Extreme! Innovation: Dispatches From The Future

Microfinance's Transition to Scale

2011-01-16T12:26:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times editorial by the Grameen Bank's Muhammad Yunus, Sacrificing Microcredit for Megaprofits, recommends a number of procedural and regulatory improvements to the "industry" of providing loans to the poor. Recent actions and reactions by for-profit loan providers, most notably in India, have dealt microfinance a "body blow". However, paradoxically, freedom and growth are often enhanced by establishing or better defining boundaries. I think that ultimately we'll look back on this moment in history as the time when microfinance became an even more robust and scalable way to eradicate poverty.

Microcredit's Creative Destruction

2010-11-18T11:54:00.001-05:00

An article in today's New York Times on the potential collapse of microcredit in India highlights the bumpy ride that always seems to accompany the growth of any new idea.

Apparently, some microcredit lenders in Andhra Pradesh, India's 4th largest state by population, crossed the fine line between balancing profits and social impact to loan sharking, all in the name of growth. It's easy to see why. Microfinance is increasingly becoming big business, in part because the need is so great, viable models (like those of the Grameen Bank) have become mainstream, and default rates are customarily low relative to profit margins.

And, most of all, people can get rich doing it. SKS Microfinance, India's largest for-profit microlender and backed by famous investors like George Soros and Vinod Khosla, recently floated a $350 million IPO with SKS Chairman Vikram Akula privately selling shares worth about $13 million.

The dynamics (another word for messiness) that accompany innovation and entrepreneurship have a familiar pattern. Early successes lead to refined models that produce ever increasing value to both customers and providers. Almost inevitably, these models are exploited by a few bad apples, sinking the whole concept into question.

Fortunately, all market-based innovations have built-in (although not always timely) mechanisms to clean up the mess. The refusal (or inability) of those receiving microloans to repay has already led to tighter regulatory restrictions and generated questions among policymakers, legitimate loan providers, and their customers. The answers to these questions, and the processes taken to find them, will undoubtedly lead to even better, more effective microcredit models in the future. Unfortunately, the "best" providers of microloans to the poor, which have pulled millions in poverty at least a rung or two up the economic ladder, will end up as collateral damage, at least for a while.

All of this is little comfort to the Indians whose lives have been damaged by unscrupulous lenders. It's a situation that has probably existed since the beginning of time and always will as long as those who have are willing to give to those who need.

Clean Water, One Credit At A Time

2010-11-16T13:24:00.001-05:00

Today's NY Times Fixes column features a solution proposed by Vestergaard Frandsen, maker of the LifeStraw which operates under a "Humanitarian Entrepreneurship" business model, to address the lack of clean water that afflicts many parts of the world.

In essence, the idea is to use the proceeds of carbon credits, which are increasingly becoming freely traded on global exchanges (like stocks and bonds), to finance investments in clean water solutions (including post-implementation support), thus making the cost of clean water = ZERO. Since boiling water for purification customarily uses carbon emitting energy sources like wood, it not only makes logical sense but Vestergaard Frandsen will make more $$$ the more successful they are at scaling adoption.

If there's one constant in the private sector it's that companies that introduce new, seemingly viable business models create hordes of fast-followers. This competition generates innovative energy that refines and fine tunes approaches, lowers costs, and provides a platform to "scale" solutions.

If there's anything surprising about what seems to be a surge of activity from the private sector to generate "profits with a purpose", it might be that it's taken this long to realize that, where there are societal problems of almost unimaginable magnitude, the mechanics of markets may provide a solution that also creates shareholder value.

Unreasonable Men and the Quest for a Malaria Vaccine

2010-11-03T13:52:00.001-04:00

Billy Shore of Share Our Strength

My good friend Billy Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, one of the world's leading organizations in the quest to end childhood hunger. Billy was a senior aide to former U.S. Senators Gary Hart and Bob Kerrey and was selected as one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report in 2005.

He has a new book coming out called The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men: Inspiration, Vision, and Purpose in the Quest to End Malaria (his fourth; see all of Billy's books here) which follows the story of two audacious scientists who have been racing each other for 30 years to develop the malaria vaccine. He uses the narrative to broach the question, “How do you solve the problems of hunger, disease, and other critical social problems with no natural market?”

Here an article link describing the book and Billy's insights on social innovation, published by Community Wealth Ventures, Share Our Strength's social enterprise consulting firm:

http://www.communitywealth.com/Newsletter/October%202010/Imaginations%20of%20Unreasonable%20Men.html

How To Make Your Car Smell Like French Fries

2010-06-28T12:23:00.008-04:00

An article in today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette details a partnership that GTECH Strategies (Growth Through Energy and Community Health), a CMU-Heinz College social innovation spinoff and Echoing Green Fellowship winner, has with Pittsburgh-based Optimus Technologies / Fossil Free Fuels to collect used cooking oil from local restaurants and other institutions for use in vehicles with converted diesel engines. By their estimates, Pittsburgh generates an estimated 500,000 gallons of cooking oil annually, much of which is dumped in landfills or literally down the drain, causing not only environmental issues but an economic liability for companies.

GTECH has been filling brownfields with sunflowers for the past three years with the dual purposes of environmental remediation and economic development, and their efforts have expanded to areas including post-Katrina New Orleans. The partners have already secured $650,000 in grants this year to collect and convert vegetable oil, to convert engines and to build two alternative fueling stations.

As Andrew Butcher, CEO of GTECH and a Heinz College alum put it:

"This is a sweet spot for GTECH -- the economic potential in eliminating an environmental liability."

They are also working on a $1.6 million expansion plan that would generate 2.5 million gallons of renewable fuels per year and includes converting a block of abandoned buildings in Braddock (an economically distressed area of the city) for a vehicle conversion garage, fueling station, processing and distribution facility, and research lab for cooking and seed oil fuels.

I think this effort highlights some of the characteristics of next generation social innovation ventures--multidisciplinary, multipurpose, scalable, leveraged by strategic partnerships, and, perhaps most importantly, with a business plan that recognizes financial sustainability as a critical success factor.

What do you think?

Innovating an Ancient Food

2010-06-17T06:22:00.011-04:00

Innovations often happen by thinking about old things in new ways. A recent article in the Washington Post explains how China's expanding population and water shortages, in part caused by growing crops like rice and wheat, are driving new innovations in potatoes.

Yes, the simple spud is getting new attention as a way to stave off poverty and famine, maintain economic growth, and ensure social harmony. It simply takes less water to grow potatoes and their yield far more calories per acre (a great metric) than traditional alternatives.

The numbers describing the magnitude of the problem don't lie: China as to feed 1/5 of the world's population on 1/10 of the planet's arable land, and the nation's expanding cities are consuming farmland at breakneck speed.

China estimates that by 2030, when its population is expected to level off at roughly 1.5 billion, it will need to produce an additional 100 million tons of food each year.

New, exotic potato varieties are being developed, a major potato research center is being launched in Beijing with the International Potato Center, and entrepreneurs are creating new potato-based foods in traditional forms (buns, noodles, cakes) to accelerate acceptance. In addition, the government has announced subsidies for farmers who grow high yield seed potatoes and expanded farmer training programs focused on innovative ways to raise crops (and rural incomes). And it's a good time to be in the Chinese potato business. Wholesale prices increased 85 percent from November to April, thanks in part to a severe drought that has limited supply.

Think these developments don't affect you? According to the article:

China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand.

Just goes to show that sometimes the catalysts for innovation are right in front of us. We just need to see the world in a new way.

Latin America Redux

2010-03-27T18:14:00.008-04:00

Nearly a year ago to the day, I returned from a trip through six Latin American countries--Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Columbia, and Mexico--searching for prospective students and partnerships for Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College campus in Australia. I learned during that month-long journey that common perceptions (at least mine) of a Latin America in relative poverty, suffering from governmental ineffectiveness, and experiencing continual economic chaos are largely overblown and many countries in the region were thriving in the midst of a global financial meltdown.

Well, I've just returned from Latin America again (same countries with the exception of Brazil, just not enough time this year) even more impressed with the region's progress and dynamism. For over three weeks, I gave lectures at universities, governmental organizations, companies, and public venues on social innovation and the forces influencing innovators throughout the world, particularly those focused on new ways to address basic human needs like clean water, food, shelter, health care, and education.

One presentation, Extreme Innovation: The Future of Products That Could Save The World, highlighted products aimed at supplying basic human needs in radical ways and included:

A definition of Extreme Innovation, building on decades of academic research and practical examples: "Products that defy conventional boundaries on cost, functionality, or other dimensions valued by end users, resulting in unexpectedly high social and economic impact."
"Power Shifts" outlining some of the forces currently at work providing challenges and opportunities to innovators including demographic, urban and economic changes, technology influences, and the ongoing climate change debate.
Some product examples including the LifeStraw, One Laptop Per Child, and Adaptive Eyecare's innovative glasses.

The other presentation was entitled Forces of the Future: The Big Trends and Breakthroughs That Will Reshape The Planet. It's based on the premise that we can probably all agree that the problems that we can define today seem somehow bigger, the forces at work seem somehow more chaotic, and the solutions that emerge seem to require more innovative approaches that at any other time in history. What's perhaps comforting is that this belief has been a consistent theme in every civilization throughout recorded human history, about 27,000 years.

However, that doesn't stop us from one nagging question: whether the ideas, leaders, and institutions that exist in the present are better suited for a world now several centuries behind us? And, if that's the case, are the ways that we've traditionally tackled the challenges of our time hopelessly flawed and irrelevant for what we face in the future?

One thing that emerged in my thinking as a result of putting this lecture together is that design, technology, and the simultaneously decreasing cost of both bits and atoms is creating some very new ways to solve complex problems. One example is the recent DARPA Network Challenge to find ten red balloons randomly distributed throughout the US with the first person or organization to identify the location of all the balloons winning $40,000. Using a "recursive incentive structure" that built on existing social media tools, a group from the MIT Media Laboratory Human Dynamics Group located all ten balloons in just 8 hours and 56 minutes, showing the power of social and computer networks to address complex problems in orders of magnitude less time. See an interview of MIT physicist Riley Crane, the leader of the winning team, on a recent segment of the Colbert Report: http://civic.mit.edu/news/media-labs-riley-crane-on-colbert-report.

The interest in Extreme Innovation and the issues surrounding it seems limitless throughout Latin America and many of my presentations were to standing room only audiences (I think it's the topic, not the presenter!). Looks like Latin America could be on my speaking tour schedule for years to come!

A Long Hiatus

2009-04-11T15:06:00.006-04:00

Nearly three weeks ago, I returned to South America for the first time since 2000. That was the year that I took my first and only trip to the continent for my first training session at McKinsey in Caracas, Venezuela.

I remember a city crammed into a large valley surrounded by beautiful mountains carved into by desperate shanty towns and mansions walled off from unseen but very real dangers like some medieval castles. But the people, like I've encountered almost everywhere else in the world, were friendly, polite, and helpful. The food was delicious. The mood was a mixture of hope and a wariness developed through seemingly endless cycles of growing prosperity and leaders who failed to deliver on ambitious promises.

Santiago, Chile was my first stop in a five-week long journey of countless meetings with government leaders, scholarship providers, universities, and other representatives to raise awareness of Carnegie Mellon's Australia campus. In addition, we're working in conjunction with the South Australia government to offer generous partial scholarships that will result in more applicants from the region in our post graduate programs in public policy and management, and information technology.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Chile is one of the wealthier countries in South America with a per capita GDP (PPP) at 59th in the world and, according the the UN, a Human Development Index placing it in the world's top 40. Unfortunately, like much of Latin America (and many other parts of the world), it also has a vast gap between rich and poor with a 2006 Gini Index of 54.

Like Caracas, Santiago it sits in a bowl formed by majestic mountain ranges like the Andes with weather like South Australia which supports a similarly rich agriculture and wine industry.

My hotel was packed with tourists and tour groups from around the world, all looking to enjoy a safe, clean managable city of five million. Even in what were described as "poor" neighboorhoods, the "wealth gap" wasn't so obvious. It's hard to believe that less than twenty years ago, Chile was lead by Augusto Pinochet, a military dictator who rose to power in a violent 1973 coup.

One of the most obvious examples of how progressive the country's government has become is the recently announced Bicentennial Fund. Formed to celebrate Chile's upcoming 200th anniversary, the Fund was created by current President Michelle Bachelet (the only woman leader in Lantin America and the first in Chile's history) to provide thousands of post graduate scholarships to the country's "best and brightest" in areas like public policy and IT, and create a new generation of leaders throughout the government, business, and social sectors.

One country down, five to go. Next stop: Argentina.

Watch This Space

2009-04-11T14:29:00.006-04:00

The South Australian Government has an exceptionally innovative program called Thinkers In Residence which brings some of the world's leading intellectuals to the state for extended residencies. Their objective: make specific recommendations and catalyze actions in areas of critical importance to the state and, in many cases by extension, Australia and beyond. The current Thinker in Residence is my friend Laura Lee, former head of Carnegie Mellon's Architecture Department and an expert on sustainable design.

At the conclusion of the residency of Geoff Mulgan, head of the UK's Young Foundation and one of the world's leading thinkers on social innovation, last June South Australia's visionary Premier, Mike Rann announced the formation of the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (ACSI). This independent organization, seed funded with $6 million, intends to develop, test, and support innovative approaches to address the kinds of social problems endemic to South Australia and countless other "hotspots" around the world--clean and plentiful water, shelter, and renewable energy just to name a few.

On February 6, at an event honoring the memory of his political mentor, Mike announced that the ACSI was ready to spin-out from the nurturing incubation chamber provided by his government and formally named its inaugural Board, lead by Phillip Adams, one of Australia's leading commentators and polymaths. I was honored to be asked by the Premier to join this august group (albeit in a phone call taken during the 2nd quarter of Super Bowl XLIII, ultimately won by my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers).

In the weeks and months ahead, we'll name ACSI's first CEO, help shape its strategy and operational plan, and figure out where and how to start, borrowing liberally from and linking to related initiatives around the world.

As they say in Australia: "Watch This Space."

An Affair To Remember

2009-01-15T01:59:00.024-05:00

On December 11, 2008, Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College Australia had it's biggest graduating ceremony yet with 50 scholars representing nearly 20 different countries picking up their diplomas.

This year's graduation was moderated by Carnegie Mellon's Provost, Dr. Mark Kamlet (a former Dean of the Heinz College), and featured Alan Noble, the Engineering Director for Google Australia and a Heinz College Australia Advisory Board member, as the keynote speaker.

In my role as Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon Australia, I get to give the "Charge to the Graduates" at the end of the ceremony, which is kind of a gentle shove out the door, a verbal line of demarcation between life as a graduate student and the challenges of the "real world".

Here are my remarks from a remarkable day:

First of all, I’d like to add my congratulations to all of our graduates and, in particular, the trailblazers that make up our first graduating class of part-time students. As someone who got two graduate degrees while trying to hold down a job, have a life, and keep my wife from forgetting what I looked like, I know how challenging this journey has been for all of you. Make sure that you take at least a few minutes to take great pride in your accomplishments.

And that brings me to my Charge to the Graduates.

I was pretty proud to get accepted into Carnegie Mellon as an undergraduate in the early 1980’s, although I probably didn’t understand how significant it was at the time. I was a pretty good student but I have to admit that my primary focus in high school was sports and girls, not always in that order.

My life changed forever about halfway through my first day of orientation as a freshman. I was sitting between two guys in a packed lecture hall. On my left was a guy who had worked at an IBM research lab over the summer. On my right was a guy proudly talking about the computer he had just built from scratch, from soldering the circuit boards to writing the operating system. As I glanced down a couple of rows, I noticed another incoming student, obviously from somewhere outside the US, working on page-wide equations located on the back cover of our new calculus book.

