Archive for Market-Based Solutions

One concept suggested on OpenIDEO by a designer is a pressure writing pad!

First it was Wikipedia. Then Pepsi. Then Ushahidi. Now IDEO. What do they all have in common? They have realized the power of harnessing the intelligence and knowledge of a crowd in order to create information, products, and in some cases, solutions. Now, crowdsourcing—using the wisdom of a crowd to outsource tasks—has become a powerful tool for social change.

In 2007, Pepsi used “crowdsourced” designs to create a new prototype for the Pepsi can. But, now designers, philanthropists, and social investors are seeing the potential of using the “power of the people” to solve complex social problems.

Take for example, the recently launched contest on the OpenIDEO platform. Sponsored by Enterprising Schools, an initiative of Gray Matters Capital Foundation, a pioneer in catalyzing the growth of the affordable private education market (among other things), the contest seeks to find solutions for the question, “How might we increase the availability of affordable learning tools and services for students in the developing world?”

A heady question, no doubt. What’s cool is that OpenIDEO breaks the “Affordable Learning Tools Challenge” task down into building blocks. The first week, everyone (really, everyone who wants to out there in the Internet) suggests ideas for inspiration. Willing participants can send in pictures, videos, and stories related to other ideas they’ve seen that relate to the component parts of the problem: low cost distribution plans, innovative services designed for extreme affordability, creative business models, etc. Users can vote and applaud each inspiration so the best rise to the top. It’s an organized group brainstorm.

» Continue reading “Using the Power of the People for Affordable Education”

Sattar is leading the way for entrepreneurial women in Pakistan.

After a trip to Pakistan in May, Beyond Profit has created a multi-part series, The Other Side of Pakistan, about a side of the country you may not have heard about before. We look forward to your comments and questions.

I can’t get a word in edgewise. I’m sitting in Maimoona Sattar’s office, trying to have a conversation about women in business in Pakistan, but between the two phones in Ms. Sattar’s ears, her office assistant, and a potential woman entrepreneur, I’m the lowest rung on the ladder of priorities. If Ms. Sattar is any indication of the big picture, the tables are turning for women in Pakistan.

Ms. Sattar is the head of the Women’s Business Incubation Center (WBIC), (a project of SMEDA which we covered last week), and an entrepreneur in her own right. She’s been charged with increasing the number of female small and medium enterprise owners in Pakistan. “Look,” she tells me matter of factly, “Pakistan is half women. How can women just be consumers? They have to produce something, something other than children.”

» Continue reading “The Other Side of Pakistan: Entrepreneurial Women”

Linda Rottenberg is CEO and Co-founder of Endeavor, a non-profit that identifies and supports High-Impact Entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Since 1997, Linda has pioneered a new model for development that engages the private sector in mentoring and advising the most promising-yet-undiscovered entrepreneurs as well as jumpstarts entrepreneurial support networks in these economies. Headquartered in New York, with established operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Turkey and South Africa, Endeavor is currently launching its model in Egypt, Jordan, and India.

Social entrepreneurs are problem-solvers, not idealists. We’re driven by innovation, not by charity. And we don’t believe in hand-outs. We use entrepreneurial strategies to achieve social change. Most notably, social entrepreneurs solve problems that governments and the private sector fail to adequately address.

In this current recession – in which more questions than answers have arisen about how to restart the global economy – social entrepreneurs are the voices of hope and the agents of change that we need.

Endeavor, the non-profit that I co-founded in 1997 which supports the most promising-yet-undiscovered High-Impact Entrepreneurs in emerging economies, addresses a pressing challenge common to all emerging markets: wealth is not meritocratically distributed. Entrepreneurs with the best ideas face significant barriers to scale their business: a lack of mentors, a lack of trust, a lack of networks, a lack of good management, and a lack of smart capital. Endeavor helps these entrepreneurs break down these barriers by offering the soft power of the private sector: mentorship, networks, talent, leadership skills, and inspiration. With Endeavor’s support, these entrepreneurs scale their businesses to create jobs, create wealth, and build a prosperous future for their economies. » Continue reading “Is Recession a Good Time to Invest in Social Enterprises?”

I think we can all agree on the merits of market-based solutions. They have attracted strong interest in the campaign against global poverty. They give low-income people better access to socially beneficial products and services. These services genuinely and directly improve the quality of life and livelihood for the poor. And the list could continue…

After recently reading Monitor’s “Emerging Markets, Emerging Models” Report, I was particularly taken by the concept of paraskilling. It was new to me, and it really struck a chord!

Essentially, paraskilling is when a service or a process is reengineered such that it can be performed by much lower-skilled workers. Tasks are disaggregated, simplified, standardized, and broken into discreet parts. Workers without specialized qualification can perform these tasks on a high-volume basis many times per shift or per day.

My initial reaction was, “oh yeah, you go get ‘em” paraskilling.  I thought it a savior, that which we had all been waiting for. It could easily be applicable to healthcare, education, financial services. » Continue reading “Impersonal Education?”