Doing good by doing well: Shaping a sustainable future
Public pressure to tackle social issues isn’t just a threat to success–it’s also an opportunity for companies that know how to pick issues that are ripest for their leadership. Several trends are creating a new set of challenges for corporations. For example, even as a global company facing resource scarcity must create more efficient products […]
We Have To Crack The B2B Code
Photo credit: Nicola Corby Business Action for Africa. Reflecting on the events that I was privileged to attend during UN week in New York, I was struck by the immense potential that exists to crack the code for scalable business to business partnerships that directly aim to address the Millennium Development Goals through inclusive business […]
Meeting the Challenge of Expanding Inclusive Business
Opening Plenary New Member Commitments High Level Panel Event Photos Most of us interested in inclusive business have heard the success stories: Coca-Cola has generated $550 million in additional revenues by integrating local entrepreneurs into their beverage distribution chain in markets across Africa. Vodafone – one of the world’s largest telecommunications firm – now reaches […]
Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Blog by Susan Olsen, Inter-American Development Bank
Paul Polak, Founder, iDE: At Least a Million
For many years I have been a vocal advocate for what I call the “Don’t Bother Trilogy” in the practice of design, which states: 1. If you haven’t had good conversations with at least 25 customers before you start 2. If the product or service you design doesn’t pay for itself three times in the […]
Hybrid Value Chains: new opportunities for business growth while tackling development challenges?
By Michael Jarvis, World Bank Institute Can social entrepreneurs forge a more productive collaboration with corporations? One that is good for business growth but also tackles development challenges? Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich suggest just that in a new article in Harvard Business Review. They introduce the concept of hybrid value chains (HVCs) based around […]
The Painful Story of Contracting in Afghanistan: I know a guy…
When we first started our local procurement project in January 2006, convincing international organizations to buy locally from Afghan businesses was a tough sell. Buyers had a laundry list of reasons that condemned local businesses to small value work, usually using the “I-know-a-guy” method of procurement. When the biggest spender operating in the country started […]
Bridging the Worlds of Impact Investing and Inclusive Business
Attending this month’s SOCAP/Europe conference (see my blog about the event), I have been struck by the huge potential for connecting the world’s of impact investing and inclusive business. Both are effectively about using private capital to bring about positive social and environmental change. Very often both are focused on supporting small and medium enterprises […]
Making Broadband Accessible For All
Blog by Matthew Kirk, Group External Affairs Director, Vodafone Group and Steve Bratt, Chief Executive Officer, World Wide Web Foundation, about the twelfth in the Series of Policy Papers, launched on 19 May 2011, from the Vodafone Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile (SIM) Advisory Panel. To download the report, click here. Most governments rightly see getting […]
“Cracking the Code” on Access to new Housing for the BoP in Latin America
Post by Susan Olsen, Lead Specialist, Opportunities for the Majority Initiative, Inter-American Development Bank We know markets often fail the poor. The “Opportunities for the Majority” Initiative (OMJ) of the IDB seeks to develop and promote market-based solutions to help solve the market failures that prevent the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) from accessing quality […]
The GIM Initiative Releases 60 New Case Studies of Inclusive Business Models
The “Growing Inclusive Markets” (GIM) Initiative, a UNDP-led global multi-stakeholder research and advocacy initiative on inclusive business models (i.e. financially sustainable models that include the poor on the demand side as clients and customers, and on the supply side as employees, producers and business owners along the value chain), has recently released 60 new case […]
Free Resource Guide on Inclusive Business
This week Business Action for Africa and its partners are hosting a series of events in Cape Town focusing on the important connections between business and development in Africa. The first of these will look at “inclusive business models” that expand access to goods, services and jobs amongst low-income communities through company value chains, with […]
Announcing Next Billion's New E-book: THE Big IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing
About a year ago, NextBillion teamed up with one of our Content Partners, Ashoka, for a Twitter chat. Our mission: Unearth the overlapping challenges and the market solutions to affordable housing for the world’s low-income consumers and producers. We were soon buried in data. The discussion was lively, and as much as we tried to […]
Announcing Next Billion’s New E-book: THE Big IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing
About a year ago, NextBillion teamed up with one of our Content Partners, Ashoka, for a Twitter chat. Our mission: Unearth the overlapping challenges and the market solutions to affordable housing for the world’s low-income consumers and producers. We were soon buried in data. The discussion was lively, and as much as we tried to […]
Clare Melford: Inspired Leadership – Towards a Sustainable World
The number of Americans who believe that the free market economy is the best economic system is in free fall, a recent poll from GlobeScan shows. Tracking opinions from 2002 and across 25 countries, the poll shows that many emerging economies now surpass the USA in feeling positive about the free market system! Americans rated […]
White paper: 'Sustainable Supply Chains in Asia'
IBLF and Edelman spoke to 20 companies across sectors to uncover the practical issues in turning sustainable supply chain policies into practice.
White paper: ‘Sustainable Supply Chains in Asia’
IBLF and Edelman spoke to 20 companies across sectors to uncover the practical issues in turning sustainable supply chain policies into practice.
Shell Foundation: New Solutions to Global Development at Scale?
Post written for Business Fights Poverty by Richard Gomes, Communications and Business Manager, Shell Foundation A new report called ‘Enterprise Solutions to Scale’ has recently been released by Shell Foundation, the global development charity, charting its ten year journey to implement a new enterprise-based model for tackling global challenges affecting poverty and the environment. The […]
Reflections on the journey of corporate responsibility
Besides the regular festivities, food and frolicking, December is a time for reflection. Commentators love to look back on The Year That Was – debating everything from the most gripping news stories to the highest grossing movies. But it’s not often that you get to hear someone like the head of the UN Global Compact, […]
How can more companies achieve development through their core business?
This was the question underlying an interactive workshop on ‘Overcoming Barriers to Inclusive Business Growth’ organised by the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and the Business Call to Action (BCtA) on 7 Dec 2010 hosted at Barclays’ offices in London. Launched in 2008, the Business Call to Action is a global initiative that aims to […]