Startup & Change the World: Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs

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Startup & Change the World: Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs - Presentation Transcript

  1. S. DEV APPANAH | SUNIT SHRESTHA STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Planning to start a social enterprise? Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) has developed a guidebook dedicated to young innovators who are equipped with great ideas and are intent on unleashing them to change the world. It’s full of information, tips and profiles to help Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs you choose your path, develop a plan and create impact. www.ysei.org www.globalknowledge.org www.sdc.admin.ch This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. Published by: Youth Social Enterprise Initiative, a Global Knowledge Partnership Programme org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Supported by: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
  2.  STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD
  3.  STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Ths gudebook was wrtten by Salendra Dev Appanah and Sunt Shrestha ISBN 983-2588-10-8 of Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI). We would lke to thank Rahul Nanwal for comng on board as a consultant to provde nput on varous Dev Appanah, S., Shrestha, S. (authors) (2007) sectons, partcularly those requrng a socal entrepreneural perspectve. “Startup & Change the World. We would also lke to thank the many people who so kndly and wllngly Gude for Young Socal Entrepreneurs” contrbuted ther tme, thoughts and deas to make ths a realty so that you mght benefit from ther collectve wsdom. Ths work s lcensed under the Creatve Commons Attrbuton-Noncommercal- Walter Fust Rnala Abdul Rahm Share Alke 3.0 Unported Lcense. To vew a copy of ths lcense, vst Mchael Chertok Kwan Low http://creatvecommons.org/lcenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creatve Alexander Wdmer Ashok Khosla Commons, 171 Second Street, Sute 300, San Francsco, Calforna, 94105, USA. Smon Healy Angela Kuga Thas Marjolane Gallet Raj Thapar Publshed by Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI), YSEI Fellows ‘06-’07 Bruno Bernardes Global Knowledge Partnershps Programme (GKP) Rahul Nanwal Peerapond Chutsuntarakul Supported by: Swss Agency for Development and Cooperaton (SDC), Ths publcaton s avalable from: We’d lke to gve a specal thanks to our closest supporters who have been Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI) by our sde throughout the process and have made crucal contrbutons 444 Olympa Tha Tower, 22nd. Fl., both n terms of desgn and content mprovements. We wsh to thank the Ratchadaphsek Rd., Samsemnok, team at ChangeFuson for ther contnuous support n our endeavors and Huaykwang, Bangkok 10310 Thaland the team at Idea!s for addng ther splash of creatvty to the desgn of ths www.yse.org gudebook. nfo@yse.org Global Knowledge Partnershp (GKP) Level 23, Tower 2, MNI Twns, 11 Jalan Pnang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa www.globalknowledge.org Desgn and Layout: Idea!s Creatves, Manla, Phlppnes
  4. v CONTENTS STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Foreword by Walter Fust v Introducton 1 Ch. 5 Beyond the Plan 103 Ch. 1 In Search of Meanng 3 Settng up a team 104 What s Socal Entrepreneurshp? 4 Basc office systems 105 Socal “Technopreneurshp” 7 Role of Mentors 106 Ch. 2 Changng World 11 Ch. 6 Fund Attracton 109 Shockng Facts 11 Know your Needs 110 The Future of Captalsm 13 Choose the Rght Pots of Money 113 Future World Trends 16 Be Unquely Relevant 116 Sustanablty Frst 119 Ch. 3 A Vable Career 19 Young Innovators 19 Ch. 7 Socal Communcaton 123 Profiles of Socal Entrepreneurs 22 Understandng your stake-holders 124 10 Success Trats 45 The Elevator Ptch 125 Socal Communcatons 2.0 127 Ch. 4 Gettng Started 47 Ideas that work 47 Ch. 8 You are your Network 133 Socal Venture Plan 50 Unquely Useful Identty 135 “Schmoozng” Rules 137 Network Weaver 138 Open Source Yourself 142 Advce from Ashok Khosla 146 Resources 149
  5. v STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD FOREWORD A play pump s a chldren’s merry-go-round that pumps clean and safe drnkng water from a deep borehole to water tank, every tme chldren spn t when they play. The tank s connected to a tap n the communty that provde a source of clean drnkng water. Not only s the play pump an ngenous soluton from an nventve perspectve, t also has a unque element of financal sustanablty. An advertsement placed on the water tank connected to a Play “We need a world of Pump helps finance the nstallaton and mantenance of each pump, ultmately makng t a replcable soluton n other communtes. socal entrepreneurs to I have always magned a world where the sprt of entrepreneuralsm trumphs over bg and sluggsh bureaucraces to brng about a postve change n socety. In ts true essence, entrepreneurshp s all about nnovaton and mpact. brng about nnovatve Entrepreneurs are often hghly-drven ndvduals who have a deep passon to realze ther deas and solutons. They are very effectve at recognzng opportuntes, moblzng resources, managng rsks, craftng compellng solutons for a better strateges, and buldng strong busness models. The word ‘socal’, placed before ‘entrepreneur’, merely denotes a shft n msson from tradtonal busness entrepreneurs. Socal entrepreneurs, n contrast, am to create socal mpact future n the world. nnovatvely whle stayng afloat n the marketplace. We have to re-examne how we as human bengs operate n ths world. A radcal I want to see them redefinton of the roles of busness, non-profits and governments s requred. Contnung n ths trajectory s defintely not sustanable. I would lke to call upon the next generaton of busness and non-profits to take on ths challenge ‘rockng’ all over the by transcendng to more sustanable models. Non-profits and socal enterprses have to find new ways of stayng afloat n the marketplace whle not sacrficng the mpact they wsh to create. Busness, wll have to redefine how t measures world.” Walter Fust, profits and begn takng nto account the socal and envronmental costs t creates n the world. Drector-General of SDC Startup & Change the World s born out of the shared experences of a small group of young socal entrepreneurs that formed Global Knowledge Partnershp’s (GKP) Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI). YSEI was set n moton n 2005, and today delvers financng and capacty buldng support to hgh-mpact youth socal enterprses n developng regons. Ths book s an mperatve gude as you begn your journey nto socal entrepreneurshp. It wll help you understand the essental sklls every socal entrepreneur needs to realze ther dreams. It s estmated that over a bllon people n the world do not have access to clean These sklls are just as valuable n the socal sector as they are n busness. If and safe drnkng water. In South Afrca, there s a very unque socal enterprse anythng, they are even more urgently needed. that s addressng the challenge of access to clean and potable water n varous communtes. Led by socal entrepreneur Trevor Feld, Play Pumps Internatonal, Let ths gude be a passport to a more vable career path and the creaton of a s both a smple and revolutonary dea that brngs about a practcal soluton to a better future. very complex problem.
  6. 1 INTRODUCTION STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD INTRODUCTION The dea for ths gudebook arose from the varous plannng sessons that took place pror to the mplementaton of Global Knowledge Partnershp’s program – Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI). The authors, who are also founders of the program, saw the need for a gudebook that could serve as an ad for young and emergng socal entrepreneurs who wanted to start nnovatve and sustanable ventures. In a world where only one out of every thousand nnovatons prospers, new ventures or startups face smlar prospects. Socal enterprses face the added weght of creatng blended values (socal, envronmental and economc) whle attemptng to stay afloat n markets drven solely by economc returns. Ths makes socal enterprses unattractve to tradtonal nvestors because of the promse of low returns on nvestment. As a result socal enterprses are contnuously challenged to acheve ther msson whle havng access to a lmted amount of resources. If you’re one of the thousands of entrepreneurs who have great deas but are unable to turn them nto acton, consder ths manual a rough gude on startng your own socal enterprse. We have broadly outlned all the common strateges, tactcs and elements nvolved n plannng your venture and gettng off the ground. In addton, we have endeavored to brng clarty to the concept of socal entrepreneurshp and dentfy varous resources that mght become handy n your exploratve journey. Developng ths gude has changed the way we look at present-day organzatons. It s our firm belef that organzatons n the future would embrace a blended value approach. We hope ths gude would prove to be nsprng and of practcal use to you.
  7. 3 CHAPTER ONE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 1 1 In Search of Meaning In Burram, a provnce n the Northeast of Thaland, the heat and humdty keep the pace slow. It s early on a Monday mornng and Nawee Nakwatchara, one of the founders of Grassroots Innovaton Network (GIN), s runnng a workshop on the use and benefits of drp rrgaton for farmers from a neghborng communty. The farmers attendng the workshop, generally walk n not expectng to learn much. A couple of sldes later, they are left awestruck by the results they wtness from other communtes that have utlzed smple low-cost solutons to overcome ther agrcultural challenges. Accordng to the UNDP, one of the hghest ncdence of poverty n Thaland orgnates from the Northeastern regon. Most people lvng the Northeast of Thaland are farmers and for many years have been challenged by poor weather and sol condtons. Through GIN’s workshops, Nawee s not only educatng a growng number farmers, he’s also makng these smple agrcultural solutons avalable to the communtes for mmedate applcaton. Farmers that are utlzng some of these solutons are reapng sgnficant ncreases n the yeld of ther crop. Many of them have acheved overall ncome ncreases of up to three to five tmes from the average. All of us have a lttle bt of “Nawee” n us. We are constantly n search of nspraton and meanng n our lves. As we grow older, we begn learnng that lfe s more than work, money, power or prestge. Instead, t s about makng a postve dfference n a world that lacks solutons to manage a wde spectrum of complex socal problems such as poverty, socal oppresson and envronmental degradaton. Nawee s nether a socal actvst nor a socal bureaucrat. At 27, he s one of a few young socal entrepreneurs, dedcated to brng about nnovatve solutons for specfic socal problems.
  8. 5 CHAPTER ONE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD What s Socal Entrepreneurshp? Over the years, socal entrepreneurshp has been ganng momentum across the globe. More and more of us desre to make a dfference n the world we lve n. The emergence of ths new sector s sgnficantly shftng the course of human development. Socal entrepreneurs save mllons of lves and make ths world a safer place to lve n. They create nnovatve solutons to address socal and envronmental problems. The concept of socal entrepreneurshp s as mpressve as t s confusng to many. Most people understand t as a not-for-profit busness venture that ether channels ts profits towards supportng socal ntatves or creates job opportuntes for the poor. They are not wholly naccurate. Socal entrepreneurshp nvolves even more; t ranges from a wde varety of nnovatve approaches to solve mpendng socal and envronmental problems, thus resultng n systemc, sustanable socal transformaton wthout regard for the resources presently n hand. A recent paper by Roger Martn and Sally Osberg publshed n the Stanford Socal Innovaton Revew helps brng ncreased clarty to the definton of socal entrepreneurshp. Before embarkng on definng socal entrepreneurshp, the authors begn by understandng the core characterstcs of entrepreneurshp snce the word “socal” merely modfies entrepreneurshp. Both authors come to conclude that socal entrepreneurshp s defined by the followng components: The graph above ndcates the spectrum socal enterprses tend to exst whle balancng the ablty to dentfy a stable but nherently unjust equlbrum that causes the creaton of socal/envronmental returns and economc returns excluson, margnalzaton, or sufferng of a segment of humanty that lacks the financal means or poltcal clout to acheve any transformatve benefit on ts Professor Gregory Dees from the Fuqua School of Busness, Duke Unversty, own explans t best, “In addton to nnovatve not-for-profit ventures, socal entrepreneurshp can nclude socal purpose busness ventures, such as for-profit ablty to dentfy an opportunty n ths unjust equlbrum, developng a socal communty development banks, and hybrd organzatons mxng not-for-profit value proposton, and brngng to bear nspraton, creatvty, drect acton, and for-profit elements, such as homeless shelters that start busnesses to tran courage, and forttude, thereby challengng the stable state’s hegemony; and employ ther resdents. The new language helps to broaden the playng field. Socal entrepreneurs look for the most effectve methods of servng ther socal ablty to forge a new, stable equlbrum that releases trapped potental or mssons”. allevates the sufferng of the targeted group, and through mtaton and the creaton of a stable ecosystem around the new equlbrum ensurng a better Equpped wth powerful world-changng deas, socal entrepreneurs have created future for the targeted group and even socety at large. IT-related jobs for the most desttute n Camboda; ntroduced electrcty to rural communtes n Brazl; created low-cost cataract surgeres n Inda; developed smple agrcultural technologes n Thaland; started banks to provde credt for the poor n Bangladesh; and marketed far trade coffee. Lke a doctor who tres to
  9. 7 CHAPTER ONE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD find the best cure for hs or her patents, socal entrepreneurs smply try to find the best possble solutons for the world’s problems - poverty, unemployment, Socal Technopreneurshp lack of educaton, envronmental damage, etc. For the 3 bllon people n the world that lve on less than USD2 a day, Davd Bornsten, the author of the acclamed book, ‘How to Change the World: nventons and gadgets such as the nternet, personal computer, -pod and Socal Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas’ states the followng, “What pocket pc are rrelevant towards mprovng ther lves. Accordng to Paul Polak, busness entrepreneurs are to the economy, socal entrepreneurs are to socal founder of Internatonal Development Enterprses – an organzaton that creates change. They are the drven, creatve ndvduals who queston the status quo, demand for affordable technologes to help the world’s poor, partcularly explot new opportuntes, refuse to gve up, and remake the world for the subsstence farmers; “Nnety percent of the people who desgn thngs are better.” In the busness world, entrepreneurs are motvated by profits, whereas, addressng the problems of the rchest 5 percent of people n the world”. socal entrepreneurs are motvated by findng better ways to solve the problems that plague our socetes – ther bottom-lne s lves. Professor Mchael Porter from the Harvard Busness School argues that “Innovaton s the central ssue n economc prosperty,” nnovaton and Socal entrepreneurs are vsonares, lke artsts they have the ablty to vsualze technology can help the poor as much as the rch. The Unted Natons’ annual somethng that doesn’t exst and they wll not stop tll they have realzed Human Development Report n 2001 whch studed the relatonshp between ther dreams. Socal entrepreneurs are just as nnovatve and soluton-orented technology and economc prosperty came to the concluson that poor people as tradtonal entrepreneurs. They also buld brdges; develop a network of need more nnovaton and access to technology, not less. relatonshps and contacts. In addton, they have the ablty to communcate an nsprng vson n order to nfluence and motvate people around them - The relatonshp between technology and economc prosperty s strong. partners, team members, volunteers, etc. Technologcal nnovatons n plant-breedng gave brth to hgher-yeldng wheat, whch brought about the Green Revoluton n Inda and other parts of the world One of the unque qualtes that socal entrepreneurs possess s the ablty to durng the 60s to stave off wdespread famne. Medcal nnovatons such as nfluence the bg pcture. Accordng to Bll Drayton, CEO, char and founder of the use of antbotcs and vaccnes have helped decrease the human mortalty Ashoka, “Socal entrepreneurs are not content just to gve a fish or teach how to rates by savng lves. More recently, the wdespread use of nformaton and fish. They wll not rest untl they have revolutonzed the fishng ndustry. They communcaton technologes (ICTs) has helped the poor gan access to useful are the drven, creatve ndvduals who queston the status quo, explot new nformaton and knowledge such as up-to-date crop prces and effectve opportuntes and refuse to gve up.” agrcultural technques whch have ultmately led to ncreased productvty and ncome gans. Muhammed Yunus of Grameen bank challenged the percepton that poor people are not credt worthy and he created a bank that lends to the poor. And n the We have seen n the last 15 odd years that global markets, global technology, process he created a new way of lendng to the poor, whch today s popularly global deas and global soldarty can enrch the lves of people everywhere. known as mcro-finance. Dr. Kuren not only revved the local mlk dary n However the challenge s to ensure that the benefits are shared equtably for Gujarat but n the process revolutonzed the whole mlk ndustry and n a few people - not just for profits. In the busness sectors, ICTs are helpng efficent years transformed Inda from a mlk deficent country to one of the top mlk communcaton, cost cuttng, mprovng resource allocaton processes and producers n the world. efficently mplementng programs. Socal entrepreneurs are workng to solve socal problems but they are not just In the socal sectors ICTs are generatng new possbltes to attack problems concerned wth the problem n hand. They work to brng change to the socal of rural poverty, nequalty and envronmental degradaton. If ICT s ntegrated dynamcs and systems that have created and mantaned the problem. They nto socety and supported by polcy reform, t can be part of the soluton work as catalysts for socal transformaton; n the short term they wll create for mprovng educaton, healthcare, envronmental protecton, government small changes n the system but these changes wll work as pressure ponts to admnstraton, and local economc development. eventually trgger and cascade larger socal transformaton n the longer term. Javed Abd has not only champoned the cause of dsabled people but he has The quest for ICT4D started way back n early 1990s when the financal also nfluenced natonal government polcy to nclude the dsabled wthn Inda’s communty and nvestors were gettng swept over by the dot com boom. The natonal census.
  10. 9 CHAPTER ONE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD development professonals became qute attracted wth the dea that nformaton DDD s an nterestng model for the creaton of ICT-based employment and and communcatons technologes could enable poor natons to leapfrog over ncome generaton opportuntes for dsadvantaged groups n developng many slow, panful stages of socal and economc growth. The concept attracted countres by settng up a non-profit and economcally sustanable ICT enterprse. enough attenton to earn tself a catchy abbrevaton - ICT4D (Informaton and Communcatons Technologes for Development). When t comes to ICT4D the ptfalls are many, pctures of school chldren playng wth a computer, a Buddhst monk usng a moble phone, or trbal folks men A lot of fundng was suddenly made avalable to projects whch were tryng to tryng out a palm-top are qute attractve and they trap us nto belevng that do thngs rangng from e-governance to reduce corrupton and vllage kosks to we are fixng the world’s lls wth thngs and gadgets. Though when appled provde local content. Suddenly there were computers, along wth the promse correctly, ICTs-from phones, rado and televson to computers and nternet-can of a better lfe, shpped over to small vllages where there had never been also lberate mllons of people from gnorance, ll-health and unemployment. electrcty or telephone, often not even safe water. And almost everyone fumed at the nfamous Bll Gates statement that medcnes and not computers are of A lot of ICT4D projects also suffer from the “New Toy” phenomenon. There use to the world’s poorest people. Now, after years of research and experence, s overemphass on new nformaton technologes n solaton from the a greater sense of realsm about the potental benefits and dangers of ICT4D has exstng ones lke telephone, rado. But companes lke VOXIVA ntegratng old prevaled. technologes wth new but never losng sght that at the end the technology has to benefit people by creatng value. Voxva deployed a web-based, real-tme Today we have the hndsght to ask questons lke, how can nternet be useful to dsease survellance system that doesn’t requre all health facltes to have a PC. people who cannot read or wrte? Does t make sense to provde computers to Instead, Voxva mplemented a PC-compatble soluton for the Mnstry of Health vllage schools where there are no teachers? Is access to technology financally of Peru that allowed health workers to use exstng nfrastructure telephones and sustanable? Even f vllagers do learn how to use the computer and get a web moble phones to report ncdents of dsease. browser open, where wll they go? Whch meanngful stes wll they vst? Where s the content? Is t local? Same language subttlng (SLS n short) poneered by Brj Kothar s also a successful example of how technology can be used nnovatvely. Brj has A clear example of an effectve ICT-based soluton s the ITC e-choupal ntatve. nvented “Same language subttles” on popular songs to help early-lterates Whle many tradtonal telecentres operatng n rural communtes have faced mprove ther lteracy sklls. SLS subttles film songs, whch are popular across many challenges n tryng to acheve financal sustanablty, the e-choupals Inda, and bulds on people’s famlarty wth the lyrcs. Wth SLS, they can read have tred to create value by not only provdng relevant and accurate crop the words to ther favorte songs. Brj has ted up wth the Government and nformaton (such as crop prces) to farmers but also the opportunty to sell through the state televson centre the subttles wth the songs reach to 100 ther produce drectly to large export companes. Wthn a few months, the mllon early lterates at almost zero extra cost. e-Choupals have broken even and are turnng a profit. The e-choupal utlzes the nternet to effectvely address socal challenges whle beng financally Socal “technopreneurs” from the Stanford Unversty to farms n Kenya are sustanable at the same tme. workng on developng new nnovatons and applyng never-before used technologes to address challenges n a varety of development fields. Lke your The other successful example of usng ICTs s Camboda based Dgtal typcal busness ”technopreneur” from Slcon Valley, socal “technopreneurs” Dvde Data. DDD s a non-profit Non-Governmental Organzaton (NGO) that ether nvent or ntegrate the use of technology to solve a problem. In addton, develops sustanable and ntegrated educatonal and vocatonal opportuntes they establsh local manufacturng plants and marketng networks to stmulate for dsadvantaged groups by provdng outsourced data servces, such as demand for ther nnovatons. dgtalzaton of data, to busness and publc sector customers. They have a dual msson, one that s focused on provdng hgh qualty servces to ts customers and at the same tme facltate human development of ts employees. All revenues are channeled back nto the operaton n support of the socal msson and to provde socal benefits to ts staff. Employees receve above average wages for a shorter than average workday (sx hours), as well as health benefits, educaton and tranng opportuntes.