As a computer science major that had taken one programming class in high school and got a ‘B’, I was clearly in a new land. Unfortunately, it was a land where I had the wrong kind of passport, didn’t speak the language, and the natives seemed hostile.

I learned something pretty important in that moment—my success or failure would be directly connected to how much I was willing to change and how hard I was willing to work. It was also reminded me that having a good dose of humility is a pretty desirable character trait.

I’ve had lots of challenges in my academic and professional life since then but getting through Carnegie Mellon is still the toughest thing I’ve ever done. Ever though I eventually graduated from CMU as a University Scholar, I was so happy that my time at Carnegie Mellon was over, and so intent to put that difficult period in my life behind me, that I chose not to stay in touch with the university for nearly a decade.

So I hope that our graduates, this year and every year, enter the world with what I’ll call a “confident humility”. That while they take great pride in the accomplishments that we recognize today, they balance that confidence with a recognition that they have stood on the shoulders of giants—friends, family, classmates, and colleagues—to get this far and that they’ll need other shoulders—to stand on, depend on, and occasionally cry on—to make their difference in the world.

Congratulations again to our graduates. All of us at the Heinz College hope that you won’t be as foolish as I was and let ten years go by before you let us know what you’re up to. You’re now officially part of the Carnegie Mellon family and, like the family and friends that are with you here today, we’ll be cheering you on every step of the way.

Thank You.

Photos courtesy of Roy VanDerVegt www.royvphotography.com.au

Learning Communities and Innovation

2008-10-29T20:36:00.005-04:00

Earlier this week, I was a keynote speaker for the Australian Learning Communities Network Conference held in Adelaide, South Australia. Below are my comments:

I’ve been lucky enough to be part of some pretty interesting learning communities during the past 25 years or at least what I think of as learning communities. Whatever I know about them, a little or a lot, comes from direct experience—as a participant, a contributor, and a developer. So this morning, I’ll briefly provide what I believe are some of the characteristics of learning communities, why learning communities are necessary but perhaps not sufficient, and provide a quick example of what may be a prototype learning community for the 21st century.

*****
I can still remember my first day of orientation as a freshman at Carnegie Mellon’s US campus in Pittsburgh, about 700km west of New York City. I was sitting between two guys in a packed lecture hall. One of the guys had worked at an IBM research lab over the summer and the other was proudly talking about the computer he had just built from scratch, from soldering the circuit boards to writing the operating system. As a computer science major who had taken one programming class in high school and got a ‘B’, I was in a learning community where I had the wrong passport and didn’t speak the language. I learned something pretty important in that instant—my success or failure would be directly connected to how much I was willing to change, to disturb my status quo, and to take leaps into the unknown, time-and-time-and-time again.

When I got into the business world, I worked for companies whose very survival depended on cultivating learning communities, within and spanning vast geographies with thousands of contributors. For example, when I graduated from Carnegie Mellon, I went to work for IBM in an area just north of New York City dominated by the company’s manufacturing and R&D facilities. Along a 50km stretch of mostly two-lane roads, through little towns called Fishkill and Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls were some of the largest semiconductor and supercomputer manufacturing facilities in the world along with a higher concentration of advanced degrees and PhD’s than Silicon Valley. This wasn’t today’s IBM but the forgotten one of yesteryear, where employees all wore white shirts and could sing the company song and could expect lifetime employment. For a while in this learning community calculated risks were the norm and failure was never an option. But the comfortable environment and years of dominance lead to complacency and the ties that we formed to retain our intellectual advantage with sister plants in Europe and Japan, and with leading scientists and engineers around the world, frayed. For a while in the early 1990s, the company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The pressure and pace to rescue the company was unrelenting, and we probably never learned so much in such a short amount of time. As the author Willa Cather once said, “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”

Fast forward to the height of the “dot com” meltdown in 2002 when I started an organization called the Social Innovation Accelerator with governments, philanthropies, corporations, universities, and nonprofits in Pittsburgh to make the city a learning community and global leader in the field of social innovation. Social innovations are novel solutions to social problems like homelessness or hunger or clean water that are more effective, efficient, or sustainable in the long-term than existing solutions and where the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals. As if creating a learning community in a place still transitioning from a manufacturing-based economy to one reliant on education, services, and healthcare wasn’t enough, Pittsburgh has one of the highest concentrations of nonprofits per capita in the US with many operating about the same way they did when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Before we could cultivate and support a learning community, we had to create a “community of unlearning”. As the poet James Russell Lowell said, “only by unlearning comes wisdom.”

I guess it’s not surprising that these experiences have influenced the development of the learning community that I’m now responsible for, Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, Australia. And not just the learning community that builds within the walls of our campus in Victoria Square but also how we can add, over time, to the “learning capital” of South Australia as well as what we like to call “The Triangle” from the Gulf States in the Middle East to China and South Korea down to Australia.

Sure, we have to have great facilities and learning tools and professors to support our students who represent twenty different countries. But we also need to do something much harder—create a culture and environment that supports change, disruption, and leaps into the unknown. Where learning by doing is supported by structured and just-in-time instruction. Where risk taking without lasting harm can be expected but where failure is still not considered an option. Where the yin of pressure and pace is occasionally unrelenting but where the yang of relaxation and release is also available. And where a “community of unlearning” exists and that spirit of questioning assumptions and not being afraid of reality spills out into the projects we do throughout the community for governments, nonprofits, and industry, in South Australia and beyond.

It’s an action-orientation that goes beyond learning for learning’s sake, and follows the original intention of the university’s founding benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, a self-educated entrepreneur whose Carnegie Steel Company grew to be the world’s largest producer of steel by the end of the 19th century. The Carnegie Technical School, the precursor to Carnegie Mellon University, was founded in 1900 on the premise that a learning community for the working class, the sons and daughters of steel workers and miners and craftsmen, was needed in the world. When the school was launched, Carnegie himself formally announced: “For many years I have nursed the pleasing thought that I might be the fortunate giver of a technical institute to our city, fashioned upon the best models, for I know of no institution which Pittsburgh, as an industrial center, so much needs.” So from the very beginning, following Carnegie’s lead and intentions, the university has focused on finding real solutions to the problems facing society by emphasizing multidisciplinary research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

The Heinz College grew out of that tradition almost 40 years ago when it enrolled its first class of 13 students in what was then the School of Urban and Public Affairs. Today, we believe that the study of information technology and public policy, independently and jointly, provides a powerful platform from which to influence the world in the 21st century. We want nothing less than graduates who are driven to transform organizations, markets, and societies through information technology and provide leadership through intelligent action in pursuit of the public interest.

*****
And it’s that “action-orientation” that’s an important component of any truly vibrant learning community and the byproducts of actions arising from them—innovations, economically motivated or not—are what really make the difference.

In preparing my comments for today, just for fun, I went to the World Bank’s Knowledge for Development site, which houses two country indices:

The Knowledge Index (KI), measuring a country’s ability to generate, adapt, and diffuse knowledge using key variables related to education, innovation, and ICT, and
The Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) that takes into account whether the country has an environment conducive for knowledge to be used effectively for economic development.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark are high on both the KI and KEI indices, as is Australia and the US, or that countries like Myanmar, Mozambique, and Rwanda are near the bottom.

However, what is perhaps not so expected, is that while the KI and KEI indices themselves are strongly correlated—that is, the diffusion of useful knowledge and its use to generate economic value appear mutually supportive—the relationship between things like education and ICT or education and innovation are not so clear-cut. Some countries apparently find ways to be innovative without widely distributing educational opportunities or ICT availability amongst its population. For example, Singapore is a wildly successful innovator with a literacy and higher education enrollment rate just above the world average, as is Armenia even though the availability of telephones, computers, and Internet connections in that country are well below the world average.

My quick analysis is not intended to make definitive statements on the critical success factors of learning communities or its connection to innovation. Only that, as many of you already know, learning communities depend on hard to identify and even harder to shape factors like the willingness for those in the community to take “safe risks” and submit to potentially uncomfortable learning situations as much as the number of libraries or availability of computers.

*****
I’ve been to the Middle East four times in just over the last year. Earlier this year, I was there when a futuristic 100,000-resident city named Masdar, meaning “the source” in Arabic, was announced. It’s intended to rise up from land across from the royal family’s private terminal at the Abu Dhabi airport. The goal: to create the world's first metropolis that emits not a single extra molecule of carbon dioxide, the cause of global warming.

It's a delicious irony that Abu Dhabi, awash in oil and dollars with nearly 100 billion barrels in reserves may be the place that builds the first city for a post-oil world. No cars will be allowed within the walled city’s limits. Billions will be poured into renewable and sustainable energy technologies.

$250 million has already been invested in clean-tech companies, including Segway, the maker of personal transporters, as well as solar manufacturers and wastewater-treatment companies. A new multi-billion dollar fund is working to allow Abu Dhabi's reach in renewable energy to extend all the way from research to large-scale manufacturing. By the time Masdar is complete in 2016, it will house 1,500 businesses, save the equivalent of $2 billion in oil over 25 years, create 70,000 jobs, and add more than 2 percent to Abu Dhabi’s GDP.

Of course, there are huge challenges ahead. The big question is whether enough talented scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs can be persuaded to come to Abu Dhabi. The emirate's tiny population can’t furnish enough brains to develop an industry dependent on technological advances. But, in the heat of the desert, far from the world’s traditional centers of learning and innovation, is the start of a learning community that could literally change the world. It’s something that all of us should probably learn a little more about.

Armageddon or Opportunity?

2008-10-20T19:26:00.008-04:00

For the last few weeks, we've been inundated with news from the U.S. about falling stock prices, frozen credit markets, and bank failures. The situation is considered so dire in some circles that it's being called a "Financial Armageddon".

Without discounting the seriousness of the situation, particularly since world financial markets are so interconnected, history tells us that the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs will likely see it as an opportunity.

According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research from 1945 to 2007 there have been 10 recessions, lasting on average 10 months from peak to trough. I'm unfortunately old enough to distinctly remember at least four of them:

1973-1975 - A quadrupling of oil prices by OPEC coupled with high government spending due to the Vietnam War lead to stagflation in the U.S. (sound familiar?).

1980-1982 - The Iranian Revolution sharply increased the price of oil around the world in 1979, causing a global energy crisis (I can still remember even/odd license plate gas rationing). Tight monetary policy in the U.S. to control inflation lead to a recession.

1990-1991 - Driven by significant production and manufacturing-trade sales decreases, brought on, in part, by the rise of Japan's manufacturing prowess.

2001-2003 - Caused by the collapse of the dot-com bubble, 9/11, and accounting scandals driven by companies like Enron.

This list doesn't even include "Black Monday", October 19, 1987 when the U.S. stock market shed 508 points in a single day (22.6%). I'll never forget that day because, just before U.S. markets closed and it was clear that there had been a significant meltdown, the guy next door to me at IBM came into my office, sat down in a chair, put his head in his hands, and started to cry.

What so many people forget during times like these times is that an upended status quo might be the best time to invest in the new, still ill defined, status quo that will emerge from the chaos. Some world changing innovations, companies, and social entrepreneurs had their start during recessions, for example:

1973-1975 - Interactive laser discs and the first floppy disk drive make their debut. The first cell phone call is made at Motorola. One of the first commercial PCs, the Altair 8800, is shipped as a mail-order kit for $397. Paul Allen and Bill Gates write the first computer language program for personal computers; Gates later drops out of Harvard and founds Microsoft with Allen (and the rest, as they say, is history). In 1976, Steve Wozniak designs the first Apple computer and with Steve Jobs co-found Apple Computer. That same year, Muhammad Yunus (right) launches an "action research project" that eventually becomes the Grameen Bank, a groundbreaking social enterprise that nets Yunus the Nobel Prize in 2006.

1980-1982 - Atari becomes the first company to register a copyright for two computer games, "Asteroids" and "Lunar Lander". Iomega, Quantum, SGI, Maxtor, Symantec, Sun, Lotus, Compaq, Norton Utilities, and Adobe, all pioneering computer companies, are founded. IBM introduces the IBM Personal Computer with a starting price of $1,565. The first successful portable computer, the Osborne I (at 25 pounds!), is introduced. Apple is the first PC manufacturer to hit the $1 billion mark for annual sales.

1990-1991 - Tim Berners-Lee at CERN proposes a "hypertext" system, which is the start of the Internet as we know it today. Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 and sells more than 3 million copies in a year. The first search engine, Archie, is written by a team at McGill University in Canada. The National Science foundation opens the Internet to commercial use. Linux is introduced and the World Wide Web is launched to the public. Teach For America, the largest provider of teachers for lower income communities in the U.S., is launched as the result of a senior thesis by Princeton undergraduate student Wendy Kopp.

2001-2003 - Napster reaches over 26 million users in early 2001 (later filing for bankrupcy in 2002 due to record company litigation but too late to stop the digital music era). MacAfee introduces the first handheld virus protection software. Apple introduces the iPod. Early in 2004, Google launches Gmail.

No one likes economic downturns. Few things induce more personal uncertainty and anxiety, and this one in particular may be doubly devastating because it threatens to derail the significant progress that's been made to eradicate world poverty. But for those with a strong constitution, a great idea, and a bit of historical perspective, this may be just the time to start changing the world.

Aid Is Good, Business Is Better

2008-08-30T07:48:00.006-04:00

Africa is a country tantalizing in potential and seemingly perpetually in despair. So it was ironic that over breakfast today in Dubai, a global beacon of capitalism, I read an interesting commentary by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the president of Liberia and Nicky Oppenheimer, the chairman of DeBeers in the weekend edition of the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times.

They point out that “Africa is more democratic today than at any point since the start of decolonialization” and that “the amount of aid flowing to the continent, exceeding $30 billion, has never been greater.” And the global commodities boom has fueled economic growth rates, averaging 6.6% across sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, private capital flows to sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, mostly from investors in China, the Middle East and other parts of Asia, were estimated at $50 billion, far outdistancing direct aid and just getting started. So, they ask, why is Africa still lagging behind the rest of the world on most indicators of development?

Their claim is that, bucking the conventional wisdom that Africa doesn’t use aid properly, the real reason is the cost of doing business in Africa is too high. The authors cite a report from the International Finance Corporation that points out that 24 of the 30 countries with the most costly business environment are in sub-Saharan Africa, costs seldom borne by consumers but shouldered by African businesses and producers. They argue that the experiences of successful small and medium-sized economies elsewhere over the past 30 years have some important lessons for Africa, citing Costa Rica as an example, which has increased its per capita economy 250% over the past two decades, in going from an agricultural to a high-tech and services base:

Competitiveness requires governments that can establish a framework for investment and step aside to let businesses thrive. Few countries in Africa have managed to establish and sustain a domestic political consensus around private sector growth and the often-painful reforms necessary to stimulate it.

Countries must be willing to make a change in mind-set from the idea that foreign programs and plans will lift countries out of poverty to a belief in their own vision for their future. African governments need to sell the necessary reforms—to sell capitalism—at home. Foreign aid should only temporarily support countries while they implement difficult reforms and get on their feet.

International debate on development must be reshaped. The heart of development is the relationship between governments, their citizens, and their own private sector—knocking down the main obstacles that entrepreneurs have in running a business like access to capital, electricity, transportation, telecommunications, taxes, labor, and corruption. Yet international debate on development is by and large still focused on the interaction of donors, nongovernmental organizations, and recipient governments. I like the part where they suggest complementing the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals with a set of “development goals for competitiveness”.

Admittedly, when I read these kinds of articles, the skeptic in me asks “what’s in it for the authors?” and there are plenty of critics that would argue that Liberia and DeBeers shouldn’t be the poster children for reform in Africa. But, with poverty levels dropping rapidly in market reform countries like India and China, it’s hard to dispute Johnson-Sirleaf and Oppenheimer’s final point:

Effective use of aid can support African reforms, but it must not be the organizing principle for African development. The key to success will be the extent to which African governments to provide the private sector the right incentives to add value to the economy, so both business and government can concentrate on what each does best.

