Posted in February 2012 …

Feb 29 2012
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Good Profiles, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship

Good Profile – Kalsoom Lakhani (Invest2Innovate)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am the Founder & CEO of Invest2Innovate, or i2i, a for-profit intermediary that builds early-stage social enterprises and access to capital in untapped markets. We launched our pilot in Pakistan in Fall 2011, and are working with four social enterprises in the country, building a number of local partnerships, as well as developing relationships with potential angel investors and funders amid the Pakistani Diaspora – fostering the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.

Is “doing good” a key reason why you chose this job?

Yes, absolutely, i2i was launched to provide services to existing social enterprises, improve access to capital to jump-start their businesses, and support the growth of entrepreneurs in these markets. In countries like Pakistan, where 66% of the population live under $2 a day, job creation, income generation, and quality services for low-income communities can make a significant impact. However, the ecosystem is relatively underdeveloped, and the enabling environment leaves much to be desired. The value chain for entrepreneurship is, in short, fractured. While there is capital & funding for later-stage enterprises, there is a need for resources & capital for early-stage entrepreneurs to help these businesses grow. I founded i2i because I believe we can play a role in helping entrepreneurs achieve this potential and help build the broader entrepreneurial environment in these markets.

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Feb 27 2012
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Career, Forum, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #6 – Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Weekly Ponder #6

Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Raise your hands if you have heard the following phrase: “Doing Good While Doing Well.” Now raise your hands if you did not know that this refers to companies and investors. Yes, the money goes to them. Not to you. That is, not to most of you, who are likely neither a company nor have the money to play impact investor. If you care about such things as “doing well” (ah heck, let’s call it what it is: money), my ponder of the week may resonate.

Personally, and frankly, I cannot imagine why we would care about how much “good profits” those responsible/sustainable corporations make or why we would care that the (already wealthy) impact investors get a little extra cash in the bank, without first talking about making “good living” ourselves. Perhaps that explains my aversion to a phrase which smells like good PR but lacks personal significance that I can relate to by any measure.

A further thought. To review a perennial bone that I love to unearth occasionally (see previous post where I mentioned the issue of compensation), I continually try to tell myself that the following is not true: that the vast majority of “do-good” jobs that DIRECTLY affect the (social/environmental) bottom line, e.g., working for social enterprises and NGOs, do not seem to pay so well. We’re not even comparing to traditional for-profit jobs here. We just have to compare that to those do-good jobs that exist more to ENABLE other change-makers, e.g., foundations, institutions like World Bank, ADB, and consultancies. If you didn’t know, allow me to suggest this carefully: the latter make (a lot) more money than the former! Today’s question is not why there is a difference and whether that is appropriate or fair, or exactly what levels of positions we are talking about here (although both may be addressed by a future post). Today’s question may be simply about why do-good pay is (relatively) low and unattractive period – and whether this is okay.

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Feb 25 2012
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Polls, Social Entrepreneurship

Weekly Poll #4 – Ego Management: Goodness for the Sake of Whom?

Weekly Poll #4:

Ego Management: Goodness for the Sake of Whom?

It appears as if the post reflecting on the nature of ego in social entrepreneurship got more than a few people thinking this week. Before we finish that series later with Part 2, I was curious to see if we had people honest enough to participate in a very simple survey – to find out how much of our do-good activity is truly for the poor, the disadvantage, or the helpless planet vs. for what one commenter called “#1″, “Numero Uno” (ourselves).

As discussed in the article, it seems that when people get involved in this whole ego conversation it tends to result from the fact that there are two schools of thought around this whole “ego in social impact” business. In the first camp, people care only about the results, the accomplishments themselves. In the second camp, people care not just about the results but also about why someone is doing something. In this specific instance, some of us can get very annoyed or upset when we realize that a do-gooder like a social entrepreneur has a proven strong motivation for attaining fame, recognition and a sense of “achievement” instead of bearing the “good of others” as her first reason. Others, on the other hand, could not care less what kind of person does the work, as long as the mouths are fed, the homeless sheltered, and the homes rebuilt.

No matter in which camp you fall, this week’s poll is about finding out if anyone would ever admit to being more driven for an inner sense of accomplishment and pride in oneself instead of the purely charitable motive. While some people would be aghast to assume anyone would ever NOT do it for the noble purpose, others roll their eyes about those so “naive” to believe that we could really do something just for the benefit of others. Sorry, if the answers do not leave much wiggle room this time (smirk)!

Results are immediately visible as you click!