  11. 11 CHAPTER TWO STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 2 Changing World
  12. 13 CHAPTER TWO STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD I’m sure many of us wll certanly agree that as a group, we as humans have never acheved so much wealth and prosperty n such a short perod of tme. Future of Captalsm At the same tme though, t must be sad that we have never faced so many In Captalsm and Freedom, Mlton Fredman, a strong advocate of lassez-fare complcated and challengng problems. Just to get an dea of what t s we’re captalsm, stated “there s one and only one socal responsblty of busness–to talkng about, the Copenhagen Consensus assesses and rates the bggest use ts resources and engage n actvtes desgned to ncrease ts profits...” challenges facng the world (after narrowng down the number of development To burden busness wth wder goals, he argued, was “pure and unadulterated challenges to just ten from a bgger pool): socalsm”. Unfortunately, current approaches to captalsm have ht a plateau n ts efforts to buld economc value whle attemptng to address socal and envronmental challenges. Busness, n ths day and age, has had to come to grps wth ssues Although much of t s stll debatable, the queston remans, n tmes such as around sustanable development whle servng ts customers and buldng on these, why aren’t there effectve solutons for these problems? Do we not have shareholder value. Although more and more busnesses are adoptng socal the resources or the people to take on these challenges? programs such as corporate socal responsblty (CSR) ntatves, they’re dong so only as ndependent actvtes outsde ther busness model, usually ntended Economcs has taught us that all humans make ratonal choces and decsons; as exercses to boost ther corporate mage. and from a utltaran perspectve we have been condtoned to engage n actvtes that maxmze on economc profit. If somethng has been labeled Wth a sgnficant porton of our pursuts demandng purely economc returns, uneconomc, t s left unattended because t fals to earn enough profit n our response to solve the costly “externaltes” (what we now call socal and terms of money. As a result, over tme the economc system that we operate envronmental challenges) has been skewed out of proporton. The soluton s n becomes skewed and ultmately fals to yeld approprate solutons for not to contnue developng new regulatons and complcated socal ntatves, emergng socal and envronmental problems such as poverty and polluton. as they are both tme-consumng and neffectve. Theren les the problem, our Ths phenomena s what Thomas Homer-Dxon calls “The Ingenuty Gap” n hs understandng of value creaton has become obsolete. book. Smply put, an ngenuty gap arses when the amount of problems far outnumbers the supply of effectve solutons. The blended value proposton, poneered by Jed Emerson, s a nascent concept that can help shed some lght on the true nature of value creaton. Accordng to Somewhere along the evoluton of free-market captalsm, the world has Emerson, there s a sgnficant dsconnect n our current understandng of value managed to create and leave unattended a wde array of problems whle creaton, where, for-profit organzatons are meant to create economc value achevng mpressve amounts of growth and development. Both globally and whle non-profit organzatons create socal value. Unfortunately, ths model locally, we vew and treat socal and envronmental degradaton as separate and has become rather anachronstc to cope wth the challenges of a more modern dsconnected from our busness and commercal actvtes. Ths lne of thought socety. evokes a deep flaw embedded n the way we do thngs.
  13. 15 15 CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER TWO STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Both for-profit and non-profit enttes create a wde array of values, beyond what ther legal structures denote. Busness creates a sgnficant amount of socal value such as the creaton of jobs, payment of taxes, and delverng products and servces to ts customers. It also creates negatve mpact on the envronment by generatng waste and polluton. At the same tme, non-profits create a sgnficant amount of economc value; n many countres, non-profits represent a sgnficant amount of a country’s GDP. Busnesses tradtonally judge ther own performance aganst one bottom lne – the financal one. Increasngly, however, they are beng asked to consder how they affect the envronment and ther communtes. The Trple Bottom Lne (TBL) s a relatvely new concept that allows companes and organzatons to measure ther performance based on the adopton of sustanablty or blended value creaton. Benefits of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) 1. Reducng operatng costs Employng nnovatve processes such as reducng energy use, ncreasng manufacturng efficency, recyclng/reusng waste can result n sgnficant cost savngs. 2. Improvng dentficaton and management of rsk Organzatons would be able to antcpate rsk and ensure legal complance by assessng ther envronmental and socal mpacts, and lstenng to the concerns and perceptons of staff, supplers, regulators and customers 3. Creatng value by mprovng reputaton and postve customer response Good organzatonal performance n relaton to envronmental and socal ssues can buld reputaton whle poor performance, when exposed, can damage brand value. 4. Increasng ablty to attract and retan employees Organzatons that are more socally responsble create healther workng envronments, thus makng t easer to recrut and retan employees. Ths can help reduce recrutment and tranng costs too. 5. Increasng learnng and nnovaton Organzatons that address envronmental and socal mpacts can dscover new forms of nnovaton that results n new markets and value creaton. Socal and other hybrd enterprses are helpng shape the future captalsm. They are pavng the way for a more holstc busness model that redefines the understandng of value creaton for one that maxmzes ther full value potental, whle bearng n mnd t s a blend of economc, socal and envronmental returns.
  14. 17 17 CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER TWO STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Future World Trends all currcula, n the future, chldren would be able to undergo talored and specalzed educaton whch would not only sut ther nterests but Sr Ken Robnson mentoned once “Nobody has a clue what the world sgnficantly develop ther unque talents. would look lke n 5 years tme and yet we’re meant to be educatng for t”. The rate at whch the world s changng has become harder to grasp. Real change arrves very subtly, almost as an nvsble undercurrent that 4. Global goes local determnes the drecton the world s headed. A couple of thngs are Globalzaton has made our world nto a global vllage. Whle we certan though, ssues around creatvty and socal and envronmental contnue to vew the world as becomng one, we are also wtnessng development would come to domnate. So here are some new the re-emergence of many local denttes. As an example from the developments, some of whch are already underway, that could shape technology end, only 10% of Asan youth are on Myspace, a popular so- our world n the future. cal networkng platform. Ths does not mean that Asan youth are not embracng new forms of technologes and meda, nstead they prefer to get onto ther own localzed verson of Myspace - Mx, SHE, Badu, etc. 1. Do-it-yourself...DIY From the soco-poltcal arena, the ntegraton of the European Unon has Anyone would be able to do anythng. We won’t need to consult experts made t possble for local governments to bypass natonal nsttutons anymore. All we’ll need s access to the nternet whch s awash wth and communcate and buld partnershps at a regonal and global level. resources such as encyclopedas, blogs, forums, etc. The focus wll shft from groups to ndvduals who want to voce ther thoughts and deas on ssues. Wth power of nfluence democratzed for the ndvdual, we won’t 5. Be green and make green have to wat for busness or government to take acton. We can start Busness would have to redefine ts reason of exstence from purely spreadng our message and takng acton makng money to value creaton. Companes should exst to create value for ts stakeholders and the creaton of profit enables them to contnue 2. Embracing diversity ther servce to the world. Socal and envronmental elements would Due n part to rapd globalzaton and mgratory labour, we wll be lvng have to be taken nto account as part of a company’s bottom-lne n n a multethnc, multracal world of open borders. The mx of races, order to ensure long-term growth and sustanable development. relgons and natonaltes would become a key asset for any country’s or organzaton’s economc and cultural vtalty. The more the dversty the better. Some of the most developed and progressve ctes are cosmopoltan and are a meltng pot for a dverse group of people. The common stereotype s that mmgrants lead to hgher crme and poverty but only the opposte s true. Immgrants buld on human captal, contrbute by payng taxes and fight poverty. 3. Liberated education Exstng educaton systems have mned our mnds just as the ndustres have mned the earth. These systems have been bult wth the sole purpose of educatng people to fit nto an ndustral world. We are at a dawn of a new age - the conceptual age, a tme when a person’s creatvty and magnaton would domnate. Instead of a one-sze-fits-
  15. 19 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 3 A Viable Career Young Innovators In developng regons, young people represent a sgnficant share of the populaton – almost half of Asa s made up of young people, more than 40 percent of Latn Amerca s under the age of 30 and approxmately 30 percent of Afrca conssts of young people. The role that young people play n a rapdly globalzng world s beng scrutnzed, because ther collectve decsons determne the future of manknd. Young people are keen to offer fresh problem-solvng deas to address socal and envronmental challenges. However, ther efforts reman obscure and neffectve because of ther lmted access to opportuntes. In addton, socety commonly perceves young people as brash msfits who belong to a consumerst, fast-food and myopc culture. Young people are trapped n a vcous crcle of not beng able to effectvely brng about socal change as they are lmted to take on postons as volunteers, nterns and communty servce workers. As a result, development as a professon ranks much lower for young people than jonng the prvate sector or government. Beng assocated wth organzatons such as ‘NGO’ and ‘CSO’ are consdered ‘uncool’ by ther peers and has negatve connotatons as organzatons that are commonly known as rratonally radcal and uncompromsng. Worse stll, jobs are badly pad. In Asa, where famly nfluence s stll paramount, t s extremely rare for famles to encourage ther chldren to jon the development sector because of the lack of growth opportuntes, low pay and lttle socal recognton that t offers. As a result capable young people become dsnterested n pursung development as a professon. Can the creatve energy of youth be productvely drected to support development? The answer les wth young people embracng socal entrepreneurshp. Although stll consdered by many as an anomaly n the
  16. 21 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Beng an entrepreneur s more than holdng a job. It s a state of mnd. No one can be certan of whether they are entrepreneurs untl they become one – and even then uncertanty prevals. Socal entrepreneurs are even further away down the uncertanty path. They face far more challenges when mplementng ther ventures as opposed to tradtonal busness entrepreneurs. Socal entrepreneurs usually work wth small amounts of captal to acheve ther organzaton’s msson and at the same tme have to try to stay afloat n the market. Guy Kawasak, a seasoned Slcon Valley entrepreneur advses n hs book “The Art of the Start” that there s only one queston that any entrepreneur should try to answer before startng a new venture: system, the movement of socal entrepreneurshp s sweepng the globe and ganng recognton as an nnovatve, hghly mpactng and sustanable approach to acheve equtable and sustanable development objectves. The future mpact of the movement les wth youth and f t s to brng ncreased effectveness and nnovaton to conventonal development, the most dynamc young people must embrace t. Young people understand the concept of socal entrepreneurshp almost mmedately. They can easly relate to the engagement, passon and energy (all part of ‘youth DNA’) that socal entrepreneurs commonly possess. Successful socal entrepreneurs show what development professonalsm can mean. These people are passonate, dynamc, efficent and nnovatve, and eager to make a dfference n the world. Repeatedly, they have proved that small thngs do matter and can become socally sgnficant and worthwhle. Kawasak adds that entrepreneurs that are drven towards creatng meanng Socal entrepreneurshp has ts challenges as well. I’m sure many of you at above everythng else ultmately succeed over those that are drven by some pont n lfe have had an dea for startng somethng totally new or money, power or prestge. Creatng meanng s a very powerful motvator as t mprovng somethng that already exsts. I’m sure some of you mght have allows entrepreneurs to focus on the venture’s prmary reasons for exstence actually tred to mplement your dea even though your frends and famly - mprovng lves and makng the world a better place. Wthout such goals, must have thought you were crazy for gong ahead. I’m sure very few of entrepreneurs can easly lose nterest n strvng to survve when the gong gets you are stll n the mdst of strvng to realze your dream because you tough. beleve that t works and wll change the world n some way or another.
  17. 23 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Dr.Govindappa Venkataswamy (Dr. V) & David Green Aravnd Eye Hosptal and Aurolab Madura, Inda www.aravnd.org Msson: Makng medcal technology and health care servces accesble, affordable and financally self-sustanng Dr. Govndappa Venkataswamy or as he s more famously known as “Dr. V” s the perfect definton of a socal entrepreneur, one whose dea s hghly nnovatve, mpactful and sustanable. Shortly after graduatng from medcal school, he developed rheumatod arthrts whch crppled hs hands. Instead of gvng up, he went on to become an eye surgeon, traned hmself how to hold a scalpel and eventually performed more than 100,000 cataract surgeres. Startng out from an 11-bed hosptal has gven rse to the Aravnd Eye Care System whch conssts of a network of hosptals, specalty clncs, tranng programs and a lens factory (Aurolab). The goal of the system s dedcated to makng medcal technology and health care servces accessble, affordable and financally self-sustanng. The ncdence of cataracts blnd about 8 mllon people a year n Inda manly because many cannot afford the smple surgery to restore ther vson. The Aravnd system nnovatvely provdes top-qualty eye care to a hgh number of patents to keep costs down. Today, Aravnd s Inda’s largest provder of eye surgery, treatng more than 1.4mllon patents a year. It remarkably provdes free care to approxmately 66 percent Socal Entrepreneurs of those patents because ther costs are covered through revenue generated from payng patents. Aurolab was a recent jont venture wth socal entrepreneur and “compassonate captalst” Davd Green. All of the surgeres performed at Aravnd Eye Hosptal use The social entrepreneurs profiled in this section have created unique solutions products made through Aurolab. It manufactures affordable ntraocular lenses, spectacle for problems that they have identified in their local communities, native lenses, optcal lenses, suture needles, cataract kts and hearng ads now used n more countries, and, sometimes in the world. than 120 countres around the world. Davd notced that the number of surgeres the hosptal can perform could be greatly Have you noticed a terrible wrong which needs to be corrected? ncreased f the costs of the lenses were reduced. After dggng deeper and dscoverng that the actual costs of manufacturng the lenses could be reduced to just $10.00 a par, The following sections of this book attempts to guide you through the process of he decded to pursue establshng Aurolab wth Dr.V to manufacture the lenses. transforming your idea into an innovative solution and ultimately a social startup that can create long-lasting impact. It s often sad that the gft of lfe s sght. Dr. V and Davd Green have both proven through ther reslence that mracles can be manufactured and t s possble to eradcate needless blndness.
  18. 25 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Paul Meyer Vikram Akula Voxva SKS Inda Washngton D.C. USA www.sksnda.com www.voxva.net Msson : Empowerng the poor to become self-relant through affordable loans Msson: Provdng practcal technology solutons for montorng dsease outbreaks Vkram Akula first encountered poverty whle vstng relatves n Medhak, Inda. In 1998 he returned to Inda and founded SKS n one of the poorest parts of Inda - Medhak, Nal- gonda and Nzamabad Dstrcts of the Telangana regon of Andhra Pradesh, wth the ms- Not all nnovatons created to address socal, medcal and envronmental challenges have son of empowerng the poor to become self-relant through a communty-owned bankng to be hgh tech. At least Paul Meyer, the founder of Voxva, thnks so. Before venturng program that provdes poor women wth loans for both ncome-generatng actvtes as nto Voxva, Paul was nvolved n settng up the nfrastructure to launch nternet servce n well as for emergences. postwar Kosovo and also a Whte House speechwrter. Very smply, Voxva s a tech company that helps montor dsease outbreaks and other health nformaton. It has helped Tradtonally, the poor find t dfficult to access credt as t commonly nvolves hgh nterest officals n Afrca track epdemcs by settng up an alert system n whch local health rates and the compulsory provson of collaterals. In many parts of rural Inda, the poor officals can key n data on a phone whch s then fed nto a central database. have to borrow from mands (rural money-lenders) who sometmes charge nterest rates on loans up to 1500 percent. As a result, the poor become locked n a vcous crcle of debt Voxva’s databases collect nformaton from doctors n remote vllages and map t out so and have to resort to becomng bonded labor to pay off ther debt. SKS provdes small, health officals can dentfy potental dsease outbreaks. Accordng to Paul, n the past the low-nterest loans prmarly for emergences and ncome-generatng actvtes. documentaton of trackng dsease outbreaks was done on paper and the dseases usually spread fast across an entre regon before the health mnstry can respond to prevent Recently, SKS ntroduced the Smart Card Project as an nnovatve approach to drastcally deaths. Instead, the use of smple and low-cost technology lke cell phones has proved to lower the costs of delverng financal servces to the poor, partcularly those n remote be a better soluton than settng up an nternet-based trackng and alert system. and solated areas. By brngng affordable bankng servces to the doorstep of the poor, SKS hopes to reduce the number of poor people n Inda whch amount to around 400 How s nformaton collected and dspersed n places where computers and sometmes mllon people today. electrcty s far behnd modern-day nfrastructure? Health workers send ther findngs by dalng a toll-free number and enterng prearranged codes nto an automated voce menu. They can leave a voce mal wth nformaton about patents’ condtons, or lsten to a message wth the latest medcal advce and nformaton.
  19. 27 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Jeremy Hockenstein Jeroo Billimoria Dgtal Dvde Data (DDD) Chldlne Inda Foundaton Phnom Penh, Camboda Mumba, Inda www.dgtaldvdedata.com www.chldlnenda.org.n Msson : Provdng IT jobs to the dsadvantaged and dsabled Walkng nto the offices of DDD, you find people from varous walks of lfe sttng n UNICEF estmates that there are around 800,000 street chldren n the urban areas of front of ther computers, busly workng away. DDD provdes job opportuntes for the Inda. Street chldren reman the ultmate testament of the ndecency of socety n whch underprvleged and dsabled who are tradtonally excluded from socety and more nnocent chldren are left to fend for themselves wthout any sort of protecton. Street mportantly from partcpatng n the tradtonal economy whch n Camboda has bleak chldren have lttle or no access to basc rghts, shelter, famly tes, and are vulnerable to growth prospects. varous knds of abuse. On vacaton to Camboda n November 2000, Jeremy Hockensten realzed that for a Jeroo Bllmora was pursung a post-graduate course n socal work at the Tata Insttute populaton that s very eager to learn, there were very few opportuntes for work. A year of Socal Scences (TISS) when she receved regular phone calls from chldren at a nearby later, he returned to Camboda wth an dea of creatng a data entry company smlar to ralway staton, urgently askng for her help at random hours of the day. The dea for those found n other developng countres such as Inda, but employng the dsadvantaged Chld-lne arose as the soluton to provde a 24-hour toll-free hotlne backed by an and dsabled. extensve round-the-clock network of groups that can respond to provde emergency and support servces for the street chldren. Today, DDD s Camboda’s bggest IT employer that promses to delver hgh-qualty data- entry servces to ts outsourcng customers whlst promsng to facltate the human devel- Chldlne s manned by the street chldren themselves as t contnues to spread across In- opment of ts employees through far wages, health care, educaton, and career advance- da. Untl recently, t has reached out to over 4.5 mllon chldren across the naton. Jeroo ment opportuntes. As a result, the organzaton s able to generate more than enough plans to collaboratvely replcate the model n 158 ctes wthn the next ten years based revenue to cover ts costs whle achevng ts socal msson. on her experence n Mumba.
