May 29, 2008   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

This year’s Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation has been awarded to the organizations leading the fight against malaria in Africa, which are: The Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre (Tanzania), the Malaria Research and Training Centre (Mali), the Kintampo Health Research Centre (Ghana) and the Manhiça Centre of Health Research (Mozambique).

I had the opportunity to spend a week at Ifakara visiting the Centre there, while doing a case study on how Novartis has been integrating corporate responsibility to the core of their strategy. There, we went more in depth on their Malaria program, supported by the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, and it certainly was very interesting to see the work being done in regards to its prevention, through social marketing and others, viewing their access to effective treatment of malaria, attacking the mosquitoes, the parasite, etc.

My most sincere congratulations to the people who have been working for the past years on this project. There’s certainly still a very long way to go but it is fundamental that their work is recognized and we can focus more our attention to the problem and its solutions.

Continue reading 'Prince of Asturias Award for fight against malaria in Africa'

   February 14, 2008   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

Here are some Jobs on Base of the Pyramid, ranging from COO positions to Management Consulting and Microfinance Development:

• Chief Operating Officer at Scojo Foundation. The Scojo Foundation is a global social enterprise, currently operating in 13 countries, which creates jobs and sustains livelihoods through the sale of affordable reading glasses to the 700 million people who require clear, up-close vision to read and work.

• Intellecap is looking for an Editor with Microfinance Insights in Mumbai; Senior Associates – Publications and Knowledge Advisory in Mumbai; Senior Associates/ Associates – Training and Research in Hyderabad; Senior Associates/ Associates – SME & Microfinance Development in Hyderabad; Senior Associates/ Associates – Management Consulting in Hyderabad; and Senior Associates/ Associates – Finance in Hyderabad.
Take a look at all Intellecap job postings. Intellecap is a leading consulting firm focused on capital advisory and innovations for the inclusive finance space, endeavoring to create and deliver mainstream, profitable solutions to address the problems of poverty and expedite sustainable development.

• Internship at Engineers for Social Impact (Internship with application’s deadline on March 2nd). Engineers for Social Impact is a unique fellowship program to connect the best engineering talent to the most credible social enterprises that drive market-based solutions to development in India.

• Associate, New Ventures Program, World Resources Institute. New Ventures promotes sustainable growth in emerging markets by accelerating the transfer of capital to businesses that deliver social and environmental benefits at the base of the economic pyramid.

• Director, TED Fellowship Program. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

Also have a look at a report which Net Impact made on December 2007 on Job's in the CSR arena.

   August 31, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

We’re back from the summer break and eager to continue the conversation on corporate responsibility and sustainability. As last year, I include a list of events and topics which took place in the month of August:

The winner’s of the “Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care” have been announced.

5 new Ashoka fellow’s in Mexico

Echoing Green has announced their 2007 Fellows

Cemex is considered as one of the leaders in BoP space both through Construmex and Patrimonio Hoy

Harvard Business Review’s article on the dangers of Microcredit

GE Money and their Earth Rewards credit card

The 2007 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition is now open

$100 laptop production launched

Take a look at people who live in Manhattan and yet receive agricultural subsidies from the US federal government

Interesting initiative of “Executives Without Borders” shared by Pablo Halkyard

Snapshot at Global Migration

Upcoming Social Venture Conferences

Social Enterprise Competitions

   July 19, 2007   

María Soledad Pons Caruso, MBA 2007, Net Impact Chapter Leader

Wednesday, the 4th of July, the Global Village event took place at Instituto de Empresa. It was organized by Net Impact, but we would like to thank everyone who helped out in any manner. These people include the organizing committee, the country stand coordinators, those who prepared food or presentations, and all those who attended and helped support this cause.

The event raised around 2000 euros which will be split between four NGOs: ONGs: Koinonia (Kenya), Skip (Perú), Un Techo para mi país (Latinoamérica) y la New Gate to Peace Foundation (Jerusalem). Below you will find information on each. The money will be transferred next week. If you would still like to elect among them you may send an e-mail in the next few days.

