I had an opportunity recently to share an introductory presentation on social intra/entrepreneurship with a class of high school seniors at The Culver Academies on March 10, 2010. These students were sharp and did a great job of outlining the case for “Good Business” at the beginning of the presentation and asked fantastic questions throughout! Despite a few technical glitches (Mac vs. Windows), I think the presentation went very well — all thanks to the students’ awesome participation.

At the risk of being fact-checked, I’ve posted video of my presentation (available exclusively through blip.tv and iTunes this time) as well as the SlideShare of the presentation itself. In fact, I want you to fact-check the presentation and leave your comments on this page!

I know the video is long, but I hope there is some value in it for some readers!

The Presentation Itself:

Videos Embedded in Presentation:

1.) TOMS Shoes

2.) D.Light

3.) VisionSpring

Just a few weeks ago — Feb 11-15th — I had the great opportunity to join fellow social innovators from around the world at the 2010 StartingBloc Social Innovation Institute in Boston. I absolutely love attending events such as this (including GES, SOCAP, The Feast, and the upcoming SVC/SE Conferences). It’s a rare opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs, intrapreneuers, and social-change enthusiasts to come together and share passions, ideas, and talents/resources. StartingBloc has done a great job recently in carving out a nice market in the field focused on not only students, but young-professionals in the field as well (serving as the middle-ground between GES and SOCAP).

The Institute was broken down into several components: Speakers, a Social Innovation Competition, and an “Ideas Marketplace” pitch competition.

The Speakers

The lineup of speakers included:

Houston Spencer – an inspirational speaker who I unfortunately missed on the first day due to travel failure, but really enjoyed hearing him speak a few days later about unconventional leadership and staying motivated in the field of social change.

Scott Sherman – One of the most excited and energetic people I’ve ever met whose Transformative Action Institute is spreading to colleges and universities across the world “training a new generation of social entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, and problem-solvers for the 21st century.” Scott’s presence alone is enough to get you out of your seat and want to change the world, and I had an awesome opportunity to chat with him on the second morning as we took the bus to Tufts.

Bob Tomasko – A professor at American University that I never had the opportunity to meet while I was there, but who is passionate about social enterprise and corporate social responsibility and integrating this into the curriculum. He has an extensive background consulting for companies like Coca-Cola, Ford, Mariott, and Toyota. I can’t wait to continue talking with Bob once I move back to DC!

Corey Szopinski – A social media guru who shared social media strategies for social change. Corey has been involved with developing interactive marketing initiatives for brands among the likes of Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, Volkswagon, Virgin Atlantic, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. His company, Core Industries, brings “award winning interactive marketing to organizations that are leading the green economy and that focus on the triple bottom line: people planet and profit.”

Tom Szaky – An entrepreneur I’ve been hearing a lot of lately — the co-founder of TerraCycle — talked “trash” at StartingBloc. It was actually very interesting hearing him talk about some of the legal challenges TerraCycle has faced in reusing a product like an old Coke bottle as a container for another re-branded product because Coke owns the patent on the shape of the bottle! He shared some interesting insight between “little guy” vs. “big guy” battles that can come with entrepreneurship and the need for legal protections that can support innovation and keep “big guy” companies from holding-up startups in court. Plus, TerraCycle is a very interesting case study of a social startup!

Jeff Chapin – Probably has the coolest job in the world as a “Social Impact Designer” for IDEO. Jeff provided awesome insight into the product design process, particularly BOP-focused design. He shared some projects he’s worked on with IDEO around the world, and I think inspired a lot of to either pursue design-focused careers or at least focus more attention on design approaches to problem solving.

Patrick Meier – A member of the Ushahidi team, Patrick shared an awesome overview of Ushahidi and its involvement in the recovery effort of Haiti. It was really amazing seeing pictures and video “behind the scenes” of the massive volunteer effort of people tracking down information across the web and mapping it on the database. Text messages, tweets, news reports were all dissected to get accurate information to rescue teams on-the-ground. I think everybody in the room was just in awe and inspired by the massive undertaking and work that Ushahidi and the teams of volunteers managed to do in the wake of one of the largest crises of our lifetime (so far).

Dan Pallotta – Author of the book Uncharitable, Dan talked about how the way that we measure and perceive how nonprofits should run dramatically impacts their effectiveness. High overhead and compensation packages are not necessarily bad or signs of corruption — especially when you compare them head-to-head with the budgets and salaries of private-sector companies. We need to move beyond these misconceptions of the social sector and provide them with the tools they need to maximize impact. This involves developing more results-oriented metrics that do not punish charities for running more like businesses. This is something that I’m very interested in and hope to talk more with Dan about.