As always, please do feel free to share any suggestions for future polls you may find interesting to learn more about your fellow Good Generation comrades and their views on various topics. I’d be happy to pick up on some of these ideas in the future.

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Feb 24 2012
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Reflection, Social Entrepreneurship

Me, Myself and I – The Role of Ego in Social Entrepreneurship (Part 1)

Key Questions in this Post:

  • What is the nature of ego and how can it affect our happiness?
  • How does ego differ as a major force of motivation to “do good” from more conventional philanthropy or altruism?

In Weekly Ponder #5 I asked the question why so many changemakers seem to prefer reinventing the wheel rather than to replicate existing ideas in closer collaboration with (and knowledge of) those that came before them. I wondered why so many people feel they need to start social enterprises (just like in the world of NGOs) with their own brands, their own way of doing things, oftentimes without having researched much of what has already been done. Inevitably, the suspicion of ego as a driving force came up in some of the ensuing conversations I was part of in various online forums.

Ah, ego. I love this topic. I love to admire people who use it for productive contribution to the world. At the same time, I love to hate people who get carried away with themselves (and showing it), get in the way of others’ (more important) work and in the end, not achieving much anyway in the process. Pricks. In a way, ego is that 800 pound gorilla in the room that few people talk about when it comes to social innovation and entrepreneurs. Yet it probably has a central place at the table when especially some of the more recent social entrepreneurs with roots from the business world decide to make their mark on the world. I have not seen many studies or surveys on the role that ego plays in pushing the social sector forward… or inhibiting it from promoting the social change we supposedly all seek. So I thought I’d think about it a little here.

Today, drawing from my personal interactions with a host of do-gooders from the camps of investors, entrepreneurs and consultants, I want to first spend some time reflecting on the nature of ego itself and its contribution to our happiness. What are signs of a healthy or unhealthy ego? What’s at stake and why is this a potential hotly contested (but not openly debated) topic in social entrepreneurship?

On another day, in Part 2 of this article, I will then start thinking about the practical role that ego plays in both its positive and negative influences on the motivation and behavior of social changemakers - and try to distill what we in the Good Generation can learn from this in our own quests to make the world a better place… without being pricks.

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Feb 21 2012
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Career, Good Profiles

Good Profile – Mrim Boutla (More Than Money Careers)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am a recovering brain scientist turned career coach and social entrepreneur. Right now, I am partnering with Dr. Mark Albion, former Harvard Business School Professor and Co-Founder of Net Impact to grow More Than Money Careers. More Than Money Careers is a for-profit social enterprise that helps students and professionals Get Clear, Get Connected and Get Hired for well-paying career opportunities that match their values.

More Than Money Careers offers an online library of modules and online training programs that university staff can use as they work with students and working professionals to get hired for career opportunities in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Social Enterprise, and Sustainable Business.

We are in our first year of operations, and thus far we have 13 campus partners: Brown University, Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota), Darden School of Business (University of Virginia), George Washington University School of Business, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (University of North Carolina), Lokey Graduate School of Business (Mills College), Ross School of Business (University of Michigan), Seattle University, Smith School of Business (University of Maryland), Terry College of Business (University of Georgia), Texas State University, Yale School of Management, and Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College).

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Feb 19 2012
2 Comments
Career, Good & Gasp, Impact Investing, Social Entrepreneurship

Good & Gasp #1 – Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Good & Gasp #1

Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Encore Fellowships – how to use the potential of OLDER people, instead of YOUNGER people
  • Toil-o-preneurs – innovations in solving worldwide sanitation problems
  • Civic responsibility – how to get Americans to find public jobs “cool” again (if ever)
  • Impact Investing troubles and bubbles – are we on an impact investing bubble since nobody seems able to find all those financially juicy deals that we’ve been promised?
  • Good (Business) Generation Gaps – discussion on the shift in generations towards doing more social good (btw, this was a “gasp” for me)

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Feb 19 2012
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Announcements, Good & Gasp

Announcement – Introducing Good & Gasp

Dear Good Generation,

We all are busy nowadays clicking on countless tweets, Facebook posts and blog news all over the web, and I would be the first to admit it’s a bit tiring as I’d love to find more summaries of interesting stories like the ones you get on Acumen Fund’s “Seen and Heard” and Echoing Green’s “The Buzz”.

In the spirit of “replicaneurship” (this past Weekly Ponder #5‘s topic), I would like to start something similar. That is, a weekly or periodic list of articles and discussions around the online ether that I found cool, interesting, or where I even left comments myself (“Good”) or that I found, rather uncool, superficial, superfluous, incomplete, or that made me simply angry (“Gasp”). Either way, I figure it’s a win-win for all. Readers (you) get another summary of “must-reads” or “must avoids”, authors get more traffic (for better or worse) and I might get the satisfaction of more people reading my raves and rants outside of this blog.

