Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 aug 2015

Wikipedia defines 'Social Enterprise' as, 'An organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being - this may include maximizing social impact rather than profits for external shareholders. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form (depending in which country the entity exists and the legal forms available) of a co-operative, mutual organization, a disregarded entity, a social business, a benefit corporation, a community interest company or a charity organization.' Like any other organization the success of 'Social Enterprises' depends on variety of internal and external factors like leadership, teamwork, passion, infrastructural ecosystem, investor capital etc. Dick Gygi, a veteran social ventures leader & co-founder of 3 social enterprises, shares his experience and outlines factors essential for social entrepreneurs to lead their enterprises to success - (1) Get clear on the mission and stay mission-centered. (2) Test the business model for sustainability before you bet the farm. (3) Don't do it alone. Build a strong team and do your best. Then, delegate the rest. (4) Persevere. It takes more time and money than you think. (5) Measure desired outcomes - financial and mission impact. Read on...

Nashville Business Journal: 5 lessons learned in 10 years of leading Nashville social enterprises
Author: Dick Gygi

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 may 2015

According to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) website, 'UNDP assists partners to achieve sustainable, people-centered development through an integrated approach that links policy with planning and programming, for promoting results based management, instating quality safeguards, monitoring and evaluating impact and equally learning from failures and successes.' Innovation is an integral part of the development program and requires investments to fulfil the goals. UNDP has defined nine innovation principles - (1) Design with the User (2) Understand the Existing Ecosystem (3) Design for Scale (4) Build for Sustainability (5) Be Data Driven (6) Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation (7) Reuse and Improve (8) Do no harm (9) Be Collaborative. In the context of development, innovation means to embrace complexity and accept diversity of solutions, and it implies that breakthroughs can only be created in partnership. As Millennium Development Goals are set to run their course, the agreement is now being sought on new development priorities. The Innovation Facility's 'Year in Review' report identifies six areas where UNDP will seek to innovate in 2015 and beyond - (1) What exactly, is the problem?: Social challenges are becoming increasingly complex. Focus is on understanding the problem based on available data. Big data analysis and embracing ethnographic methods to better understand diverse perspectives of the people affected by development challenges. (2) The best ideas come from surprising people and places: Looking for models and ideas beyond UNDP. Community solutions and open innovation challenges can encourage startups, NGOs and other partners to propose concrete solutions to problems or an opportunity. (3) Test, measure, improve: Test multiple ideas and approaches and select the one that gives better results. (4) Who wants your idea?: Before making investment, seek a clear business plan to identify probable partners (government, private sector or NGO) to bring the idea to scale. (5) Can we create shared value?: For post-2015 agenda large investment by governments alongwith substantial support from private sector are required. Through building local partnerships, opportunities for shared value to be explored. (6) Forget failure - learn!: Learn by testing ideas and failures to improve performance. Innovation involves calculated risks. To get success learn and improve. Read on...

Devex Impact: 6 ways to innovate for development in 2015 and beyond
Author: Benjamin Kumpf

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 apr 2015

To get a for-profit social enterprise started and make it self-sustaining requires different types of fundraising at different stages of the venture's growth. Lisa Curtis, founder of Kuli Kuli Foods, suggests the following stepwise process to effectively finance the enterprise - (1) Put the idea for an enterprise on paper and participate in business plan competitions to win prizes and also to learn, connect and promote it to increase the chances of future funding. (2) Join an accelerator program as it helps to build the necessary funding network or sometimes it provides funds directly. (3) After business plan competition and refining the idea through an accelerator program, get on with crowdfunding campaign. But before the launch of crowdfunding it is important to know exactly how much money is required and what the final product will look like. (4) Once the product is ready for the market, it becomes important to sustain the business without running out of money. At this stage acquiring a loan will be an important financial strategy. (5) Once the business starts to grow and idea has got 'proof-of-concept' from the market, the next step is to seek angel investors. One way is to do an accredited-only crowdfunding campaign. Moreover join an investor network, prepare a solid executive summary and keep on pitching to prospective investors. (6) Keep the focus on the main purpose of the social enterprise i.e. to make a positive impact on the world. This will provide the strength to carry on during the challenging times. Read on...

Triple Pundit: 6 Steps to Finance Your New Social Enterprise
Author: Lisa Curtis

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 02 mar 2015

Indian society is facing multiple challenges like high poverty rates, child labor, female foeticide, illiteracy, malnutrition etc. To overcome these issues, considering the substantial population size, requires mobilization of large amount of resources, social innovations, entrepreneurial spirit and commitment from government, private sector and civil society. Philanthropists, alongwith NGOs and local level community and grassroots organizations, are trying to tackle old problems in innovative ways. And there is still large untapped potential that is waiting to be harnessed to make required changes for the betterment of Indian society particularly in the rural and tribal areas. Santanu Mishra, co-founder and executive trustee of Smile Foundation, explains how an initiative by Rajasthan government 'Padharo Mahari Lado' to protect the girl child is bearing fruit due to the collaborative efforts of Department of Health, Barmer, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Cairns India Limited and Smile Foundation. According to him, 'When a social innovation is intended through collaboration, it is very necessary that it features a common agenda, unbroken communication, effective measurement systems, and the presence of a core organization.' Read on...