Colette Stanzler – Building off the need for more results-oriented metrics, Colette shared how her organization — Root Cause — approaches building a social impact market that blends the nonprofit, private, and public sectors through cross-sector partnerships and collaboration. A major part of their work is focused on measuring social impact, identifying successful programs, and spreading and scaling those programs effectively through cross-sector partnerships.

Cheryl Kiser – Cheryl shared her experience as a consultant for businesses’ CSR and sustainability initiatives. She is just now settling into her new role as Managing Director of The Lewis Initiative at Babson College.

Ryan Allis – Co-Founder of iContact, Ryan is actually very much engaged in the concept of social entrepreneurship and CSR. Ryan shared how his company has integrated a 1% Time/Product/Equity/Payroll model for its CSR initiatives. Ryan is somebody to keep your eyes on as an emerging player in the social enterprise space. I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes down the road.

Mindy Lubber – Mindy’s work as the President of Ceres is focused on integrating sustainability into the capital markets, encouraging and helping companies outline and publish sustainability initiatives (and ideally metrics as well). Having recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, she told us how sustainability is becoming a more serious and central issue for business leaders — leading top business executives to attend her session at Davos.

Mitchell Wade – Concluding the Institute, Mitchell left us all with a quote that really resonated: The only change that really matters is that which happens after you leave. This is something that’s so important for us to remember as we build organizations or programs around the world focused on sustainability. From the very beginning we need to be focused on training others to build and grow the organization on their own! It seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised by how often this principle is forgotten.

Social Innovation Competition

One of the conference features was an event called the Social Innovation Competition. It was definitely an innovative way to help fund the institute — using the collaborative power of the fellows to serve as a consultancy to a corporate sponsor. I’m not sure how much I can talk about publicly about the client and the strategy we put together, but we put together a cross between a communications strategy and sustainability initiative for a major US corporation with offices around the world. My team had a blast working on the project, and actually made it to the final round!

Ideas Marketplace

This aspect of the conference allowed anybody to give a 1-minute pitch about their project or something they were passionate about. It was an awesome opportunity to hear everybody talk about their passions and interests! Three finalists were selected to give a longer pitch. Among the finalists were Maria Springer (Kito International) and Leticia Jauregui (CREA).

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of room for StartingBloc to grow as a network of social innovators and as an Institute. It would be nice to see more speakers at a TED-style pace (quick and to the point) as well as more workshops (a la GES).

Where StartingBloc really shines is in attracting an awesome group of fellows that have been vetted through the application process, and developing a strong life-long network connecting like-minded individuals and organizations. This is what attracted me to StartingBloc and was by-far my greatest take-away. As I return to Washington, DC in just a few weeks, I plan on being as active and engaged with this network as possibly by volunteering and helping organize events. Already in the last couple of weeks, I’ve had amazing phone calls and conversations with several fellows. They inspire me with every conversation, and I hope that I can bring some value to their work and their lives. That said, I really look forward to having a continued relationship with the StartingBloc community!

Regular readers of this blog know that Coca-Cola is one of my favorite companies. Here’s an update on what they are up to in Africa:

At Coca-Cola, we believe that the private sector can play a powerful role in reducing poverty – particularly by concentrating on core operations in a profitable but inclusive and responsible way.

In an earlier post, I described our commitment, as part of the Business Call to Action , to grow our network of Manual Distribution Centers – or MDCs – small independently owned businesses that now deliver over 80% of our drinks in the region. Under that commitment, we plan to increase the number of MDCs by up to 2,000 new independent distribution businesses by 2010, creating up to 8.400 new jobs and generating up to US$520 million in new revenues for local economies.

Complementing this project that focuses on our downstream supply chain, I am pleased to announce a further initiative that we will be taking in East Africa around our upstream supply chain.

In partnership with our bottling partner Coca-Cola Sabco, Technoserve and the Gates Foundation, we are launching a four-year $11.5 million initiative that will enable over 50.000 small mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and to participate for the first time in our Company and bottling system's supply chain, leading to a doubling of their incomes by 2014.

This initiative is part of our desire to go beyond traditional philanthropic CSR initiatives, important as they are, by leveraging our core business activities and operational expertise to facilitate economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in developing countries, and ultimately to bring about more jobs and more prosperity.

Post written for Business Fights Poverty by Euan Wilmshurst, Manager, International Government Relations, Coca-Cola

via The Coca-Cola Company partners with Gates Foundation and Technoserve in East Africa – Business Fights Poverty.