Oh, that reminds me. If YOU feel like being charitable, please forward me some good or terrible stuff on our favorite “do-good” and “careers” topics that you see on the net. I might check it out and include it on “Good & Gasp”.

For now, all the best roaming and reading for the next interesting story!

Sincerely,

Thien

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Feb 17 2012
2 Comments
Forum, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #5 – Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Weekly Ponder #5

Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: why do so many social enterprises and NGOs start from scratch instead of replicating a previous model? By extension, does ego and the drive to be unique have anything significant to do with it? Or is it just operational challenges, resistant stakeholders (like governments) and the nature of funding that prevents most social enterprises from going “McDonalds” with their model? More profoundly, in a world where we keep touting the virtues of collaboration and doing things “together” why does it seem that the predominant social change model presupposes individual organizations growing “big and strong” rather than spreading their idea and business model seeds out “far and wide”? So instead of McDonalds, why is it less common to have more blatant “me too” brands like Burger King’s, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Quicks and Lotterias in the world of social enterprises, if the world is crying out for more (good) burgers?

I don’t know if this term has been coined somewhere else, so pardon me for not citing credit, but perhaps we want to consider the possibility of “replicaneurship” as another viable career option to us, rather than classical “entrepreneurship”. Immediately I am thinking of the role of competition vs. cooperation and that its premises seem to potentially conflict with the basic dual purposes of social enterprises to be somewhat self sustaining (like turning a profit) while pursuing social mission that should reach as far as possible. Well, what do you do when two social enterprises work next door to each other with very similar goals? Do they shake hands and live happily together? Do they get married (merge)? Or do they fight it out with a smile for the same world of donors and investors and let the “fitter” survive? Or do they fight and don’t smile?

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Feb 14 2012
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Good Profiles, NGOs

Good Profile – Monisha Kapila (ProInspire)

Good Profiles feature members of our Good Generation who are either out there in the field doing interesting work or still in the trenches of schools and institutions waiting to make their mark on the world. Have your own story to tell? Know someone who would be great to be profiled? Please sign-up or leave a note here!

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What do you do for a living nowadays?

I am the Founder and CEO of ProInspire, a nonprofit building the next generation of nonprofit leaders by expanding the talent pipeline, developing professionals, and increasing diversity.  As CEO, I oversee the growth of our program and expansion into new areas related to developing leaders for social change.

Is “doing good” a key reason why you chose this job? 

I started ProInspire because I was passionate about connecting nonprofits with talented business professionals who wanted to pursue careers where they can “do good.”  Like any sector, talent is critical to ensure that nonprofits can be effective in achieving their missions.  I believe I am doing “good” in the world by leading this organization.

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Feb 13 2012
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Polls, Sustainability

Weekly Poll #3 – Achieving Sustainability: How Much Do You Really Care?

Weekly Poll #3:

Achieving Sustainability: How Much Do You Really Care?

To round out this week’s orientation on the blog around sustainability, capitalism, and what it all ultimately means, I was curious about how some of us rationalize or privately deal with the challenges that an increasingly less sustainable world poses. Personally, I ended this week’s post on the subject of zero-growth with an assertion that unless we somehow “overthrow ourselves” and change our assumption that more “stuff equals better lives” – instead of just blaming today’s corporations – we are inevitably heading towards a bad, bad place.

The practical reality of this appeal, as expected, is that it is of course significantly easier to articulate a problem and call to action than to actually, well, act on it. Assuming you buy into the idea of “overthrowing ourselves,” how would you propose we do this? How are you doing this already? If actions measure the degree of our “caring”, … how much do you really care, at the end of the day, that our way of life is guaranteed to be unsustainable, which will force either us or our children in our lifetime to make drastic, likely painful changes to what some of us consider necessary conditions for comfort and happiness?

But this week’s poll is not about understanding your recycling habits or asking for the number of organic tea labels in your pantry. More specifically, I am first interested if you agree with my assertion that the core problem of sustainability is based on our explicit demand for more goods, and if a change in this demand would have a greater impact than all corporate sustainability efforts combined. If you agree, then I am curious if you would be willing to change your habits even if nobody around you would. No judgment here, but I personally suspect this route is tough at best, if we look at it honestly.

As always, please do feel free to share any suggestions for future polls you may find interesting to learn more about your fellow Good Generation comrades and their views on various topics. I’d be happy to pick up on some of these ideas in the future.

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