Tag Archives: Social Business

Assured Labor – creating a mobile marketplace for jobs in emerging markets

Posted on April 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

In the fall of 2007, a group of young potential entrepreneurs attending the course on Development Entrepreneurship at MIT struggled with a problem facing over half the developing world. As developing economies grew and provided new jobs, the infrastructure to communicate and broadcast the potential opportunities for employment was unable to keep up. The influx of migrant workers into urbanized centers provided a rich pool of available talent but the mechanisms for disseminating job needs were still rooted in the 19^th century. Print advertising and, in extreme cases, roving cars with loudspeakers, were used in a scattershot manner hoping to attract potential candidates to interview for jobs. Online advertising wasn’t an option in most developing countries where internet connectivity was sporadic. The transient nature of most migrant and casual laborers made getting to the target audience even more difficult. Continue reading →

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Posted in bottom of the pyramid, Information Technology, Latin America, mobile technology, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

Tagged Assured Labor, BOP, cellphone, Claro, Development Entrepreneurship, Empleolisto!, Information Technology, Latin America, MIT 100K, MIT IDEAS, Mobile, mobile technology, Nicaragua, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, Sustainable ventures

Vijay Mahajan of BASIX on risks and results in microfinance

Posted on April 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

A good article that touches on some of the issues in my last post is a recent interview of Vijay Mahajan on the Credit Suisse website. In the interview Mr. Mahajan points out to some of the prerequisites for microfinance to pull people out of poverty. He also highlights the need to match investment growth in this sector to the available management capacity in order to avoid a bubble in the sector. Here are some extracts from his interview. Continue reading →

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Posted in BOP, bottom of the pyramid, India, micro-finance, microfinance, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

Tagged BASIX, BOP, Credit Suisse, micro-finance, microcredit, microfinance, Social Business, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, Vijay Mahajan

Grameen and Continuum partner to address talent gap in microfinance

Posted on March 25, 2010 | 2 comments

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion at Continuum, the design consultancy based in Newton, Massachusetts, on “Building Leadership in the Microfinance Sector.” Moderated by Ed Milano from Continuum, the panel consisted of a cross functional team that was studying the issue of talent acquisition and management in the microfinance sector and consisted of Peg Ross, Director of the Human Capital Center at the Grameen Foundation; Lyndon Rego, Director of the Innovation Incubator at the Center for Creative Leadership; Lynn Pikholz, President of Shorecap Exchange; and Anna Muoio, Principal with the Social Innovation practice at Continuum.

The presentation and discussion centered around some very preliminary findings based on an initial field immersion trip and set the stage for more detailed field research to be conducted later this year. I have outlined some of the observations that were shared at the meeting and my personal observations and reactions to what I heard. Continue reading →

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Posted in bottom of the pyramid, micro-finance, microfinance, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

Tagged BOP, Center for Creative Leadership, Continuum, Grameen Foundation, Human resources, micro-finance, microfinance, mid-level managers, Shorecap Exchange, Social Business, social Innovation, Social Investment, Sustainable ventures, talent, yunus

Another successful year for ForSE 2009

Posted on November 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

Another successful conference on Social Entrepreneurship was held on October 23rd, this time at Babson College in Boston’s Wellesley suburb. Details on the conference and photos were posted in a local e-magazine, Lokvani.com and are reproduced below for those who could not attend. Continue reading →

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Posted in Conference, Education, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development

Tagged Babson college, Boston, Carol Cone, Conference, ecosystem, Leonard Schlesinger, microfinance, non-profit, Pamela Hawley, Philanthropy, Pitch contest, Rural Education, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, social Innovation, Social Investment, sustainable development, venture philanthropy

World’s largest Business plan competition looks to help social entrepreneurs

Posted on October 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

To help jumpstart job growth in Massachusetts, a unique public/private partnership, Masschallenge.org, was launched earlier this year. By unveiling what it claims is the world’s largest business plan competition; the folks at MassChallenge are hoping to attract hundreds if not thousands of interested entrepreneurs. While most business plan competitions have been university based in the past, MassChallenge intends to go mainstream with entries accepted from all quarters. With the intent of raising serious money – a target of $25 Million for the first year – it hopes to change the way plans are run by providing the winning teams with $1 million in seed funding. It hopes to run six parallel competitions in the following areas:

Healthcare, and Life Sciences
IT, Software, and Gaming
Clean Technology and Energy
Social Development and Non-profit
Open Category, Seed Stage
Open Category, Expansion Stage

The one on Social Development and Non-profit caught my eye as it is along the lines of what we have been discussing on this blog. As I had said in some of my earlier posts, early stage social innovators sorely need a jumpstart as they face a tougher time raising funds than a for-profit. More importantly, Massachusetts has grown to be a focal point for social innovation attracting the best and brightest to the exciting programs offered in all the leading universities. Coupled with the incentives from MassChallenge and the Massachusetts Government, we have the opportunity to create a new growth cluster in the state. We have an opportunity to retain the top talent attracted to the programs in the area and to channel them to building the next generation of innovative social enterprises here in Boston.

I recently wrote a more detailed article for the MassChallenge.org blog that outlines this and am excerpting it below. Continue reading →

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Posted in Investment, non-profit, Philanthropy, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation, sustainable development, Venture Capital, venture philanthropy