  20. 29 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Nick Moon & Martin Fisher Dr. Victoria Hale KckStart (formerly known as ApproTEC) One World Health Narob, Kenya San Francsco, USA www.kckstart.org www.oneworldhealth.org Msson : Develop and promote the use of practcal technologes by grassroots Msson : Development of pharmaceutcals for the developng world entrepreneurs to run profitable small scale enterprses Dr. Vctora Hale s recognzed by many as a leadng soco-economc nnovator. Her KckStart, formerly known as ApproTEC was founded aganst the tradtonal vew that poor organzaton, One World Health, s the first ever non-profit pharmaceutcal company that people needed charty. The founders of ApproTEC, Nck Moon and Martn Fsher beleve develops drugs for neglected dseases of the poor world. that the poor are eager to mprove themselves and needed concrete opportuntes to Dr. Hale wanted people n developng countres who were sufferng from varous tropcal buld on ther entrepreneural abltes. dseases to gan access to low cost, safe and effectve medcnes. Most of the new KckStart desgns and manufactures practcal technologes that help people work more medcnes for tropcal dseases dd not exst because establshed pharmaceutcal productvely. Its technologes nclude manually operated mcro-rrgaton pumps and companes dd not find t profitable to produce them. sunflower and sesame seed ol press. The company markets these technologes at Utlzng a unque busness model, Dr. Hale has led an effort to buld a pharmaceutcal sgnficantly low costs to local entrepreneurs so that t can be used to start new small company that would cater towards global need nstead of financal return. As a result busnesses and ncrease the productvty of exstng farmers. varous new therapes for tropcal dseases such as malara, darrhea, and schstosomass What s the mpact of KckStart’s practcal technologes? It’s latest research shows that are beng developed. 35,000 new busnesses have been started wth the company’s tools and 35 mllon dollars of annual profits and wages have been generated by local entrepreneurs n both Kenya and Tanzana.
  21. 31 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Ashok Khosla Trevor Field Development Alternatves Playpumps Internatonal www.devalt.org South Afrca www.playpumps.org Ashok Khosla s known for expermentng wth nnovatve deas and actons that have often been thought of as unfashonable and unconventonal. In 1972, he became the When Trevor Feld retred as an advertsng executve, he teamed up wth an nventor, foundng drector of Inda’s first envronmental agency and was a poneer n the desgn named Ronne Stuver, to come up wth the concept of a play pump. Ronne, who was and mplementaton of the basc structures requred to ntegrate the envronment wth a known for drllng boreholes for wells n South Afrca, practcally mplemented Trevor’s developng economy. nnovatve way to tackle South Afrca’s water woes. 10 years later, he founded Development Alternatves-a non profit Indan agency that deals A play pump s a chldren’s merry-go-round that pumps clean, safe drnkng water from wth furtherng sustanable development and the envronment wthn rural areas. Here, a deep borehole to a hgh level water tank, every tme chldren start to spn t. Ths tank he successfully exploted commercally vable technologes and set up a range of projects, s connected to taps n the communty to provde a source of clean, cold drnkng water. from vllage power plants that use rural agrcultural waste as fuel to mn factores that Play pumps are cheap and easy to nstall and are a better means of supplyng and storng recycle paper and local enterprses that make low-cost roofing tles. water than the former expedton that people would take to obtan t. Nearly 700 Play pumps have been nstalled n South Afrca and they are true examples of an nnovatve Development Alternatves has set up a mn enterprse system to create jobs n the rural nstrument that s ‘Serous Fun’-gvng the chldren an outlet for ther energy, whle communty. By ntegratng nnovatve deas, ICT’s and management support systems, provdng safe water to more than a mllon people lvng n rural communtes. they have been able to acheve financal, socal and envronmental sustanablty n these once undeveloped areas. These development programs have allowed the rural poor to In hs true ad-man style, Feld’s next dea was to use the play pump’s water towers as stand on ther own feet and rase ther standard of lvng as well as the qualty of ther makeshft bllboards, sellng ad space to help pay for the upkeep. The advertsements are envronment. often trggered at creatng awareness n the youth, and Trevor n partcular, has reserved a spot for the natonal ‘loveLfe’ campagn, whch helps educate chldren about HIV and Khosla’s masterstroke les n nvolvng the government, to buld partnershps that last and AIDS. rural programs that endure. Hs work has had a rpple effect, and has not been lmted to Inda. He has gven tme to envronmental causes on a global scale, by playng an actve Stll, over 1 bllon people do not have access to clean water. Furthermore, drnkng role n envronmental organzatons lke the WWF, IUCN, IISD, champonng the wdespread unsafe water takes the lves of 6,000 people daly, and s responsble for 80 percent of all use of envronmentally sustanable development. Wth, age posng no barrer, Khosla sckness n the world. Trevor now ams to expand hs play pump dea to encompass more stll actvely pursues envronmental ssues and s currently workng on TARAhaat.com, an Afrcan countres, n an attempt to try and eradcate water scarcty. Internet portal for Rural Inda.
  22. 33 33 CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER THREE Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Rahul Raj Jennifer Corriero Meal Exchange TakngITGlobal (founded n 1993) Canada Canada www.mealexchange.com www.takngtglobal.com Meal Exchange s an nnovatve socal enterprse that began 13 years ago, whle ts founder Rahul Raj was stll attendng unversty. He recognzed that hunger n Canada was Jennfer Correro s a lvng example of the youth-quake that shook busness to ts core a serous problem that had to be addressed. Currently, there are 5.5 mllon Canadans at n the last five years. Whle stll a hgh-school student, she mastered the sklls of the rsk of hunger and 19 percent of Canada’s populaton lves below the poverty lne. Internet and has snce become one of the leadng proponents of youth nvolvement n the onlne world. A few years later, she co-founded TakngITGlobal, a non-profit socal venture Meal Exchange allows students to transfer unused meal plan ponts nto groceres, whch that connects and supports many young, asprng socal entrepreneurs. can then be delvered to local communty organzatons and food banks. The dea of Meal Exchange came about when Rahul realzed that he, lke many other unversty students, TakngITGlobal.org s an onlne communty that connects young people to find nspraton, had money left on hs unversty meal card at the end of the school year. access nformaton, get nvolved, and take acton n ther local and global communtes. TakngITGlobal tres to create a sense of self-belef n the youth, by showng them how to Meal Exchange s run based on a franchse concept, where each campus runs a Meal make a dfference n the world they lve n. It s currently the world’s most popular onlne Exchange Chapter. Today, up to 45 post-secondary and 5 secondary educatonal communty for young change-makers and has over 115,000 members across 200 coun- nsttutons across Canada hosts a Meal Exchange program. It s estmated that n the year tres. 2003 alone, over $260,000 worth of food was donated to communty organzatons. TakngITGlobal encourages the youth to express themselves by means of a blog or a Rahul Raj s currently n the process of creatng a socal change practce for a leadng short profile. In ths way, young people from all over the world become cognzant of the marketng and brandng firm n Toronto. He now ntends on nfluencng governments, dfferent problems plagung our socety. Ths form of expresson also consoles the youth busnesses and NGOs to partcpate and contrbute to profitable socal causes n both n that they are not the sole wagers of a war aganst the destructon of the world. Canada and lesser developed countres. Jennfer has also made some valuable contrbutons as an ambassador for the Canadan Foundaton for AIDS Research and as a poneer n the ICT4D ndustry for socal entrepreneurshp. She s currently organzng the Youth Employment Summt wth the ntenton of provdng jobs to youth who are keen to shape the future (young socal entrepreneurs).
  23. 35 35 CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER THREE Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Sombat Boongamanong Mrror Arts Group (MAG) Rahul Nainwal (founded n 1998) Thaland www.bannok.com MITRA Technology Foundaton Sombat’s search for other pursuts began when he became frustrated by the fact that www.vonda.com every actvty n school seemed to depend only on achevng good grades. He was never a top student and was even stopped from pursung a unversty educaton because of the lmted spots avalable. But, Sombat had developed a lkng to theatre and whle n hs In the year 2000, after graduatng from the Insttute of Rural Management, Anand, (IRMA), teens, co-founded a theatre company called MAG—The Mrror Arts Group. Rahul co-founded MITRA, a non-profit socal venture, wth 2 of hs batch mates. MITRA focuses on promotng volunteerng n Inda, and s the flagshp of the “Volunteer” In February 1999, Sombat and hs organzaton moved to a rural part of northern Thaland program. to try and acheve a practcal means of reflectng the problems n ther socety. He geared the theatre company to concentrate ts efforts towards socetal change, n the hope of Volunteer s a volunteerng platform that connects and recruts volunteers and presents yeldng long lastng and far reachng results. After workng wth the local schools for them wth the opportunty to provde ther servces both n Inda and abroad. Volunteer some tme, Sombat realzed that one of ther major deficences was the short supply s Inda’s largest e-volunteerng program and has placed over 1600 volunteers. It s also of books. Captalzng on the ncreasng access to the Internet n Thaland, he created a the sole overseas volunteerng program n Inda and currently places an average of 120 webste (www.thebangkok.com) to solct book donatons from Internet users. Wth over volunteers a month. 120,000 book donatons, the communty has been made to buld a warehouse for them! Volunteer s not an onlne communty servce and s n fact a long-term volunteerng Sombat has also created an educatonal system and a prototype school that knocks servce that funds selected volunteers to help out n depressed areas for a mnmum down the barrers between dfferent parts of the communty and uses the nternet to of 2 years. In an attempt to gve back to the communty, volunteer hopes to create a mplement a varety of nnovatve teachng approaches. The system lnks the nterests of volunteerng movement where Indans take charge of ther country’s destny and buld a chldren, teachers, and parents and enables everyone to partcpate n the educatonal stronger, more vbrant and more developed Inda. process. The school has been connected to the “wred” world and engages students at all levels, and not just the hgh-performers. Sombat has used the nternet to address Rahul s the man reason behnd wdespread volunteerng n Inda and s the Indan the socal needs of the communty by creatng both an onlne petton, requestng the poneer of overseas volunteerng programs. Rahul s an engneer and also has an MBA government to provde the hll trbes wth a Tha ctzenshp and to overcome the regonal to hs credt. He makes extensve use of ICT’s n all hs socal ventures and often defines poverty by usng a web-ste to sell the rurally produced handcrafts such as beads, them about the ICT tself. But what makes hm so well rounded s the fact that he s a embrodered bags on local, natonal and global markets. specalst n networkng, thereby makng hm a formdable young socal entrepreneur. MAG s now a non-profit organzaton that undertakes projects to help people, n the rural areas of northern Thaland, to make a better lfe for themselves whle stll retanng ther cultural denttes. It s recognzed by the Unted Naton’s Conventon as an outstandng youth organzaton and has been apponted as a centre for chldren’s rghts n the northern regon of Thaland.
  24. 37 37 CHAPTER THREE Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP Nawee Nakwatchara Grassroots Innovaton Network (GIN) Thaland www.chaobaan.net Marielle Punzalan Nadal Nawee Nakwatchara, one of the founders of Grassroots Innovaton Network (GIN), Idea!s s runnng a workshop on the use and benefits of drp rrgaton for farmers from a Phlppnes neghborng communty. The farmers attendng the workshop, generally walk n not www.deals-creatves.com expectng to learn much. A couple of sldes later, they are left awestruck by the results they wtness from other communtes that have utlzed smple low-cost solutons to Marelle, wth lke-mnded frends Bernce de Leon, Dan Matutna, Dang Serng and Rhea overcome ther agrcultural challenges. Alarcon, sees a great need to mprove communcaton tools and strateges n the non- profit sector. Together they formed Idea!s - a communcatons and desgn organzaton for Accordng to the UNDP, one of the hghest ncdence of poverty n Thaland orgnates non-profits, foundatons, and development agences. As a socal enterprse, Idea!s has a from the Northeastern regon. Most people lvng n the Northeast of Thaland are farmers unque busness model that supports and subsdzes projects crafted to the needs and and for many years have been challenged by poor weather and sol condtons. Through capactes of non-profits whle mantanng qualty of servce. GIN’s workshops, Nawee s not only educatng a growng number of farmers, he’s also makng these smple agrcultural solutons avalable to the communtes for mmedate Based n the Phlppnes, Idea!s provdes communcaton consultancy servces, conducts applcaton. needs assessments, and develops communcaton plans and creatve meda solutons. Idea!s beleves that effectve and creatve communcatons wll drve the messages and Farmers utlzng some of these solutons are reapng sgnficant ncreases n the yeld advocaces of non-profits to the heart of ts target communtes, rase awareness, and of ther crop. In the past, the annual average ncome of farmers n the regon was attract and rase more funds. In short, better communcatons can holstcally mprove the approxmately USD 160. Today, those who have joned GIN are earnng up to USD 200 mpact and productvty of non-profits. monthly based on sales of excess crops. Idea!s organzes the seres Desgn to Make A Dfference, a venue for young desgners (whether n fields of the arts, graphc desgn, archtecture, photography or ndustral desgn) to share ther works and deas among other desgners, and possbly network and collaborate on projects that wll hopefully result n postve change. It wll serve as a platform for deas, nspraton and acton, encouragng a culture of creatvty that ams for socal mpact.
  25. 39 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs Salah Uddin Brinda Ayer XayanIT School and Communty Hortculture Enterprse Bangaladesh Inda www.xayant.com Brnda Ayer s developng a sustanable hortculture model through partcpatve mplementaton and s amng to mprove the overall school enrolment and chld health Salah Uddn, founder of XayanIT, s mprovng development, reducng bran dran and n Inda wth her ntatve, School and Communty Hortculture Enterprse (SCHE). In addressng the country’s hgh unemployment rate by educatng Bangladesh youth n conjuncton wth the establshed mdday meal program at a school n Karnakata, SCHE s the field of Informaton and Communcaton Technology. XayanIT provdes mentorshps, workng to make ths meal avalable through communty-based hortculture boostng not employment and tranng n ICT focusng on web programmng, admnstraton and only the meal’s nutrtonal value but also the communty’s self relance. software development for youth. Brnda’s approach works by drectly engagng the communtes and mother groups, XayanIT concentrates on outsourcng contracts from small and medum busness clents, thus reducng ther dependence on external market forces, to acheve ts objectves of who make up the majorty of the market. Ths past year, XayanIT has worked wth three school enrolment, socal equalty and mprovement of chldren’s health. In addton to nternatonal and three natonal contracts. XayanIT’s man partner, Dhaka Unversty provdng capacty buldng and sklls development to the communty, SCHE proposes to Alumn Assocaton, provdes the enterprse wth both nterns and domestc job contracts. develop low cost nnovatve technologes such as poly-houses, green houses made of Snce last year XayanIT has provded employment to 20 graduates and sklls development polystyrene sheets wth roof top ranwater harvestng and drp rrgaton system where tranng to 50 students. crops, vegetables and flowers can be grown n a controlled, pest free and scentfically montored envronment. As a for-profit wth socal mandate enterprse, XayantIT s seekng to generate more revenue to contrbute to poverty reducton n Bangladesh. SCHE’s partcpatve mplementaton model ams to foster lastng socal value change and create an equtable socety. By empowerng local communtes and developng ther sklls, SCHE s ncreasng economc and socal opportuntes.
  26. 41 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs Md. Faisal Islam Audrey Codera Padma Bangladesh Youthworks Phlppnes Fasal, founder of Padma, s mprovng access to knowledge on sustanable resources management and lvelhoods securty by creatng an Agrcultural Knowledge Management System (AKMS) for margnalzed rural farmng communtes. Fasal proposes AKMS can Addressng ssues of youth unemployment and poverty n the Phllpnes, Audrey Codera, close the “know-do gap” through ts nteractve knowledge brokerng strategy whch reles founder of YouthWorks, s usng her expertse to encourage grassroots young people on strong lnkages wth varous agrcultural actors that enable farmers at the grassroots and women to make ther lves better through entrepreneurshp. As a project that began level to share nformaton wth natonal and global expertse. The knowledge provded s wth provdng start-up captal to three underprvleged youth, YouthWorks s now a talored to local farmers’ partcular needs n an understandable local language. mcrofinance nsttuton that provdes very low nterest credts wthout collateral to youth. The organzaton also provdes nformaton, deas, tranng, materals, research, toolkts Padma enables farmers to overcome the barrer of accessng Informaton and and other capacty-buldng actvtes to ts loan recpents through the use of Informaton Communcaton Technologes and thus opens a channel of communcaton at a local, and Communcaton Technologes. Audrey beleves that ths s the first step n fosterng natonal and nternatonal level. Ths s the best way to provde the rght nformaton, to responsblty, thrst for knowledge, nnovaton and a desre to contrbute to socety. the rght person, at the rght tme. Informaton and Communcaton Technologes facltate the dssemnaton of knowledge to the wder communty wth the advantage of beng Ths program was successfully ploted n Nanpndan and Cebu and ams to create a rpple cost-effectve. effect n other communtes. By September 2007, YouthWorks plans to reach out to 50 entrepreneurs, youth or women. Currently, 12 loans have already been offered. Currently, farmers of 15 vllages have been enrolled n the program, representng approxmately 15,000 households. Addtonally, Padma s promotng economc empowerment of women through capacty buldng. Padma offers tranng to groups of educated and less educated women who don’t have access to IT or Knowledge Management systems. Besdes the prospect of a better occupaton, the program ams to rase women awareness for ther fundamental and basc rghts.