00:00 – 00:32 Introduction
00:32 – 02:23 Market Context
02:23 – 03:13 What is Ayllu?
03:14 – 04:55 What is Microfranchising?
04:55 – 06:20 Is There A Microfinance Connection?
06:20 – 08:04 How Did You Come Up With Ayllu?
08:04 – 11:01 Groundwork Laid in Brazil
11:01 – 12:34 Future of Ayllu

One of the largest challenges that social enterprises face is that of scale: how to bring their enterprises to new markets and maximize their potential social impact. Melissa Richer created the Ayllu Initiative with this in mind. Her organization seeks to bundle proven business models through a microfranchising mechanism to connect them with local supply chains, distribution channels, legal and financial support, etc in new markets (thus lowering the cost and technical barriers to entry). Currently, Ayllu is preparing for a pilot in Brazil.

Melissa was kind enough to join me in the above video interview, during which she passionately explained the need for this type of solution among social enterprises worldwide. With all of the amazing ventures out there, there needs to be a way to bring those models to the poorest corners of the world so that we are not continually relying on entrepreneurs to “reinvent the wheel”. I love the concept, agree with the need, and can’t wait to see how Ayllu grows in the years to come!

My thanks again to Melissa for taking the time to share her insights and work with us!

More Ayllu Resources:

• The Ayllu Initiative Website
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Follow Ayllu on Twtitter

Watch This Video on the Following Platforms:

• YouTube Part 1 / Part 2
• Vimeo (Coming Soon!)
• Blip.tv
• iTunes

C.K. Prahalad, author of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, spoke to the 2009 class of Acumen Fellows providing perspective and insight into working among the poorest in the world.

Key points:

• Don’t do it for guilt or morality, do it for intellectual stimulation
• Leadership is about the future, change, and opportunity
• Thinking out of the box vs. Creating A New Box!
• It takes good business acumen, technology, and imagination to create unique powerful solutions
• Look at poverty and imagine a very different world

What do you draw most from what Prahalad has to say?

Here’s your Daily Brief for November 4th through November 5th:

Nokia Launches 5 New BoP Mobile Phones – Nokia has been one of the most successful companies in the world when it comes to tackling BoP markets. They just announced the upcoming launch of Nokia Life Tools, a “service which gives consumers in small towns and rural areas the ability to get a range of livelihood and life-improvement services on their mobile phones,” in Indonesia after a successful pilot in India. Supporting the growth of this new service, Nokia announced 5 new phones specifically targeted at BoP consumers that will support the software.

This Ain’t a Phone, It’s An Arms Race – As mentioned in yesterday’s DB, competition is brewing among mobile phone companies in Africa.

The Informal Sector: Opportunity or Problem? (via CIPE) – One of the challenges facing developing economies is what to do with the informal sector. This post by CIPE offers some nice insight. I didn’t know that informal business accounts for 35-50% of GDP in many developing countries!

Unreasonable Institute Featured in BusinessWeek! – Being unreasonable seems to catch people’s attention! It’s REALLY REALLY hard for any kind of startup to get serious press (especially before they’ve done anything), so this is an awesome feat!

Just for fun:

I saw this video in a blog post on corporate culture and HAD to share it!

Indian Firms Shift Focus to the Poor (via WSJ) – I’m impressed with the growing coverage in the WSJ, NYT, and Economist of social enterprise and bottom of the pyramid business. This WSJ article shows how firms in India are focusing on how to serve BoP markets.

“India’s many engineers, whose best-known role is to help Western companies expand or cut costs, are now turning their attention to the purchasing potential of the nation’s own 1.1-billion population.”

Among the innovations described:

For the farmer who wants to save for the future, one Indian entrepreneur has developed what is, in effect, a $200 portable bank branch. For the village housewife, a wood-burning stove has been reinvented to make more heat and less smoke for $23. For the slum family struggling to get clean water, there is a $43 water-purification system. For the villager who wants to give his child a cold glass of milk, there is a tiny $70 refrigerator that can run on batteries. And for rural health clinics, whose patients can’t spend more than $5 on a visit, there are heart monitors and baby warmers redesigned to cost 10% of what they do elsewhere.

And a handsome prediction was made:

“The biggest threat for U.S. multinationals is not existing competitors,” says Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and chief innovation consultant to GE. “It is going to be emerging-market competitors.”

The article really hits the nail on the head, covering everything from BoP market strategy, to the “trickle up” benefits for firms, to the importance of design and manufacturing in addressing this growing market. Really, an A+ article!

Here’s your Daily Brief for October 16th:

New Approaches to New Markets: How C.K. Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid Strategies Are Paying Off (via Knowledge@Wharton) – C.K. Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid, has been one of the most coveted books for those of us advocating business investment in BoP markets. It was one of the first pieces of literature that took an honest account of the world’s poorest populations, disproving many misconceptions of the poor and laying out a clear strategy on how to operate a business that serves this market. But importantly, he also showed how innovation that occurs in serving BoP markets can trickle up and ultimately serve developed markets as well!