Lawnmower Serenade

2008-08-30T07:36:00.004-04:00

You can’t travel anywhere in Southeast Asia without noticing that motorcycles and scooters are everywhere. They remind me of ants at a picnic--frenetically, chaotically, recklessly on the move, yet still maintaining some kind of strange order, heading toward some important, unseen object.

And if your eyes don’t notice all the activity, your ears sure will. Low on power, big on noise, the 2-wheelers, with their little 100-200cc engines often straining under heavy loads, sound like a typical Saturday morning suburb in the U.S. where mowing your lawn is a weekend rite of passage. But maybe, almost imperceptibly, the world is starting to change.

I was recently in a taxi in Malaysia when the driver and I struck up a conversation. After all, we both knew that the crush of rush hour traffic would make our 10km trip from the hotel to my first appointment take, oh, about an eternity (an hour, actuality, but who’s counting?). In the midst of apologizing about all the traffic, he noted that the price of cars is coming down so fast in Malaysia that they’re not that much more expensive than those ubiquitous motorcycles and, given the choice, everyone would rather have a car.

His comment got me thinking about another article that I had read just that morning about Tata’s new Nano, the “People’s Car” designed and manufactured to cost 1 lakh (about $2,500) and slated for sale by year-end. It’s been hailed as the “next Model T Ford or Volkswagen Beetle”, claims to meet European emissions standards with a fuel economy matching the best hybrids, and will be introduced with unique financing arrangements to put it within reach of millions of new consumers. Tata has even proposed that the Nano might be boxed up and sent to budding Indian entrepreneurs to finish assembly and provide ongoing maintenance—Toyota, meet Ikea.

But this particular article was about how its new plant in an impoverished part of India, West Bengal, is under siege by opposition party politicos and farmers who claim that Tata didn’t pay enough for the fertile farmland where the new factory sits. In the midst of its attempt to create 21st century jobs in a region where the clock is stuck in neutral, Tata has unwittingly generated a clash between economic growth and property rights, politics and profits, a known old and an uncertain new.

And this maelstrom won’t stop at the borders of West Bengal. The very idea of a car for the masses (and I’m talking about tens, if not hundreds, of millions of emerging consumers here) has something to tickle or enrage just about everyone.

Environmentalists will complain about more pollution and the acceleration of global warming that comes from having more cars on the road. Other “eco-nistas” will argue that, when these new emissions-friendly cars replace old exhaust belching gas-guzzlers, CO2 levels in the atmosphere might actually drop. Here’s an equation you don’t see everyday: more cars=less global warming?

Consumer advocates will celebrate the fact that traffic fatalities will drop (almost 5x higher per capita in India than in the West, driven primarily by pedestrians getting hit trying to cross busy intersections and motorcycle crashes with 4-wheeled vehicles). Urban planners will tear their hair out trying to figure out how traffic will move at all.

They all better start getting their arguments ready because, whether the Nano itself takes off or not, the world is going to witness a radical drop in the average price of a car. As seems to be the trend for so many radical, cost-trending-to-zero social innovations, the Nano has prompted global car makers like General Motors to announce their own micro-cost car development efforts, a predictable dance in an industry where everyone follows “just in case” and thus creates a trend line (see “SUV”).

The introduction of successful innovations always creates more questions than answers in the short term. But history tells us that we always find a way to adapt. Not that that’s very comforting as I sit in endless Kuala Lumpur traffic, listening to the lawnmower serenade.

The Happiness Policy

2008-08-07T03:23:00.005-04:00

I don't get to read for pleasure nearly as much as I'd like. In fact, a bookstore or library with full stacks and a good coffee shop is my idea of heaven (obviously it doesn't take much to make me happy). My best, too infrequent, opportunities are when I'm on the kind of vacation that I just got back from--long enough to relax, busy enough not to get bored, with plenty of in-between time to crack a good book (particularly if, like me, you suffer from jet lag-induced insomnia).

One from this latest stack was particularly good: The Geography of Bliss by a US National Public Radio Correspondent Eric Weiner (see the NY Times book review article here). It chronicles the curmudgeonly author's efforts to find the happiest places in the world (contrasted with a few of the unhappiest) and find out why the people who live there are so, well, happy. His travels take him from the Netherlands (home of the World Database of Happiness, housed in a surprisingly sober, data intensive research organization) to places like Iceland, India, Qatar, and Bhutan. Weiner points out that social scientists have found that personal happiness is highly correlated with the things that money can't buy like close relationships, solid family lives including loving spouses/partners, and engaging in genuine acts of kindness. But researchers have also found that one of the things that contributes to personal happiness is faith in their government: that senior officials and the rest of the public service are capable, caring, and consistent in their efforts to serve constituents.

It made me remember part of a speech that I gave here in Australia on the changing nature of business and the role of 21st Century governments. In that speech, I quoted the 18th Century UK moral philosopher Jeremy Bentham who argued that the purpose of politics should be to bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. I also cited a 2006 survey in the UK that found that 81% of those polled thought that government should focus on happiness, not wealth creation.

Just for fun, before the talk, I had decided to see if there was any correlation between a country’s wealth, measured in per capita Gross National Product and its Happiness Index score which is published by researchers at Britain's University of Leicester. Sure enough, more wealth a country has, the happier its people are--up to a point, around $50,000USD per year, according to researchers. But there were a huge number of outliers--countries where people are very happy yet relatively poor (like Bhutan). When undertaking the analysis from a Purchasing Power Parity perspective (in a crude attempt to "level out" income disparities) there were even more outlier countries.

Reading The Geography of Bliss reminded me that these are the kinds of important public policy questions that we love to propose and tackle at the Heinz School--perhaps a little offbeat and counterintuitive, often data intensive, with broad implications on the management decisions made by government and business leaders affecting potentially millions of people, if not everyone on the planet. And it also reminded me that I need to get to Iceland someday...

Make the Impossible Possible

2008-06-08T06:16:00.009-04:00

Every once in a while you get introduced to someone who will change your life, and the way you view the world, forever. In the winter of 2000, I was in a downtown Manhattan hotel room with a bad case of insomnia after a long day of trying to figure out how to "kill" Napster for one of McKinsey's media company clients. Suddenly, I was jolted to attention by a TV interview. Some guy was talking about charities that earn their own revenue instead of depending on handouts, introducing a term--social enterprise--that was conspicuously missing from all of my business school classes.

Turned out that the "guy" was Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength, one of the world's leading hunger relief organizations and a former senior staffer for U.S. Senators Gary Hart and Bob Kerrey. The interview was to support his is book, The Cathedral Within, which does a masterful job of explaining "community wealth" (his term for social enterprise) and uses SOS and other great nonprofits as convincing case studies. A couple of years later, I met Billy (a fellow Pittsburgher now based in Washington, DC) and we became fast friends. Just goes to show that life has a way of producing mysterious, wonderful twists and turns, even when you're not paying close attention.

*****

Like Billy Shore, Bill Strickland is a good friend, a hero for the planet, and a force of nature that has dedicated his life to changing the world. If you haven't heard of Bill Strickland then click on this link right now: it's an interview that I did with him for Globeshakers.

Bill founded an organization on Pittsburgh's tough north side (or norside in Pittsburgh-ese) almost 40 years ago called the Manchester-Bidwell Corporation which includes the Bidwell Training Center and the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. MBC provides job training programs to adults and arts programs to high schoolers. But it's not what MBC does that's so different. After all there are lots of these programs around the world. It's how and where they do it--in a building designed by a student of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, filled with orchids (grown in MBC greenhouses) and beautiful artwork, the sounds of jazz and the smells of freshly cooked cuisine filling the hallways.

And its hard to argue with the results. For example, less than half of kids entering Pittsburgh high schools graduate but nearly 90% of MBC's students, drawn from the same population, get their diploma with nearly 90% of those continuing their education in trade schools, community colleges, and universities. When I was CEO of the Accelerator, we were lucky to have MBC as one of our portfolio ventures.

And Strickland is a social entrepreneur par excellence. Lab technician training programs with Bayer Corporation, sales of award-winning orchids to local supermarkets, and the expansion of MBC to cities like San Francisco, Grand Rapids, and Cincinnati. MCG Jazz, MBC's record label, has won four Grammy Awards and, led by Executive Producer Marty Ashby, maintains one of the longest running jazz concert series in the U.S., its stage graced by legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, and Nancy Wilson.

Just out is Bill's new book, Make the Impossible Possible. The subtitle pretty much says it all: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary. I don't get to read nearly as much as I'd like but I put this one on top of the stack (which, if toppled, could cause serious personal and physical damage) as soon as I got it. And I wasn't disappointed. It's an inspiring and uplifting primer for social entrepreneurs, those who support them, or anyone interested in new ways to fix old problems. But don't just take it from me--even my Mom loved it!

Make the Impossible Possible is a must read for anyone interested in Shaking Up The Globe.

East Meets West

2008-06-08T05:24:00.008-04:00

A few weeks ago, I was in China at the invitation of my friends at the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy, Pudong (CELAP), located in the outskirts of Shanghai, to present a lecture to thirty high-level government officials. I had been given a daunting task: provide key decision makers in the world's fastest growing economy some new ideas on how governments can create "fertile ground" for innovators in industry, communities, and even the public service itself.

Over a memorable afternoon (at least for me!), we wrestled with what innovation is, what motivates innovators to act, and the lessons that history has to teach us about what works and what doesn't. Before a spirited Q&A session, we talked about the historic role of government in creating innovative societies and some of the best contemporary examples of innovative governments in action around the world. Luckily, I had lots of great ideas to draw on including some groundbreaking work that my friend Geoff Mulgan, now head of the U.K.'s Young Foundation, developed while working as a strategy guru in the Blair government.

Invitations like these are a great way to highlight the Heinz School's long history of breakthrough thinking about innovation and its impact on government, industry, and communities around the world. It also gives me a chance to further develop Heinz-Australia's growing partnerships with high profile organizations, like CELAP, in the "triangle" from the Gulf States to Asia to Australia. My discussions with two of CELAP's key officials (Mr. Jiang and Dr. Bai pictured) will further expand our ability to recruit students, develop executive education offerings, and create stronger ties to one of the world's most fascinating and influential regions.

Clear Air Turbulence

2008-02-26T22:02:00.006-05:00

Last week, I was a plenary speaker at a conference focused on whether South Australia is poised to become an "economic powerhouse". The title of my talk was Clear Air Turbulence: The Promise and Peril of Emerging Economic Powerhouses.

INTRODUCTION

I’ll admit that I have a love-hate relationship with flying. But throughout my professional life, and certainly in my current job as the Executive Director of Carnegie-Mellon’s Asia-Pacific campus here in Adelaide, it kind of goes with the territory. Last year I went from getting my Qantas frequent flier card to achieving, I think, something like plutonium level status, which allows me to fly the plane if I want.

It’s not that I don’t love visiting far-flung places. I do. But, after all of these years, I still can’t get comfortable with the idea of climbing into an enormously heavy metal tube that depends only on the laws of physics and lots of variables—pilot skill, weather, mechanicals—to stay aloft. Sure, I say to myself, the chances of a crash are pretty remote. But so is surviving one.

What really bothers me are those times when it’s a perfect day to fly, blue sky as far as the eye can see, and the plane unexpectedly starts to pitch and wobble and jump—what aeronautical engineers would call “clear-air turbulence”. Clear-air turbulence is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet, and it’s impossible to detect either with the naked eye or conventional radar, meaning that it’s difficult to avoid.

As is turns out, if we hadn’t figured out at least some of the properties of clear-air turbulence modern air travel, as we know it today, probably wouldn’t exist.

As test pilot Chuck Yeager got closer and closer to flying at Mach 1, the sound barrier, the aerodynamic drag of his plane, coupled with the uncertainty of clear-air turbulence, became so extreme that engineers thought that there might be some sort of physical barrier to travel at or beyond the speed of sound. Through new innovations, experimentation, and the sheer courage and will of Yeager the sound barrier was broken in October 1947, the effects of clear-air turbulence at Mach 1 were conquered and the world has never been the same.

*****

Much of what we’ve heard at this conference has reinforced what’s been portrayed by industry, government, and the media about South Australia’s future—sure, there are some challenges to overcome but it looks like there is a lot of clear blue sky out there. More money, more people, certainly more influence in the Australian, if not the global, economy.

Now, I think it’s dangerous to make predictions, especially about the future. But I think that there are at least three big shifts happening in the world, perhaps the clear-air turbulence in an otherwise blue sky, that will require businesses, governments, and nonprofits like philanthropies, social service agencies, and universities like mine to have the courage and will to innovate and experiment if they hope to be around to see the last shovel of rock get mined from Olympic Dam. I’d like to spend the rest of my time with you today briefly describing these three shifts and some thoughts about the promise and peril that South Australia could face if the dream of an “economic powerhouse” comes true.

*****

Shift #1: The best customers in the world will have no money.

O.K., I exaggerated a little bit. Some of the best customers in the world or the customers of your best customers will have almost no money.

Many of us probably have a sense for how wide the difference in income levels are around the world. In fact, 80% of the world’s wealth is controlled by 15% of the world’s population, and the poorest 50% have only 1% of the world’s wealth. An estimated four billion people around the world live on less than $5 a day.

But, of the next 2 billion people to inhabit the planet, only 50 million of them will live in the developed world. With a global economy growing at more than 5% and a world population growing at a little over 1%, the average world per capita income is growing at a rate such that poverty could be cut by more than half by 2015.

This means that almost a billion new consumers will enter the global marketplace in the next decade, getting beyond the level of annual household income, about $5,000, when people generally begin to spend on discretionary goods. When you put all these numbers together, it results in consumer spending power in emerging economies increasing from $4 trillion to more than $9 trillion—nearly the current spending power of Western Europe.

Of course, these consumers will be harder to reach through traditional means, even with mass migrations around the world from rural to urban areas. Tapping into this big emerging market, even for companies that don’t provide goods directly to consumers, will require very, very new ways of thinking.

For example, this is Muhammad Yunus, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and the founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. You may already know the story of this social entrepreneur who, over 30 years ago, gave loans totaling $42 to 24 Bangladeshi women to launch micro-businesses and ultimately legitimized microfinance as not only a poverty alleviation strategy but a viable business model. As of January 2008, Grameen had nearly 7.5 million borrowers, 97 percent women, with branches covering more than 96 percent of all villages in the country. With over $7 billion in loans distributed since its inception in 1976, Grameen Bank, 90% of which is owned by its customers with the remaining 10% owned by the government, has had only three unprofitable years and a less than 3% default rate.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, established companies have started to get in the game. Late last year, JPMorgan launched its new Social Sector Finance unit intended to “achieve a double bottom line of social benefit and financial returns.” You might think that JPMorgan was particularly forward thinking here but they were merely responding to similar initiatives by other financial services companies including Morgan Stanley, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank.

And it’s a trend not just limited to the banking sector. Groupe Danone of France launched in 2006 with the Grameen Bank Grameen Danone Foods to manufacture nutrient-rich, fortified yogurt in small local plants. That approach minimizes the need for expensive refrigeration and reduces the price so that more rural children in Bangladesh can improve their diets. But Danone isn’t just launching this venture to eradicate malnutrition. Both partners expect to make money on the deal and establish a new business model that can be profitably scaled to other parts of the developing world.

Shift #2: Competitors will come from places that make almost no sense at all.

I don’t need to tell many of you in the room that competition seems to get fiercer every year. And, if South Australia becomes even more of a global player in the world economy expect that trend to continue, and then some.

The average life expectancy of a multinational corporation is between 40 and 50 years and rapidly decreasing. For example, more than 1 in 3 Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. from 1995-2004 experienced bankruptcy or takeover and a similar effect is taking place in most developed economies across Europe and Asia.