  27. 43 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Young Socal Entrepreneurs Young Socal Entrepreneurs Raj Ridvan Singh Jaspal Shakya SOLS 24/7 Tmor-Leste Communty Frendly Movement Inda Raj’s ntatve, SOLs 24/7, s provdng Tmor-Leste’s underprvleged youth wth holstc lfe-sklls educaton, enablng them to become responsble, dynamc, dscplned and Jaspal Shakya, workng wth the Communty Frendly Movement (CFM), doesn’t ntend socally conscous ctzens. to fight the system but work wth t to nduce changes. By sellng qualty handmade products at compettve prces n a vrtual market place and by reducng the number of Raj’s educaton model, whch was poneered n Camboda and can easly be replcated ntermedares, CFM s mprovng the lvelhoods of rural artsan communtes n Inda. n ctes across Tmor-Leste, s based on an educaton program focusng on academc sklls, leadershp, character buldng sklls and lessons on socal conscousness. Academc CFM uses exstng technologes such as Google or eBay to create a dstrbuton system. sklls consst of tranng n Englsh, entrepreneurshp, busness, marketng, accountng, In addton to that, CFM has developed ts vrtual market place, Shop2Change, exhbtng management and basc computer usage. Wth soft-sklls focusng on capacty-buldng, products ranged from bags, notebooks, to wooden or metal bangles. CFM also decded students are ncreasng ther confidence and dscplne. Socal conscousness lessons to extend the concept of tppng by creatng Tp2Change. Customers have the possblty hghlght ssues on HIV, domestc volence, drug abuse, envronment and relgous to leave a certan amount of money when buyng a product. Ths money goes drectly to tolerance and encourage students to partcpate n communty servces. the worker who was nvolved n the producton process. The onlne store s n ts testng phase and they are hopng to launch t n May-June 2007. Wth ths 24-month educatonal program, Raj s able to empower future leaders of the country and reduce Tmor-Leste’s Dependence on external assstance. From the ntal 6 artsan communtes n md-2006, CFM has expanded to 15 communtes representng 870 people based n the regons of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delh, etc. In May 2005, CFM started a monthly newsletter “Toran” to send updates to ts members. Started wth the ad of a seed grant from the Ford Foundaton n 2005, CFM now collaborates wth YSEI, Hvos, Reuters, Congo, Far Trade Federaton and Co-op Amerca. In 2005, CFM was selected by the World Bank as one of the four nnovatve projects from across the globe usng ICT and youth to make a presentaton at the UN 60th Annversary celebraton n Washngton, D.C
  28. 45 CHAPTER THREE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 10 Success Traits
  29. 47 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 4 Getting Started IDEAS THAT WORK Not every dea that comes to you s capable of makng a dfference. Most deas are short-lved. Of the deas that are good, only a handful s nurtured nto somethng worthwhle. Most of us don’t know what to do wth an dea, others who do know, presume that the stakes are too hgh and therefore can’t waste ther tme and money to follow the dream to completon. Its one thng to have a great dea but t takes a lot of courage, determnaton and perseverance to take that dea to ts logcal end. That’s where the entrepreneurs come n; f they have an dea that they beleve n, they should be wllng to face any constrant, any challenge and any number of falures to turn t nto a successful venture. Entrepreneurs work on the prncples of lateral thnkng and have a structured methodology to acheve what they seek. The dea may be born out of some random thought, but the evoluton of the dea nto a venture plan takes place only when gven a structured thought process from start to end. Ideas come from breakng down the barrers of the thought process that resst change, by explorng new ground and by takng the mnd to dzzyng heghts, from where everythng looks small and clear. They come from lstenng, observng, contemplatng, and debatng contnuously. Tom Peters once sad, “Innovaton comes from angry and drven people”. The socal nnovator s a dssatsfied soul, mpatent for change, who nstead of passng opnons about ssues, gets up and tres to do somethng. Innovatve problem solvng, specfically the ablty to brdge creatve deas nto
  30. 49 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD realty s an rreplaceable task of socal entrepreneurs. Other processes such Rule 3: Everyone needs to contrbute to the branstormng sesson- greater as project plannng and organzng can be left partly for managers and team partcpaton, yelds more deas.. members. Generatng nnovatve deas to solve the problem s your unque task; although there s no one rght way to solve any partcular problem, t s more It s the responsblty of the group leader to make sure that these rules are mportant to apply a systematc thought process of how to solve the problem both understood and mplemented by all present. Branstormng should be kept nnovatvely. smple and specfic; gvng people more than one topc or problem to thnk of s both confusng and unproductve. As you “generate” deas, wrte them down. What you dream can be the key to a great change, so try to do some wshful thnkng on these structured lnes: Another way of develop bg deas s to borrow them. Entrepreneurshp s not What s the thng that you want to mprove/change? only about concevng revolutonary deas that change the world, but also about Why should t be mproved? - Who wll benefit from the mprovement? mprovng exstng condtons. Open the floodgates of opportunty, by talkng to What s wrong wth t at the present tme? people around you and keepng your eyes open. If you’re lucky, you may soon Why wll you succeed where others have faled? be workng on an entrely dfferent socal venture. How do you propose to mprove t? Do you have the know-how to do the work requred to mprove t? So once you have an dea, try to follow a systematc pattern of thought whch If not, can you get help? Who can help you? can lead you to an effectve plan. Remember, the dea s the spne of the whole Could t be combned wth somethng else? effort and t has to nvolve both the beneficares and the donors to make t Can we develop partnershps around t? successful. To ensure maxmum partcpaton: One technque that s used to generate deas and test the ones you already have Descrbe the dea clearly: s branstormng. The prncple of branstormng s smple : two heads are better then one. Thnk about your dea and run t through people who you thnk have expertse n the area. Make an appontment to meet these people and try to bounce t across There are two knds of branstormng – structured and unstructured. to them. If you obtan a good response and find that these people are largely n agreement wth t, waste no tme n startng your socal venture. If however, Unstructured branstormng can prove useful when after workng on your project people do not agree wth your dea, try to reanalyze the concept and reframe t for a long tme, you need to unwnd or take a dfferent perspectve to assess the usng the feedback that you have obtaned. Ths wll make your dea more n drecton of ts progress. Ths comes n handy when your mnd seems to be gong tune wth the percepton and understandng of the socety where t wll be put around n crcles and you need some help to break the monotony. Use t wth nto practce, provdng ts ready acceptance and support. dscreton though, because t could soon become a gossp sesson and then you won’t derve anythng measurable out of t. Explan why ths s such a great dea: Structured branstormng however, s a more productve, effectve and useful The dea has to be supported by strong facts and figures and should look well tool. It nvolves a group of people takng part n branstormng sessons, desgned researched, so that your potental collaborators/partners know that you have to acheve a partcular purpose. These sessons help generate deas to solve done an exhaustve study and have developed a good workable dea. It s a partcular problem or test the feasblty of a current dea. It s here, where mportant to descrbe ts overall context here and to explan how the exstng creatvty s nspred and channeled. problem that you seek to solve has not been resolved by the actons and nactons of other organzatons, governments and people. You must clearly Assgn a moderator n the group, someone who can keep order and gve explan and provde a logcal reasonng as to the reasons you beleve your deas drecton. Keep the atmosphere free and nformal, so no one feels cramped. wll be able to solve the problem. In short, you must hghlght why you wll Encourage people to say what they want, wthout the fear of crtcsm and succeed, despte the fact that varous others have faled. arrange for a relable ndvdual to take notes durng the meetng. Before a branstormng sesson lay down the followng ground rules: It s crtcal to remember that the proposed dea has to be powerful and Rule 1: Those nvolved cannot crtcze the deas of others nterestng enough to kndle the magnaton of another. Remember, you are not Rule 2: Wld suggestons are welcome. The crazer, the better
  31. 51 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD only tryng to create somethng new, but are also endeavorng to change the enterprse plan lsts the actvtes, actons and management systems an prevalng mnd set and customs. enterprse has to carry out before t s physcally set up. Ths plan s lke a gudebook that helps you evaluate, measure the progress and set-up your The next crucal step after dentfyng your revolutonary dea s to start an enterprse. enterprse. Startng an enterprse, s the ultmate transformaton of your dea nto a realty, and enables you to realze the true potental of your creatve soluton. After settng up your enterprse, you ntate the process where real changes are made and the world could be transformed by your socal SWOT ANALYSIS Before developng a venture plan, an entrepreneur must perform a SWOT nnovaton.... analyss. SWOT s a strategc tool that helps evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportuntes, and Threats (SWOT) nvolved n settng up a The Socal Venture Plan venture. A SWOT analyss often requres an entrepreneur to extend hs Before startng up an enterprse, you should wrte a socal venture plan, to help overall perspectve of the busness to nclude that of: gude you through the prelmnary steps towards launchng your venture. A - A financal perspectve rock-sold venture plan can help you start strongly and provdes you wth the - A vew on the product/servce and ts ablty to help the beneficares blueprnts to mantan a consstent progress. From experence, most people tend - A techncal pont of vew to startup wthout a plan, get nto a terrble jam, panc uncontrollably, and then - A customer’s perspectve on the servce provded begn to formulate a plan to get out of t. By ths tme, t s probably too late to salvage anythng left of your snkng venture. A SWOT takes nto account both the nternal and the external factors that can both help and harm a socal venture. The table below separates the Formulatng a socal venture plan helps you move away from the theoretcal dea and allows you to focus on the practcal aspects of the resultng socal mpact. components of the SWOT analyss nto ther respectve roles: It serves as a decson-makng gude that wll often come nto play durng your venture and sets a common plan of acton for your team members. Because t lays out your project n a clear and structured manner, t can also serve as a document to present to donors, nvestors and other stakeholders. Helpful Harmful to achieve the to achieve the Often, entrepreneurs begn wrtng socal venture plans only when faced wth the objective objective need to rase funds from donors or nvestors. What they forget s that such plans enable them to perceve any unforeseen opportuntes or rsks and sets a general framework for both your team and you to work towards achevng the venture’s Internal Strengths Weakness collectve objectves, strateges and acton steps. Therefore, always wrte your (attributes of the - High intellectual resources - Weak financial socal venture plans before you start your venture. organization) - Better quality products resources - Competitively priced - Poorly managed products staff A Socal Venture Plan s dvded nto 2 parts: - The Socal Enterprse Concept (Executve Summary) - The Socal Enterprse Plan External Opportunities Threats (attributes of the - Low interest rates - The Actions of The socal enterprse concept should am to pant a pcture for an outsder who organization) - Favourable change in competitors doesn’t know anythng about your work. It should clearly explan the enterprse’s laws & conditions - Increasing market saturation soluton to solvng a socal problem and the mpact t hopes to generate. In other words t can also be used as your Executve summary. The complete socal enterprse plan ncludes a bref part of the socal enterprse concept, but s generally ndependent n both content and context. The socal
  32. 53 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Use the USED approach to gan maxmum benefit from a SWOT Choosng type: Choce of expanson paths analyss. Each nvolved member should ask themselves the followng questons: Socal Enterprses walk a tghtrope n tryng to balance the generaton of both socal/envronmental and economc returns to reman effectve and How can we Use each Strength? sustanable at the same tme. How can we Stop each Weakness? How can we Explot each Opportunty? The balance between economc and socal/envronmental return are How can we Defend aganst each Threat? choces based on each enterprse’s preference. SWOTs are used as nputs for the creatve generaton of possble strateges, to help busnesses successfully launch and sustan ther socal ventures. Before usng a SWOT analyss, a busness must define ts goals and objectves. Ths s due to the fact that, SWOTs need to be referred to as an objectve and cannot exst n the abstract. Understandng the balance you have to generate between socal/envronmental and economc returns as a socal entrepreneur.
  33. 55 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Choosng types: Product/servce/hybrd Product-oriented Ebannok.com s one of the most successful projects of Mrror Art Group, a socal enterprse that provdes an e-commerce platform for hll trbes n northern Thaland to sell the handcrafts that they produce n between harvest seasons. Ths ncreases employment and allows the communtes to reap hgher ncome levels over the year as well as more funds for development actvtes. Social Social Service-oriented Econ Econ Dgtal Dvde Data (DDD) s a very successful socal enterprse that delvers hghly accurate data-entry and dgtzaton servces for customers whle mantanng a msson to employ underprvleged youth and Social facltate ther human development through provdng far wages, health care, educaton, and career advancement opportuntes. Hybrid-enterprise Econ ChangeFuson, formerly known as TRN Insttute, s a provder of socal nnovaton desgn and nvestment and ncubaton servces. The venture has launched varous socal nnovaton projects and contnues to support socal enterprses led by young adults n the South and East Asa regon.
  34. 57 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CONCEPT Why do this? By clarfyng the type of socal enterprse, t s easer to thnk through the rest of the plannng process. And t s easer to communcate what exactly What is the concept and its elements? does your enterprse do. The Socal enterprse concept s an overvew of your full plan (bascally your executve summary for the full proposal). It helps you thnk through key concepts about enterprsng socal nnovaton that need to be clarfied before expandng them n the full plan tself.
  35. 59 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD THE PROBLEMS (OPPORTUNITY) VISION What is the problem? What change in the world would you ultimately want to see? Develop the problem statement by provdng context, problem stuaton Craftng a vson gves you an mage of the future you seek to create. (ntal) and desred stuaton (goal). Imagne what the world would be f the problem s solved. Descrbng t n Vst ‘nnovatve problem solvng’ tool. clarty wll not only allow you to see to what drecton you must shft the future to, t wll also help your team develop a clear shared-vson, makng What causes the problem? sure everyone s havng the same ultmate goal. Develop a logcal argument on the causes that create the problem stuaton (usng logcal/ssue pyramd) Check out the “Innovatve What will be the future of your organization? Problem Solvng” tool at the YSEI webste (www.yse.org) A vson drves you, your team and your enterprse towards the same drecton. You mght want to be the top IT-tranng centre for Why is it important, what is the scale? underprvleged youth, or eradcate poverty n a fishng vllage. Gve clear explanaton why the problem matters. What damage would t do, what good wll t prevent, what opportunty t brngs? How bg s the If you do not have a vson, you should not be wrtng a plan. problem and opportunty?
  36. 61 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD MISSION What impact would you like to accomplish and be accountable for? The msson would gve you a sense of purpose or the reason why your socal enterprse exsts. The msson should contan clear goals and specfic objectves for your socal enterprse to acheve as practcal steps towards your vson. The good objectves are SMART (Specfic, Measurable, Attanable, Result-focused and Tmely). These objectves are the outcome or mpact you wll be accountable at some clear specfic ponts n tme. It should also explan clearly what wll be the value/benefit you wll be creatng for all your key stakeholders, e.g. target communty, partners, funders, the socety as a whole and even your team. THEORY OF CHANGE The trck s to descrbe what you wll be dong over the next 1 to 2 years. Generally, t works best to focus on the enterprse and on What is your theory of change? the target groups’ needs and benefits. Theory of Change s a way of thnkng about how the outcomes of your actvtes lead ultmately to your desred socal mpact. For example, If rural communtes can sell ther local handcraft produce through an onlne e-commerce platform, there wll be economc development n rural communtes The basc format of any theory of change can be expressed as… To make desrable CHANGE happen, Condton1, Condton2, Condton(n) must be met. Or
  37. 63 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD If Condton1, Condton2, Condton(n) are met, then, the desrable CHANGE wll happen. So, t’s always somethng lke IF-CONDITIONS-THEN-CHANGE more examples of IF-CONDITIONS-THEN-CHANGE If low-ncome, margnalzed teenagers have first-hand experence runnng a busness, they wll be more successful n ther careers If poor women n Afrca have mcrobcdal contraceptves they control, AIDS wll spread less If customers’ water usage s metered and they have to pay for t, they wll use less water If people buy organc yogurt nstead of non-organc yogurt that may be full of pestcdes, ther health wll mprove If jobs are created n low-ncome areas, personal well-beng wll ncrease and the qualty of lfe n those neghborhoods wll ncrease. SOLUTION Notce that n each example the ultmate socal mpact s expressed as a change, an ncrease or a decrease. Ths s the What is your solution (products or services)? same thng as the socal msson you are tryng to acheve. Explan exactly what s your soluton to the problem, especally n terms of products or servces offered to your target communty or stakeholder. What are the key actvtes needed n achevng your msson? Who are your customers? Identfy the users of your product/servce soluton. Who are they? Where are they? What s the sze of your target customers? How do you plan to access them?
  38. 65 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD How does your solution innovatively remove the pain (solve the problem)? Descrbe exactly how the problem would be solved by your soluton. What benefit or value your soluton wll generate for the target group. Why and how nnovatve s your soluton? Why should they use your soluton compared to others? What s the lmtaton of your soluton? Who else are solving the problems? Identfy those who are tryng to solve the same or smlar problems as you do. What are ther solutons? How effectve they are? What are ther problems, strengths and weaknesses? Is the market for your soluton compettve? Who are your competitors/complimentators/partners? Classfy them nto dfferent categores. Identfy your compettors or those whose solutons/works are compettve to yours. Identfy your complmentators or those whose solutons/works can complment wth yours. And dentfy your partners or those who mght want to work wth you. What you can do better or different from them? Explan how your soluton s unquely more effectve or efficent SOCIAL IMPACT compared to your compettors. What exactly s the dfference between your soluton and thers. What is your ultimate desired social change? Explan how socal change s your final goal based on your How is ICTs a critical and integral component to your solution? msson and theory of change. Gve a clear explanaton why Informaton and Communcaton Technologes s needed to enhance the effectveness of your What are the outcomes derived from your planned activities? soluton and how t s ntegrated to your soluton. Group your actvtes nto components and explan clearly what socal outcomes or mpact wll be generated through each of these actvty components. The outcomes descrbed should have both qualtatve and quanttatve dmensons. Phase your outcomes nto a quarterly (four tmes a year) manner.
  39. 67 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD How will these outcomes contribute to your ultimate goal? Descrbe exactly how the component outcomes would contrbute drectly and ndrectly to your ultmate desred socal change. Whch outcome wll contrbute the most? Whch wll have sgnficant short-term and long-term contrbutons? How do you measure your social impact? In what way or what technque wll you be usng n measurng your phased socal outcomes and ther contrbutons to your ultmate goal? What ndcator wll you be usng n measurement? Would t be contnuously measured monthly or quarterly? Who wll measure the mpact? activities outputs outcomes goal/ objectives THE TEAM What is your human resource requirement? Explan exactly what s your soluton’s needs on human resource. How many teams or postons wll be needed to make your soluton operatonal? What knowledge/sklls are needed? What is your advisory and mentorship needs? Identfy your needs for advsers and mentors, especally from the fields related to your soluton. Who among your key stakeholders s needed n order for you to gan nsght nto each stakeholder as well as the support. Who you have already had as your advsers or mentors? Who is your core team? Explan your core team and why they are competent to delver your soluton n solvng the problem. What s ther educatonal background and work-experence? What s ther unque expertse?
  40. 69 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PLAN FINANCIAL SUMMARY What is your financial need? Descrbe what wll be the major cost elements n order for you to acheve your goal. In most cases, human resources, physcal facltes and technol- ogy are key cost elements. Explan what proporton of the budget wll be generally allocated to each component and why t s allocated that way. What is your budget? Provdng key budget tems based on your cost elements. Break them down nto actvty-based costng (base your costng on each actvty you wll be dong) as well as those fixed cost that s pretty much the same all year round such as core staff and rent. Also explan who wll be financng your budget, have you talked to them? Do they agree, to the process of proposng or rejectng. How would you sustain your social enterprise? What s your strategy n sustanng your enterprse. Would your socal enterprse n the medum to long-run be based on donaton, nvestment, earn-ncome or combnaton of them? What s your unque value that wll convnce your donors, nvestors and consumers (n case of earn-ncome strategy) to contnuously support your socal enterprse?
  41. 71 71 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD The Plan Elements Socal enterprse plan conssts of many elements that gude you through the thnkng n transformng your nnovatve soluton nto realty. It bascally connects your nput requrement all the way to the final mpact msson. Wthout the plan, you wll have a messy project mplementaton nghtmare even f you’ve somehow got financed. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Here you should provde a summary of the plan so that the reader could understand the key elements of your whole socal enterprse rght away. You can actually work on ths secton after you have finshed all other plan elements. - You should outlne brefly your… - Vson, msson, value - Theory of change - The soluton - Your target and how you would access them - Partnershp - Fnance - Evaluaton
  42. 73 73 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD THE PROBLEM / VISION, MISSION AND VALUE / THEORY OF CHANGE / THE SOLUTION / SOCIAL IMPACT These elements are actually part of the socal enterprse con cept except for the VALUE. Therefore, you could use the same or update the nformaton from the concept’s elements. THE VALUE How wll you behave along the way? – Your gudng concepts, belefs, prncples and underlyng phlosophy of the enterprse are outlned here. Your value should be of those prncples your enterprse consdered as crtcally mportant to ts culture, ntegrty, meanng and day-to-day actvtes. For example, You mght be runnng an enterprse that trans underprvleged youth n IT sklls. You mght want to make t a prncple to recrut a more dverse group of young people (from across all ethnc, lngustc and socoeconomc groups). On the other hand, you mght want to promote contnuous collaboraton amongst your team members to broaden and enhance your enterprses’ ablty to serve the target group. Or even make a prorty to ensure gender balance n all your operatons.
  43. 75 75 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD TARGET MARKET Identfy and gve detals on the target group of your socal enterprse. They are those who you wll make an mpact wth. You should exhaustvely segment them nto dfferentated groups as well as classfy whch group s prmary target and whch s secondary. Informaton about ther sze, value, challenge/opportunty and other notes should also be provded.
  44. 77 77 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD COMPETITION In provdng your socal products/servces, you actually have compettors provdng smlar values. Although n socal development you are not n cutthroat competton, but by understandng who are the ones provdng smlar values to your target groups, t helps you to plan your postonng compared to others n capturng the unque value to better addressng your target groups’ needs. Your compettors nclude drect competton, substtutable products/ servces and potental entrants. Complmentators, or those provdng complmentary servces are equally mportant.
  45. 79 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD SOCIAL MARKETING Any enterprse’s ultmate clents that are crtcal to ther survval fall nto two groups. As n busness enterprse where the two are customers and nvestors. Socal entrepreneurs need to be equpped wth a two pronged marketng approach n servng ther target users’ group and donors/ nvestors. Two dfferent types of marketng campagns have to be desgned to satsfy the donors and to obtan the attenton of the target groups. Both groups have to be told clearly of what they can expect from your socal enterprse. Target-group marketing Social Marketing Investor/donor marketing
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  47. 83 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD PARTNERSHIP As no one can be the best at everythng, partners are needed n order to maxmze your socal mpact,. These are people and organzatons that care about your msson. You share the smlar goal wth them. They mght be n the field longer than you, they mght have competency that you can’t match. What s mportant s to dentfy and learn how to work together n order to acheve synergy, .e. the whole mpact of partnershp s greater than the sum of ts parts. Partnershp only makes sense when together you can acheve somethng that each of you can’t do alone.
  48. 85 85 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD TEAM PLAN THE CORE TEAM Creatng a team plan s also part of socal enterprse concept’s elements. At a socal enterprse plan level, we need to work out some detals. Socal enterprse conssts of ndvduals, they are the team that make or break everythng. Team plan s among the most mportant element n plannng as talent s everythng. The team plan conssts of at least three parts, the competency plan, the core team and the advsors/board. …..
