Intrapreneurship – A View from the Bridge
You’re on the Titanic. You see the iceberg. What do you do? You could just enjoy the party. After all, it’s probably too late to do anything so one might as well have fun. Alternatively, you could quickly make for the lifeboats and plan an escape while you still can. Or you could climb up […]
We Must Make Farming Profitable
A farmer tells his child, “study well and get a job or you will suffer like me.” This is not an isolated caution from a hapless father, but a reality that plays out time and again across villages in the emerging world. Parents don’t want their children to farm. As governments across the world clamour […]
5 Tools to Help Social Intrapreneurs Drive Change
What do Rosa Parks, Rachel Carson, Lech Walesa and a group of gay men at a New York bar in 1969 have in common with social intrapreneurs? According to David Grayson, Director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University, they are all change agents – people who pushed against the status quo […]
"Gender-Neutral" Financial Services
I recently stood in front of a group of investors and business coaches and explained the gap in investment in women-led small businesses. After the presentation, an audience member asked me whether I thought banks and investors should start biasing their services toward women. “No,” I replied, “you should unbias them away from men.” This […]
“Gender-Neutral” Financial Services
I recently stood in front of a group of investors and business coaches and explained the gap in investment in women-led small businesses. After the presentation, an audience member asked me whether I thought banks and investors should start biasing their services toward women. “No,” I replied, “you should unbias them away from men.” This […]
Social Intrapreneurism – A Dialogue
When a researcher in corporate responsibility meets a management consultant, it rarely begins with improvising a jazz piano duet at a conference. This is, however, what happened when Melody McLaren, an Associate of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, first met Lionel Bodin, a Senior Manager at Accenture Development Partnerships, during the inaugural award ceremony […]
Developing Effective Youth Entrepreneurship Programmes
There are approximately 1.3 billion young people between the ages of 15 – 24: they make up a quarter of the world’s working population but represent half the world’s unemployed. One solution to combat spiralling unemployment has been the launch of youth entrepreneurship programmes providing services such as training, mentoring and access to finance. But […]
Investigating Inclusive Business Models in Africa
Woolworths through its Good Business Journey, has a comprehensive plan to make a difference in six priority areas: sustainable farming, protecting water supplies, reducing energy use, improving the management of waste, making a significant contribution to social development and supporting transformation initiatives As part of the company’s CSR investment, Woolworths was the first and main […]
A Chance to See Is a Chance At Life
Public health care coverage in Mexico continues to be low, relative to international standards. While the Mexican government provides traditional health care to the formal sector, in 2004 it created “Seguro Popular” — insurance for low-income, informal/self-employed individuals. Internationally, in 2011 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average health expenditure per country was 9.3 […]
The Best Social Innovations of 2013
The SAB Foundation has announced the finalists of its 3rd Annual Social Innovation Awards 2013. A total of 26 finalists will vie for the R1-million first place prize, which will be used to grow and commercialise their product or service. The SAB Foundation Social Innovations Awards was first launched in 2011 by its chairperson, Cyril […]
Strengthening Micro-Enterprise in Peru
Alfredo Peña Rojas owns a local mini-market and delivery service in Iquitos, Peru. He has built himself a strong business thanks to his boundless personal enthusiasm, and established a good trade despite the location’s poor roads and consequent access difficulties. But basic efficiency problems were evident in day-to-day operations. For example, some customers were no […]
Why Conventional Methods to End Poverty Have Not Worked
Rather than approach the problem directly, most large-scale, rich-nation efforts to end global poverty have employed indirect methods to eradicate poverty. This is the second in a six-part series on the fight against global poverty adapted from The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services f…, by Paul Polak and Mal Warwick. It’s difficult […]
Lessons for the Bangladesh Garment Sector
In the months since the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh sparked a drive to address worker health and safety in the garment sector, I’ve been suffering a severe case of déj? vu. Here’s how it has played out: high-profile exposure of human rights abuses, coupled with intense lobbying by civil society, causes international brands […]
Launching the Intrapreneur Lab
Last year a few of us from Leadership Laboratories, Business Fights Poverty and Accenture Development Partnerships had an idea. We were talking about ‘shared-value’ – business ideas that make a profit through benefitting society. Looking at the success stories, we saw that often, these projects were driven by just a few individuals and sometimes only […]
Microfinance: Helping Shopkeepers in Colombia
Politicians and executives alike know the force of change that lies in the hands of small business owners in Colombia. Many of these are micro-business proprietors, often undervalued entrepreneurs who have established business to help ends meet. People in low socio-economic groups frequently opt to create their own small business in Colombia due to a […]
Innovation in Inclusive Business
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
7 Trends Shaping Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge
In 2001, Charles Maisel started a social enterprise because he saw potential in the young men who sit on the roadside in South Africa’s townships waiting to be hired for a day’s labor. He then flipped the problem into a solution. Charles understood the barriers: the short-term and unreliable nature of employment in the informal […]
Innovating for Inclusive Business- Introducing the "Innovation Insider"
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
Innovating for Inclusive Business- Introducing the “Innovation Insider”
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
Backing College Loans To Low-Income Students In Mexico
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mexico has a smaller proportion of college students than other countries on a similar path of growth and progress, and a significantly lower proportion compared to their main trading partners. Although higher education in Mexico grew to record levels this past decade, just over […]