In addition, the average holding period for a share of common stock is about ten times shorter than it used to be—from 8 years to 8 months—and product life cycles have reduced by a factor of 3.

One reason for these, perhaps frightening conditions is that new products and business models are emerging from some pretty unlikely places.

For example…

The PC industry has been rocked by an initiative called One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit launched by the founder of MIT’s Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte. The so-called “$100 laptop” [hold it up] is using open source software, an innovative design, and direct sales to governments around the world to disrupt the status quo. Not surprisingly, both Microsoft and Intel recently announced new initiatives in direct response to a nonprofit that didn’t even exist a few years ago.

The Tata Nano is being called the “People’s Car”, proposed as a $2,500 replacement for the normal mode of transportation for families across India and around the world [upper left picture]. It has been hailed as the “next Model T Ford or Volkswagen Beetle”, claiming to meet European emissions standards with a fuel economy matching the best hybrids and unique financing arrangements to put it within reach of millions of new consumers. Oh, and Tata is rumored to be in the market to buy Jaguar from Ford.

And these competitors aren’t just limited to product companies. The Aravind Eye Hospital was founded over 25 years ago and runs the biggest community eye program in the world, treating over a million patients each year. It profitably does cataract operations, provides glasses, and any other treatment free of charge to the poor by using a tiered pricing system for those who can pay. Aravind also continues to fuel its innovation engine by utilizing the latest advances in telemedicine to watch eye operations in Boston or London. And Aurolab, Aravind’s manufacturing division, has developed sophisticated designs and production processes to keep the cost of ophthalmic consumables down. Comparable spectacle lenses costing $150 in the West goes for $4, hearing aids costing $1500 cost $60. It’s not likely that anyone 25 years ago would have thought that Aravind could potentially redefine how eye care is provided around the world but then the Internet was around for 30 years before it became an “overnight sensation”.

Shift #3: The definition of “success” will change.

I tend to agree with the famed economist Milton Friedman that the sole purpose of a business is to make money. But there are forces at work that are beginning to change what “business success” means.

Governments, which should do at least two things well—#1: establish rules and #2: create incentives—are increasingly introducing double or even triple bottom line rules and incentives to drive industrial and economic policies. Do well financially, do well by the community, and do well by the environment—an infinitely more complicated operating environment with different governments around the world reacting differently to the emerging needs of society in the 21st century.

In addition, investors are devising more sophisticated ways to assess a company’s “intrinsic value”. When Al Gore left the White House in 2000, he listed his net worth at around $2 million. Eight years later, he’s worth between $50-$100 million. Can you get that much cash that fast through speaking engagements? Not likely. Winning the Nobel Prize. Hardly. Getting options on Google and Apple stock by sitting on their boards? Perhaps.

No, it seems likely that Gore’s newfound wealth could largely be attributed to the founding of his investment company, Generation Investment Management, founded with a former Goldman Sachs partner, David Blood (fortunately, they resisted the urge to call the new firm Blood and Gore). Generation has developed new, highly sophisticated modeling and analytical techniques, taking into account environmental and community impact indicators as well as prospects for future profitability, to estimate future stock prices and make investment decisions. Returns of the firm’s investment portfolio haven’t been made public but Gore is reportedly “very pleased” with the results.

It’s likely that Generation Management is using methodologies similar to those used in Fortune Magazine’s annual Accountability Rating of the world’s 100 largest companies. Last year’s evaluation reflected a further evolution of the approach used when it was first calculated in 2005, becoming increasingly more invasive.

How much longer will it be until it gets applied to even more companies, and media competitors apply their own scrutiny to the financial, social, and environmental practices of global corporations?

And if you can’t get investment capital from banks, private equity firms, or the growing sovereign accounts of countries, how about Google? Last year, the company’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, established investment initiatives in five major areas including Developing Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal called RE

Or how about the Gates Foundation which, given the recent commitment by Warren Buffet to contribute his vast wealth to the foundation, is redoubling its efforts to reshape health care and medical research around the world, often using unconventional methods and operating models borrowed from the private sector?

Or, if you’re a more competitive sort, how about vying for an X-Prize. Like the $25,000 that got Charles Lindberg to fly cross the Atlantic, a $10 million prize was enough to motivate some of the best engineers in the world to try to send a man into space, bring him home safely, and do it all over again in four days—a truly reusable space ship. It was pulled off by legendary airplane designer Burt Ruttan in 2004 and has ushered in the era of personal space travel, with entrepreneurs like Richard Branson rushing to enter the market. Now there are X-Prizes for things like the 100-mile per gallon (44km/liter) vehicle, greenhouse gas scrubbers, and wearable power.

*****

So let’s assume that South Australia’s companies, government, and nonprofit sector successfully navigates through this turbulence and emerges an “economic powerhouse”. What are the decisions and responsibilities that come with that kind of success?

That’s a pretty big question for the time that I have left so let me just leave you with some things to think about.

Last year, a university professor in the UK, Adrian White, completed an analysis called “A Global Projection of Subjective Well-Being”. The shorthand for his work, ranking every country in the world, has been called the “Happiness Index” because it attempted to apply a systematic approach to assessing relative contentment among global populations.

Now this may sound like a pretty difficult, perhaps even foolhardy task, but it’s an important one, especially for governments. In fact, the UK moral philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700’s argued that the purpose of politics should be to bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. A 2006 survey in the UK found that 81% thought that the government should focus on happiness, not wealth creation.

Just for fun, I decided to see if there was any correlation between a country’s wealth, measured in per capita Gross National Product and its Happiness Index score.

It’s no surprise that people in high GNP per capita countries are generally pretty happy but what’s interesting is that there were lots of low GNP per capita countries where citizens were about as content.

So, I thought, maybe it’s because the cost of living is different in different countries. So I did the same analysis using data that equalizes GNP per capita based on a country’s relative cost of living.

You can see that the previous conclusion is even more obvious here—money alone doesn’t seem to guarantee happiness or, more importantly for governments, the contentment of its citizens.

Similarly, the United Nations publishes a “Human Development Index” that includes literacy rates, life expectancy, and other indicators of a “well developed” society.

Still, when compared to per capita GNP, even some of the world’s richest countries don’t stack up. Of course, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions but it would appear that the effective provision of important human needs such as healthcare, education, and housing—effectively and economically delivered increasingly with the cooperation of governments, industry, and the nonprofit sector—is an important determinant of societal development.

*****

I was in the United Arab Emirates a couple of weeks ago and places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai are interesting case studies of economic powerhouses on the move. It made me think about the choices and opportunities that South Australia might have in the future.

While I was there, a futuristic 100,000-resident city named Masdar meaning “the source” in Arabic, was announced, intending to rise up from land across from the royal family’s private terminal at the Abu Dhabi airport. The goal: to create the world's first metropolis that emits not a single extra molecule of carbon dioxide, the cause of global warming.

It's a delicious irony that Abu Dhabi, awash in oil and dollars with nearly 100 billion barrels in reserves may be the place that builds the first city for a post-oil world. No cars will be allowed within the walled city’s limits. Billions will be poured into renewable and sustainable energy technologies.

$250 million has already invested in clean-tech companies, including Segway, the maker of personal transporters, solar manufacturers, and wastewater-treatment companies. A new multi-billion dollar fund is working to allow Abu Dhabi's reach in renewables to extend all the way from research to large-scale manufacturing. By the time Masdar is complete in 2016, it will house 1,500 businesses, save the equivalent of $2 billion in oil over 25 years, create 70,000 jobs, and add more than 2 percent to Abu Dhabi’s GDP.

Of course, there are huge challenges ahead. The big question is whether enough talented scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs can be persuaded to come to Abu Dhabi. The emirate's tiny population can’t furnish enough brains to develop an industry dependent on technological advances. Sound familiar, South Australia?

But the payoffs from success are almost immeasurable, especially when you consider the fact that China is building the equivalent of four new Manhattans every single year.

It’s obviously premature, but what would South Australia’s Masdar be if the promise of economic growth and prosperity became a reality? Like it or not, great opportunities and sometimes awesome responsibilities go along with being a “big dog” on the world’s economic stage.

Thank you.

*****

Finding Steelers Fans in the Strangest Places

2008-02-26T21:16:00.007-05:00

On the itinerary of my most recent recruiting trip to the Middle East was a stop in Oman, a visit originally scheduled for last June but canceled due to the devastating effects of Cyclone Gonu.

Muscat, the capital, is a beautiful, ornate, modern city literally cut into and in between mountains, and bordered by the picturesque coastline provided by the Gulf of Oman. Our visit was centered on a meeting with HE Dr. Abdullah Al Sami, the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Higher Education who I knew had gone to the United States for his PhD.

I was ushered into a comfortable, understated office decorated in a classic Omani style by a number of articulate and obviously well-educated staffers dressed in dishdashas--simple, ankle-length, collarless gowns with long sleeves--the traditional dress of Omanis.

After the coffee was poured we launched into the small talk that builds the trust and relationships necessary to get down to business. Then I was hit with a bombshell. Dr. Al Sami proceeded to tell me that he got his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh, took classes at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, and, most amazingly, was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan!

Now, I know that U.S. football (called gridiron here in Australia) is popular around the world, not just among expats but the millions who watch the Super Bowl every year. And the Steelers are one of the league's most popular teams because of its "blue collar" work ethic and winning history. But I certainly didn't expect to find a fellow Steelers fan in the heart of the Gulf, with a backdrop dripping with all the beauty and tradition of the region.

Wet Paint

2008-02-18T01:40:00.007-05:00

Back in October, I participated as a “World Thinker” at a remarkable conference held every two years in the United Arab Emirates called the Festival of Thinkers. Past Nobel Award laureates and mere mortals like me get to mingle with experts in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care, entrepreneurship, education, and the media.

More importantly, for the event’s host, Sheik Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the UAE’s Higher Colleges of Technology, the conference gave literally hundreds of university-level students from across the Gulf States an opportunity to interact directly with the many global luminaries during breakout sessions and public lectures, some of which were moderated by the students themselves.

Imagine my surprise on the first day when, in a working session that I was leading, a very bright and opinionated woman from Kuwait got into a protracted argument with one of the Nobel laureates over climate change which then spilled over into discussing the tradeoff between actively limiting the world’s population and supporting the rights of women to make their own choices. At one point, he glanced over at me with a look that said “a little help here!” mixed with clear amusement, surprise, and admiration.

Later in the conference, I was having lunch with Michael Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the New York Daily News. He and I were talking about how much Dubai had changed in such a short time and he said, “If there was a sign for this region, it would say ‘Wet Paint’.”

His comment made be think (which is the best kind of comment!). The skyline of Dubai isn’t the only thing that seems to change every day. There’s “wet paint” everywhere you look. And the real revolution going on in the Gulf doesn’t have anything to do with armed conflict. Sure, to the naked eye, it has everything to do with the amazing transformation a place that, just a generation ago, was largely inhabited by Bedouins living in tents. Supposedly 25% of all the world’s construction cranes are in Dubai.

No, the real and lasting revolution is focused on education. This ancient seat of innovation, learning, and discovery is on a quest to recapture its leading position in the world. Sixteen thousand students are enrolled in the UAE’s Higher Colleges of Technology alone, mostly women, in fields ranging from electrical engineering to computer science to finance. Hundreds of students are getting full scholarships every year to study abroad, preferably at universities in the United States but quickly shifting to places like Australia that are considered safer and more inviting. Their facilities are world class, using technology to merely augment the overall student experience.

I make no apologies for wanting to attract top students from the region to the Heinz School’s campuses in the U.S. and Australia. Who wouldn’t want to support a new generation of emerging leaders determined to keep their paintbrushes wide and wet?

Cutting The Ties

2008-01-29T03:53:00.001-05:00

In May 2007, Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management-Australia had its first graduating class. This pioneering group of public policy students, six in all, were joined by sixteen more grads in December 2007, this time including the first graduates in the school's globally renowned and top ranked information technology program. Graduates from these two classes subsequently went on to high-impact positions in industry, government, the social sector, and academia.

As the Executive Director of Heinz-Australia, I have the honor of giving the "Charge to the Graduates", a few parting (and, hopefully, inspiring) words provided to new graduates at the end of the ceremony. Included below are those Charges, each a small window into our hopes and dreams for the students who find a way to get through our program and prepare to take intelligent action to change the world.

----------
December 2007--Keynote Speaker: Hon. Alexander Downer MP, former Foreign Minister, Government of Australia

First of all, I’d also like to join in extending my thanks and appreciation to Alexander Downer. Our students need not look any further than their own campus for an example of visionary leadership in the public service. Your very visible support for Carnegie Mellon’s presence in South Australia continues to inspire our efforts to build an institution that has an outsized impact on the region.

I’d also like to add my congratulations to all of our graduates but particularly the pioneers of our first graduating class from the MSIT program.

Finally, I’d like to recognize all of the family and friends that are with us this evening. You are from this point forward forever tied to the worldwide staff, faculty, and alumni that constitute our family at the Heinz School…welcome!

*****

There is nothing I like better than waking up in the morning to a cup of coffee and a newspaper. But our “news from everywhere, all the time” world can make for a pretty depressing start to the day. Global warming, widespread poverty, ethnic conflict, pandemics, corruption, David Beckham’s knee problems—OK, granted there are some things that merit more attention than others!

But you get my point. It’s easy to accept conventional wisdom as fact—the world has never been more dangerous or as much in decline. But, as the famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said, “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.” Surprisingly enough, the facts tell us, for example, that the world has never been safer and that people are getting out of poverty at a faster rate than at any other time in human history.

If there were one critically important thing that this graduating class, at this time in history, could do to make its mark in the world, it would be to thoughtfully and rigorously test the conventional view while retaining the magic of possibility.

See, there have been times in recent history when conventional wisdom predicted an ice age, a global food shortage, and an imminent nuclear war. When the founder of IBM in 1958 declared: “there is a world market for about five computers.” When manned flight was considered impossible.

The shroud of uncertainty that seems to be all around us now is not new. It has always been so. And throughout history, those who have been willing to dispassionately separate facts from fiction, analyze them in new ways, and create the new possibilities that are always hiding in seemingly hopeless situations, from inventing new technologies to changing government policies have always made their mark in the world.

CO2 levels are rising in the atmosphere due in large part to the increase in global economic activity that is allowing millions of people to escape the clutches of abject poverty. How do we proceed?
Information technologies that allow us to get directions in an unfamiliar city can also be used to track our movements. What should be allowed and why?
Companies can use information technology to allow employees to work from wherever they are in the world. But what is “leadership” in an organization where no one has ever met?

Each of you is now better equipped to think about these big issues, make balanced recommendations, understand the role of technology, and lead organizational progress. All Heinz School graduates who have come before you are now available to you for counsel and collaboration. And our faculty and staff worldwide look forward to supporting your future endeavors.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. once put it, “the fierce urgency of now” is upon each and every one of you. It has been our honor and privilege to play some small part in your quest to take intelligent action that changes the world.

----------
May 2007--Keynote Speaker: Hon. Mike Rann MP, Premier, Government of South Australia

First of all, I’d like to add my congratulations to this group of pioneers, the first graduates of our campus here in Australia. I’d also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the friends and family members that are with us tonight. In a variety of ways, big and small, I know that without your support, our graduates wouldn’t have gotten this far. My Mom still reminds me, twenty years after I graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s computer science program, about how many times I called her in the middle of the night when I couldn’t get any of my programs to work. Now my Mom is pretty smart, but at 2 o’clock in the morning, it’s pretty hard to say much of anything that helps except, “I love you, hang in there”. My guess is that at least few of you have gotten one of these calls.

For the past year, you’ve been talked to, talked over, talked about…I figure you’re about talked out. So I wanted to come up with a theme for my charge to you that is simple and, in that way, hopefully remotely memorable. So if you only remember one word from my charge to you this evening it’s this—“courage”. Let me explain what I mean with a little story.