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  50. 89 89 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD FINANCIAL PLAN The plannng and management of your money or financals are among the most crtcal tasks n determnng whether the socal enterprse would be cost-effectve and sustanable. There are at least three elements n the socal enterprse financal plan to consder, namely, the budget, the fund-rasng plan and the revenue-expense projecton.
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  52. 93 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD MONITORING & EVALUATION What can’t be measured, ,can’t be managed. That seems to be one of the most mportant modern management mantra. In socal enterprse management, measurng your performance allows you to learn much more about how your dea performs n the real world. Montorng and evaluaton are not smply meant for funders or partners, they are most useful to you. Wthout measurement, you would not know how to adapt your plan and acton n order to acheve hghest mpact and sustanablty. Contnuous evaluaton ensures a better learnng ablty. Of course, the process can be dfficult and complcated. But at least you should focus on developng your evaluatve logcal model. Plan Actions Evaluation learning Evaluative logical model Evaluative logical model Ths evaluatve logcal model provdes a clear dea on how your actvtes A Logcal model (LM) allows you to lnk your nputs, outputs, actvtes, lnk all the way to your ultmate goal. It also gves a clear outcome outcomes and goals together. For evaluaton purposes, the most targetng both n short and medum term. mportant basc task s to be able to logcally lnk your actvtes, outputs, short-term outcomes, ntermedate outcomes and final goal together. Therefore, you can easly use ths target model as a gude to measure aganst the actual performance n order to see what s the dfference between the plan and the actual whether n actvtes, outputs, short- term outcomes, ntermedate outcomes and objectves. You can montor and evaluate your project monthly, quarterly, annually or other approprate tmng.
  53. 95 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Beyond basic logical model There are many other evaluatve technques such as a more comprehensve logcal modelng and theory of change, as well as balance score-cards that allow you to ntegratvely measure operatons, financal, customers and learnng/growth perspectves. No matter whch technque you wll be adoptng, the key s to be able to answer the followng questons. - What outcomes are you tryng to acheve for your target populaton? - How wll you measure whether you’ve acheved these outcomes? - What are your performance targets? - What data wll you collect and how wll you collect t? - How wll you use the results for learnng and reportng?
  54. 97 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES You cannot see nto the future wth certanty, but you can do the next best thng: dentfy potental rsks and opportuntes that wll affect your plan. Try to predct and magne the potental rsks that could create a mnor or major problem for your socal enterprse. Also, thnk of the opposte, what opportuntes mght excel the ablty to acheve your msson and scale the mpact.
  55. 99 CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD IMPLEMENTATION PLAN An acton plan s crtcal to the success of the socal enterprse, no matter how ngenous the strategy or concepts that are developed. Ths A Gantt chart can tell you what has to be done—the actvtes or tasks, s because every dea/thought must be translated nto acton. Therefore, how long each actvty wll take, n what order each actvty has to the mplementaton plan wll assgn responsblty of the tasks and the happen, what the costs wll be for each actvty and who s gong to be schedulng of the delverables and necessary resources. Therefore, t s responsble for the actvtes mportant to clearly establsh tasks accountablty and a realstc work schedule. Gantt Charts are the basc bar charts that most people are famlar wth. Pros: Smple to construct, easy to read, an effectve way to communcate The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) s a tool that can help you develop wth team members what they need to do n a gven tme frame. estmates, assgn personnel, track progress, and show the scope of Cons: Dfficult to assess the mpact of a change n one area on the rest of project work. Through ths tool complex actvty s subdvded nto several the project. smaller tasks. Ths can be contnued untl the actvty can no longer be subdvded.
  56. 101 101 CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FOUR STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD FUNDING REQUEST Provdes nformaton on how you are requestng fundng from dfferent donors/nvestors. You could restate the budget and break t down to the part requestng for fundng from Youth Socal Enterprse Fund and other donors/nvestors. Status of each request should be descrbed as well. THE APPENDIX Appendces should be provded on a need bass to nclude addtonal, supplementary nformaton or detaled data to support your busness plan. It s not necessary to provde ths nformaton wthn the man body of your busness plan. Your busness plan s your communcaton tool. As such, t wll be revewed by several people and t may not be necessary to provde everyone wth all the detaled nformaton. However, specfic ndvduals (such as potental credtors) may want to access to ths nformaton, to make an nformed lendng decson. The appendx could nclude: - resumes of key persons n the venture - letters of reference - detals of market research both prmary and secondary - relevant magazne artcles or book references legal documents - lst of busness consultants, ncludng attorney and accountant - Senstvty analyss on key financal or market parameters to determne the success of the project under varous scenaros and varable market condtons. Remember a busness plan s not a thess wth exhaustve reports and conclusons, but a summary of what you want to do. A well wrtten and researched busness plan wll ncrease your chances of success.
  57. 103 CHAPTER FIVE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 5 Beyond the Plan Gettng off the Ground Gettng fundng and support s the begnnng of the process of creatng your organsaton and your dream project. It s the first step from where you wll begn a journey of creatng a sustanable organzaton, a lot of entrepreneurs work towards gettng the first fundng and after that they run out of steam- remember gettng fundng s only the begnnng and not an end. There wll be qute a few thngs you wll have to start workng on from the tme you get your first fundng; these nclude thngs lke - findng an office - gettng a team together - gettng legal work done Also try to: - keep a tab of what you spend - recrut good sensble people - manage a hassle free work envronment The rest of ths chapter renforces some of the commonsenscal thngs that you should look out for whlst startng out.
  58. 105 CHAPTER FIVE STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD What roles wll the other team members play? How wll decsons be made? What f one of you gets marred and the new spouse gets a job offer n another cty--- Would you move away? What are your core values and how do you want to see them play out day-to-day n the busness? What wll you consder as successful n ths venture? Try and dscuss more questons wth your prospectve team members before settng up an organzaton and a team to carry out ts Setting up a Team responsbltes. A clear means of communcaton between you and the Behnd every successful entrepreneurshp, s an able team that provdes members s the sole means of ensurng that the entre team s focused a foundaton, to ensure a supportng basc nfrastructure such that t on achevng the socal msson. runs smoothly on a day-to-day bass. Before settng up a team, assess yourself, to realze what your strengths and weaknesses are. Your team Basic Office Systems members should help you overcome these weaknesses and should possess both the behavoral and practcal sklls to run a busness. Now that you have a team, you should lease an office to provde a space They need to have a good temperament and should also possess the for both your team members and you to work together. An office s a knowledge and experence requred to set-up a successful socal venture. hub of all work related actvty and you must set-up a few basc systems A lot of start-up ventures work well because the team balances one to ensure that t runs smoothly on a day-to-day bass. You wll need to another’s personaltes- you too need to find the combnaton that works support these systems wth other sub-systems and wll therefore have best for you. to create an organzatonal structure, to ensure that ndvdual team members are aware and understand ther roles and responsbltes. Durng the pre-venture stage of your busness, one of your first Reportng relatonshps should be clearly establshed and there should be challenges wll be to assess the specfic needs of your new undertakng. a delegaton of both work and authorty to encourage team members to For example, f you need access to a sgnficant amount of captal, be accountable for ther actons. you wll requre a team member who has experence n securng such fundng. Often a lot of entrepreneurs suffer from ether hrng too many Effectve communcaton and nformaton sharng s a crtcal success or too few professonals. Before you start recrutng people to your factor that can never be over emphaszed as a factor for the efficent organzaton, you must have a clear vson for the busness workng of any venture. It helps to foster and develop a harmonous work ethc and a team sprt where team members cooperate and take Ths leads us to the second queston: collectve decsons. Every entrepreneur recognzes that the secret to Who should be on the team? a successful organzaton les n proficently managng the avalable resources. You wll be entrusted wth money and n order to keep track Here are some ssues you need to tackle when recrutng team members of both revenue and expendture, you should mme-dately set-up an Do they share the vson for the venture? accountng system to track and categorze all ncomng and outgong Do you share the same personal and professonal aspratons? resources. How much tme off do you plan to take each day, each week, or each year? Other mportant systems that need to be set up nclude: Who wll be the Presdent of the company?
  59. 107 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Departmental Systems: Every member n your team who has been A mentor s any professonal frend, teacher or counselor that assgned a specfic role n the organzaton wll be postoned as per provdes valuable advce and nstructs you n the essentals ther partcular areas of expertse, thus provdng a framework for any to become a successful person. They are a constant source of prospectve departments. nspraton and help to provde you wth the requred support to overcome your ntal struggles. They can take on the Legal and techncal systems: You wll requre a legal-consultant to assst responsbltes of a relable soundng board, a valuable second you on the legslaton and prevalng rules and regulatons of the terrtory opnon or a reassurng emotonal support. Mentors aren’t wthn whch you wll operate, specfically on ssues relatng to : found n gudebooks or techncal manuals, these people are - Taxaton more practcal and take a hands-on approach to runnng an - Regstraton of the enterprse entrepreneurshp. They often share nvaluable lessons from ther - Any ‘unlawful’ volatons that may occur durng your socal venture experence and help you realze the smlar challenges everyone - The transfer of funds between people and enterprse faces when creatng somethng new. Communcaton and IT systems: IT and communcaton systems make More mportant, s the extensve network that your mentors have. up the basc nfrastructure on whch an entrepreneurshp s bult. Whle Unlke a casual acquantance at a network-based meetng, you these prmarly provde a lnk to the outsde world, they also connect have a good frend n a mentor-a person more wllng to open up departments wthn the organzaton. Thus makng these systems, an hs network. They often have access to nfluental senor decson mportant means of researchng, storng and outsourcng nformaton. makers n a communty, who can constructvely help you develop your socal entrepreneurshp. Mentors have no ulteror motves Whle a lot may appear to be borng and mundane, settng up these basc and seek to foster a strong relatonshp of trust that can be office structures s a crtcal part of your socal venture. For any busness profitably exploted n the future. More mportantly you become to functon efficently, t must have a sold foundaton that establshes part of the mentor’s network and are able to leverage the same and successfully mplements the above systems. wth hs support and cooperaton. Role of Mentors The unpredctablty of a busness cycle can often be an emotonally sappng experence for an entrepreneur. The unrelentng phases of boom and recesson hamper the growth of a busness and prevent entrepreneurs from mplementng ther long-term strateges. Soon, fears about your busness’ survval become your man concern and you may no longer be able to prortze your socal msson. Ths can be a psychologcally tryng tme for many young entrepreneurs and only the presence of a mentor can help them get out of ths dfficult perod. But what exactly s a mentor?
  60. 109 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 6 Fund Attraction As socal entrepreneurshp s stll a new and emergng field, socal enterprses tend to have an dfficult tme moblzng funds because there are no proper nsttutonalzed fundng sources for ths partcular group. If you wanted to start or expand a busness venture, you would look to tradtonal fundng sources such as banks, venture captal and prvate equty firms for the crucal startup or expanson funds. On the other hand, f you were gong to start a purely non-profit venture that does not have any form of ncome generaton, you could always approach a foundaton or donor nsttuton. The Gap commercial & social grants debt equity enterprise startup & expansion capital
  61. 111 111 CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Socal enterprses, however, find t dfficult to approach tradtonal that you mght end up havng a well-financed socal enterprse dong thngs fundng sources prmarly because these nsttutons only seek ether outsde ts defined scope. Try to make sure when you accept funds that t pure economc or socal returns whle socal enterprses create a blend s algned properly wth the msson and goals or your organzaton. of economc, socal and / or envronmental value. Addtonally, these nsttutons shy away from socal enterprses because they are not backed The first key step to find money, s to know your own needs. Assumng by assets. you’ve got a well thought through and cost-efficent plan, you stll need to answer: What are the thngs you need to get done that you can’t manage Many of us thnk of fundrasng as consstng of thngs such as preparng wthout money? How much money do you need? For what? From who? a tghtly-packed proposal, dentfyng the rght donors or nvestors from All these questons must be answered carefully. Extreme bootstrappng conferences and webstes, sendng out the proposals, and watng for (operatng wth mnmal resources) s often a socal entrepreneur’s best them to reply n hopes of rasng mllons. Unfortunately, t doesn’t really frend. When you are forced to do thngs at a very low cost whle tryng to work that way unless t’s your lucky day. Even though t’s challengng, acheve the hghest mpact, you often have to nnovate to survve. we beleve that there are some general nsghts and technques one can resort to when embarkng on the fundrasng process. At the very early stage, a socal enterprse’s bggest concern mght not be rasng funds, nstead t s to find the rght course of acton. Young socal Know your needs entrepreneurs often experment wth varous opportuntes and models Before even thnkng about findng cash to nject nto your socal before findng the rght knd of goals that fit best wth ther teams. In enterprse, you must dentfy your financng needs. How much do you essence, at ths stage, funds are needed manly to brng on team members need and what for? There s no such thng as free money. All nvestors and for prototypng your socal enterprse. In findng what you really need, seek to make returns on ther nvestments, be t economc, socal or you need to: envronmental. If someone gves you money, they’ll defintely want somethng back n return. You must know exactly what you can offer to T. Fnd out what you need to acheve your msson and goals whle pushng them. As an entrepreneur, you can offer a wde range of returns - socal / asde ‘easy funds’ that can be a dstracton. envronmental mpact, financal gans, nvestor exposure, etc. U. Thnk of n-knd optons or thngs you can do wthout money. V. Choose the rght pots of money; grant, equty and debt. If you can’t offer somethng n return, your nvestors wll stop nvestng n you they’ll probably start gvng you a bad name among other potental No distraction funding nvestors or donors. Let me repeat a key pont - there s no such thng as Contrary to popular belef, rasng more funds than what you really need free money, all nvestments come wth strngs attached. can actually be more dangerous because each set of funds s ted to dfferent forms of usually nflexble commtments. When you just start We’re not tryng to dscourage you from fundrasng. On the contrary, your socal enterprse, t s most lkely that you wll experment wth one we’re hopng to shed some lght how tough thngs can get and how you thng and fal. You’ll move very quckly to the next opportunty and so on shouldn’t be dscouraged when fully mmersed n the process. Sometme untl you succeed n somethng that best leverages your unque ablty to ago, my frend and experenced fundraser, Corne Aartman, mentoned address the socal challenge and opportunty. that most people don’t dslke fundrasng, nstead they hate the amount of rejecton nvolved n fundrasng. Most people take ths rejecton In-kind support option personally. One should realze that the nvestor s not rejectng you, the Once you’ve managed to set your course and have conscously rejected nvestor s just not nterested n your dea or project. All you can do s easy money, the next key questons to ask are: move on and find the next person who wll lsten to you. 1. What can be done wthout money? On the other hand, t s also qute easy to find yourself n a stuaton 2. What can’t be done wthout money? where money s flowng nto your organzaton but you’re focusng on work outsde your organzatonal msson and goals. It’s often the case
  62. 113 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD There are many elements n your operatons that can be acheved wthout money. Formng mutual partnershps can help you secure these thngs. For Choose the right pots of money example, you can promse to provde your servces to another organzaton n exchange for help on marketng actvtes or even the sharng of an office There are several financng choces dependng on the type of socal venture you space. We’ve even heard cases of busnesses provdng office space to have. Regardless of whether you have a for-profit or non-profit socal venture, non-profits as part of the busnesses’ corporate socal responsblty (CSR) there are three general types of financng that you can tap nto - grants, equty program. You can form partnershps wth other non-profits, busnesses or and debt. even your famly to secure these thngs through a form of barter, n-knd sponsorshp or even on good wll. Thnk through the tems that you need to fund-rase for and ask yourself where you mght be able to get them n terms of n-knd support. Once you’ve exhausted the lst potental supporters, the ones that reman should be where you focus your fundrasng efforts. Ths seemngly slly exercse can save you from a lot of unnecessary trouble. Exercise: Try fillng n the empty columns below. Start from the left column, and work your way progressvely tll the the thrd column. Try as hard as possble to exhaust all possbltes n the second column before movng to the thrd column. Items needed In-kind support source Cash contribution Grants Source Example: office rental University No need Grants are the most frequently sought-after type of financng. They are also incubation center commonly msunderstood by many organzatons as “free money”. It’s true that most grants come wthout requrng repayment, however, there are obvously strngs attached to the grants by the donors. Grants are often ted to submsson of frequent and extensve reportng as well as the noton of “please-us-or-face- termnaton” type of relatonshps (contracts) wth the donors. Ths s not to stereotype all donors. There are donors that actually help you look for other external sources of fundng and there are even those that help you develop a revenue generaton model whle usng ther fundng to get started. The type of relatonshp you have wth a partcular donor s crucal here. If you find yourself n one way or another not related to the boss or hs/ her mother- n-law, the best way to develop and mantan a relatonshp s to make sure that your venture’s msson matches the strategc nterests of the donor. You have to make sure that you’re workng on somethng farly mportant to them and that you are not easly substtutable by the mllons of other non-profits out there. If you can acheve ths, grant financng wll work well for you, especally f you can use grant money to nvest n projects that generate sustanable socal, envronmental and financal returns.
  63. 115 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Equity from people close to you (famly and frends) as compared to approachng more commercal optons. Borrowng five to ten thousand dollars from famly Equty can be very useful f you’re runnng a for-profit socal venture. In smple or frends to start a self-sustanng socal enterprse (socal busness) s very terms, when someone buys equty n your venture, they have become part common amongst socal entrepreneurs. People who are close to you tend to owners of the venture wth some amount of votng power for key organzatonal trust you more than banks whch requre some form of collateral before they decsons. Ths can be benefical f you have the rght knd of nvestors who can lend to you. have the experence and connectons to catalyze your venture’s success. Equty financng tends to come from nvestors who are very hands-on wth the Dependng on the nature of your socal venture, debt financng can be projects they’re nvolved wth. Heated debates on key decsons between the sgnficantly benefical. It can help your venture be more dscplned n entrepreneur and the nvestors often ensue. As an entrepreneur, you’ll have dentfyng and developng a unque revenue generaton model to help brng to learn to communcate and leverage your nvestors beyond the funds they’re some form of financal sustanablty to part of, f not the whole venture. You’ll nvestng. In other words, both your nvestors and you wll have to share a begn thnkng lke, “I’ve borrowed money to do ths, now I’ve got to find some common vson or set of objectves that both of you would lke to acheve. If way to pay t back soon. I must make a success out of ths or I’m runed.” you realze that one of your nvestors does not share a smlar vson wth you, Thnkng n ths manner wll brng a whole new perspectve to your work. All of do yourself a favor by pullng yourself out before they do so n a usually abrupt a sudden, you’ll become more focused on prorty tasks and developng some manner. Actng early n many nstances can actually salvage your relatonshp mechansm to become more sustanable. Ths mode of thnkng can be very wth the partcular nvestor before thngs get messy. useful early n the socal enterprse stage. Equty-lke grants are also a possblty among socal venture phlanthropsts. Take for example a non-profit that does advocacy work to create awareness These types of nvestors employ a venture captal type methodology to socal on safe sex. Ths non-profit s n a rather rsky poston as ths knd of work s nvestng. They mght not choose to hold real equty, nstead they would choose prmarly supported by grant financng and s n danger of beng termnated to hold veto power on key organzatonal decsons, whch practcally makes n case the prortes of the donors change or t s subject to an unavodable them a co-owner of the venture. Addtonally, equty-lke nvestments can be a external nfluence. Tradtonally, for the non-profit to become more sustanable, useful resource for you to attract phlanthropsts, busness leaders or wealthy t would embark on a resource moblzaton exercse and try to senstze some persons who have a strong nterest n socal development. By offerng them other donors that mght be nterested n fundng ts work. Ths can ether yeld equty-lke nvestment optons that come along wth votng power or other types great rewards or sometmes you could turn up wth nothng. What ths non-profit of nstruments that provde the feelng of holdng real equty, you can gve your should be thnkng about nstead s ts compettve advantage - advocacy and nvestors a sense of empowerment whch they have never had before. educaton on safe sex and other relevant ssues. Usng ths compettve edge, t can begn offerng for a fee, capacty buldng workshops for other development Debt agences or classes at local schools on these ssues. All of a sudden, the non- profit has managed to create a potental revenue model that allows t to be Debt financng can be a rsky opton for your socal venture, but at the same more sustanable n the long run and less exposed to the fluctuatons of grant tme, t can also yeld surprsng benefits. Ths type of funds are very straght- financng. forward and easy to understand; you borrow from someone and repay them at a later perod wth a predetermned repayment rate. There s an emergng Innovatve debt-lke financng s another possblty to consder. Few tradtonal group of funds and banks that cater specfically to socal enterprses that cannot donors are begnnng to explore ths opton where they’ll provde you wth normally access captal from tradtonal sources. These enttes, ether n the a typcal grant but wth a twst - usng the grant provded, you’ll need to form of ethcal banks, socal venture funds, or mcro-venture captal firms are a generate returns that accumulate to the orgnal amount of the ntal debt-lke good opton for socal enterprses as they are more open to socal nvestng and nvestment that can be reused n your socal venture n a specfied tmeframe are wllng to accept below-market rates of return on ther lendng or nvestment or pay the amount forward to another startup whch s n need of the same actvtes. amount of captal. The way you engneer the debt-lke financng depends on how nnovatve you can be. These type of nstruments are gettng more and In realty, t s better for socal startups to borrow money nstead of tappng more attractve to both donors and socal nvestors alke n comparson to a nto personal savngs. There s a much hgher success rate of gettng money tradtonal grant opton because they are keen to generate a more effectve blend of returns (socal, economc, envronmental).