At about 3 in the afternoon, many people left their classes early and began the preparations, led by Stephane who took charge of the logistics. At the door, the rest of the people were met by Guillermo, Lau, Sole, and Brent. More than 200 people attended! They were not only IMBAs, but also MBAs from September and February intakes, the master in Telecom and Digital Business, master in Finance y and Marketing.

The regions and countries represented were: Arab (Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon among others), Brazil, Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panamá), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, México, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and USA.

The Global Village had a dual purpose: to raise money for the NGOs and to celebrate the diversity of countries at IE. IE has a very international student body, so we should take advantage to learn about the cultures of others in all aspects, not just the work – related.

Continue reading 'Global Village, Second Edition'

   June 22, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

On June 7th, Bill Gates addressed Harvard students with an eloquent and well prepared speech on their graduation ceremony. But it was not just another speech. Referencing Marshall’s speech 60 years ago when talking about the great challenges they faced in implementing the Marshall Plan, this was intended to be a speech with just the same impact.

I truly encourage you to watch the video or read the transcript . It’s not sophisticated but rather simple and down to earth. But it is simple ideas which address complex issues those that work best. From developing a more creative capitalism which helps better address the world's inequities, to committing ourselves and our best minds to dedicating our time and effort to solving our biggest problems, I include some excerpts of the speech, hoping they will motivate you to see/read it all.

“…I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I love getting people excited about software—but why can’t we generate even more excitement for saving lives?

You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.

…To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.

The defining and ongoing innovations of this age—biotechnology, the computer, the Internet—give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.

You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how—in this age of accelerating technology—we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism—if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.

If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.

Let me make a request of the deans and the professors—the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:

Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?

Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty… the prevalence of world hunger… the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school… the children who die from diseases we can cure?

Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?"

   May 23, 2007   

J.Pozuelo-Monfort, MSc candidate in economic development at LSE.

Extreme, External, Eternal

Published at elPeriódico.cat (In Catalan).

The three words that the debt and the poverty of the developing world have in common.

Extreme because debt and poverty have reached levels that are so regretful, so inhumane, and so beyond the normal levels, that need to lead to serious thinking in the industrialized world as to when and why this has happened.

External because the current levels of debt and poverty have been fostered by external causes. Their root might be in the developing world itself, but oftentimes not in its citizens, but in its corrupt leaders that once upon a time where given a wildcard to borrow as much money as they felt they needed to undertake their personal vision, far away from being backed and supported by their own citizens.

Eternal because debt and poverty risk to be long-time companions of a world that heads off in the wrong direction. An unequal world that operates according to the rules of a minority that is powerful and wealthy. An unequal world that operates according to the rules of a select club of nation-states unable to move forward and face the real challenges of the XXI century.

The Triple E. A challenging trilemma. One wonders who in this world of ours is responsible and can be accountable for a change. We are reaching a point in which the developing world will cry out loud and say it is enough. It is enough. We need public administrators ready to deliver. We need public administrators eager and willing to deliver. A huge responsibility lies on our shoulders as citizens of a democratic world whose leaders are not being consecuent and coherent.

The Triple E. Let's get to work.

   March 29, 2007   

El 25 de Abril tendrá lugar en Madrid una jornada relacionada con las inversiones socialmente responsables.

En la última década han confluido distintas tendencias que cuestionan la manera tradicional de abordar las decisiones de inversión. Por una parte, la preocupación por la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial ha impulsado a las empresas a integrar las variables sociales y medioambientales en las operaciones del negocio y a mantener un diálogo más fluido con sus diferentes grupos de interés (clientes, empleados, proveedores, etc.).

Por otra, en el sector de la filantropía surge con fuerza un nuevo perfil de donante que asume riesgos similares al del inversor. Se trata tanto de personas como de instituciones, que buscan emparejar sus motivaciones sociales con la búsqueda de cierta rentabilidad económica. Esas tendencias han impulsado la creación y desarrollo de distintos instrumentos o fondos de inversión caracterizados por el uso de criterios sociales y medioambientales (fondos éticos o, más propiamente, fondos socialmente responsables).