Five years since the release of this book, C.K. Prahalad reflects on the impact it has had. You can download the podcast interview here.

Success for Social Enterprise in Africa (via Beyond Profit) – A few weeks ago was the African Social Enterprise Forum in New York. I was unfortunately unable to attend, but my friend Diana Skurka was there to help promote International Transparency Solutions.

I’m still sifting through all the notes from the conference, but Beyond Profit posted this article recapping some of the key points from keynote speakers. What stands out most to me in this brief is the point made by Jacob Lief, Founder and President of Ubuntu Education Fund:

Jacob spoke on the scaling up and due diligence panel, where he challenged the term “scaling up.” He explained that Ubuntu’s approach is to “scale down” – to go deeper into a community and focus on changing lives, rather than simply touching them.

Over the course of the last 10-15 years, innovation has focused on “scale” and going macro. This is a trend that I see quickly giving way to more micro/community-based penetration. As we seek greater “impact”, more localized approaches will be the way to go.

Step Inside the Laptop Bank – Introducing FrontlineSMS:Credit (via Ken Banks) – Ken Banks is the founder of FrontlineSMS, a free software that allows individuals and organizations to create and run SMS-based networks. The software has been used by Ushahidi to track and report post-election violence in Kenya and many other cases in the last few years. Josh Nesbit used the platform to introduce FrontlineSMS:Medic — creating a network of healthcare professionals in the developing world and providing them with the SMS-based tools to interconnect and operate effectively.

A few weeks ago while I was in DC, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Ben Lyon from CreditSMS. Well just recently, CreditSMS became FrontlineSMS:Credit. Ben is doing some very cool work building a platform for SMS-based microfinance and banking. The linked article was written by Ken Banks on what Ben is doing.

Here’s your Daily Brief for October 12th through October 13th:

Can ‘The Simpsons’ Really Improve Lives in Africa? (via SocialEarth) – This is an awesome look at a startup in Kenya selling “Hand Made African Stone Sculpts” as Simpsons memorabilia. I think it’s awesome what 20th Century Fox saw the social benefit associated with the merchandise and agreed to grant the rights to sell and distribute the products! This is also an awesome opportunity to begin bringing artisans from the informal sector into the formal economy.

The lives of these artisans have drastically improved since the company started. The artisans are paid 450 shillings or $6.50 per statue, which has allowed many workers to put their children to school. But the one the biggest improvements for workers is the regularity of work. Prior to Craft Village, artisans would go for weeks without work, but now there is a steady flow of work for not only the sculptors, but also the miners who dig up the soapstone rocks for carving, and the female assistants.

Did You Know: BMW Has Been In South Africa Since 1968!? – Well it’s true! Since 1968 BMWs have been assembled in Rosslyn, South Africa! If you have a 3 Series, it may very well have come from that plant! Africa Business Source reports that BMW will invest around ZAR 2.2 billion to increase production in SA by 45% from 60,000 to 87,000 cars.

Women in Social Enterprise: Sweta Mangal, CEO “Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance (via Beyond Profit) – The social enterprise magazine Beyond Profit is running an awesome series on “Women in Social Enterprise”. This post takes a look at Sweta Mangal, the CEO of a venture called “Dial 1298/108 for Ambulance”. What I particularly like about this post is that it takes a look at an even larger question that is often asked: What makes a social entrepreneur?

Portfolios of the Poor – a great new book (via Poverty to Power) – One of the keys to BOP business strategy is truly understanding the dynamics of poverty. Duncan Green does a good job of summarizing “Portfolios of the Poor” — an examination of poverty that goes beyond the stereotypes and takes an honest perspective on how the poor manage their money.

Kagame Praises China’s Role in Africa (via BBC) – It’s interesting to see Rwandan President Paul Kagame praising the role China is playing in Africa. I’ve written frequently about this topic (most notably here and here), and I agree with Kagame when he states that Africa needs business investment rather than sympathetic aid.

“The Chinese bring what Africa needs: investment and money for governments and companies,” he told business newspaper Handelsblatt.

“China is investing in infrastructure and building roads,” he said, adding that European and American involvement “has not brought Africa forward”.

But where I strongly disagree with Kagame is that China’s role in Africa is one to be praised. It’s exploitative and does nothing to stimulate local economies. Business investment in African and the whole of the developing world needs to be responsible and ought to seek to promote local economic development.

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder of Acumen Fund, and in this TED Talk (which I really enjoyed!) she shares her experiences that led her to found Acumen and some of the lessons she has learned along the way.