  64. 117 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Social venture financing 2.0 You have to am for your socal venture to be “unquely relevant”. If you can The Web 2.0 phenomenon has spawned a number of acheve ths, your donors or nvestors wll find that your venture s not easly replaceable and farly mportant for ther portfolo. In truth, ths s the secret to platforms that are helpng socal entrepreneurs/ ventures any advantageous or mutually benefical relatonshp whether you are n love access a wder spectrum of financng mechansms. These or at war. The more unquely relevant you are, the more other people wll need platforms range from facltatng pure-grants financng to you, and as a result, the more barganng power you have. loans for entrepreneurs where both lender and borrower can negotate a specfied rate of return. In addton, a In many cases, f you are runnng a socal enterprse that cannot be fully self- grantee or borrower s not lmted to a sngle financng financed, you’ll need to fight to mantan your postonng among the percepton of your donors or nvestors, as t mght be the only way for you to acheve source. He/ she can negotate a hybrd of deals (grants financal sustanablty. Ths s very smlar to busnesses that have to ether and loans) from multple sources. Here’s an example of merge or make other acqustons to mantan ther strategc postonng or to exstng webstes: reman unquely relevant to ther customers. Kva - www.kva.org Global Gvng - www.globalgvng.com Prosper - www.prosper.com GoodTree - www.goodtree.com DonorsChoose - www.donorschoose.org AdPage - www.adpage.com We hope that you’re now slghtly more nformed about the varous types of financng optons and sources so you’ll be able to choose the one that fits best wth your socal venture. Remember, you don’t have to lmt yourself to a sngle type or source of financng. You’ve got to dversfy your optons wth varous donors and nvestors. Pursue as many possbltes as possble. As an example, the hybrd loan-grant opton s avalable from nsttutons such as the World Bank’s Grassroots Busness Intatve (GBI) . Be Uniquely Relevant Now that you know your needs, you have to begn dentfyng both the needs of the donors or nvestors and how to make them need you. The most mportant lesson n contnuos fund-rasng success s to be “unquely relevant”. It s qute smple: Usng the Funder Percepton graph, try mappng how each of your donors or nvestors perceve you. You should am for Quadrant B as t s the most unque = not easly replaceable strategc poston for any venture to be consdered both mportant and relevant = mportant to someone rreplaceable. Both quadrants A and C are less preferable postons, as your venture would be less mportant for ther portfolo and also easly replaceable by other ventures. If you do find yourself n quadrant D, we would recommend redefinng the servces you plan to offer so that t forms a better strategc fit wth your donors or nvestors. You should always am to move towards the
  65. 119 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD deal poston of quadrant B. If somehow or rather you find t dfficult to move find yourself easly replaced by your nvestors, especally when you’re about to away from quadrant D, you should defintely consder not engagng wth that acheve some form of success. partcular donor or nvestor as there s no strategc fit. Sometmes t’s much more mportant to learn how not to accept certan knds In the early stages of formng a relatonshp wth a donor or nvestor, you of funds that are nether mportant nor relevant to you. Ths safeguards you usually start off at quadrants A or C and move gradually towards quadrant B. from potental problems n the future, more specfically relatng to an unhealthy In order to gan more mportance, you must dentfy some strategc fit between financng relatonshp wth your nvestors. In other words, you wouldn’t want to what you do and what they want, ths means algnng your work to what they get marred to someone who perceves you as beng unmportant and ncapable thnk s mportant based on ther plans, strateges or even feelngs. However, of gvng hm or her somethng specal to lve for. ths doesn’t mean you’ll have to find lnk for everythng that you do. Instead, try to look for part or components of your program that can potentally become a strategc fit wth them. Engagng n a small way at the very begnnng can be SUSTAINABILITY FIRST Developng an nnovatve and financally sustanable venture s the dream of very benefical for you. The better you perform n small ways, the more trust every emergng socal entrepreneur. Though stll at a slow pace, both donors you’ll be able to buld wth them. and nvestors are begnnng to experment wth nnovatve forms of nvestment nstruments such as the provson of loans where the returns can be recycled The usual strategy s to have one or two key actvtes that generate outcomes nto the socal enterprse as workng captal, or the holdng equty that can be that exceed the expectatons of your donors or nvestors whle keepng the rest sold n the future by contract or renvested nto the socal enterprse. If a socal of your actvtes to yourself. Ths s, however, a dangerous strategy as one or enterprse s ncapable of achevng some form of financal sustanablty, t wll two thngs mportant to them mght have nothng to do wth what you want to become extremely vulnerable to changes n donors’ polces or nterests that can do and may dran most of your venture’s resources. If the gap between what you shft anytme n the fast changng world. The current trend for most of donors want and what they want are too far apart, you’re better off not engagng wth and nvestors s to dentfy and support socal enterprses that are financally them rather than pursung a much more dfficult strategy of convncng them to sustanable n the medum to long-term. change ther mnd and reconsder ther strategc prortes. It s a common msconcepton that socal entrepreneurs are completely SHOW THE IMPACT, IN NUMBERS IF POSSIBLE prcetakers or n other words you are as mportant as your donors or nvestors The Socal Return on Investment (SROI), logcal framework (logframe) and theory grade you. It s mportant to realze conversatons mean a great deal. The way of change are examples of crucal tools that can be used to present the mpact of your donors or nvestors perceve you depends on how well you nteract wth your venture n a very clear and structured manner. These tools can also gve you them. These nteractons have to begn from your end. If you don’t take the an edge over typcal non-profits that do not utlze them. ntatve, you wll not make any headway. Therefore, you must carefully define how you wll nteract wth donors and nvestors. Never poston yourself as Socal Return on Investment (SROI) s a concept developed to account for both someone who s after “actvst money” (funds for actvsm work). You’ll end tradtonal financal value and the socal value created by an enterprse. It s a up beng of very lttle mportance to them. Choose carefully how you enter a way to monetze the non-financal socal or envronmental value created by relatonshp wth them. It s very dfficult for donors and nvestors to change an enterprse. Although SROI s a relatvely new tool whch s stll under ther percepton of you when you’re regarded as small actvsts nstead of development, t s well recognzed to calculate the mnmum socal return on strategc partners. nvestment of a socal enterprse n terms of monetary value. The basc concept of the SROI s the calculaton your venture’s total present value of socal value From the start, t s mportant that you carefully define the type of relatonshp generated, over the total project cost. you have wth your donors or nvestors. Try your best not to receve fundng from donors or nvestors f you find that t would jeopardze your relatonshp You begn calculatng your SROI by dentfyng the approprate nformaton for wth them and ther percepton of you. Also, choose to do or offer to do thngs your venture’s: that harness your unque ablty to delver superor performance. If you enter Inputs - resources nvested n a project/ actvty nto a relatonshp based on purely fundng too quckly and not on the unque Outputs - drect and tangble results from a project/ actvty expertse you can provde, your nvestors would mmedately treat you as beng Outcomes - drect and ndrect results lnked to the project/ actvty easly replaceable. In the socal enterprse financng scene, t s qute common to Impacts - a slghtly lower estmate of Outcomes (mnmum results acheved)
  66. 121 CHAPTER SIX STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Source: Measurng Socal Impact: the foundaton of socal return on nvestment, SROI Prmer, New Source: Measurng Socal Impact: Economcs Foundaton, 2004 the foundaton of socal return on nvestment, SROI Prmer, New Economcs Foundaton, 2004 LEVERAGE, RISK-SHARING AND ENTRY-POINTS Due to the low-rsk preference of donors and socal nvestors (or n other words - they don’t trust you yet), you should always try to leverage the credblty of one nvestor aganst another by tellng other nvestors that you’re already n a The example shows the SROI calculaton of Get Out to Work, a socal enterprse partnershp wth ths partcular nvestor. Ths can help lower the perceved rsk that that works to create long term employment for youngsters wth crmnal records. other potental nvestors have of you. Sometmes, havng a partnershp wth one nvestor s all t takes to attract others nto the pool. A recent example would be a Once the approprate nformaton has been dentfied, you can begn developng socal enterprse based out of Camboda whch had one bg donor financng them, a smple financal model to determne your SROI (refer to example). and all of a sudden, three other large-scale donors appeared out of nowhere to finance them. Many donors and nvestors apprecate havng other nvestors present In the table, you can see that a total of 17 clents were estmated to have n potental nvestments as a knd of nformal shared-rsk relatonshp. benefited from the program. The benefits were monetzed and dvded nto drect salares acheved by the clents, benefits accrued by state (taxes ganed), and Another crucal crtera for successful fundrasng s to be able to dentfy the rght the savngs made by the state for reduced reoffendng by the clents. entry-ponts to your desred donors or nvestors. Sendng out hundreds of general emals or letters s lke ‘shootng blanks’. Unless your venture s truly unque and To calculate the the SROI rato, smply dvde the total SROI by the orgnal attractve they wouldn’t respond to these mals as they receve hundreds of such nvestment. Ths would reveal the total socal value created for every dollar requests on a daly bass. Instead, you should try partcpatng n as many workshops nvested n the program. or conferences, partcularly those that attract many donors and nvestors. Once you’ve managed to dentfy the rght people wthn these nsttutons, t s extremely mportant to cultvate a relatonshp and slowly buld trust wth them. In many developng countres, you can sometmes find more non-profits than busnesses regstered n the country. In these countres, t appears as f You can also thnk of ths process a lot lke the acquston of a grlfrend. Frst, you development has become a profitable busness by tself. In truth, ths s actually begn wth some ntal flrtng and then ask them out on a small date .e a cup of a very alarmng sgnal because the presence of these non-profits can actually coffee perhaps. When havng coffee, let them be the star of the moment by lstenng hnder any real growth from takng place. As a result, more and more socal to her. All you have to do s act as f you’re nterested n what she has to say and nvestors and even tradtonal donors are lookng at non-profits or ventures that that you find the thngs she does exctng. The more dates you get to go out wth can generate sustanable socal and financal value. Tools such as the Socal her the stronger the relatonshp becomes. The only dfference between havng a Return on Investment (SROI), Logcal Framework (logframe) or Theory of Change relatonshp wth a grl and an nvestor s that you expect the entre relatonshp to can assst donors and nvestors to understand the values your venture generates be financed by the nvestor. However, make sure that you are capable of provdng n comparson to ther nvestment. real value to the nvestor n exchange for the financng, .e. that your deas or venture s crucal to ther success. For donors or socal nvestors, nvestng n someone’s future s totally dfferent from just gvng money away.
  67. 123 CHAPTER SEVEN STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 7 Social Communications Communcatons can make t or break t for an organzaton. Wthout proper communcatons, an organzaton wll not be able to perform a whole slew of functons such as - rase captal, reach target groups, motvate team members, etc. Ths ultmately renders the organzaton useless as t wll be unable to acheve ts msson. Developng and mplementng an effectve communcatons strategy can absorb a lot of resources. Ths s a challenge for most socal enterprses as they usually operate wth fewer staff and very lttle resources. Makng t Stck In contrast to busness, socal enterprses have to adopt a more holstc form of communcatons. A socal enterprse has to effectvely ntegrate socal, envronmental and economc elements wthn ts messages. One of the bggest communcaton challenges for socal enterprses s achevng a certan sense of “sexness”. Sexy, n ths case, refers to developng clear and unforgettable messages, somethng that wll stck n a person’s mnd long after they have heard or seen t. Here’s an example of your typcal non-profit communcatons: “Comprehensve communty buldng naturally lends tself to a return- on-nvestment ratonale that can be modeled, drawng on exstng practce,” t begns, gong on to argue that “[a] factor constranng the flow of resources to CCIs s that funders must often resort to targetng or categorcal requrements n grant makng to ensure accountablty.” Above excerpt s from the artcle Jargon Watch by Tony Prosco from Foundaton News and Com-mentary, Jul/ Aug 2000 (http://www.foundatonnews.org/CME/artcle.cfm?ID=353) Can you understand what that passage s tryng to say? Would you be able to remember t n a few hours? Don’t you thnk t’s filled wth a lot of jargon and confusng sentence structures? If more effectve communcatons can be created, a whole range of challenges such as a lack of captal and the shortage of dynamc workers can be solved.
  68. 125 CHAPTER SEVEN STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Becomng sexy doesn’t ental an over-the-edge communcatons strategy. Instead, t’s about brngng smplcty and clarty when communcatng an dea. It s about makng deas and messages ‘stck’. Made to Stck, a book by Chp and Dan Heath helps shed more lght on makng messages stck. Accordng to the authors, stckness s all about “ensurng your deas are understood and remembered, and have a lastng mpact — they change your audence’s opnons and behavor.” In the book, Chp and Dan Heath also found that messages of all knds draw ther power from the same sx prncples of stckness: The Elevator Pitch Imagne ths. You’re attendng a conference on socal nvestments. You’re there to meet new nvestors and try to rase some captal for your organzaton. At the end of the day you decde to go back to your room. Just before the elevator door closes, the charman of a bllon dollar donor organzaton walks n. Its just the both of you n the elevator. What are you gong to do? You realze there’s probably only 30 seconds before she reaches her floor. Are you gong to let ths Prncples of stckness s adapted from the book Made to Stck by Chp Heath opportunty slp? Or you could cast your ptch, and see f the donor gets hooked? and Dan Heath, Random House, 2007. I was n a rather smlar stuaton once. The CEO of ArAsa, Tony Fernandes, was The next tme you craft a message, whether t s an elevator ptch, advertsement on a flght I was takng back home. I thought to myself “What are the odds of or smple chat over coffee, try blendng some of these elements and watch what somethng lke ths happenng? Perhaps one n a mllon.” I just knew that t happens! was mportant to make use of the opportunty because t would have dogged me forever knowng that I let somethng lke ths slp by. Thngs ddn’t go so Understanding your Stake-holders smoothly once I made the decson to approach hm. I ddn’t have a ptch ready! Socal enterprses have to be able to communcate a coherent message to a wder and more dverse group of stake-holders wthout losng a sense of ts The first thng you have to realze before talkng to someone lke Tony - you msson. have to be prepared wth a clear and an unforgettable message. Frenetcally, my colleague and I put together a ptch on our program. After the ptch, I came The stake-holders of any socal enterprse are crucal to achevng ts msson. to realze that you can always expect the unexpected. You’ll never know when You can always thnk of a stakeholder as your ‘customer’ or ‘partner’. Each of you mght meet someone that you’ll have to talk to about your organzaton, these groups has dfferent “wants” or reasons for supportng your organzaton. partcularly to gan ther support or become a partner. In a socal enterprse scenaro, these wants are typcally non-monetary, and as a result socal enterprses have to become master communcators to reveal the An elevator ptch s smply an overvew of an dea, product, servce, or project strategc fit of any stakeholder wth the partcular part of the organzaton. and s desgned to just get the conversaton started. If you can’t descrbe what
  69. 127 CHAPTER SEVEN STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD you do or your dea n a sngle concse sentence, you’re clearly not prepared. In Social Communications 2.0 a sngle sentence you’ll have to ntroduce yourself, explan whch organzaton The smart use of ICTs, especally tools such as the nternet, can help facltate you come from and what the organzaton does. The pont of an elevator ptch mproved communcaton at sgnficantly lower costs. You’ll be able to reach a sn’t to get nto every detal of what t s that you are sellng. Instead, all you wder populaton wth lttle resources. The emergence of a recent host of new have tme to do s to make sure the person understands what you’re talkng technologes dubbed ‘Web 2.0’, has democratzed the nternet even further by about and what’s n t for them. allowng users to become the masters of the content they publsh and how they choose to share t. All of a sudden t has become rather easy and cost effectve The folks at Garage Technology Ventures advse thnkng lke a potental nvestor to voce yourself va a dverse array of platforms. before preparng a ptch. Most nvestors usually have ths queston n ther mnds “Is ths organzaton the next best nvestment for me and my fund?”. Tradtonally, the use of ICTs helps one acheve three broad goals namely, Although t s a dfficult queston, t s stll somethng every entrepreneur has to ncreased access to knowledge and nformaton, enhanced networkng answer. To best answer a potental nvestor, your ptch has to consst of these possbltes and broader partcpaton n a varety of ssues such as local content seven elements: development, good governance, etc. The use of Web 2.0 technologes has only magnfied the mpact that ICTs can have on those broad goals. In the past, the nternet was a field of content that was dstrbuted from publsher to user (one-way), whch made t rather statc. In contrast, web 2.0 technologes has made t possble for users to partcpate n the exstng content and also generate content of ther own. As a result, over tme, user-generated content has become a far more nfluental sphere than statc content provders. As an example of the nfluence of blogs, a study by Chtka, a leadng blog advertsng company, clams that the top 50,000 blogs across the world collectvely earned $500 mllon n advertsng revenue n 2006 alone. Socal communcatons 2.0 represents a dramatc shft n how we can utlze web 2.0 technologes to enhance our communcatons strateges whle takng nto account the new ways your stakeholders (clents, nvestors, team, etc.) would research, form opnons, subscrbe to servces and make nvestment decsons whch are ndependent of tradtonal channels and networks. Here’s a gude to exstng Web 2.0 technologes and how they can be useful to developng your communcaton strateges: Weblogs aka Blogs Blogs are webstes that allow you to mantan your entres (blog posts) n a chronologcal order, almost as f ts your personal megaphone. Many compare t to ether wrtng a dary or journal. In contrast to statc webstes, blogs are a 2-way platform where readers of your blog have the opportunty to partcpate n your thoughts by addng comments and ths mght ultmately lead to dscussons takng place. Each blog post also comes wth an ndvdual lnk and can be shared wth other people that mght be nterested n readng, commentng or partcpatng n a dscusson. Blogs are now consdered as new forms of learnng platforms. As opposed to tradtonal platforms (schools, lbrares, old meda), blogs have become an mportant source of tact (soft) nformaton and knowledge on a wde range of
  70. 129 CHAPTER SEVEN STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD ssues. Although sometmes naccurate and based, blogs allow ndvduals to Podcasts showcase when and what they know about a certan ssue. In relaton to socal A podcast s ether a vdeo (MPG, AVI, WMV, etc.) or audo (MP3) file that can be communcatons, Osocio (http://www.osocio.org) s a blog that hosts the best broadcasted, subscrbed to, downloaded or dstrbuted over the nternet. In the examples of non-profit advertsng and socal campagns. If you’re plannng to past t would be qute an expensve endeavor to develop a vdeo and try to place launch a socal campagn and are n need of nspraton, ths blog can be a great t on the nternet for publc vewng. Today however, anyone wth a smple dgtal resource. camera or even a cellphone can record a vdeo or audo file and upload t onto the nternet to create ther own podcasts. Instead of bloggng, some bloggers have opted for podcastng as a substtute for ther frequent blog posts. Many people clam that t saves tme and s more entertanng to lsten to or watch a podcast nstead of readng a blog post. Organsatons or ndvduals can create ther own set of podcasts for a varety of purposes such as vral ads / campagn clps, record talks and events, etc. Vral clps n ths case refer to short and appealng messages that people share wth ther frends because they find that t communcates a partcular message n an www.treehugger.com nterestng manner. http://www.osocio.org www.triplepundit.com In many cases you can buld a smple organzatonal webste on a blog because Once you’ve recorded your vdeo or audo file, you can then upload them onto t functons lke a normal webste that allows you to add dfferent pages that you a vdeo or audo sharng ste and feed or embed (usng a provded lnk) the can lnk through tabs on the front page. You have the opton of creatng ether a partcular file to your blog post or webpage so that t can be vewed by users. statc front page by modfyng a sngle post or mantanng your blog posts whch Vola! You’ve managed to start your very own set of podcasts on your blog or can represent ether your thoughts, team member opnons, or daly experences webste. There are a whole range of vdeo and audo sharng stes that you can ,etc. choose to use such as: There are many subtle benefits to startng a blog. In recent tmes, many organzatons have opted for a blog as ther organzatonal webste because t gves the organzaton a very nformal atmosphere and makes them more accessble to the publc (open for comments). Also, the team members and staff can use a blog to launch new deas, branstorm and voce opnons that normally www.youtube.com www.blip.tv www.odeo.com www.metacafe.com aren’t vsble. Ths s a great resource for any organzaton because t can lead to new and nnovatve deas beng mplemented and a happer workforce. Wikis If you’re lookng for somethng smple and cost-effectve to get started wth and Wks are a form of collaboratve webste where anyone can edt and contrbute to buld a presence on the nternet, you should start wth a blog. There are many ts growth. In smple terms, you can thnk of a Wk as a smple onlne database free blog provders. Among the most popular are: where people can collaboratvely develop and access nformaton. One of the most popular examples of Wks s Wkpeda, a free onlne encyclopeda that s man- taned collaboratvely by volunteers across the world. Anyone can launch a new topc or edt exstng artcles on ths platform. Snce t’s ncepton five years ago, Wkpeda (www.wkpeda.org) has approxmately 8 mllon artcles n 250 dfferent www.vox.com www.wordpress.com www.globalvoicesonline.org languages. www.blogger.com www.livejournal.com At a mcro level, organzatons or ndvduals can create ther very own Wks through varous servces, one of the most popular beng Wka (www.wka.com).