Por último, en el campo del Desarrollo ha surgido una nueva corriente que está rebatiendo la manera tradicional de abordar la solución de muchos problemas sociales. Este nuevo enfoque, conocido comúnmente como “la base de la pirámide”, defiende que los pobres pueden ser clientes excelentes, y que el secreto está en que las empresas mediante la innovación desarrollen productos y servicios para esos miles de millones de personas que se encuentran en la “base de la pirámide”. Entre los ejemplos más significativos se encuentran las “microfinanzas”, una tecnología crediticia, desarrollada en sus orígenes por algunas ONGs, que ha conseguido hacer accesibles los productos financieros a los más pobres e interesar a la banca convencional y los fondos de inversión en esta nueva “industria”.

Todos estos ejemplos muestran el creciente interés de la sociedad por los temas sociales y medioambientales. Esto plantea a las empresas importantes retos y oportunidades, tanto en el diseño de sus productos como en el desarrollo de sus operaciones, si quieren conectar con esas nuevas sensibilidades y responder adecuadamente a un perfil nuevo de “inversor”, que quiere conciliar su motivación financiera y sus intenciones altruistas.

Algunos de los ponentes de la jornada son:

• Manuel Conthe. Presidente de la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores
• Damian Von Stauffenberg. Presidente de Microrate (Washington)
• Juan Luís Martínez. Profesor de Marketing del Instituto Empresa
• José Andrés Barreiro Director de Negocios Globales, BBVA

Programa de la Jornada
Ficha de Inscripción

   March 27, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

The Skoll World Forum is taking place today and until this Thursday. I have surfed through the Social Edge website all morning and sadly have not had access to the conferences live, as it was possible last year. Perhaps they will be uploaded later on. In the mean time, there are a couple of blogs available, which are covering the event from their own perspective. Some of the speakers are:

• Jeff Skoll, founder and Chairman, Skoll Foundation and Participant Productions
• Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Grameen Bank founder and microfinance pioneer
• Peter Gabriel, musician, activist, cofounder and Chair of WITNESS
• Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org, founder and former Director of the Seva Foundation
• Bill Drayton, CEO and Chair, Ashoka
• Jeroo Billimoria, founder, Aflatoun / Child Savings International, who was this past November at the Social Responsibility Day at IE

Free the Children - 2007 Skoll Awardee

The 2007 Skoll Awardees will be presented at this event and include among others, Free The Children, NGO which recognizes the potential of young people to create positive social change. It works with schools throughout North America to educate and empower youths to act locally and globally as agents of change for their peers around the world. More than 500,000 students have joined the organization’s Youth in Action groups in 1,000 schools across the U.S. and Canada. They have shipped $11 million in essential medical supplies and have provided health care projects benefiting more than 505,000 people.

My deepest congratulations to Craig and Marc Kielburger, with whom i had the opportunity to work with back in 1999, at the State of the World Forum.

Have a look at the 2007 Skoll Awardees.

   March 09, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

If there where any place where I would like to be today instead of “not yet so sunny Madrid”, it would either be at a paradisiacal beach in the Mayan Riviera or, last but not least, at the TED 2007 conference in Monterey.

Jeff Skoll, Bill Clinton, News photographer James Nachtwey, Biologist E.O. Wilson, Tracy Chapman, Richard Branson, Hans Rosling and many others are taking part in these conversations.

Several bloggers are following the event and you can also visit Teds Blog to get a glimpse of the conversations that are taking place as we speak. These will be uploaded on their site at Ted Talks, space of which we have previously spoken on this blog. You can still see some remarkable speakers there and be patient for the upload of this year's conferences.