My Dad drove me to Carnegie Mellon before my freshman year to help me move in. There wasn’t much to move really, just some clothes and a basketball and some music. But it gave us a little more time together and that seemed important.

Now my Dad never really gave me much advice when I was growing up except when I asked, which, as I look back, probably wasn’t often enough for my own good. But when we finished moving and I got ready to open the car door to walk back to my room, my Dad uncharacteristically said, “Can I give you some advice? Whatever you do, try not to sacrifice your integrity.” And with a slap on the knee that said, “get out of the car”, he sent me out into the world.

You see my Dad had been in wars that were real and the wars of working in government and business. And I think he would have considered the latter considerably more dangerous, at least for the soul. He knew that when I left that car, I would be embarking on a new phase of my life, one that he wouldn’t get to influence very much. For better or worse, his work was done. And he knew that there would be so many occasions to come that would test my assumptions of right and wrong, good and bad, strong and weak, particularly when I got a job in the “real world”.

I realize today that he was really telling me to have courage. Not the kind that wins medals on the battlefield but the kind that wins the respect of your colleagues, the admiration of your spouse, and the love of your children. He was telling me to be my very best authentic self in the face of the very real pressure to conform. Cut a corner here. Tell the boss what he wants to hear or ignore a tough decision hoping it will go away there. Pretty soon you’re not even really sure who you are anymore. Every single one of you is special. Every single one of you is prepared to make your difference in the world. Every single one of you has the courage, and the obligation to those who will count on you to show them the way, to just be your real self, every day.

Congratulations again to all of our graduates. It has been our honor and privilege to play some small part in all of the great things that you are destined to accomplish in the future. Now, you’ve all got your slap on the knee—go and make great things happen in the world!

Orders of Magnitude

2007-11-20T01:15:00.001-05:00

While going through airport security in Sydney, Australia on my way to Shanghai, I finally got my membership in the 21st Century Travelers Club. My briefcase had to be sent through the x-ray machine three times because all of the adapters and cords for my electronic devices made it impossible to completely see through the bag.

I thought about that incident during a long walk through Pudong, a thriving suburb on the outskirts of Shanghai. If Pudong is the new China then there’s a lot to like—modern new high rises, gleaming office towers, enormous traffic lanes for bikes and those electric scooters that seem to be everywhere. But you have to multiply everything by at least a couple of orders of magnitude when you’re in China. For example, I had to walk for an hour before finding a place to buy a soda. Where does everybody go to shop for groceries?

All that time going nowhere fast gave me plenty of time to check out my surroundings, to look beyond the glossy veneer of a new suburbia and take a peek into the future.

As I passed a humongous new high-rise housing complex, replete with a high fence, security guards, and newly planted gardens, I looked up and noticed that almost every porch had clothes hanging to dry. Either the emerging upper class of Chinese society is being particularly energy conscious or they don’t have clothes dryers. I’m betting on the latter. And it seems like only a matter of time before “keeping up with the Joneses” injects even more uncertainty in world energy prices.

China’s road to the future is full of speed bumps, has no guardrail, and can’t be shut down for repairs because everybody’s driving over the speed limit twenty-four hours a day.

It holds an increasing portion of total global debt, produces the most manufactured goods, has the biggest population, holds the dubious distinction of having 16 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world, and has to build a city twice the size of Houston, Texas every year just to accommodate the largest migration of people from rural areas to cities that has every occurred in the history of the planet.

I just hope China’s leaders know how to drive.

Leapfrogging With Humility

2007-11-20T00:58:00.001-05:00

If you want to see how intent the Chinese are to be a major player on the world stage look no further than CELAP, the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong. Located just outside of Shanghai, CELAP was opened in early 2005 to provide training to senior government officials, executives of state-owned businesses, and military officers, and has already seen over 11,000 current and future leaders from across China pass through its doors.

The official theme for a conference that I recently attended there was Innovation, Transition, and Leadership. I think a more accurate title would have been Leapfrogging With Humility.

It seems like everyone in China is studying what really works in business and government, why it works, and how to put a uniquely Chinese spin on it. Their search starts in the developed countries of the West but, in reality, they don’t care where the ideas come from as long as they work. While the rest of the world is innovating around the edges to refine what’s already been proven, the Chinese are trying to create whole new models.

For example, what is leadership in a world where your primary interaction with employees is through e-mail, Skype, and a company wiki? When the number of nationalities, religions, and languages in your company rivals a United Nations summit? And where do you start when there is not a single book on leadership, among the thousands listed on Amazon.com, that is integrates the distinctly different leadership philosophies of East and West?

One of the most interesting presentations of the conference, by Dr. Xuezhu Bai, CELAP’s Chief Coordinator of International Courses, focused on just that question. The Australian-educated Bai attempted to create a “unified theory” of leadership, taking the teachings of eastern philosophy, represented by ancient texts such as the I-Ching, and relating them to the more scientific and mechanistic definitions of leadership derived primarily in the United States. Given the even mix of Chinese and English speakers in the room and the gulf separating our two cultures, we all probably understood about half of the material about half of the time. But one thing is for sure…globalization “on the ground” will be one of the great management challenges of our time.

And I wish I had a dollar for every time Dr. Bai and many of his Chinese colleagues during the conference declared how far behind they are compared to Western economies, technologies, and management development. They may be behind now but the gap is narrowing and I’m pretty sure they won’t slow down if it looks like the pace of progress in the West can’t keep up.

Competition is good. It forces the world’s current and future leaders to keep raising their game. This conference has convinced me that if there’s one characteristic that all future leaders will need to have, it’s the ability to think big and act small.

Social Engineering Soap Opera Style

2006-06-23T09:21:00.001-04:00

Population Communications International (PCI) has a very intriguing tagline: "Telling Stories, Saving Lives."

PCI, an American non-profit based in New York City, takes on the biggest, hairiest, most intractable problems. These are the issues that are so huge that should really be added to the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: HIV/AIDS, women's rights, population control, environmental degradation and global sustainability.

The main weapon in their arsenal is perhaps the most powerful social force in the world today, second only to religion and Hip Hop... the soap opera.

PCI has worked in over twenty-five countries worldwide since 1985, and together with local partners has produced eighteen soap operas in fourteen countries. PCI consultants work directly with writers and social workers in local markets such as the Andean highlands, Kenya, Central America, and China. According to PCI's website, their programs "address the societal factors that limit people's ability to make choices that will improve their health and educational prospects."

These serial dramas motivate individuals to adopt new attitudes and behavior by modeling behaviors that promote family health, stable communities, and a sustainable environment. Each series is written, performed and produced by the creative talent in that country. The media stretches across tv, radio and print.

Mónica en busca de amor
(Monica in Search of Love)

This Spanish-language comic book, by Population Control International, provides Latino teens in the Los Angeles area with information about some common risks that adolescents face, including dating violence, early pregnancy, and STDs. Published in collaboration with a group of Latino teenagers and Gregory Molina, an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the comic reflects life for Spanish-speaking youth in some of the city's most difficult neighborhoods. It has been distributed extensively in Southern California by health and social agencies. more>

For more, check out the On the Media story, "The Soapbox":

In the late 1970s, Mexican telenovela writer Miguel Sabido invented the “soap opera for social change.” Since then, awareness organizations around the world have used Sabido-style soap operas to broadcast their message to millions of viewers. Brooke speaks with New Yorker contributor Hanna Rosin, who recently wrote about consciousness-raising through TV-storytelling.

> Listen to podcast or read transcript

Launch of Social Innovation Conversations

2006-06-06T12:05:00.002-04:00

As series producer for Globeshakers, with host Tim Zak, I am excited to introduce you to the Conversations Network's new podcast channel: Social Innovation Conversations.
Our goal is to create a popular channel on the Web, a place that provides an engaging and provocative dialogue about the most effective ways we can improve society and the environment. We'll do this by recording conferences, speeches, and interviews from around the world, to bring you the voices of those at the forefront of creating social change.

The Conversations Network has grown out of the explosive response to Doug Kaye's IT Conversations, which now continues as a channel on the Network.

Social Innovation Conversations is made possible by the concerted efforts of the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Business, and the Pittsburgh Social Innovation Accelerator... three organizations dedicated to improving society and the environment. To become a member is free and it's easy to register.

As part of the launch, we've chosen to re-broadcast two conversations with Tim Zak host of Globeshakers...

Ethan Zuckerman, Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Ethan Zuckerman addresses the direct question: "Why should we care about Africa?" As a technologist, Ethan has spent much time on the ground working with the new generation of African entrepreneurs, programmers, organizers, and young people who are hooking up the continent to the web. These new netizens are changing the way that villagers and urban dwellers learn, organize, network, and face the challenges of poverty, AIDS, political strife and making a living.

David Bornstein - How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas.
An accomplished journalists, David is a leading expert in the global rise of "social entrepreneurism." In this program, host Tim Zak asks how we would even know a social entrepreneur if we saw one on the street. More important, why should we even care? Who invests in social enterprise and what is at stake for our world if we don't?

Alex Lindsay - The Next Generation of Digital Craftsman
As "Chief Architect" of PixelCorps, Alex Lindsay merges the very old idea of a guild system made up of independent craftsman with the demands of mastering new and emerging media. PixelCorps serves as "a guild for the next generation of craftsmen--digital craftsmen." They are currently transfering skills in digital imaging and animation to regions in the developing world, so that those citizens can capitalize on the coming media revolution.

Zach Warren - Laughter in a Time of War
In the Fall of 2005, Zach set the World's Record for running the Philadelphia marathon--while juggling! In 2006, he is gunning to set another world's record for the fastest100miles on a unicycle--a record that has stood for almost 20 years. In the summer of 2005, Zack Warren, a native of West Virginia, traveled to Afghanistan to work with children as part of the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children. All this while a student at Harvard Divinity School.

Bill Strickland - Manchester Craftsmans Guild
As one of the world's great social innovators, Bill Strickland is head of both the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Bidwell Training Center, located on Pittsburgh's gritty north side just down the street from where he grew up. Strickland has created a youth development and adult training center like no other, in approach and results. Over nearly 40 years, he has melded an environment surrounded by stunning art, the sounds of jazz, beautiful orchids, and brilliant architecture with programs that get kids into college and adults a job with a future.

Digital Vision Fellows

2006-04-20T21:18:00.001-04:00

Here is a great podcast on IT Conversations that serves as a simple introduction to social enterprise:

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Stuart Gannes the Director of the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford, as well as this year's Digital Vision Fellow. We'll hear about global projects with a humanitarian bent -- from citizen journalism on simple cellphones, to telemedicine for developing nations, and multimedia for the street kids of Rio.

Listen to podcast >>

Abby Joseph Cohen on the Power of Going Green

2006-04-20T06:45:00.001-04:00

Investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen ranked 19th on Forbes magazine's list of the world's 100 most powerful women. When she talks, businesses around the world listen. One of the things she's telling businesses these days is that thinking green can be good for business.

Cohen, a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., reports that environmentally and socially conscious investing has increased fourfold since 2001. She estimates that this style of investing already accounts for roughly 15% of the U.S. stock market. Cohen spoke with Earth & Sky's Eleanor Imster in March, 2006.

Full interview>>

Storytelling Sundance Style

2006-04-03T08:25:00.001-04:00

Jim Fruchterman at the Skoll World Forum: Story Telling, Sundance style

The Accelerator's president, Tim Zak, is returning to Pittsburgh after a week of inspiration at the Skoll Foundation conference in Oxford.

Senior Venture Advisor Al Mercer spotted the above post by another attendee who found inspiration in the Participant Productions:

One of the major themes of working with the Skoll Foundation is the focus on stories. That's what Jeff does with Participant Productions, and a big piece of the Foundation's efforts are around helping us tell stories. Many social entrepreneurs actively avoid telling stories about themselves: they tell stories about other people more easily.

Rent-A-Bio-Beetle

2006-03-24T10:19:00.002-05:00

[Thanks to Amanda Durand in LA!]

Give the planet a vacation the next time you take one ... Rent a Bio-Beetle!

Cars fueled by *100% Biodiesel, a clean-burning diesel fuel, made from 100% natural, 100% renewable sources. The First all biodiesel Eco Car Rentals in the world! Now open in Los Angeles California!

It's about time! The cars get 400-800 miles per tank, so finding a refueling station besides the Culver City headquarters is usually not an issue. Bio-Beetle is in the process of getting more fueling stations set up in the Los Angeles area and on Maui.

Biodiesel is a cleaner-burning diesel fuel, made from 100% natural, 100% renewable vegetable sources. Here are just a few of the vegetable oils that can be used to make biodiesel - mustard, rapeseed (aka canola), palm, olive, peanut, soy bean, safflower, sunflower, castor, etc. On Maui, all biodiesel is made from used cooking oil.

Fossil fuel is the primary cause of pollution in the world whereas Biodiesel offers those who want a clean environment the option to make a significant beneficial impact by using a renewable fuel. The question is: "Sustainability? Or business (pollution) as usual?"

Biodiesel dramatically reduces particulate matter emissions and other federally targeted emissions while helping to stabilize greenhouse gases. Biodiesel is also non-toxic, biodegradable and free of sulfur.

Companies like Grassolean are driving the biodiesel revolution. See Darryl Hannah on The O'Reilly Factor describing the benefits of driving a "grease car". In her case, it is a normal GMC diesel truck that has not been specially modified in any way. She gets a 55-gallon drum of biodiesel (essentially recycled cooking oil and alcohol) delivered directly to her home.

LEARN MORE

Out Of Small Comes Big

2006-02-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was in Miami to speak (along with my friends at Community Wealth Ventures) at a social enterprise conference hosted by the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness. Although the weather was unseasonably cloudy (as luck would have it only for the two days that I was there!) the mood among the 100+ nonprofit executives in the room was surprisingly sunny.

Sure, there was the seemingly universal angst among sector insiders about impending funding cuts combined with the ever-increasingly demand for services ... difficult jobs looking even more imposing in the months and years ahead. But I also detected a ray of hope that got brighter as I presented a no-holds-barred overview of the perils and promise of social enterprise and sustainable entrepreneurship in the social sector. Many for the first time learned about the global movement and how it is injecting more innovation into mission-based social programs while providing more diversified, unrestricted funding streams to nonprofits. Some had already dipped their toe in the water and were encouraged enough to learn more. But throughout the group was a gritty resilience and determination to adapt to the many changes currently buffeting the social sector and to "raise the bar" of performance and professionalism by borrowing from the most relevant practices of the private sector.

I don't know if my impression of the receptivity to social entrepreneurship in Miami is a leading indicator of a shift among nonprofits more broadly or just a sunny time on an otherwise cloudy day. But I do know that out of small things, big things can come. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see future "stars" in social innovation coming out of South Florida. I just hope I get invited back when the real sun is shining as brightly as the audience.

The Freedom Toaster

2006-02-09T10:53:00.001-05:00

I found this really cool project in South Africa and I was reminded of a song my father used to sing:

You take a piece of bread.
You put in a slot.
You push the lever down
And the wires get hot.
You get toast. Yeah! Toast!

Except you put a blank CD into this slot and a few minutes later it spits out a toasty copy of your choice of Open Source software. In a country with few financial resources, fewer technological ones and a poor telecommunications infrastructure, this toaster seems like a interesting solution to getting technology into the hands of the people.

More Than Just A Game

2006-02-04T14:21:00.001-05:00

First, let me set the tone early -- GO STEELERS!

