Goldman Sachs Versus Careers of Conscience
Wall Street is facing a recruiting problem, reports the New York Times. The latest reminder that big banks are corrosive for careers of conscience comes from a NY Times op-ed piece by former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith who sharply describes a “toxic and destructive” workplace. Covet a career building economic opportunity and justice? Want […]
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development (Continued)
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]
Barend van Bergen: Sustainability Fundamental to Long-Term Business Performance
Almost four years ago, while being seconded from KPMG to the WBCSD, I was involved in a series of workshops aimed at involving the capital markets in sustainability. Reflecting now on the lively conversations that took place, I genuinely believe we have made some progress. Although I never predicted events would unfold as they have, […]
Building Business Strategies for Development Impact in Africa
For nearly 100 years, Africa has been a key driver of our business success. Almost 40 per cent of our assets remain in South Africa. Three of our seven main business groups (platinum, iron ore and thermal coal) and two of our key associates (diamonds and manganese) operate out of southern Africa. These are all […]
How Doing Good is Good for Business
Last month, we got to hear from Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. The talk was part of the Pears Business Schools Partnership lecture, which promotes sustainable and responsible business through inspiring future leaders. What does one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have to say about how doing good is good for business? Sir […]
Resources for practitioners: inclusive business models in the energy sector
We are delighted to launch a new series of monthly Editorial Specials, in which we highlight our favourite resources on business and development. As the concept of inclusive business takes root and people move from ideas into action, an increasing number of sector-specific reports on inclusive business models have begun to come out. This month, […]
Winning with Purpose
Business has been a powerful force in improving the lives of millions of people on our planet – whether through product and service innovation, job creation or new opportunities for suppliers and distributors. Yet, I believe business can do so much more. As the Occupy movement has highlighted, huge inequalities remain – and companies such […]
The SUN shone at Davos last week
“Davos” – the shorthand moniker for the Annual General Meeting of the World Economic Forum – takes place in what is normally a picturesque but rather sleepy, Swiss Alpine village. Yet, every year in late January, it is overrun by heads-of-state, royalty, rock stars, captains-of-industry and powers-that-be. Choose your term. They’re there. There are plenty […]
Five common confusions on Fundraising vs. Partnerships
A lot is happening in the world of international development cooperation and the resources available for the coming years. There are public discussions in many countries regarding the (sustainable) impact of development aid. Many (governmental) donors are cutting back their funds and many foundations have less resources to spend and therefore engage more than ever […]
How to Improve the Impact of Private Sector Development
The Private Sector Development (PSD) field is evolving and growing fast – mainstream development is discovering the private sector. Who is doing what? What are the trends and what will be the next ‘big ideas’? And in this age of austerity, what do we know about results, and how to measure them? How can we […]
Amanda Bowman: 10 Steps to Success in International Corporate Volunteering
By Amanda Bowman, IBLF In Part 1 of this blog, I looked at how 2011 had been a good year for International Corporate Volunteering (ICV). We define ICV as being one distinct form of employee community engagement – placing employees in foreign country assignments and contributing their skills to support the improvement of communities, social […]
Mark Foster: Rebuilding Trust in Volatile Times
We are in a period of unprecedented volatility and dynamism. The daily news brings conflicting signals about the pace, nature or durability of any recovery and the macro-global picture is also far from clear. Economic power bases and traditional orders are shifting – and not in predictable ways. China, India and Brazil continue to develop […]
Four Companies Announce New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
Smallholders Critical to Reigniting Rural Development in Asia
Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. […]
Joe Phelan: Time for Business and NGOs to Move from High Ground to Common Ground
By Joe Phelan, India Country Director, IBLF Change is afoot in India, as the debate on the role of business to support inclusive growth shifts from theory to implementation. The new landscape is one where companies are mandated by government to spend a proportion of their profits on CSR initiatives while major aid agencies are […]
Clare Melford: Four Things Progressive Companies are Exploring Now
At a recent university reunion event, I met my old tutor. His eyes lit up as I told him about the work we’re doing at IBLF with global business leaders. “Maybe some of them would be willing to be the research subjects of my latest paper,” said the renowned neuroscientist. I asked what it was […]
How can business help tackle undernutrition?
There has been much talk over the last decade of the role of the private sector in development. In the beginning, we debated fiercely over whether there even should be a role – in fact this debate still rages on. But for many it became clear that excluding the private sector was not practical and […]
Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group: Screw Business as Usual
Through my experiences in my life and more recently with Virgin Unite, the nonprofit foundation for Virgin Group, I’ve learnt about the power that business has to drive change, whether that is simply creating thousands of jobs and a company where people love to come to work every day, or building a company to tackle […]
Zidisha.org Facilitates $100,000 in P2P Microloans, “Turns Microfinance On Its Head”
While conducting fieldwork for a microfinance organization in West Africa in 2006, Zidisha.org founder Julia Kurnia noticed something startling. Loans that were funded at zero interest by well-meaning participants in the popular microlending website Kiva.org were costing the impoverished beneficiaries more than 35% on average in interest and fees. The exorbitant rates were charged by […]
CDC appoints new Chief Executive
CDC, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI), has appointed Diana Noble as its new Chief Executive Officer. Noble joins the organisation at a time of significant change, with a new business plan published earlier this year in response to a major review by the Department for International Development (DFID). As well as acting as a […]