   March 07, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

How about a real space that fosters social innovation? A space where social entrepreneurship can be breathed on every corner. This has been The Hub in London experience. Their core product is flexible membership of inspirational and highly resourced habitats in the world’s major cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. It is now present in London, Bristol, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and Cairo. But the conversation is ongoing and advanced in the Netherlands, Mumbai, Berlin, Belgium, Halifax, Mexico and has several synergies with the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, which is a “convergence facility” for the social mission community, The Melting Pot in Edinburgh and others.

The market need is expressed by social innovators whose ability to thrive requires access to highly resourced, flexible and safe spaces within which to scale up, change gear, take risks and make mistakes. Over time, social innovators need access to a range of just-in-time resources and market-facing opportunities to thrive: knowledge, capital and networks. The Hub provides channels to such resources and opportunities, without crushing the innovators initial spark and ingenuity.

We are engaging on a couple of action led conversations, one of which includes the openning of a hub like space in Madrid. If you want to be part of this conversation contact me.

   February 23, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

You've got things to do. People to meet. Ideas to realise. Events to host. A business to run. So what's the deal? You need the flexibility to scale up, wind down, change gear, move on. You need a space you can call your own. You need a safe space, professional space, dynamic space. That is, A Space for Social Innovation.

Next week I'll be at The Hub in London and Briston, attending "The Art of Hosting Spaces for Social Innovation". What? An international seminar and inquiry exploring the art of crafting and hosting spaces that incubate imaginative initiatives for a radically better world. Why? A new model and pattern is emerging in physical and virtual spaces that support pioneering social initiatives. These habitats create the conditions for collaboration, serendipity and emergence such that value is created far in excess of the sum of their parts.

The objective is to build a network of inspirational habitats in major world cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. The Hub is a place for making things happen. All the tools and trimmings needed to cultivate an idea, launch a project, host a meeting and run a business.

Over time, social innovators need access to a range of just-in-time resources and market-facing opportunities to thrive: knowledge, capital and networks. The Hub provides channels to such resources and opportunities, without crushing the innovators initial spark and ingenuity.

Well, these and many other conversations will take place next week. Hope to be able to post on a daly basis, in order to start the conversation of The Hub Madrid. Up to now The Hub in Madrid is what I have in mind as providing this social innovation stretch, a space where MBA alumni and others can start their social enterprises, meet, interact and learn from practitioners in the community and abroad. At the same time, these practitioners certainly will be enriched by the business perspective of value creation that IE MBAs can offer. Bluntly speaking, it is a great model which makes perfect sense on my mind. I’m certain that my perception will still change 180 or 360 degrees next week, hopefully bringing it closer to the right direction.

   February 09, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

A €1.16 billion program is being funded in order to encourage drug companies to come up with vaccines to help prevent pneumonia and meningitis, intended to save the lives of more than 5 million children by 2030, in the world's poorest countries.

The idea of the fund, which is to begin with the pilot program in pneumococcal disease, is to act as a bridge between poorer countries and drug firms. Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia and Britain are the first countries to back up the fund. The plan is to subsidise the future purchase of vaccines, hoping to serve as an incentive in order to bring drug firms into action.

If a developing country agrees it needs a drug which industry can develop, the fund provides a commitment to purchase the vaccines once they are produced.

"The key aim is to ensure there is secure funding for the vaccines urgently needed in the poorest countries, where thousands of children die every day from diseases that can be prevented," Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President

Companies must agree to sell the new vaccine at a price that developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America can afford. After a period of 7-10 years, vaccine producers are to continue supplying their products, at a discounted price.

On another note, the first large-scale trial of an HIV vaccine is set to begin in South Africa. Three thousand HIV negative men and women who are sexually active will be immunised in a 4 year study.

This is a highly needed element in Public Private Partnerships. Pharmaceutical companies have their very important and fundamental role to play, but so do governments from developed and developing economies, NGO’s, other agencies and philanthropists, in order to generate incentives which increase R&D of neglected diseases, which still is in a low 10% of the whole R&D expenditure.

Learn more about The Global Fund and their January 2007 Africa Update.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on vaccine preventable diesases.
Learn about the International Aids Vaccine Initiative.