  71. 131 CHAPTER SEVEN STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Wka allows you to create your very own onlne database that you can ether keep restrcted or have open to anyone. The purpose of mantanng onlne databases the most popular sites by how many links there are pointing to them, and helps organzatons mantan ther learnngs on very local or nche ssues that more subtly, Google also assesses whether other popular sites have links mght not be avalable on any other platform. For example, an envronmental pointing to these sites too. In essence, Google has become the social cue protecton agency can mantan ts key learnngs on specfic ssues relatng to ts of the internet by ultimately persuading people to visit higher ranking sites. local projects. Ths nformaton mght become useful ether for ts future endeavors As a result, things have become like a huge popularity contest on the or other organzatons nterested n learnng about that partcular local ecosystem. internet. You find people checking website’s Google ranking - where it is assigned to during a relevant topic search on Google. If you’re not among the results on the first page, you’re not a contender. This means that we’re dealing with a whole new platform, something that evolves based on the preferences of users. When developing a communications strategy for your organisation, you should definitely look into how you can improve the ranking of your website on Google searches. Here are two basic techniques that can help improve your Pagerank: Relevant and rich content - Make sure each page you create on your website is rich with relevant content and keywords that might potentially be used for searches that will lead to your page. For example, if your organization is in the field of ‘social entrepreneurship’, you should have these keywords on your front page and if possible a description too. On the other hand, if your content is appealing, people will automatically link your site to theirs and this will improve your page rank. Link, link, link - Try to place as many links of your website on as many web sites or blogs that you can. If you can’t get the sites to voluntarily help you, you’ll have to do it yourself. Obviously, do not link unnecessarily otherwise you’ll be called a spammer. The trick is to find some relevant topic and place your link as a helpful resource. For example, if you come across a blog post of micro-finance, you can always add a comment and talk about your organization which works on micro-finance and invite people to visit your website. To learn more about how you can improve your Pagerank, try following these webmaster guidelines that will help Google find, index and rank your website: Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/ webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769). Another way to get into the upper ranks is to simply buy your way in. If you have some resources to spare, you can buy relevant keywords or buy an actual ad placement Pagerank and Adsense through Google’s AdSense service. Why is it that more and more people are using Google when searching or researching for something on the internet? The search results that churns out appear to be the most relevant to what people are looking for. Why is this so? Google utilizes a particular set of algorithms (developed by its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin) called Pagerank, which rates
  72. 133 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD 8 You are Your Network YOU ARE YOUR NETWORK We feel mpelled to repeat ths over and over agan “You are your network”. Havng ths perspectve s very mportant when thnkng and practsng ‘networkng’. A sngle partcle of nano-dust n the unverse, no matter how spectacular t s, s pretty useless wthout ts bonds to other dust and matter whch ultmately shape unversal forms such as sand dunes, planets, solar system and even galaxes. Ths s true for all of us as well. If you work alone, your venture s not gong to go too far, even f t s the most nnovatve one around. Contrary to popular belef, the world has never been changed by a sngle ndvdual or dea. In most cases, the ndvdual or the dea acts as a trgger for the change. In order to acheve a massve cascade of reactons to form an event (change), the trggerng agent has to be connected to a network that s susceptble to the partcular seed of change. Recent studes have revealed that the cascadng or dffuson of nnovaton has more to do wth the readness of the partcular network rather than the characterstcs of the nnovaton tself. Ths s especally evdent n the phenomenon of mega-projects that fal n one country but do well n another; provng that you can’t mport an externally successful nnovaton wthout adaptng t to the local context. On the other hand, many of us tend to thnk that we lack the necessary connectons to moblze support and brng about change n the world. Worst stll, we also thnk that the few frends and connectons we have are smply not enough to be connected to the rest of the world, partcularly to those that are very nfluental, who mght be able to help make a dfference. Lets begn by strkng out all of those usual tendences or thoughts we have. You, beleve t or not, you actually do know people who mght be able to help you make a dfference. How could ths be possble? Through your ntal connectons,
  73. 135 135 CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD STARUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD you can get connected to another set of connectons that wll ultmately lead resources, or buld partnershps. Once you’ve done that t’s smply about you to the desred ndvduals. The global socal networks are more densely findng the rght people to ‘jam’ wth. If you can ‘schmooze’ or converse wth connected than you would have magned. the rght people, all else wll flow. Obvously, every relatonshp s a two- way street. Ths means that you have got to be able to offer the other party Stanley Mlgram, a Harvard socal psychologst, conducted an experment n somethng n exchange for what they can offer you (ncludes both tangble the nneteen sxtes to find out how human bengs are connected to each and ntangble exchanges). other. Mlgram found that a person s generally connected to another person n five or sx steps. Ths s how the concept of ‘sx degrees of separaton’ But how do you know who is right for you? got defined. It smply states that, we are generally no more than 6 degrees Who wll be better-off by hangng out wth you n such a way that t’s a wn- (persons) from another person n the world. If you would to look hard wn deal? enough, you can probably reach some of the most nfluental people n the world by smply startng wth your frends and relatves. Uniquely useful identity, you shall have Ths s where thnkng outsde the box s qute useless. To figure out who To better understand the scale of thngs, let’s assume you have a hundred s rght for you to network wth, you must actually start wth questons frends, and that frend has roughly a hundred frends as well. In the first lke ‘Who are you?’, ‘Why are you useful?’, ‘What’s my value?’ ‘What and degree, you are connected to a hundred people (your ntal set of frends), why would anybody wth a sane mnd want to come and jam wth me?’. by the second degree though, you are connected to ten thousand people Answerng those questons nvolves a bt of soul-searchng. Therefore you’ll (100 people x 100 people). The thrd degree yelds one mllon connectons, need to dg deep to find out how unque you are. the fourth degree exceeds a hundred mllon connectons and by the fifth degree you are connected to approxmately 9 bllon people, whch s the You mght be askng, “Why do we need to soul-search n order to buld a total populaton of the world. In the scentfic world, ths phenomena s network? commonly called ether ‘sx degrees of separaton’ or ‘small world network’. In the real world though, you and your frends wll defintely share some The answer s that a ‘unque dentty’ attracts the rght people. The more common frends, whch wll make each degree concentrated to fewer dstnct precse the dentty, the more people who share smlar thngs wll be connectons. Those of you who are famlar wth onlne socal network pulled n. The clearer the nucleus dentty s, the more t attracts meanngful stes such as frendster.com or lnkedn.com can see the extent of your ndvduals nto your lfe. Your dentty s lke gravty, the stronger the connectons vsualsed from the few frends that you begn wth ntally. dentty, the more powerful the gravtatonal force. We’re pretty sure at ths pont, you must be thnkng, “Ths s certanly a Your unque passon and capacty are at the core of your socal gravtatonal small world we lve n”. The seemngly paradoxcal nature of the ‘small field. Wthout those elements, you’ll become attached to others nstead of world’ phenomena doesn’t le n how we are connected but rather n how formng a useful socal network of your own. Ths means that you’ll always we don’t know whom we are connected to. It s very dfficult to dentfy be part of the ‘supportng cast’ nstead of beng n a ‘leadng role’ network. whch connectons lead to whom. Although these connectons mght ex- Each person that you are able to attract to your network, adds value to t. In st, you can’t really navgate across the network wthout lookng at the bg other words, your value wll ncrease by attractng more people. In pcture first. More mportantly though, we have to realze that we’re probably network scences, the MetCalfe law states that the value of any network connected, through a few degrees, to the people we would lke to get to grows exponentally every tme a new member has joned. For example, know and t’s just a matter of mappng out our network, strengthenng those popular webstes tend to attract more and more users the same way popular tes and findng the rght path to them. Ths chapter s amed at helpng you people attract more people to them. Of course, ths doesn’t mean that you navgate your network n a more strategc manner, preferably by leveragng have to recreate a socal network that orbts around yourself as f you are a the credblty of your common frendly connectons. Roman Emperor. It’s more mportant that you dlgently create your ‘sphere of nfluence’ wthn a massvely overlappng unverse of socal networks. Before you begn buldng and navgatng across your network, t s always mportant to dentfy your needs - buld a reputaton, rase money and The smplest way to create a ‘sphere of nfluence’ for yourself s to begn by
  74. 137 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD answerng ths queston: How are you unquely useful to the others? Guy Kawasaki’s ‘Schmoozing’ Rules Once you’ve found where you stand n the unverse, and have equpped yourself wth Find, create, trade and share ‘Social Currency’ some socal currency, t’s tme to ht the road along wth an easy-to-read namecard Once you’ve dentfied your unqueness and poston n the socal networkng and ‘schmooze’ your way through the dfferent groups you’ll encounter. The dctonary defines ‘schmoozng’ as ‘to talk ntmately and cozly’. That’s really what you should game, lke any good player, you must begn accumulatng currency to am to do - reach a level of communcaton that allows you to ‘talk ntmately and cozly’ play the game. Money s not the only currency to consder. In realty, t’s wth your desred connecton. Guy Kawasak, whom we refer to as an evangelcal venture hardly of any real value for a socal entrepreneur to navgate through socal captalst, argues that the key to success n networkng s to establsh a relatonshp before you even see a need for t. In that way you’ll be returnng to them for a favor more networks. In most socal networks, the currency that stands out s dfferent as a frend than as a stranger. The followng s a summary of hs key ponts: forms of socal currency. Socal currency can be loosely defined as nsder nformaton, gossp or latest nformaton that would be enough to connect Know what you can do for others you to others mght be relevant. To be good at schmoozng, try fndng out how you can be of value or help to the other person. Once you’ve establshed ths, the rest of the relatonshp becomes easer. Lke any other forms of currency, socal currency s a means to somethng else rather than an end n tself. It allows people to ntate more Get out to the events We know workshops and conferences can be borng but you’ll never know who you mght run conversaton and further networkng. It s an excuse for people to start nto. Also, most of the mportant deals are usually made n person, not onlne. talkng and to get to know more about each other. A person who begns a conversaton wth ‘It was really warm today, eh?’ smply cannot be compared Ask key questions, then shut up and listen to someone who says ‘Dd you know, Soros (OSI) just funded a couple of Good schmoozers don’t talk a lot. Instead, they’re really good lsteners who ask the key questons such as “What do you do?”, “What brngs you to the conference?”. They appear to be mllon dollars to brng down the Burmese junta?”. Ths s not to downgrade really attentve to what the other person has to say. conversatons that are based on weather, but, f you’re nterested n hookng the person you’re talkng to, t has to be somethng beyond weather. Unveil your passions Talkng purely about work or busness can become borng. Try to lghten the atmosphere by talkng about your passons or fndng out what the other person’s passons are. Smple In order to dentfy the knd of content a group would consder valuable, questons lke “What sort of musc do you lsten to?”, and “Do you lke travellng?” can be lfesavers. you’ll have to smply observe by lstenng to key words that they would usually menton. The best knd of socal currency doesn’t just get people Read a lot to prepare yourself talkng, t gves them a sense of belongng to a partcular communty that Beng a good schmoozer means that you have to be a good conversatonalst. To be a good allows them to have a shared-experence from the nformaton. It’s almost conversatonalst, you have to have a broad knowledge base to be able to mantan conversatons on varous topcs. Achevng ths entals readng lke mad and all the tme. One smlar to beng part of cult-lke groups or brands such as Apple, Harley good tp s to download an RSS reader program lke NetNewsWre that helps you aggregate Davdson, the Open Source communty, or even the Cosplay fashon culture. content from any webste or blog that has a RSS feature (refer to chapter on Socal Communcatons for more nformaton on RSS). As n any group, the more you know about the whole subculture, the more you’re recognzed as ts leadng peer. Follow up with all those name cards The best schmoozers always follow-up wthn twenty four hours wth a short emal. A smple When tryng to dentfy the socal currences of dfferent groups, try lookng message wll do but try not to make t look lke a standard one whch you’ve used many tmes. for what makes them excted or what turns them on. Once you’ve dentfied the elements, you can look thngs up from the Internet, or even ask your Make it easy to get in touch with you Make sure you’re easy to get n touch wth. You should avod gvng out ncomplete contact frends about those topcs. In order to gan a unque postonng n the nformaton. Have a smple and clear name-card that s ready to be handed out at all tmes. socal currency game, you’ll have to try to become a platform where people exchange ther socal currency through you. Give favors Belef n karma can help here. Helpng people wthout thnkng of gettng anythng back n return s always a good thng to do. Somehow, someday you’ll see the payback. If you are able to grow your network sufficently, you can broadcast people’s stores to dfferent groups based on how you feel t matches or even Ask for the return of favors connect people who have shared-nterests. When you’re good at ths, you Becomng good frends entals havng to exchange favours. Don’t feel shy about askng for a wll become unquely useful to people and they wll be more comfortable to return favor. share ther connectons and socal currences wth you. Source: Summarzed from Guy Kawasak’s post “The Art of Schmoozng” from hs blog “How to Change the World” (http://blog.guykawasak.com/2006/02/the_art_of_schm.html), Feb 01, 2006.