I haven't watched a single profile, highlight, or pre-game analysis for the two week's leading up to tomorrow's Super Bowl XL (and, yes, it will be X-tra large). One part of me wants to save up all my anxiety and nervous energy for the big game. But another part of me seems genetically predisposed to ignore the hype, the pomp, the pageantry that passes for football coverage now-a-days. You see, Pittsburgh is part of my very core -- all of my grandparents and parents were natives. One grandfather worked in a steel mill. The other was a shot-and-a-beer joint bartender "dawn-tawn". And I doubt very much that any of them would have spent a whole lot of time listening to the cliche-laden analysis from that passes for sports coverage today. It's enough to make you choke on your "Arn" City Beer.

In today's New York Times, Holly Brubach, a former style editor for the Times' Magazine and a Pittsburgh native captures the spirit of the city and it's unique connection to the team that personifies it in an opinion piece called Gridiron City. It made me think back to when I was in elementary school, living closer to Philly than The 'Burgh, and bearing the brunt of outfitting myself in a Steelers jacket, gloves, and hat every winter. Even though my loyalty was easier to bear since the Steelers were the Team of the '70's ("Oh yeah, how well did the Eagles do this year?"), I would have done it even if winning didn't become a habit. In my family, no matter where you lived, living and dying with the Steelers was just something you did ... proudly.

The day after the AFC Championship Game, one of my friends asked if I was excited that the Steelers were in the Super Bowl and my immediate response was that the city needs it. It needs a championship, a reason to get its chin up, look around with a less jaundiced and critical eye, and realize that we still live in one of the world's great mid-sized cities. Oh sure, other cities (or even us natives) can point to the facts and figures that would point to a city still in transition, struggling to put to rest past industrial glories and to find a future that fits. But it's a place that has what no other place in the world can claim and, while I can't quite describe it, I know that it is good and I know that it has something to do with a bunch of guys who will be strappin' it on tomorrow night.

Why Ask Why?

2006-01-24T11:22:00.001-05:00

There is a concept in lean manufacturing (think Toyota and its vaunted excellence in production) called the "5 Why's". Those of us who have kids can relate to its value. They're curious about why something is the way that it is and they keep asking "why" until satisfied with the answer. By "peeling back the onion" of a problem, they (and we) can get to the "root cause" and thoroughly understand not only how things work but the underlying assumptions (facts?) and variables that, if changed, could lead to a different result.

I was in a meeting with some of Pittsburgh best and brightest nonprofit execs last week when I realized that we not only needed to ask more "why's" but that it's pretty tough to get at the root cause of anything without some credible facts. We were discussing an innovative, technology-based method of prioritizing social service needs (e.g., poverty, hunger, violence prevention, environment) in the region at an upcoming conference and the nonprofit sector's ability to "sit at the table" with corporate and government counterparts to mobilize resources to address them. It became apparent (at least to me) that the nonprofit sector has lots of statistics about various social ills (e.g., "X% of people in Allegheny County are homeless") but a lot less certainty about how we match up relative to other cities our size across the entire set of issue areas (e.g., "X% of people in Allegheny County are homeless and that is almost twice as high as the other 24 cities around the world that we compare ourselves to and compete against economically, for population / talent, and global mindshare).

It seems clear to me that, without this kind of fact-based, unbiased, holistic (even at the 30,000 foot level) view, it's not only going to be tough to sit at the table with key decisionmakers from the other two sectors on how to address key social issues (systematically able to ask enough "why's" to understand key change levers) but it will be impossible to rationally allocate the resources -- time, $$$, and energy -- necessary to make meaningful progress. In a time of significant reductions from many traditional sources of nonprofit funding, it is likely that any resources proactively increased in one social area will be at the expense of another (e.g., more resources for homelessness could mean less for the environment) with a relative change (positive and negative) in community impact. These trade-offs (I heard a famed financier on the Charlie Rose show a few weeks ago call this social arbitrage) obviously have huge implications for every single citizen in the region.

Until we can agree on some facts about the region's social condition relative to other cities our size, we'll always be using only emotional, anecdotal, qualitative arguments to allocate resources largely controlled by the private and public sectors. And, I'm afraid, we'll never get to asking enough "why's" to really make a dent in areas we need to improve on to become the "Best and Most Admired Mid-Sized City in the World."

Big Changes in Little Meetings

2006-01-24T10:51:00.002-05:00

On the last morning of the IAJE conference, in a little conference room a few floors above the din of thousands still drinking in a myriad of formal sessions, concerts, and impromptu gatherings, leaders of the nascent National Jazz Platform met with a group of influential jazz presenters and educators (e.g., Monterrey Jazz Festival, Berklee College of Music) to elicit more support for initiatives to raise market share for jazz. In contrast to the gloomy, raw weather in the windows outside, the mood in the room was upbeat and warm. And, while there were lots of probing questions and some trepidation on the part of "veterans" who had "heard some of this before", everyone seemed genuinely interested in figuring out how to make it work.

I've been consistently struck by the commitment and urgency voiced to the industry by the likes of Nancy Wilson and Dr. Billy Taylor to innovate, not only to withstand the technological and cultural changes faced by all kinds of music but to "keep jazz alive" for generations to come. (I was delighted that Dr. Taylor warmly greeted me at his conference booth the day before after spending just a couple days at Wingspread together nearly a year earlier ... gracious and generous). Jazz has its foot in two camps -- the historical / traditional "art form" camp staked out by the likes of classical music and the contemporary / experimental camp that is firmly owned in mindshare by rap and hip-hop. Like any first year b-schooler will tell you, the "middle" is tenuous place to be in any industry because it's easy to get overwhelmed by the giants and cut off at the knees by upstarts.

The annals of business history are littered with meaningless meetings interspersed with a few watershed events, usually in or set-up by the kind of intimate session that characterized this morning's get-together. I hope that someday we can look back on a meeting held in a sterile hotel conference room on a raw New York City Saturday morning and marvel at all that followed.

In The Presence of Giants (and Midgets)

2006-01-14T19:44:00.002-05:00

Last night at the annual conference of the International Alliance of Jazz Educators, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its '06 class of NEA Jazz Masters. Among those honored included the likes of Tony Bennett and Chick Corea.

At the end of the evening, conductors of the two big bands that provided most of the evening's entertainment invited any NEA Jazz Master in the audience to come up on stage and play along. While hearing legends like Latin jazz king Paquito D'Rivera was a real treat and the level of excellence and creativity borne from decades of practice and performance was obvious, I thought that a 10-year old trumpet player that snuck up on stage and was given a shot at the mic stole the show. Not only did he play great but it was clear that he would have been happy to play all night long ... one of the bandleaders literally took the instrument out of his hands to give the rest of the masters some minutes!

As the two bands played with a host of masters (there were probably 40+ musicians on stage by the end of the night), I turned to Marty Ashby, Executive Producer of MCG Jazz (an Accelerator venture), and pointed out how the actions on stage represented much of what companies around the world will need more of the in the future -- creativity, improvisation, teamwork, individual mastery, respected leadership, joy, passion, enthusiasm ...

Hmm, now if you could just bottle that up and get it out to the masses ...

Legends and Luminaries

2006-01-12T17:17:00.001-05:00

What do Nancy Wilson, Tom Scott, Clark Terry, Doc Severinsen, and Dr. Billy Taylor have in common? Besides being among a select group of living jazz legends, all were in attendance at the opening gala for the International Alliance of Jazz Educator’s annual conference, this year held in Midtown Manhattan. Why was I (can't sing, can't dance, can't play an instrument) there? As a guest of MCG Jazz, one of the leading ventures in the Accelerator's portfolio and, as a division of the acclaimed Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and Bidwell Training Center, a globally recognized social enterprise supporting youth education and adult workforce training programs with its mix of jazz concerts and album releases.

MCG Jazz, along with IAJE through its independent subsidiary Jazz Alliance International and a host of "mavens, connectors, and salesmen" (to use Tipping Point terminology) in the industry, are leading the charge to build awareness and market share for jazz while creating a sustainable business model that fulfills both social impact objectives and $$$ requirements in the long-term. The questions being confronted by the jazz industry are similar to, say, NASCAR more than a few years ago: How do we tap into an existing and rabid community of fanatics to create a bigger revenue "pie" while not ruining what attracted fans to the sport in the first place? How can we best introduce the "product" to people not familiar with the concept or who have preconceived notions about it so that a new generation of fanatics will emerge? How do we prioritize our options and opportunities in light of (at least initially) limited resources? Who are the key players to enlist in both the strategy and tactics to harness such a substantial amount of latent potential?

The artists, industry insiders, and other attendees of last night's gala couldn't have been more visibly dedicated to the music, the personalities that shaped it, or to perpetuating the genre for generations to come. All of that passion and ability to improvise will come in handy as the very entrepreneurial work of reshaping the business side of jazz unfolds in the months ahead.

Red Roads and White Roads

2006-01-08T11:21:00.001-05:00

Sometimes getting sick can be a blessing in disguise. After being surrounded by the ill and infirmed throughout the holidays, it finally caught up with me at the start of the new year in the form of a mostly irritating (as opposed to debilitating) head cold. Taking it as an early test of my intent to slow down and do fewer things better, I stayed in bed (instead of trying, literally, to work through it) and attacked the rising stack of books beside my bed.

One book that I'd been dying to get through for a while was
Raising the Bar by Clif Bar founder Gary Erickson. As a cycling and outdoor sports fanatic, I've tried just about every bar and supplement on the market and I'm an unabashed Clif Bar loyalist. But there's always been some elusive "something else" that has always connected me to the product and, by extension, to the company. An authenticity, a simplicity, an engaging Horatio Alger story perhaps ... "something else".

The book helped to clear up the "something else" by using a map metaphor of "red roads" and "white roads" to describe the company's distinctiveness. A company on the red road:

"... believes business is about the destination ... [it's] primary reason for being, its destination, is maximizing shareholder value. When shareholder value and the bottom line become the reasons for being in business, everything else feeds that agenda."

Alternatively, on the white road, the moment -- the journey itself -- matters most. There is no set or final destination. The trip could end anywhere. As Erickson points out:

"We plan like any company does, but we center our discussion on what roads we'd like to travel and the type of business we'd like to become. The road, not the destination, drives Clif Bar."

I think that there are some fundamental societal, cultural, demographic, and global trends that portend the rise of a different kind of enterprise, one that can do well and do good. One that inspires passion in employees, is low-drag in operations, and intimately connected to, as Erickson puts it, natural demand in the marketplace, not demand generated by expensive marketing campaigns driven by guilt or inadequacy or materialism for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses. Sure, there will always be a role for red road companies in the marketplace -- after all, sharks are part of the ocean's ecosystem for a reason. But I have a feeling (and it's not much more developed than that right now) that the 21st century will demand a model for earned-income generating organizations (both nonprofit and for-profit which, after all, are mostly just a legal designations) that is radically different than what we expect one of these enterprises to look like and act like today.

I guess trying to figure out what that model looks like and putting it into practice with our ventures is my white road. The Clif Bar story is as good a place as any to start looking for some answers.

What Is "It"?

2006-01-03T21:51:00.001-05:00

Innovation (n.): "The intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of social and economic value."

You can't pick up a business magazine without reading about it. Or listen to an executive interview nowadays without hearing about it. What is "it"? Innovation. Yeah, you want your organization to reflect "it". You want your products to embody "it". Heck, you hope you have "it". I know I've been talking a lot about "it" lately and hope that the Accelerator and our ventures have "it". But here's the $64,000 question (and believe me, winning $64K was a big deal a generation ago): What, exactly, is innovation? What does it look (smell, taste, feel ...) like? Can it be developed to grow in people, organizations, or even communities over time like a muscle can be trained to get stronger and more useful? Is it like air or can people/ organizations/ communities live without it for a long time?

I don't have all the answers but I do know that I've been spending some quality time trying to wrap my head around the essence of innovation. My gut tells me that our organization, our ventures, and for sure our community will need bigger and bigger doses of it and now my head is demanding that I get closer to figuring out what "innovation" means in the context of our efforts to support a more entrepreneurial, vibrant, and impactful social sector. If there's one theme that's come through loud and clear so far, its that there can't be an innovation without engagement with the real world to test if a great idea really works, that is, has a tangible impact that is readily apparent.

After all, Edison's work with the light bulb would have been an interesting science experiment if it hadn't been tested in the real world and a host of other, supporting, innovations and the development of standard practices hadn't followed. And, even though Edison was recognized as the originator of the innovation, he didn't control its on-going development. For example, his use of direct current later lost out to the alternating-current system developed by the American inventors Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse.

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me ...

Social Enterprise & Time Magazine's Persons of the Year

2005-12-26T12:05:00.001-05:00

This may be the year of social enterprise awakening.

With megadisasters Katrina, Rita, the Asian Tsunami, the Pakistani Earthquake, Avian Flu, the AIDS Pandemic... there is a swelling urgency to find fast, effective business models to respond to--and possibly prevent--such wide-spread devastation.

Time Magazine has selected a trifecta of megastars in this field: rock band U2's frontman Bono alongside Bill & Melinda Gates.

The accompanying suite of articles gives an intimate glimpse of daily life for these three who are focused on massive systems, namely health and economics.

From Persons of the Year By NANCY GIBBS

And so another alliance was born: unlikely, unsentimental, hard nosed, clear eyed and dead set on driving poverty into history. The rocker's job is to be raucous, grab our attention. The engineers' job is to make things work. 2005 is the year they turned the corner, when Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest; now those countries can spend the money on health and schools rather than interest payments--and have no more excuses for not doing so. The Gateses, having built the world's biggest charity, with a $29 billion endowment, spent the year giving more money away faster than anyone ever has, including nearly half a billion dollars for the Grand Challenges, in which they asked the very best brains in the world how they would solve a huge problem, like inventing a vaccine that needs no needles and no refrigeration, if they had the money to do it.

The Rock Star's Burden

2005-12-17T10:41:00.002-05:00

By PAUL THEROUX
Published: December 15, 2005 | NY Times Op-Ed

This is to balance out the post on Bono's ONE Manifesto.

THERE are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment. If Christmas, season of sob stories, has turned me into Scrooge, I recognize the Dickensian counterpart of Paul Hewson - who calls himself "Bono" - as Mrs. Jellyby in "Bleak House." Harping incessantly on her adopted village of Borrioboola-Gha "on the left bank of the River Niger," Mrs. Jellyby tries to save the Africans by financing them in coffee growing and encouraging schemes "to turn pianoforte legs and establish an export trade," all the while badgering people for money.

It seems to have been Africa's fate to become a theater of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all the news that has been reported recently from that unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more appalled by most of the proposed solutions.

Read full article

[On a side note, my father, Philip P. Durand, served with Mr. Theroux in Malawi as part of the Peace Corps.]

One: Bono = Numero Uno

2005-12-11T21:44:00.001-05:00

The 2005 winner of the TEDPrize was the man with one name and the catalyst for the One Movement: Bono.

In his acceptance speech, he admonished the elite technorati to rise to the challenge of poverty and AIDS, he said:

But equality for Africa - that's a big, expensive idea. You see, the scale of the suffering numbs us into a kind of indifference. What on earth can we all do about this? Well, much more than we think. We can't fix every problem, but the ones we can, I want to argue, we must. And because we can, we must. This is the straight truth, the righteous truth. It is not a theory. The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this and mean it, "We do not have to stand for this." A whole continent written off,... we do not have to stand for this. [see video | read speech]

On Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, the inaugral podcast of the ONE Movement was broadcast. [ XML | HTML ]

The ONE Campaign seeks to end extreme poverty by allocating an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food.
It is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The ONE Campaign was founded by Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, and World Vision, and works closely with the National Basketball Association, Rock the Vote, and the Millennium Campaign.
The ONE declaration:

"WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs - education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans - would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all."

Visit www.one.org for a podcast including Nelson Mandela, Coldplay, Val Kilmer and more hipsters with heart.

The Purpose Prize

2005-12-08T13:23:00.001-05:00

Do you know of someone in their 60s or older who is truly reinventing what it means to be an innovator in the social sector?