   January 24, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

Don't miss the chance that technology has brought in enabling you to follow conversations which make a difference. How about sharing the table and most importantly, the conversation on The Shifting Power Equation with E. Neville Isdell, Angela Merkel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Eric Schmidt...

Here are some conversations which might also interest you:

Climate Change: A Call to Action with Montek S. Ahluwalia, John McCain, Zhang Xiaoqiang, and Martin Wolf

Billions in Development Aid: What Are the Results? with William Easterly, Jakaya M. Kikwete and Maria Ramos

Sustainable Energy Consumption: Does Anyone Care? with Fatih Birol, Emanuel Höhener, C. S. Kiang and Christine Maier

A Business Manifesto for Globalization with Lord Browne of Madingley, Patrick Cescau, Ian E. L. Davis, James Dimon, Carlos Ghosn, James J. Schiro and Joseph E. Stiglitz

Scaling Innovation in Foreign Aid with William Easterly, William H. Gates III, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Fareed Zakaria

A Conversation with the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón-Hinojosa (this is of personal nature, forgive my partiality on internal affairs...)

Delivering on the Promise of Africa with Tony Blair, Bono, William H. Gates III, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Thabo Mbeki, Kumi Naidoo and Sadako Ogata

Frozen Trade Talks and the Need for Progress with Pascal Lamy, Doris Leuthard, Peter Mandelson, and Susan Schwab

Don't miss the opportunity. I have as many of you a quite busy agenda. Despite of this, I would have gone to Davos if invited, perhaps next year... but for this year, missing these conversations which help build speakers and attendants’ accountability certainly has a stake at setting this years global agenda.

Join the conversations here.

   January 10, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

Dell, The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org have just announced a joint, global carbon-neutral initiative to offset the carbon dioxide produced when customers power their computer systems. Called “Plant a Tree for Me,” the program allows customers to make a donation that will be used by the two nonprofits, The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org, to plant trees in sustainably managed forests.

Through the program, a customer donation of $2 for a notebook and $6 for a desktop computer will offset carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to powering the average computer for three years. Dell will remit 100 percent of the donations received from the “Plant a Tree for Me” program to The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org to be used to plant trees.

The “Plant a Tree for Me” program is available now to Dell customers making new computer purchases. It will be available in February to U.S. consumers and in April to global consumers for any brand of computer.

After being pointed our by activists in regards to their environmental footprint, it is an interesting example to see how Dell is aligning CSR to their strategy, bringing together initiatives such as their Energy-Saving product strategy or their free recycling of products. Will this have an impact on your computer purchasing decision? Whatever the answer it might be, the negative impact would certainly affect your decision, plus, it certainly offers a differentiating factor which easily enables the customer to reduce his/her CO2 footprint with the click of a button.

   January 09, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

Time's Person of the Year is YOU. The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Its also time to take part on conversations that matter and to engage in actions that make a difference.

The World Economic Forum, which will take place January 24-28th, will use new web applications which will extend the discussions at the Annual Meeting 2007 to a much wider audience. The debates and discussions at Davos will be open to the general public via traditional broadcast channels, but also via webcasts, podcasts and for the first time, vodcasts.

The Forum will webcast over 50 of the 220 sessions. 31 of the sessions will be webcast live and a further 20 will be available for download once the session is over. All webcasts will be available also as pod- and vodcasts for download from Google video. All webcasts and vodcasts can be accessed here.

If you can physically join the event don’t miss the chance. If you were not invited, do join the conversations, it will definitely be worth your while.

…Still’s never been a time when both private citizens and public officials had the potential to shape a world of peace and prosperity. Could we screw it up if we let AIDS eat us alive? Yes. Could we go back to an ice age if we don’t do something about global warming? Absolutely.

…we’re building something we never had to build before so, don’t be discouraged and don’t use your political disappointments as an excuse to avoid personal commitment. Bill Clinton

Need to capture the essence of the annual meeting?