  75. 139 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Impact-focused Network Weaver techncal superorty but rather the ablty to weave the rght networks n order The key dfference between a typcal ‘schmoozer’ and a socal entrepreneur to acheve massve scale. s that the latter has a sncere vson and commtment to change the world. You’ll have to make ths clear from the very begnnng, especally when you are You have to begn changng your role from the popular ‘change maker’ nto thnkng or engagng n any networkng. As a socal entrepreneur, you are more the less glamourous ‘change weaver’. You’ll have to cease ownershp of your nterested n how your nnovaton can be scaled or replcated n order to brng nnovaton n order for t to grow. Thnk of t as a lvng organsm that absorbs about change and mprove the lves of people. To do so, you need to be able to resources and contnues growng wthout any barrers. You are no longer the grasp the bg pcture of networkng that goes far beyond typcal ‘schmoozng’. ‘mghty creator’ but rather a ‘benevolent nfluencer’ preferably wth a veto power. If you thnk you can mpact the lves of mllons of people all by yourself, thnk agan! You can’t create mpact all by yourself, not even f you have the most The most successful socal entrepreneurs rely heavly on ther networks. They ntellgent group of people as your team. Here are some examples why: spend a consderable amount of tme buldng ther network rather than ther techncal capabltes on a specfic subject. These more techncal ssues are M. S. Swamnathan trggered the green revoluton n Inda couple of decades commonly taken on by ther peers, partners, marketers, nvestors or even ago, resultng n the rapd ncrease n Inda’s agrcultural productvty, becomng shared-nterest communtes. Regardless of the type of venture you are runnng, a netexporter of food, mprovng the lves of mllons of people, especally you need to buld your network ecosystem so that t mnmally conssts of the through the elmnaton of large scale famne n Inda. followng groups of stakeholders: The Grameen bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus, provdes small loans small to the poor whle focusng on communty development. It s one of the most successful bankng practces developed for the poor and t has scaled nto a massve mcrofinance movement. Lnux, programmed by Lnus Torvalds, s an open source operatng system for computers that allow programmers to contnuously mprove, correct and adapt t collectvely over tme at no cost. Today, Lnux has become the back- bone of the Internet, where t s a fixture n most servers around the world. The emergence of Lnux smultaneously trggered the ‘open source movement’, whch has become a shared deology amongst mllons of people around the world to develop more software based on ths phlosophy. Wkpeda, created by Jmmy Wales, has become the world’s bggest onlne free encyclopeda where people can edt and contrbute artcles collectvely as a communty. There are several mllon artcles n scores of languages, resultng n the mproved ablty of mllons of people to access basc knowledge. Thnk about the cases above. How do you thnk those ndvduals pulled off such great feats? Could they have done t all by themselves? The only way to acheve massve scale s through the power of the networks. The myth of the lone socal entrepreneur conceptualzng an nnovaton and ultmately creatng an empre of good s far off from the realty of thngs. To understand ths, one must forego one’s own ego and accept that successful socal nnovaton and ts mpact has much less to do wth god-lke character or
  76. 141 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD Customers or target beneficiaries usually compete wth you to attract fundng and n servcng your target groups. These are your clents, people you furnsh wth products or servces. To best As a result you’ll have to bench-mark your work aganst thers to find your serve them, you must know the followng: dfferentaton and unque ponts. If possble, t mght even be useful to work - f they can be segmented nto dfferent groups together wth them as partners whle fully utlzng each other’s strengths to - the level of engagement you need to have wth them acheve scale. - what ther needs are and how they feel about your servce Beyond ths mappng exercse, t’s mportant to realze that the only way to Your customers’ feedback and nsght on your servces are crucal nput as part scale-up massvely n a short perod of tme s to have a robust socal movement. of makng your socal nnovaton more partcpatory, open and adaptve. In dong so, you must engage wth as many dfferent people from varous groups as possble. Tradtonally, you can categorze these groups that you’ll have to Talent pool engage wth nto 3 groups: The networks you have can also nfluence the type of people that mght end up beng part of your team. Therefore you have to strategcally poston yourself n Core - people who are most engaged wth your work or venture varous hghly talented networks to meet your human resource needs. As socal entrepreneurs, we are unable to provde purely monetary ncentves to attract Contributors - people on the perphery that support your work or venture but talented and dynamc people. As a result, we’ll have to showcase a whole set are slghtly less engaged. of ntangble benefits that a person mght receve when takng up a poston n our venture. In dong ths, you must observe and mmerse yourself nto ther Jammers - people who love to partcpate n many dfferent actvtes wthout networks to find out what they value. Hostng or jonng a party s always a ever commttng to a sngle one. good startng pont to schmooze your way through the networks. By categorzng the people around your work or venture n such a way, you’ll be Donors or investors able to better manage the relatonshps you’ll have wth the dfferent groups of It’s good to have the fath of a Buddhst when dealng wth donor or nvestors. people. Ths wll help them contrbute more effectvely based on ther level of You have to always expect doors slammng on you and frequent and emphatc nterest and engagement. You’ll also find t easer to dentfy the ncentves they “No!” answers to your requests. As dscussed further n the Fund Attracton reap from gettng engaged and contrbutng n order to help convert them from chapter, you need to know who they are, ther nterests, how are they beng less engaged to beng fully engaged. connected n order to pursue your resource moblzaton plan. However, t s mportant to keep n mnd that you don’t need money from everyone, so don’t In hs remarkably popular book, The Tppng Pont, Malcolm Gladwell argues ask them for the money all the tme. Be useful to ther needs, try to go beyond that the spread of socal contagons or trends can be traced back to a small but strctly a transactonal relatonshp, keep them as frends and let the future hghly nfluental group of people who have unque characterstcs. They are unfold. grouped as connectors, mavens and salespeople. He argues that t’s your job to find these people, attract them to your network and wn ther favors as they are Complimentary networks potentally capable of helpng you spread your messages and ultmately startng Your complmentary networks consst of people wth unque capactes who an epdemc of sorts. Here’s a bref summary of the characterstcs of these key mght be your potental partners, marketers, legal advsors, or every other socal nfluencers: enterprses nterested n scalng or replcatng your socal nnovaton. These people are crucal to your success. To effectvely moblze them, you need to Connectors map out what knd of partnershp or frendly favors you need from them and - commonly know a lot of people and keep track of ther socal network through vce versa, who can you engage, and n what sequence you should engage phone number lsts, emals, nstant messengers them. - have an extraordnary capablty of makng frends and acquantances, makng socal connectons. Competitors - manage to be n many dfferent worlds and subcultures and nches. By havng Do you know who else s dong somethng smlar to you? It’s qute mportant to know who your compettors are. On a practcal level, your compettors
  77. 143 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD a foot n so many dfferent worlds, they have the effect of brngng them all source or dstrbuted collaboraton model. together and spreadng messages. The open source movement began n the software ndustry, where programmers Mavens began to open up ther code sources for others to freely use, repar, develop, - also known as nformaton specalsts - once they are mpressed by a certan and even copy, so long as the programs were not beng sold for profit. It s offer/ product/ servce, they gather the necessary nformaton and nfluence ther ths wdespread use of open source software that has led to the advent of the frends and people they meet about t Internet becomng one of the largest networks that connects bllons of people - usually have a teacher-student relatonshp wth ther frends and people together. Beng ‘open source’ s not about the free software or the nnovatve around them; they lke to be the ones that appear to be the expert on thngs and technologes, t s a more sprtual thng. ‘Open source’ s all about harnessng lke to advse others the free-wll of communty partcpaton wth dfferent degrees of spontaneous collaboraton. The dea s smple, let’s share what we have and let others Salespeople contrbute! - are experts at persuadng people who are unconvnced of what they hear about offers/ products/ servces The phlosophy behnd the open source movement has led to the growth of - frequently use the art of motor mmcry - to mtate each other’s emotons other smlar movements such as Open Content (sharng of any type of creatve as a way of expressng support and care and, even more bascally, as a way of content - musc, art, etc) and Open Scence (sharng of scentfic knowledge and communcatng wth each other and ultmately persuadng the person dscoveres). The basc model of these movements reman the same - share what you have, create a platform for partcpaton and make the decson makng *Source: Malcolm Gladwell, The Tppng Pont, Lttle Brown, 2001. process absolutely transparent. The sprt of open source has resulted n the emergence of many onlne communtes that are changng how people nteract, Although these classficatons mght appear oversmplfied, recent scentfic share and learn from each other. Here are several key examples: studes on socal networks mostly pont to the same drecton - the whole world conssts of overlappng socal networks that are typcally connected to a few Wikipedia ultra-connected hubs (ndvduals or groups). Surprsngly, these enttes are not It s the world’s bggest free encyclopeda n terms of artcle entres. There are that well known or popular and are as a result very dfficult to access. These over a mllon artcles n Englsh alone and a growng number n other languages. hubs are made up of normal people that very few know of, but they somehow Wkpeda allows people to openly share ther knowledge on a varety of ssues know everyone and have managed to gan the trust of others. In practcal terms, by contrbutng artcle entres onlne. Hundreds of thousands of people also ths s not that hard to understand. We’re sure you remember that one person collaboratvely edt any artcle on ts database resultng many self-organzed ether n school or at the workplace who mantans a very low profile but s communtes that are formed around varous topcs. These communtes also connected to people at all ranks. help mantan the qualty and accuracy of each artcle entry and ts revsons. All artcles on Wkpeda can be coped and reused freely (GNU free documentaton It’s crucal to map out all these networks clusterng around your venture. Ideally, lcense). In a way, t has become a repostory for the world’s knowledge, result- you should try to become the ntersecton of these networks to broker the best ng n ‘global bran’ of sorts. deas, technologes, talent and resources to catalyze scalable socal nnovaton. It would be rather dfficult for you to effectvely reach your goals f you haven’t Creative Commons mapped out your networks. Protectng your ntellectual property (deas or nnovaton) through Copyrght has been one of the world’s major drvers of nnovaton. However, an over Open source yourself protecton of copyrghts can also cause nnovaton to stagnate as people can’t cross-pollnate by leveragng deas and nnovaton from others. The ‘Creatve For most of ths chapter, we have focused our attenton on buldng connectons Commons’ movement, also known as ‘Copyleft’, allows owners of varous and attractng the rght knd of people nto our networks. In ths secton, we’ll be types of ntellectual property (wrtng, mages, vdeos, etc.) to share, exchange dscussng about how you can source the ntellgence and sklls from an nfinte and dstrbute ther work for free as long as t’s used non-commercally. Ths amount of people to collaborate and contrbute to the development of your gudebook s also publshed under the Creatve Commons lcense for young nnovaton. The strategy that we’re referrng to revolves around the whole open people to use freely n developng ther socal nnovaton.
  78. 145 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD WHO & SARS example, f you can upload some of your work on open platforms lke The first clue of the Severe Acute Respratory Syndrome (SARS) epdemc Sldeshare.net and watch how popular t becomes by the vew count. If your emerged on an open collaboraton platform whch was part of the World Health work becomes popular, you can reveal proof that t has acheved scale or been Organsaton’s (WHO) Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network (GOARN). adopted. Varous laboratores and nterested scentsts shared key nformaton both on the spread and solutons for the epdemc n real-tme. All key findngs and Create a platform for nteracton - Ths smply means that you should am dscussons between varous partcpants were posted on the platform for to create a ‘playground’ for people to nteract and share wth one another; anyone to use for further nvestgaton nto the cause and the development ultmately formng a communty around your nnovaton. To acheve ths, you of a cure for the vrus. The platform facltated a sort of ‘dvson of labor’ that start ether a smple message board, a group blog servce, a socal network allowed partcpants to focus on ther relatve strengths whle reapng the servce or even a physcal space where people can come together once n a benefits from global nformaton sharng. Wthn a few short months, solutons whle. for the epdemc were created and mplemented; thus smultaneously launchng the world nto a new chapter of open scentfic co-dscovery. Create meanngful core communty - You can’t serve the whole world. Ths means that you can’t attract and wll never be able to attract a huge number of people The Burrito Project all by yourself. The dea s to share somethng unque and meanngful wth The Burrto project, whch was started by a small group of young people from the your core communty and allow them to freely attract others who mght share a Unted States, became popular across the world through an onlne socal network smlar passon. Always start very small and let them draw ther peers n. called ‘MySpace.com’. Amed at solvng hunger n poor urban communtes, the project began wth a group of young people bloggng about ther efforts n Full dsclosure and full credts - One of the most common reasons for a vbrant makng and dstrbutng the burrtos to the selected communtes. By postng onlne communty to fal s the loss of trust amongst ts members and the ther project dea and experences onlne, other users became attracted to the network. When people are dong somethng voluntarly, they do not lke ther dea and began replcatng t on a massve scale n the U.S. and across the world trust assaulted. From the very begnnng of the project, you’ll have to make sure to places lke Syra. that you dsclose the followng nformaton: All these examples above prove that there are so many people out there who - persons nvolved n startng the project want to do good and share your passon, t doesn’t matter f you don’t know - the purpose of the project them personally but t s crtcal for you to make whatever you are dong - owner of the project, avalable onlne n order for others to partcpate. - how communty decsons are made, - what knd of benefits members reap (monetary and non-monetary) Here’s a summary of how you can prepare your nnovaton or venture to be open - how the project s financally sustanable, sourced: If there are surprses along the way, people wll lose ther trust and leave your Make everythng avalable - Make all your deas, and experences avalable communty feelng betrayed. onlne, preferably usng a Creatve Commons lcense n order for others to scale or replcate. Beleve t or not, you can acheve benefits from ths as you wll Another key ssue, s to provde credts to everyone nvolved n the project, even ultmately be credted for spawnng the dea, nnovaton or venture. f t was someone you talked to a long tme back whle conceptualzng your dea. The more people perceve you as beng generous wth your credts, the more Document your work and share your methodologes - The faster you develop and ncentve they’ll have to help you. There have been many cases where people up-load clear documentaton on your work and the methodologes nvolved, the have not been recognzed for ther contrbutons and ths has resulted n bg easer t wll become for your stake-holders (donors, clents, etc.) to understand scandals. Provdng full dsclosure and credts s a necessary but very senstve your work. It would also be easer for others to scale or replcate your efforts and delcate matter. The key thng to remember s to always be far to everyone n other places. Agan, all credt wll drectly come back to you and you would around you. One small gltch and t could potentally be perlous for your network always become the reference pont for the ssues you work on. Ths s especally and socal venture. As Google’s motto goes, “Do no evl!” crucal for new ventures to gan more credblty n the field that they are n. For
  79. 147 CHAPTER EIGHT STARTUP AND CHANGE THE WORLD ADVICE FROM Here’s a summary of the key points that transpired from our conversation ASHOK KHOSLA with Dr. Khosla 1. Integrity and accountability - You have to stand up for what’s rght. Never compromse your honesty and moralty even f t can expedte partcular processes. Also, be accountable for your actons. Wthout trust from your team At last year’s Global Knowledge Partnershp members, the venture wll never grow and become strong. Make ethcal (GKP) annual members’ meetng n Colombo, decsons, do what s rght, perod. Sr Lanka, the Youth Socal Enterprse 2. Compensate well, but not only with money - All of your team members should be compensated properly. They should not be made to feel as Intatve (YSEI) team and ts Fellows had the f ther tme and energy s not valuable. In addton, not all compensaton needs opportunty to spend some tme wth Dr. to be n the form of money. Most of the tme, recognton of ther work can go a very long way. Ashok Khosla, a renowned socal 3. Clients first! - Your clents are your reason of exstence. Therefore, try to entrepreneur who, as the Charman of provde the best servce possble to them and contnuously strve to make Development Alternatves, s well known for mprovements. hs nnovatve approaches to rural 4. Excellency and relevancy - Very smply, you have to be best at what you development. For someone who has acheved do n a gven context. You have to be able to surpass your compettors! Ideally, t would be better not to have any compettors at all. There s no substtute tremendous success and has brought about for the hghest possble degree of effectveness and efficency f you want your venture to have a real future. Addtonally, your work must be relevant to your sgnficant change n the world, Dr. Khosla clents’ real needs and context. Wthout t, your clent wll not really care, was one of the most down-to-earth and eventually your partners wll not too. approachable people at the event. He was 5. Worry about your finances - Yes, we dd say ‘worry’. If you’re not knd enough to share some key nsghts and worred, you’re never gong to be able to rase the funds you need. Even the most successful socal entrepreneurs are always worred about ther venture’s advce on what he thnks every emergng costs and ther next source of fundng. socal entrepreneur should keep n mnd. 6. Never give up! - “You have to realze that most of world wll never recognze your efforts and there wll always be challenges along the way. The only way to stay alve s to never gve up!”.
  80. RESOURCES Programs/Courses Held by Unverstes Socal Enterprse at Harvard Busness School an ntatve by Harvard to teach and tran ts students on managng socal enterprses at a sustanable level. (www.hbs.edu/socalenterprse/) The School for Socal Entrepreneurs (SSE) a UK based programme for Socal entrepreneurs that helps sustan, support and grow organsatons establshed n local settngs. (www.sse.org.uk) Stanford’s Centre for Socal Innovaton Unversty centre promotng the applcaton of entrepreneural management to the socal sector. (www.gsb.stanford.edu/cs/) Sad School of Busness offers an MBA n socal entrepreneurshp and s the global centre for socal entrepreneurshp n the UK, provdng both research and educaton for the furtherng of socal enterprses (www.sbs.ox.ac.uk) Centers For Socal Entrepreneurshp Centre for Advancement of Socal Entrepreneurshp (CASE) holds semnars and lectures to generate nterest and awareness and to make people more knowledgeable about the concept of Socal Entrepreneurshp. (www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/) Canadan Centre for Socal Entrepreneurshp a Canadan verson of the CASE that also provdes techncal and financal support for Socal Entrepreneurs. (http://www.busness.ualberta.ca/ccse/) Insttute for Socal Entrepreneurs provdes tranng and consultancy servces for socal enterprses n North Amerca (www.socalent.org)
  81. Socal Enterprse Program at Columba Busness School Socal Edge Empowers students to acheve socal benefit through busness practces and a program of the Skoll foundaton that connects socal entrepreneurs, to help encourages research and educaton n the field of Socal Entrepreneurshp. them learn and dscuss the dfferent practces used n runnng an (www2.gsb.columba.edu/socalenterprse/) entrepreneurshp (www.socaledge.org) Meda Publcatons Idealst A webste whch provdes opportuntes for people, organzatons and consultants Fast Company to collaborate wth one another and successfully buld a socal enterprse a magazne that takes an nnovatve approach to publshng artcles, anecdotes (http://dealst.org/) and real-lfe stores on the sklls and abltes requred to run an enterprse. (www.fastcompany.com) Fundng Assocatons for Socal Enterprses Makng Waves a Canadan magazne that s prmarly nvolved n the plannng of CED’s Skoll Foundaton (communty economc developments) and socal entrepreneurshp workshops. gves grants and provdes development programs to support socal (www.cedworks.com) entrepreneural organzatons (www.skollfoundaton.org) Acumen Fund Network Lnks for Socal Entrepreneurs an nternatonal fund, based n the US, that lnks serous phlanthropsts wth socal nnovators. Futureshfters (www.acumenfund.org ) an onlne socal network dedcated to young socal entrepreneurs to share, engage and meet peers and potental supporters The Scarman Trust (www.futureshfters.net) a UK charty commtted to helpng ctzens brng about change n the Brtsh communty Unltd World (www.thescarmantrust.org/) an onlne socal network by Unltd UK to connect socal entrepreneurs wth varous stakeholders ChangeMakers (www.unltdworld.com) an Ashoka ntatve that provdes financal awards to buddng socal entrepreneurs, whose deas have the ablty to help change the world Schwab Foundaton (www.changemakers.net) conssts of a network of outstandng ndvdual socal entrepreneurs throughout the world, t s lnked wth the World Economc Forum. The Omdyar Network (www.schwabfound.org/) funds socal enterprses to try and foster a sense of ndvdual self-empowerment on a global scale. The Echong Green foundaton (www.omdyar.net) an Amercan based assocaton that endorses Internatonal fellowshps of ndvdual socal entrepreneurs. GlobalGvng (www.echonggreen.org) provdes a forum for socal entrepreneurs to put-up ther respectve projects and requests for fundng. Here, prvate donors fund projects or deas that they beleve are capable of creatng vast socal mpact (www.globalgvng.com/)
  82. Support (Inclusve of Fundng) Organzatons BIBLIOGRAPHY for Socal Entrepreneurshps Andrew W. Savtz & Karl Weber, The Trple Bottom Lne, Jossey Bass, 2006. NESsT Nonprofit organzatons supportng the development of socal enterprse n Chp Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stck, Random House, 2007. Central and Eastern Europe and Latn Amerca. (www.nesst.org) Davd Bornsten, How to Change the World, Oxford Unversty Press, 2004. CIVICUS Guy Kawasak, The Art of the Start, Pengun Group, 2004. helps cvl socety organsatons acheve ther goals by helpng them plan ther actons and actvtes Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty, Pengun Group, 2005. (www.cvcus.org) J. Gregory Dees, Strategc Tools for Socal Entrepreneurs, Wley, 2002. ASHOKA an nternatonal fellowshp of socal entrepreneurs that promotes the J. Gregory Dees, The Meanng of “Socal Entrepreneurshp”, May 30, 2001. development and sustanablty of socal entrepreneurshps (www.ashoka.org) Measurng Socal Impact: the foundaton of socal return on nvestment, SROI Prmer, New Economcs Foundaton, 2004 Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve promotes the dea of socal entrepreneurshp among youths and empower young Mchael Allson and Jude Kaye, Strategc Plannng for Nonprofit Organzatons, socal entrepreneurs n developng countres by provdng assstance n 4 key Wley, 2005. areas - knowledge. networkng, mentorshp and financng (www.yse.org) Roger L. Martn & Sally Osberg, “Socal Entrepreneurshp: The Case for Definton”, Stanford Socal Innovaton Revew, Sprng 2007. Youth Venture A branch of Ashoka’s socal msson that provdes dsadvantaged youth wth the lmted tools to buld cvc-mnded clubs, busnesses or organzatons Thomas Homer Dxon, The Ingenuty Gap, Vntage, 2001. (www.genv.net) UnLtd s a charty whch supports socal entrepreneurs and helps make ther deas a realty (www.unltd.org.uk/) APERIO consults and supports socal entrepreneurshps, n the hope of creatng a growng, sustanable entrepreneural socal sector (www.pepntranquada.com) Draper Rchards Foundaton endows fellowshps to young socal entrepreneurs and supports them durng the start-up phase to help create a wde-reachng socal change (www.draperrchards.org/)
  83. ABOUT THE AUTHORS S. Dev Appanah (dev@ysei.org) Dev s co-founder and senor program coordnator of YSEI. He s experenced n socal enterprse startup finance & ncubaton, havng asssted over 20 socal Sunit Shrestha enterprse startups and moblzed socal enterprse financng and resources from (sunit@ysei.org) nternatonal organzatons, development agences and prvate sector. In addton Sunt s co-founder and program lead of YSEI. He’s also Managng Drector of to ths gudebook, he has wrtten several artcles on socal enterprse and ChangeFuson (formerly known as TRN Insttute), a provder of socal nnovaton sustanable development and also frequently speaks at nternatonal conferences desgn and nvestment and ncubaton servces. The venture has launched on those topcs. He’s currently Investment Manager at ChangeFuson. Vst hs varous socal nnovaton projects and contnues to support socal enterprses led blog at www.devantsadvantage.com by young adults n the South and East Asa regon. Vst ChangeFuson at www.ch angefuson.org.
  84. About YSEI Youth Socal Enterprse Intatve (YSEI) s a socal venture program that nvests n young vsonares who have bg deas and who need crucal startup support to turn ther deas nto acton. YSEI s a Global Knowledge Partnershp (GKP) program developed by ts members ChangeFuson, Mtra and OrphanIT. The program s supported by the Swss Agency for Development and Cooperaton (SDC). Vst www.yse.org for further nformaton. About GKP Global Knowledge Partnershp (GKP) s a mult-stakeholder network promotng nnovaton and advancement n Knowledge for Development (K4D) and Informaton and Communcaton Technologes for Development (ICT4D). GKP brngs together Publc Sector, Prvate Sector and Cvl Socety organzatons wth the goal of Sharng Knowledge and Buldng Partnershps n K4D and ICT4D. GKP actvtes and programs foster the nnovatve applcaton of knowledge and technology to address and solve development ssues n four strategc themes - Access to Knowledge, Educaton, Poverty Reducton and Resource Moblzaton. GKP operates globally as well as n 7 regons: Afrca, Central and Eastern Europe; East Asa; Latn Amerca and the Carbbean; Mddle East and North Afrca; Oceana and South Asa. GKP members demonstrate deas through projects on the ground; and they nfluence polcy at a global level. GKP was founded n 1997. The network comprses over 100 members spannng 40 countres. It s governed by an elected Executve Commttee and supported by a Secretarat based n Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa. Vst www.globalknowledge.org for further nformaton.

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