel right at home by bringing on the rain (yes it was pouring out there), just like the monsoons in his native Bangladesh. I could feel the collective tension of a few thousand people dissipate - hey its only water and we are all in it together!

Individual: The "New" Businessman: "money-making is a means, not an end. But for the businessman in the existing theory money-making is both a means and also an end." Businesses have only one metric of success but humans are multifaceted: as people, he said, we are multidimensional but business has one measure- profit. Don't sell yourself short by identifying too much with the current institution of business - it is not only unidimensional, it is flawed. "Poverty is an artificial imposition of the system." Can you change the system? How about a new kind of business with a new kind of metric? "We can easily reformulate the concept of a businessman to bring him closer to a real human being. In order to take into account the multi-dimensionality of real human being we may assume that there are two distinct sources of happiness in the business world 1) maximizing profit, and 2) achieving some pre-defined social objective. Since there are clear conflicts between the two objectives, the business world will have to be made up of two different kinds of businesses --1) profit-maximizing business, and 2) social business. Specific type of happiness will come from the specific type of business"

Action: Break a big problem into bite sized chunks. "Three basic interventions will make a big difference in the existing system : a) broadening the concept of business by including "social business" into the framework of market place, b) creating inclusive financial and health care services which can reach out to every person on the planet, c) designing appropriate information technology devices, and services for the bottom-most people and making them easily available to them."

Do read the whole speech. His ideas about financial instruments (dow jones for social businesses, partnership with Danone, Intel.. make it all sound not only possible but probable.

Go Grads!

Social and Business networking study- Make your voice count!

This is the first of a kind event- where we are using the 'social web' to spread the word about how everyday people can make an incredible impact on a Sustainable Energy Future for us all. We have selected 10 videos and you need to VOTE HERE:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227QE8J48Y6.

You can view the videos (they are inspiring!) or vote based on your cause. Winner gets $5000 prize and there is a $500 BEST RECRUITER prize. So if a friend told you about the event- make sure to give their name- $500 buys a lot of pizza and beer that can be shared with many friends!

Videos are as follows:
1. Shelby Tyne- Greenway Farms - S. Africa – Biogas Shelby teaches others how to manage farm waste and generate elec
2. Dan Robichaud - Canada - Solar Heater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz7k9El_d7A%20
Dan shows that anyone with a bit of initiative can create their own low-cost energy solution.
3. DAXU - China – Biomass
http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=299&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Replacing coal with biomass bricks for home cooking.
4. Practical Action - Peru - Micro Hydro http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=306&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Local schools keep teachers in villages with electricity.
5. AIDS - Phillipines - Hydro pumps
http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=308&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Over 15,000 people now have access to clean and safe water
6. SKG - India - Biomass & Biogas
http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=302&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Mothers and daughters making income from selling fertilizer and making electricity
7. BioTech - India – Biomass
http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=301&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Keeping the streets clean and reducing the spread of disease.

8. Center for Rural Technology - Nepal - Micro Hydro http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=300&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Each improved mill replacing diesel offsets 2.4 tons/yr of CO2
9. Deng Ltd - Ghana - Solar PV Panels
http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=304&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Maternity wards now benefit from reliable lighting and refridgeration for vaccines.
10. SEEDS -Sri Lanka - Micro financing for Solar http://www.ashdenawards.org/video.php?action=view&nid=199&fileref=undefined&dims=undefined&title=undefined
Financing of over 52,000 solar home systems in rural areas of Sri Lanka

2008 Social Capitalist Awards : FastCompany

Check it out - useful list with pointers to - in their view- the best in the field

MMM Good: Social Entrepreneurship Day at Stanford

As Social Entrepreneurs we must routinely flirt with Media and Money. The event at Stanford on Sunday (info in my previous blog) was an incredible such opportunity. But if you missed the Feb 24 event -not to worry. Catch up in the blogosphere. I am still pretty caught up with eweek so will get to my musings later but I wanted to get the ball rolling - For starters let me point you to great pics from Mitchell Tsai and a detailed writeup on the panelists from Project View John Kuner.

For the panel - Kriss pointed out that the debate was not about "what is social entrepreneurship?" - an endless and incredily engaging topic in and of itself - but about "how to be a social entrepreneur" by showing the Greg Dees definition of social entrepreneurship. For me this really set the tone of the event in a positive fashion - less intellectualizing and more action. All the panelists were stellar in providing practical "how to" advice. I liked "Do Good Smart" from Jessica who said she first heard it from someone else.

Digital Vision Fellows - that's us showcasing projects in all areas from Tele-medicine to Digital Big Game- attending "in the flesh" and "in the virtual" created an incredible buzz with their passion and energy. I met some new people and we all made new connections and partnerships that should further the cause of social entrepreneurship.

Ah yes - in answwer to the question "what else is the one thing, besides money, a social entrpreneur needs?" - the answer was - "Mentor" - and talking about mentors Stanford eweek is piloting a program called "Coaches On Call" a mentor match up program -

MMM Good is my summary: for social entrepreneurs - easy to remember- MMM - its Mentor (to bounce ideas in a supportive fashion), Money (SE is a new business model so it is extra efffot getting started and be prepared to do something fo a while before you get any), Media (get the word out and let them find you) but most importantly "Moi" - i.e that's you - the social entrepreneur - its about your focus, your passion and your leadership that will get the M3 chasing you an not the other way round.

Or, to quote: Just do it!

gotta go -

BiD - connecting investors, entrepreneurs

The mission of the BiD Network Foundation is to contribute to sustainable economic development by stimulating entrepreneurship in developing countries. Thierry Sanders and Koen Wasmus have created an online investment platform and community to tackle the key problems facing investors wanting to help stimulate economic development in emerging markets. This year the BiD Network received 3,400 business proposals from over 100 countries. It operates competitions in Kenya, Tanzania, Philippines, India, Argentina, Columbia and Peru. All of this happens online though www.bidnetwork.org In addition to the business plan, over 3,700 active members contribute to the online community to help entrepreneurs in developing countries. In the first year alone the BiD Network assisted the start-up of almost 20 companies in developing countries that help reduce poverty and employ over 500 people.