Civic Ventures, a San Francisco-based think tank and incubator, recognizes the incredible social capital represented in older adults. With funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies and The John Templeton Foundation, the organization is launching a campaign to recognize, invest in, and inspire this group of innovators.

They are offering The Purpose Prize.

The hallmark of this campaign is a prestigious new prize to five exceptional individuals over the age of 60 who are defying societal expectations by channeling their creativity and talent to address critical social problems at the local, regional, or national level. Sixty semi-finalists for The Purpose Prize -- "Sixty at Sixty+" -- will receive national recognition for their work.

Five $100,000 investments in Americans who are using their life experience and creativity to transform our nation and defy expectations for the second half of life.

Nominations are due by February 28, 2006.

Don Gould, Pure Water for All

2005-12-03T04:56:00.001-05:00

When people ask Don Gould how he knows that his product works, he answers, “Because babies stop dying.”

As part of a social enterprise consortium, Gould, who is both a product designer and ceramicist, helped to design and deploy simple effect water filtration devices to the developing world.

He talks with Tim Zak, host of Globeshakers, about both the traditional production techniques and the new economy models for collaboration. Together, they can deliver life-saving solutions that are as robust as they are elegant.

See photos and slideshow from the Pure Water for All project in Sudan.

So, why is water a problem?

[see Globeshakers for more details.]

Darrell Hammond, founder of KaBOOM!

2005-12-03T04:51:00.001-05:00

Play is a crucial factor in the overall well-being of children. It affects the level of quality of life they will enjoy. Yet, play in many communities, schools, and families has been pushed to the back-burner. Darrell Hammond, founder of KaBOOM!, envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since 1995, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct more than 850 new playgrounds and skateparks and renovate 1,300 others nationwide.

On Nov. 4, 2005, Tim Zak, host of Globeshakers, speaks with Darrell Hammond, founder of KaBOOM!, who envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Darrell gives a “State of the Union of Play” address regarding play in America, why it matters for the health of our children, and what it means for the future of the American workforce.

Habitat JAM

2005-11-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

Unprecedented Global Event:
Tens of Thousands of World Citizens Unite Online
to Debate Urban Sustainability Issues
Habitat JAM

www.habitatjam.com

Thursday, December 1 - Saturday, December 3, 2005
Open to everyone interested in creating a better world.
Come for an hour or stay online for three days

Triple Bottom Line Conference 2005

2005-11-16T13:05:00.001-05:00

Money Flows: Triple Bottom Line Conference 2005

Nicole-Anne Boyer

from Worldchanging.com:

Of all of the big hairy systemic issues out there these days, I keep bumping into the question of sustainable finance. From whatever lens one takes -- macro or micro, public sector or private sector financing, driven by ODA or ROI -- the task of understanding money flows is critical for a more sustainable future. 'Cause like it or not, money flows frame the parameters of possibilities in our era.
With this in mind, I found myself at the TBLI Conference in Frankfurt, Germany early November (2-4th). The labour of love of Robert Rubinstein, this was the seventh Brooklyn Bridge TBLI event, which is practically middle age for a conference, not to mention testimony to Robert's ability to consistently attract leaders in the SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) sectors. The next conference will be held in Bangkok, an encouraging signal that this field is spreading beyond the Western markets.

Read entire article.

MicroVC

2005-11-15T11:59:00.001-05:00

At this year's Pop!Tech, we heard from the Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, Neil Gershenfeld.

His unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments. Technology from his lab has been seen and used in settings including New York's Museum of Modern Art and rural Indian villages, the White House/Smithsonian Millennium celebration and automobile safety systems, the World Economic Forum and inner-city community centers, Las Vegas shows and Sami herds.

In a post at Worldchanging.org, Jamais Cascio writes of Gershenfeld's call for a more robust system for lending capital for "micro VCs".

By and large, people working to improve conditions in the poorer parts of the world consider microcredit -- the practice of offering very small loans to individuals starting small businesses -- to be a successful tool. But microcredit isn't as well-suited for people starting up riskier ventures; the funds needed are often substantially higher, and the more significant risk involved in the startup would inevitably lead to a greater default rate. MIT's Neal Gershenfeld, of Fab Lab fame, described in his book Fab the need for "micro-venture" services in the developing world to support the greater risk and greater upside of local innovation. It turns out that he wasn't alone in seeing that need.

Visit MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms.

Has corporate architecture doomed the city?

2005-11-02T12:08:00.001-05:00

Over the last century, corporate headquarters -- as well as churches, universities and government institutions -- have been pillars of the urban environment, embodying the culture, values and aspirations of their societies.

Yet today's corporations -- competing in global, open-market economies; distanced and disassociated from the means of production — have increasingly situated themselves on the suburban periphery, replacing civic engagement with simple displays of technological prowess, such as the ubiquitous glass curtain wall.

As a result, "corporations must be seen as potential 'dissolving agents' of the cities in which they have chosen to locate," argues Peter MacKeith, associate director of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also serves as associate dean of Architecture.

read full article>>

Another Dispatch From Pop!Tech

2005-10-22T11:03:00.002-04:00

A couple of months ago, I got captivated by the notion of the $100 laptop currently being developed by MIT's famed Media Lab headed by legendary technologist Nicholas Negroponte. He's a guy I started to track after reading his book Being Digital when I was a way wet behind the ears techie wannabe nearly two decades ago. Today at Pop!Tech, Negroponte outlined the details of the device and its intended effect on the developing world.

He pointed out that personal computer costs breakdown into essentially three categories: sales, marketing, distribution, and profit -- 50%, display -- 25%, and everything else -- 25% (75% of which is used just to store and maintain the operating system). By focusing on a low-cost, low-power display, a self-generated power supply, and emphasizing connectivity and an open source architecture, the device could potentially connect 100 million people a year (if Negroponte has his way) to the rest of the world. A workable model is to be presented to the U.N. in November with production prototypes due early next year.

However, Negroponte failed to address at least a couple of important issues. First, he proposes that all of the "know it exists, get it to those who want it" costs (i.e., sales, marketing, distribution) will be eliminated. One way or another, someone will have to pick up the tab here, particularly for logistics and support ... hope it's not just shifting the accounting of costs from the "laptop" account to the "U.N. (or some other nonprofit)" account. Second, and a big question in my mind, is how much of the laptop is recyclable, reusable, or remanufacturable? Does the world really need to produce 100 million a year more of anything that doesn't have a pre-defined, designed-in sustainability cycle, particularly in the developing world where sanitation infrastructures are primitive at best?

Just goes to show that even a "wow!" idea is just the first step in the lifecycle of a social innovation with impact.

Dispatch from Pop!Tech

2005-10-21T10:50:00.001-04:00

In yesterday's sessions at Pop!Tech, we were enveloped by a tone of almost unfathomable optimism and ambition. Technological genius, indescribable integration of art and engineering, the exploration of space and oceans. Heady stuff, indeed ...

In contrast, this morning so far has been way more sobering and, in a way, a welcome grounding. The effects of global warming presented by author Mark Lynas literally stopped my brain in its tracks. In a synthesis of scientific investigation on the subject, Lynas made me believe a quote I read in the local paper: "Climate change is nuclear war in slow motion." The implications of even single degree increases in ocean temperature have vast implications on the physical, geographic, and social structures that provide a precarious equilibrium for citizens around the world.

Finally, I haven't gotten through all of Suketu Mehta's book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found but if his excerpt reading is any indication, it's a must read. Cities now make up 1/2 the world's population and in the developing world, the migration of people from rural areas to cities (driven by what appears to be a universal lure, dependable income and the potential for a "better life") will fundamentally change our very notion of what constitutes "acceptable living standards."

The Influence of One Social Entrepreneur: Bill Strickland, MCG

2005-10-18T10:05:00.002-04:00

Bidwell CEO to Advise Louisiana on Tourism
Founder & CEO of the boundery-busting Manchester Craftsmans Guild is tapped to help the New Orleans music and culture scene in its recovery.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Saturday, October 08, 2005

What One Man Can Do
Bill Strickland is in the business of saving lives. After almost 40 years of teaching kids, training adults, and telling his story, he's looking to "franchise" his brand of hope.
Inc. Magazine, September 2005 | Page 144 By: John Brant Photographs by: Graham MacIndoe
See slideshow and hear a soundclip of Bill's presentation

(Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette photos)

What Price Culture?

2005-10-17T12:32:00.002-04:00

An OpEd article in this past weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal by Douglas McLennan, editor of artsjournal.com questions whether the current financial model of arts organizations, increasingly focusing on "business-like" activities such as charging admissions fees, courting underwriters, and running retail shops is artistically appropriate and fiscally sustainable. He contends that the current system is "broken" and a new "model" must be invented.

It's clear that many arts and cultural institutions are stuggling. In my hometown, an institution as world renowned as the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to stuggle even after earning a majority of its operating budget through earned income and garnering salary concessions from its musicians.

However, what Mr. McLennan doesn't do in his article is suggest what a new model for arts and cultural organizations should look like, contending that we're "stretching traditional nonprofit status to the point of breaking". Although I'm not sure that there's is an obvious "answer", I do know that going back to the way the arts were "funded" a generation ago is not a viable solution. For example, patrons in the past had fewer choices on which to spend their entertainment dollars and the exodus out of many urban areas (including my own) over the years has reduced the size of the customer base. The bottom line is that arts and cultural institutions are exposed to market forces like never before and have no choice but to respond in ways that more closely resemble businesses.

Earned income activities not tied to the core mission of the organization, like a coffee shop run by a museum, is not likely to ever generate significant profits. They are mostly stopgap measures. However, social enterprise initiatives intimately linked to mission and run with the intent to make money (like all businesses, there is no guarantee) can not only effectively compete and grow but can also build organizational capacity, supplement other objectives of the organization (e.g., grow membership), and open up new revenue-generating opportunties.

One of the ventures in the Accelerator's portfolio is the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA. Like the organizations described by Mr. McLennan, the WMAA struggles to maintain a preeminent status among regional museums in the U.S. while ensuring its financial sustainability.
Its earned income initiatives, fully supporting the museum's mission to educate people about the art and history of their country, have not only generated increasing financial returns but has resulted in a variety of exciting (and potentially profit-making) partnerships.

For example, the Westmoreland was the premier show in the Visionaries eleventh season of profiling socially innovative individuals and organizations around the world for PBS and the Wisdom Channel. Entitled American Art-Alive and Well the episode is described as:

Bonded by an extraordinary personal event, a small group of people transform a stodgy old museum into a vibrant place pulsating with the energy of young people discovering art, history and music for the first time. The music of the NewLanders a group of Pittsburgh area musicians and songwriters who have researched and rediscovered songs written by, and about, the people of southwestern Pennsylvania is part of that story.

The business model for arts and cultural institutions may have outlived its usefulness but I would contend that the future still looks a lot like the present, with more of the very best and most relevant practices of the private, public, and citizen sector injecting life into a critical aspect of society.

The New Philanthropy

2005-10-12T15:49:00.001-04:00

Used to be that when entrepreneurs hit it big, they'd put their loot into a venture capital fund to have an excuse to stay in the start-up game or into a philanthropic foundation to "give back", providing funds to worthwhile non-profit programs. But some of the savviest tech entrepreneurs of the last decade, most recently the founders of Google as described in today's USA Today, and the founders of eBay, Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll, are using their wealth to invest in non-profits pursuing businesses in support of mission and "socially progressive" companies formed as for-profits.

If the traditional sources of funding for both the non-profit and private sector began to dedicate even a small fraction of their vast holdings to social innovators, regardless of the legal designation of their enterprises, we might be forced to come up with a whole new definition of "shareholder value" and a new name for these "hybrid" endeavors.

Do well and do good may never have been mutally exclusive but we may very be at a "tipping point" at the interection of business and societal impact where only the savviest entrepreneurs need apply.

The Unintended Crossover of Innovation

2005-10-12T15:11:00.001-04:00

A few years ago, the famed inventor Dean Kamen unveiled a product that he claimed would literally change the world. His invention, the Segway Human Transporter, is a self-balancing, electric-powered transportation device that uses gyroscopes and other mechanical innovations to allow people to travel farther and move quicker -- up to 12.5 mph. Many pundits envisioned the Segway as an enabler of "new urbanism", a way to arrest the pace of sprawl and make cities more livable. Public sector organizations like the U.S. Postal Service piloted the device to deliver the mail and police forces tried it out as a 21st century version of walking the beat.

While the Segway hasn't become quite as ubiquitous as originally touted, it's been described in a recent article as having "an unsought market." The market? People with disabilities!

In some ways, this should come as no surprise. Kamen was a card-carrying social entrepreneur long before he and his team invented the integrated technologies underlying the Segway. After all, he invented the first portable infusion pump capable of delivering drugs (such as insulin) to patients who had previously required round-the-clock monitoring, a phone book-sized dialysis machine, and a six-wheeled robotic "mobility system" for the disabled that can climb stairs, traverse sandy and rocky terrain, and raise its user to eye-level with a standing person.

But if you were a spunky MBA student helping Kamen write the Segway's business plan, you probably wouldn't suggest selling into the "disabled market". Too small. Too distributed. Too diverse. And, apparently, a real beneficiary of innovation's crossover effect.

So Many Books, So Little Time

2005-10-12T10:11:00.001-04:00

As far back as I can remember, I've operated in a gray area of acceptable societal norms: the jock who can't keep his nose out of a book. Ahh, books! I've always been fascinated by every aspect of the industry -- how do authors get their brilliant ideas on paper in a coherent way, how are the army of supporters (like editors, photographers, cover artists) coordinated, how are books manufactured and marketed, how cool is it to get royalty checks in the mail?

But the whole idea of becoming an "author" is both daunting and frustrating. How do the seemingly limitless number of book ideas rummaging around my head and written down on sticky notes and the backs of napkins jive with a long-cycle, high overhead industry? I recently ran across a model that may provide an answer and at the same time make the whole book publishing industry increasingly irrelevant.

More Space is a book project that:

"...presents nine current business bloggers writing in their own unique styles. Each author challenges the premise that places of business can only be cold and uninspiring. By sharing their own experiences they offer up ways for you to re-ignite passion and enthusiasm in your work."

Can't diss the premise and topic for sure but what I really like about the project is the intent to offer a variety of formats (pdf, html, mp3, hardcover), license the works using Creative Commons, provide an initial run of the hardcover version with stuff you can't get in the free versions, and find a "business model" that fits consumer needs and pays for itself including compensation for the authors (prominent bloggers in this case).

Hmm, now where did I put all of those napkins and sticky notes ...?

SROI: Heart, Mind and Bottom Line

2005-10-03T14:28:00.001-04:00

So, what is the ROI on SRI? Can we truly measure SROI?

And, by the way, what the heck are we even talking about?

With SROI, one measures the increasing social effects of an investment; with SRI one measures the increasing financial returns of a socially-oriented investment.

So what's the difference? Is there one?

Namely, we are talking about two different, but related creatures:

Social return on investment (SROI): the quantitative and subjective measure of social effects of a program (ex. higher test scores, lower mortality, cleaner neighborhoods, etc.)
Socially responsible investments (SRI) -- or "doing well by doing good" -- integrates personal and social values into investment decisions.

This synthesis of "investment" with "social" ventures is on the rise as more and more investors take responsibility for their own 401(k) and SEP plans.

They begin to think about the effects of that wealth and worry that their investment may be part of the problem, instead of part of the cure. But these investors still want to retire someday and are far from looking at these investments as handouts. Instead, they want to know that the business models of the organizations and the leadership teams have been duly vetted and approved.

It seems quite logical: we worry about what activities our money is going towards funding, in terms of both the activities those investments fuel and the return on that capital.

But what about that Social Return on Investment? As stock market volatility rattles the coffers of large foundations, more boards of non-profits and grantmaking organizations are asking for proof as to the effectiveness of their largesse.