Plan your schedule in accordance to the Programme.
Join the Davos Conversation.

   January 04, 2007   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

2006 was a year full of highlights in corporate responsibility and sustainability. Going from a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to international awareness on global warming, it certainly was a year which proved the tipping point in these conversations. Here are some of the most important things that happened in 2006:
Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank win the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize

UN Principles for Responsible Investment Launched

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore

The Clinton Global Initiative and more than US$7 billion in Global Aid

IFC's Lighting the Bottom of the Pyramid

Five big stories on Global Health

Carbon Neutral is “Word of the year”

The 2007 perspective looks even more promising, lets build on this conversation…

   December 21, 2006   

Santiago Iñiguez, Dean and Professor of Strategy

Referring to the text about TED Global, November 30, I should mention a presentation made by professor Hans Rosling, that concerns Africa and its growth, that was made at TED and more recently in Paris at LeWeb3.

Here is the link to his presentation

"Hans Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, he debunks a few myths about the "developing" world. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA.)"

Technorati Tags:leweb3 Rosling TED

   December 13, 2006   

Harvard Business Review has just published on their December issue two great articles together with an editorial and material which relates to Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility and to Disruptive Innovation for Social Change. The first is authored by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer and the former by Clayton M. Christensen and others.

I sincerley recommend purchasing these articles or moreover, December's issue of HBR; both CSR and social innovation are very well envisioned, together with an editorial and Michael Porter's Mapping Social Opportunities, which helps you visualize how an organization can set a successful CSR agenda which maximizes social benefit while making business sense.

Here's an abstract of Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility:
Governments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their actions. In response, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Frequently, though, CSR efforts are counterproductive, for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when in reality the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to their individual strategies. The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so disconnected from strategy as to obscure many great opportunities for companies to benefit society. What a terrible waste. If corporations were to analyze their opportunities for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover, as Whole Foods Market, Toyota, and Volvo have done, that CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed—it can be a potent source of innovation and competitive advantage. In this article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer propose a fundamentally new way to look at the relationship between business and society that does not treat corporate growth and social welfare as a zero-sum game. They introduce a framework that individual companies can use to identify the social consequences of their actions; to discover opportunities to benefit society and themselves by strengthening the competitive context in which they operate; to determine which CSR initiatives they should address; and to find the most effective ways of doing so. Perceiving social responsibility as an opportunity rather than as damage control or a PR campaign requires dramatically different thinking—a mind-set, the authors warn, that will become increasingly important to competitive success.
Purchase this article.

Here's an abstract of Disruptive Innovation for Social Change:
Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver. Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions. Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations. The authors call it "catalytic innovation." Based on Clayton Christensen's disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups. Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all. Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough. Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents. And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even discouraged by existing organizations, which don't see the catalytic innovators' solutions as viable. As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.
Purchase this article.

Interested in this subject? You should also read The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy.

   December 05, 2006   

Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management

The Acumen Fund is trying to create an “entrepreneurial bench” of top talent with strong financial and operational skills as well as the moral imagination to build appropriate enterprises with local stakeholders. Through the Acumen Fund Fellows Program, they have identified and developed in their own words "some of the world’s next generation of leaders".

They have just announced a call for extraordinary individuals to build the Acumen Fund Fellows class of 2008, a program which provides them with a unique opportunity to use their skills to effect real social change with our portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and to build lasting relationships with other like-minded individuals. Fellows will spend one year working with their team and with local entrepreneurs, gaining intensive experience in price performance, logistics, distribution systems, scaling and innovative technology. Fellows will learn and apply these skills while enjoying an unusual level of responsibility both at Acumen Fund and within our portfolio organizations.

Ideal fellows include those who have already decided on a career in venture philanthropy, those who are seeking a career at the highest levels in the corporate world but want to better understand and have an impact on problems of global poverty, and budding social entrepreneurs who want to learn about managing organizations in the most demanding settings.

The application's deadline is January 31, 2007, having the selection phase by mid-April and the progr