Business Insider: How Indian NGOs are marrying Philanthropy with Social Innovations?
Author: Santanu Mishra

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 jan 2015

Nonprofits are always in need of support through funds, volunteers, materials etc. But if the nonprofit is a small one than the required help is even more. Jacqueline Wilson, founder of PrimeParentsClub.com, provides her opinion on why smaller nonprofits should be the focus of support of individuals and families - (1) Small nonprofits have little or no staff at all. (2) Salaries are super small (or non-existent) at smaller nonprofits. (3) Smaller nonprofits would go out of work without your help. (4) Small nonprofits rely on the kindness of strangers, i.e. anyone who can pitch in for support. (5) Smaller nonprofits aren't on the radar of big company donations. (6) Smaller nonprofits have even smaller marketing budgets. Read on...

Huffington Post: 6 Reasons Small Non-Profits Need Your Family's Help More Than the Bigger Non-Profits
Author: Jacqueline Wilson

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 dec 2014

Nonprofit funds are often acquired through donations, grants, fundraising, endowments, membership, and program fees and services. Although there are differences in nonprofit and for-profit models but success of both depends on similar operational effectiveness. Nonprofit leaders should follow the art of risk taking and strategic innovation that entrepreneurs follow to be successful. Professor Emad Rahim of Bellevue University suggests the following five key elements that nonprofit leaders should consider to operate like a startup - (1) A Nonprofit is a company (2) Operating effectiveness is essential (3) Donors are essentially customers (4) Good publicity can boost donations (5) A nonprofit has competitors. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Competitive Advantages To Help Nonprofits Think Like Entrepreneurs
Author: Emad Rahim

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 sep 2014

Donor support is the single most critical component that makes or breaks nonprofits. Most nonprofits spend a substantial part of their efforts to attract and nurture donors. Fear of failure often add to the worry of losing donor support. Main aim of social enterprises is to solve societal and community problems and they can do better if they embrace failure and learn from it. Epaminondas Farmakis, president and CEO of Elpis Philanthropy Advisors, suggests most common fear of failures - (1) Failure to Profit (Social entrepreneurs focus on providing sustainable social solutions to the communities they serve and also balance it with offering attractive returns to their investors. They need to have a right fit between investor values, community requirements & return on investments. Shareholders must understand that the primary goal of a social enterprise is to serve the community. (2) Failure to Measure (Since there are no clear methods of measuring nonprofit's success, there is always some ambiquity. So there has to be an understanding among the stakeholders regarding this. Researching on direct impact of donations for improvement of society can be one of the measure of their success. (3) Failure to Innovate (Social innovations go through a similar process of iterations and experimentations as for-profit innovations. And failure is part of the process. Learning from mistakes should happen all the time). Read on...

Devex Impact: 'Failing up' for social enterprise success
Author: Epaminondas Farmakis

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 may 2014

Nobel laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus, build the idea of microcredit and developed the concept of social business to solve social problems and created a substantial number of social entrepreneurs. According to him, 'application of social business concept in overcoming unemployment can produce a sustainable solution.' He is now embarking upon next level of social business concept, where loan or microcredit borrowing is displaced by equity investment in prospective social businesses, to tackle the problem of large number of youth unemployment. Social business funds are created for this purpose and the New Entrepreneur initiative was launched alongwith the Design Lab platform to bring entrepreneurs and investor funds together. (Social Business Funds -> Equity Investments -> Entrepreneurs -> Employment). This concept will be further expanded into self sustainable, unemployment and social problem free, autonomous Social Business Villages. Read on...

Huffington Post: "We Are Not Job-Seekers, We Are Job-Creators"-- Turning Unemployment into Entrepreneurship
Author: Muhammad Yunus

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 dec 2013

Healthy population is the essential component of development. In regions where substantial populations are residing in rural and remote areas, the challenge is to provide them with timely access of healthcare services and medicines. There are lessons that can be derived from retail supply chain management and processes to deliver medicines and health products effectively and efficiently. According to a report by CIHL (Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics) at the University of Arkansas, some of the best practices of retail supply chain that can be adopted by healthcare industry are - collaborative planning, forecasting & replenishment; scanning technology; education & training; centralized purchasing & supply; supply chain services reorganization; regular cycle counting and stock rotation; performance management; actual usage inventory management; e-commerce; data standardization. Read on...

the guardian: Getting medicines to the poor - Solving the logistics challenge
Author: Eliza Anyangwe

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 nov 2013

Most responsible companies around the world are taking diversity initiatives to build an inclusive business ecosystem - management, employees, suppliers, partners, etc - with representation from minority communities, women, people with disabilities etc. Similar initiative is underway in India where 6 big multinational corporations - Accenture, Intel, Marriott, HP, Wal-Mart and IBM - have come together to interact with 100 women owned and operated businesses. This was organized by a non-profit WEConnect International and supported by Times Foundation. The program is directed towards encouraging these corporations to procure a share of their products and services from women-run businesses. According to CEO of WEConnect International, Elizabeth Vazquez, "Women make 70% of the purchasing decisions at home. Yet, women entrepreneurs get only 1% of the global procurement business. They are missing in the supply chain." Read on...

The Times of India: Big companies look to buy from women entrepreneurs
Authors: Anshul Dhamija, Shilpa Phadnis

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