Why is Intrapreneurship Worth the Effort?
The last in our series of short insights from The Intrapreneur Lab, is Damian Payiatakis, Director of Strategic Development at Barclays Wealth, Lab participant in the 2013 Lab and invited back as faculty 1 year later. We interviewed Damian back in October 2013. The Intrapreneur Lab: What challenges lie ahead for you and your project? […]
Why Intrapreneurship is Gaining Momentum
As part of the series of short insights from faculty members of the Intrapreneur Lab, we spoke last October to Adrian Ristow, Special Projects Director at Coca-Cola and lead on Project Last Mile. The Intrapreneur Lab: Why is intrapreneurship gaining momentum? Adrian: An intrapreneur is someone who is trying to drive some type of change […]
The Power of Intrapreneurship
As part of the series of short insights from faculty members of the Intrapreneur Lab, we spoke to Anuradha Bajaj, who at the time was acting head of the Private Sector Department at the Department for International Development and mentor at The Intrapreneur Lab. The Intrapreneur Lab: What’s your view of intrapreneurship? Anuradha: I think […]
The Qualities of a Successful Intrapreneur
As part of the series of short insights from faculty members of the Intrapreneur Lab, we spoke to Professor David Grayson CBE, Director of Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management. The Intrapreneur Lab: ‘What is an Intrapreneur’? David: Well I think social intrapreneurs are people working inside large businesses who develop ideas, […]
Lessons for Aspiring Intrapreneurs
The past 12–months have been a whirlwind of growth for The Intrapreneur Lab – the accelerator programme for social innovations inside large companies conceived by Leadership Laboratories, Accenture and Business Fight Poverty and now held in business schools across the world. The pace of growth is to us a clear indicator that intrapreneurship is a […]
Emerge 2014 – Living with Purpose, and Other Highlights
Great minds from all reaches of the social entrepreneurship realm came together at Said Business School this weekend for an intensive, 2-day conference to discuss some of the arena’s most pressing insights, developments and issues. Lead by Oxford’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, in conjunction with Student Hubs, this year’s Emerge Conference saw several major […]
Closing the Information Gap on Impact Investment
Information, as they say, is power. Nowhere is this truer than in business and finance. Most new business ventures will involve an element of risk or a leap of faith. However, the better calculated that risk, or the more accurately measured the leap, the better the chance of success. Which is why, the Impact Programme, […]
New Corporate Volunteering Hub to Fight Poverty
At the recent Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, the UK Development Minister Justine Greening announced that she is backing a new volunteering initiative for businesses and the development community. The Hub, set to launch in early 2015, will be run by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Speaking during Economic Development day alongside World […]
Closing the SME Finance Gap
Over 90 percent of all jobs are created by the private sector. In emerging economies, small and medium enterprises provide the vast majority of those jobs. Yet every second small and medium sized business remains credit constrained in emerging markets, and is struggling to raise the financing necessary to invest and create new jobs. Some […]
Reducing Risk is Key to Strengthening Access to Finance for SMEs
Manager, Anglo American Over 25 years, Anglo American has invested in enterprise development in host countries to support the development of both the business and local communities. A key priority is to ensure that the economic impact of our enterprise development activities extends beyond the mining sector and encourages more broad-based economic growth in countries […]
African SMEs are Starved of Finance
Of Africa’s 50 million SMEs, over 70% suffer from insufficient financing, leaving a funding gap of USD 140 billion. Less than a quarter of these firms have access to bank loans or lines of credit, compared to 43% in other developing regions. To address this challenge, the African Development Bank launched the Africa SME Program […]
Access to Cash Doesn’t Solve All the Problems
CARE International’s approach to SME development includes access to finance as an important element. But we also believe that it is essential to adopt a systemic view of the market system and of the socio-economic situation of the individuals and communities with whom we work. Our financial inclusion strategy includes the provision of credit, savings, […]
Meeting the Long-term Financing Needs of SMEs in Uganda
In Uganda, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) contribute around 70% to GDP. But while most of the finance offered by banks is short-term, it is long-term finance which is necessary for the growth of most SMEs. Frequently, this results in SMEs in Uganda using the wrong kind of funding for expansion – for example using […]
The Changing Face of African Innovation
Africa has great resources and untapped potential, however, the lack of funding acts as a significant barrier to entrepreneurship and innovation. In order to fully utilise our resources, we need meaningful investments to provide inclusive prosperity on the continent. The Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2015 is an annual competition founded by the Africa Innovation […]
Advancing Research on Sustainable & Inclusive Business
Citi Foundation, Tufts University and Business Fights Poverty Launch New Report: Growth for Good or Good for Growth? Study Explores How Sustainable and Inclusive Business Activities are Changing Business The Citi Foundation is excited to announce our partnership with the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, and Business Fights […]
Reinvesting 20% of profits in poor countries
Five years ago, GSK made a pledge. Our chief executive – Andrew Witty – committed to reinvest 20% of our profits from developing countries back into those countries, using the funds to strengthen their healthcare systems by training frontline workers. It was a bold move, but necessary. The World Health Organization currently estimates a global […]
Barclays, Intrapreneurship and The Intrapreneur Lab
On 16 September, Milan Samani, Director of the Intrapreneur Lab, interviewed Mark Thain, Vice President, Social Innovation, Barclays, and Damian Payiatakis, Director of Strategic Development, Barclays Wealth and Investment Management. The conversation covered Barclay’s approach to supporting intrapreneurship and innovation, and their experience with The Intrapreneur Lab – a collaboration between Business Fights Poverty, Accenture […]
Supplying Power and Creating Jobs in Uganda
BACKGROUND In 2004, Uganda’s electricity distribution network was very run down. As a result of many years of neglect, the network of over 20,000km of poles, sub-stations and wires had fallen into disrepair. There were approximately 120,000 rotten poles in the system, which was a serious issue both in terms of quality of supply and […]
USAID Promotes Inclusive Business for Development Goals
The Business Call to Action interviews Ricardo Michel, Director, Centre for Transformational Partnerships, US Global Development Lab at USAID Ricardo Michel is responsible for the overall strategic direction to best use local and global public-private partnerships for accelerated sustainable development. Previously, Michel served as acting director for the Office of Innovation and Development Alliances, where […]
50 Years of Backing SMEs and Creating Jobs in Uganda
Photo: CDC/DFCU “Fifty years is not a short time by any means, but CDC has stuck with DFCU for 50 years. Even through the difficult times they’ve been with us. This is very important, for us to have a long-term shareholder who is committed and dedicated to the growth of DFCU, and who believes in […]