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Net Impact: Social Entrepreneurship at Work
Submitted by Francisco
Noguera on November 23, 2008 - 12:25.
Published in: Energy | Miscellaneous
Guest blogger Katherine Yue
is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global
Management where she has assisted in research on business
and capacity growth in microfinance and health
microfranchises. She interned for FINCA Jordan in its
founding year, strengthening business risk management
disciplines.
Prior to Thunderbird, Katherine was a project manager at the
largest health care organization in the US, leading in
process redesign and enterprise risk management systems. She
graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics with a
focus on society and technology.
By Katherine Yue
The second day of the 2008 Net Impact Conference took me
from an interactive workshop on scaling enterprises at the
base of pyramid to a session on strategic philanthropy.
Bringing it all home was a session called Social
Entrepreneurship At Work, Moderated by Mark Milstein from
Cornell University, with panelists Jordan Kassalow,
Co-Founder and Chairman of Vision Spring, Christine Eibs
Singer, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of E+Co,
Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder of Jaipur Rugs Company and
Jaipur Rugs Foundation.
In the audience, Jordan Kassalow pointed out Neil Blumenthal
and Jocelyn Wyatt's attendance and their instrumental
participation in the initial growth of VisionSpring. Tal
Dahtier, who started MBAs Without Borders, was also on hand
to encourage MBAs to pursue their passion in social
entrepreneurship.
Looking at the 100+ faces around the room, I wondered if
combining what the panelists knew about scale and about
mentorship came with the territory. Their advice captivated
the attention of everyone in the audience.
The panelists represented different types of social
enterprises:
VisionSpring, the "business in a (physical) bag," started
with a pilot funded by a "30 second elevator pitch". They
scaled through three partnership models and started plans to
support 69,000 Vision Entrepreneurs through BRAC.
E+Co was incubated under Rockefeller Foundation's support,
applying public-private capital before it was popular. More
than fifteen years later, they brought capital and capacity
support to 250 energy and 5 million new consumers.
Both VisionSpring and E+Co were recognized in the room. But
the students responded the most strongly to Mr. Nand Kishore
Chaudhary's story.
Nand started the Jaipur Rugs Company in India, and later the
Jaipur Rugs Foundation, on a $110 loan from his family. He
emphasized his experience of learning his craft - artisan
rug weaving - and maintaining strong values in caring for
his employee's welfare. His model eliminated handoffs
between the artisan and the market. Thirty years later, it
is now a $22 million enterprise still based in India and
exporting 90% of their products. From two weaving looms to
4,000 area managers and their village troops of weavers and
looms. As a fan of microloans, I very much appreciated Net
Impact inviting Jaipur Rugs to participate in the panel.
This was a social enterprise founder's panel for future
founders. After the panelists explained their models, Mark
quickly figured out that there were twenty or so aspiring
and active social entrepreneurs in the audience. As the
session progressed, the audience wanted to know about
sources of funding, calculating returns in a social
enterprise, scaling, and evolutions in their organization.
Themes and Take-Aways
Small returns does not equal small success. The three
organizations reinvest in their communities and in their
organization's ability to scale. Along those lines, in the
process of changing cultures on the client level, success
often meant baby steps.
Growth by replication. VisionSpring sought after key
partnerships with PSI and BRAC for their broad reach. Nand
Kishore started by training 20 weavers in one town, who then
went 800 miles further to train additional weavers, and
continued expanding their radius to 4,000 area managers now.
Persistence when your idea's not yet sexy. Glasses,
carpets, and off-the-grid energy. When their business
concepts were not popular, they stuck with selling on
impact, not relying on funding fads.
Standing strong in your values. One of the key points
that Nand Kishore Chaudhary pressed on was his belief in
supporting a viable living for the artisans he worked with.
He also pushed a professional standard in how they conducted
their business. "Equality, justice, and peace," so they
could "live a life of quality and unity," he said.
Flexibility in your model. Each of the panelists
evolved how they viewed their product and its relationship
to the market. Vision Spring, for example, addressed market
failures and needed to create the market rather than
operating as a simple retailer.
Managing human capital by cells or regions. Jaipur
Rugs operates by area managers. E+Co and Vision Spring both
divide up by regions around the world.
I've heard successful entrepreneurs talk about benefiting
from more experienced entrepreneurs in encouraging the
heart, opening doors, and helping them stay focused. For the
aspiring social entrepreneurs in the room, the panelists
stories was a great note to end on for the conference.
I spent the next hour with the aspiring social entrepreneur
who sat next to me during the session. Her name is Rachel
Magario, an MBA student at Kansas State. Her business
concept targets accessibility gaps for the blind population
in the US. Throughout the session, she actively filtered
factors favorable and potentially challenging for her model.
More than Rachel, there was a class of new social
entrepreneurs who benefited from your advice this weekend.
Nand, Christine, Jordan, and Mark, thank you for traveling
out for the panel! No doubt your encouragements will go a
long way.
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