In an interview with Accelerator president Tim Zak on Globeshakers, author David Bornstein, an expert on social enterprise says:

Right now you have companies with big foundations: Companies that give away thirty, forty, fifty, eighty million dollars a year. They have process that is shameful in terms of thinking through how they do it. They hire maybe five people who do minimal due diligence.

In some cases, it is merely word-of-mouth kind of things; they go to a couple of meetings and they give the money away.

It is nothing near the way it would be if they were actually investing seventy million dollars in a business. In that case, they would spend close to a year talking to everyone who has ever dealt with that business.

Towards this end, the skillsets of venture capitalists are being drawn into the social sector to provide such due diligence.

More than 500 "socially responsible investment" professionals gathered in Snowbird Utah last week for the 16th annual SRI in the Rockies conference.

Gil Friend of Worldchanging.com was there to report on the evolution of the field, described in Social Investment, Social Capital and Social Action:

There was some debate in the room over whether, and why, companies care about their SRI rankings. Some maintained that companies could care less; others noted that many public traded companies respond to extensive questionnaires (at 100 hours a pop) from multiple SRI analysts (sometimes dozens) -- the reason OneReport was developed -- while some approach the analysts and rating services (like the DowJones Sustainability Index, FTSE4Good, KLD, Innovest, and others) for advice on what they need to do to move onto the good list. That seems like an indicator of perceived value to me. As does the presence of a former Goldman Sachs CEO at the helm of Al Gore's new firm, Generation Investment Management LLP.
Perception is key to the investment game, of course. The profit opportunity lives in the value gradients between how different people evaluate risk and opportunity, and hence the value of securities. If I think global warming, toxic products and human rights are likely to be big deals, and you don't, we're going to place very different financial bets. Because SRI is a movement as well as an industry, the investors want to move markets -- like LEED has done in the building industry -- as well as profit from them.

One thing is for certain, when companies perceive that their financial well-being is directly tied to the stockholders' idea that their capital is invested in a social investment, then companies will need to make damn sure there is a healthy return.

We're talking SROI investors can take to heart, and ROI they can take to the bank.

Decaf Healthcare

2005-10-03T14:14:00.001-04:00

The social pressure on healthcare rises. But when the Big Boys of commerce go to the Hill to ask for a little relief, will the pullers of the purse-strings listen?
Starbucks will spend more on healthcare than on coffee; for car makers, they'll spend more on that line item than on steel.

Thursday, September 15, 2005
Starbucks, others try to balance worker health care with expenses
By CHARLES POPE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON -- Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz didn't mention Wal-Mart by name Wednesday as he took part in several Capitol Hill events designed to draw attention to the nation's health care "crisis."
But the implication, in both words and actions, was clear. Schultz was part of a group that included CEOs from Verizon, Costco, Honeywell and Pitney Bowes who came to Congress to jump-start efforts to control health care costs. Each of the companies offers health insurance to virtually all of its employees, even in the face of sharply rising costs. READ FULL ARTICLE>>

Thinking With Our Hearts

2005-09-09T16:17:00.001-04:00

An op-ed piece in the September 9th edition of the NY Times asserts that the standard measures of poverty in the U.S. are misleading and that significant headway has been made on improving the lot of poor people in this country. If you're anything like me, presented with selected facts from both ideological sides of the aisle on just about any issue, you can rarely get past a far from definitive "maybe". It's only when cold, hard facts hit the realm of personal emotion and intuition that we can get to a point of view. Maybe it takes a multifaceted "jolt" to view the world from a new lens. Instead of just thinking with our heads, we let our hearts get into the act.

While the aftermath of some prominent natural disasters have recently focused our attention with red-hot intensity on the seemingly wide disparities between individuals, if we're really being honest with ourselves, we realize that these disparities exist all around us. Rich and poor, minority and majority, blue collar and professional, mobile and immobile, young and old, ... most of the time, it unfortunately takes a catastrophic event to focus our attention long enough from the rush of daily living to form a thoughtful personal opinion about what is "right" and "wrong" (if anything), and what to do about it.

Much of the dialogue most recently has been between the "rich" and "poor" (although the dialogue seems to have forgotten about that vast turf called the "middle") and the implications of being in one camp or the other. Are we truly better off as a country? Have we moved the needle on poverty at all or have gigantic, government-driven efforts over the last 30-plus years been wasted? If vast government intervention is proving ineffective could a more "market-based" system, drawing on the central tenants of capitalism, prove more effective? How could the integration of social sector organizations and businesses change the game? It'll take our heads and our hearts to figure out any of these questions.

A Goldmine in Serving the Poorest Consumers

2005-09-08T09:39:00.001-04:00

From former Accelerator staffer, Leila Berkley:

Check out a book out by a professor at the B-School at Michigan, C. K. Prahalad, titled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and is all about treating the world's poor as consumers (not poor) and giving them more choices, which will in turn help them. I think it (like many international development ideas) has some strong implications for our urban (or rural, for that matter) poor here in the states.

There is also an article online at changemakers.net.

From Amazon.com:

The world's most exciting, fastest-growing new market? It's where you least expect it: at the bottom of the pyramid. Collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense entrepreneurial capabilities and buying power. You can learn how to serve them and help millions of the world's poorest people escape poverty.
It is being done-profitably. Whether you're a business leader or an anti-poverty activist, business guru Prahalad shows why you can't afford to ignore "Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) markets.
In the book and accompanying CD videos, Prahalad presents...

Why what you know about BOP markets is wrong A world of surprises-from spending patterns to distribution and marketing
Unlocking the "poverty penalty"
The most enduring contributions your company can make Delivering dignity, empowerment, and choice-not just products
Corporations and BOP entrepreneurs Profiting together from an inclusive new capitalism

Recovery 2.0

2005-09-07T10:08:00.001-04:00

Ethan Zuckerman has spent his career building social networks through innovative technology.

He has been watching as the sprawling network of bloggers, technologists and working folk self-assemble tools, resources and coordinated efforts for search, rescue and recovery in the Gulf.

One massive effort is the PeopleFinder database which, according to Salesforce.com, contains over 87,000 records in the database, all entered by hand by volunteers. Imagine a state bureau trying to tackle that over Labor Day weekend!

The first design principle of PeopleFinder is "to bring people and data together."

The design aims to promote convergence: convergence of people who seek the same person, convergence of information about a person obtained from various sources, convergence of duplicated data, and ultimately convergence of missing people with their loved ones.

Zuckerman describes the timeline of tech events in conjunction with events on the ground in New Orleans and the Gulf.

The emerging story describes a virtual immune system swarming in response to the body blow of Katrina: individual groups establishing wikis and blogs; converging efforts behind a single URL (Katrinahelp.info); the use of on-line sales space Craigslist to offer shelter and supplies; AirAmerica Radio's Katrina Voicemail; amazing feats of digital heroism to link up families and account for the missing.

He identifies some guiding principles, and an evolving model for future disasters.

"Jeff Jarvis, who's done an excellent job of blogging various Katrina recovery efforts, sees an opportunity for a dialog about reactions to future natural (or, god forbid, manmade) disasters -- he's calling the idea Recovery 2.0."

From Jarvis' blog:

The goal is to be ready -- God help us -- for the next disaster so people can better use the internet -- via any device -- to better:
1. Share information,
2. Report and act on calls for help,
3. Coordinate relief,
4. Connect the missing,
5. Provide connections for such necessities as housing and jobs,
6. Match charitable assets to needs,
7. Get people connected to this and the world sooner.

Zuckerman's observations hold to just about any socially oriented effort, whether focused on acute short-term catastrophes or long-term recovery:

People want to help.
Sometimes code is the solution. Sometimes 2,000 loosely organized people are the solution.
Simple tools work surprisingly well.
It's not just your tools that need to be robust. You're dependent on everyone else's tools as well.
Posses rock.
Assume burnout.

As one of the core team members at Tripod in the 1990s, Zuckerman was at the center of a web-based communitity, that served as an early development lab for the blognation phenomenon.

Currently, his main affiliation is with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. In a former life, he also lead a cadre of self-proclaimed geeks into the colorful chaos of West Africa, through Geekcorps. The organization transfers skills to the Third World, or -- in the words of Jim Moore -- the second superpower.

Geekcorps' early business model was very simple: (1) Geeks beget geeks; (2) Africa needs geeks; (3) Give a geeks money to go to Africa.

His blog is even titled, My Heart's in Accra.

One project in this area is BlogAfrica, a project to help Africans learn about weblogs and to aggregate content from African weblogs. Ethan also works with anonymous blogservers for use by people in the human rights community, allowing human rights workers to blog about situations in their countries without compromising their security.

Future of Public Radio

2005-08-16T21:48:00.001-04:00

Anyone who thinks of Terry Gross when they hear the term "fresh air" is aware of the recent trials and tribulations of National Public Radio.

With hostile leadership both in the legislative and executive branches, not to mention within their own management circles at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the institution has had to fight for its political (and financial) viability.

The real threat, however, is the same one facing the music industry and broadcast television: namely, the power of the viewer to choose what they see, hear and interact with on an individually designed schedule. It even allows for real-time citizen reportage that scoops the traditional media.

Doug Kaye, founder of IT Conversations is at the heart of the podcast revolution. His
recent blog post speculates on the viability of the publicly funded radio icon in light of consumer-produced media.

From The Future of Public Radio:

"The future of public radio may not be podcasting, but it will certainly be based on much lower-cost methods of producing and distributing most programs, and as incumbents in the industry, the WGBHs of the world are unable to cannibalize their own operations to the extent they must to survive. To do so would mean walking away from all the buildings and studios and firing 80% of the staff. Just as 3.5" disk drives replaced the 5" drives at a far lower price/performance ratio, so will the new public radio produce and distribute programs at a far lower cost. And it won't be done by the same organizations."

WIE and the Enlightened Corporate Machine

2005-08-08T10:34:00.001-04:00

What is Enlightenment? Magazine (or WIE) has filled an intersting space in the publishing arena: the intersection of religion, philosphy, business, science and ecology.

In the March-May issue, the writers focus on the new generation of CEOs who are trying to apply their personal awareness of the world to the actions of their enterprises.

The issue titled, Will Big Business Save the World? features senior leaders from erstwhile enemies of global consciousness such as Nike, Unilever, Hewlett-Packard and McDonalds. They stand along side other long-time advocates for system change as Peter Senge of SOL, Walter Robb of Whole Foods Market, Inc., and Dadi Janki of the Brahama Kumaris World Spiritual University.

The WIE website is chock full of rich articles and audio interviews (requires monthly subscription) that take a good look at the complexity of the issues. Although the publication has a decidedly New Age viewpoint, the articles address real world problems and theoretical/theological debates without listing too far to the Left or Right or the spectrum. The primary focus is on connectivity instead of divisiveness, with white papers available directly from the coporations they analyze and opposing viewpoints.

Doing well by doing good requires taking it all in, and WIE is attempting to do just that.

Capital Shakers and Market Breakers

2005-08-03T09:23:00.001-04:00

Listen to a podcast from the June 24th session Social Change--for Profit? Capital Shakers and Market Breakers included top social investors and entrepreneurs recognized for building unique and cutting edge progress in bridging business and social change; each shared breakthroughs as well as hard lessons learned from the trenches.

Panel leader was Amber Nystrom, Executive Director, Social Fusion, a business incubator for social entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area; panelists included leaders from Rubicon, Calvert and Microcredit Enterprises.

[from Stanford's Solution Magazine]

This engaged dialogue showcased the mainstreaming of social investing and the bridging of private sector and traditionally philanthropic and nonprofit sectors through so-called double bottom line investing. San Francisco is quickly assuming a global leadership role in social investing, where investors and philanthropists are achieving simultaneous financial as well as social benefit returns on investment.

Million Dollar Partnership for Entrepreneurial Studies

2005-08-03T09:09:00.001-04:00

The new partnership between the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University and YouthBridge Association, a St. Louis agency dedicated to innovative youth-focused social ventures, will foster and expand social entrepreneurship through a new award and competition.

One million dollars has been pledged for the effort, and other area universities, institutions, community groups, and foundations have been invited to collaborate in the effort.

Read full article:
WUSTL, YouthBridge to partner for social entrepreneurship
One million dollars would support new initiative
By Shula Neuman

Globeshakers: The Podcast

2005-08-01T15:59:00.001-04:00

In partnership with Doug Kaye at IT Conversations, an on-line radio program focused on social innovation is about to hit the virtual airwaves.

Globeshakers is a program highlighting people who are transforming the world through technology, social enterprise and sustainable solutions. The host? Why it is the Accelerator's very own Tim Zak.
Each program he'll interview various species of "globeshakers" who work across the world and across industries, using innovation to shake up the status quo.

The Shakers: people on the ground working for social change.
The Movers: users of personal star power and influence to build buzz for a mighty cause.
Big Brains: the thoughts and theories are making a big splash.
Geeks for a Greater Good: the knowledge workers who harness the power of connected economies, embedded computing, robotics and smart mobs.
Policy Wonks: the insiders with an ear to the ground, listening for the legislative drumbeat.
Grease Monkeys: the foundations, nonprofits and consultants working under the hood of social engines.

And last--but by no means least--Zak will interview to those Enlightened Corporate Hacks who are true system-thinkers; who are shaking up the marketplace by crafting new language, sustainable business models, and, most important, global thinking.
Join us, won't you? At IT Conversations, coming Fall '05.

Stay tuned!

World Changing Bloggers

2005-08-01T14:31:00.001-04:00

Go check out: WorldChanging.com.

This is definitely ont of the best and broadest conversations going on in the social enterprise space. The writers are weird, wary, worldly, wired and wicked smart.

Big topics include: A Newly Electric Green, Big Systems, Global Culture, Leapfrog Nations, The Tech Bloom, and (every social venture's favorite topic) Money as a Tool.

Listen to founding editor Alex Steffan's presentation at Pop!Tech 2004 on IT Conversations.
See information graphic from this speech posted on Alphachimp Studio's blog.

Social Enterprise Defined

2005-07-19T15:03:00.001-04:00

Skoll Foundation. What do Jane Addams, Maria Montessori and Muhammad Yunus have in common? All are exemplary social entrepreneurs, leaders who have identified sustainable solutions to social problems that have fundamentally changed society. more>>

Ashoka. The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck and to provide new ways to get it unstuck. He or she finds what is not working and solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry. more >>

Third Sector Enterprises

Enterprise Orientation – they are directly involved in producing goods or providing services to a market.
Social Aims – they have explicit social aims such as job creation, training or the provision of local services. They have ethical values including a commitment to local capacity building. Their profits are principally reinvested to achieve their social objectives. Increasingly social enterprises measure their social impact.
Social Ownership – they are autonomous organisations whose governance and ownership structures are normally based on participation by stakeholder groups (eg employees, users, clients, local community groups and social investors) or by trustees or directors who control the enterprise on behalf of a wider group of stakeholders. They are accountable to their stakeholders and the wider community for their social, environmental and economic impact. Profits can be distributed as profit sharing to stakeholders or used for the benefit of the community. more >>

David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World
David went to Bangladesh to learn about the Grameem Bank that makes loans primarily to women. He discovered that the program is working: Women are building businesses. Social entrepreneurship is important, he concludes enthusiastically. He talks about a project [guided by Fabio Rosa] to bring electricity to poor people in Brazil: single wires going to houses, grounded in the soil, low voltages.

The project is also bringing solar panels to rural areas, renting them for what people generally pay for candles, kerosene, etc. Bornstein talks about "child line" in India, now in 55 cities. It's a number you can call if you see a child in distress. It started with one woman who spent 3 years trying to get the equivalent of an 800 number for it. It's deeply affected India's child protection policies. Ideas don't break through resistance, David says. Ideas are passive. Ideas need champions. They need marketing. They need to be shepherded through the system.

David spoke at the 2005 Pop!Tech conference.