Reaching Social Entrepreneurs in India’s Hinterland

Recent years have seen the growth of many ‘ecosystem platforms’ for social entrepreneurs, which enable the entrepreneurs to access financial, technical and network support – thus accelerating the growth of entrepreneurship in the country. While these initiatives have helped mainstreaming entrepreneurship, they still reach to largely urban – or to well-established – entrepreneurial ventures. The challenge to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem is: how does one reach countless small and fledgling entrepreneurial ventures in India’s small towns and rural hinterland?

The following are some stray thoughts on this:

·         Go Vernacular, Become “Unprofessional”: Language, and the professionally designed templates and formats (ppts, xls sheets, etc.) to access the ecosystem resources, remain one of the major entry barriers to the existing ecosystem platforms for many grassroot entrepreneurs. Large number of grassroot entrepreneurs are neither conversant with English, nor have the capabilities of showcasing their work through the templates, which are required to be used to seek entry/support into the ecosystem. Reaching them would require building-in vernacular languages, and more intuitive interfaces, into the ecosystem platforms.

·         Search, Identify and Showcase: A critical challenge in reaching the grassroot entrepreneurs is how to identify them. By their very nature and location, they remain “invisible” on the radar of existing ecosystem platforms. If the ecosystem platforms have to reach them, then it will be necessary to initiate processes (e.g., contests, citizen journalists’ forums, etc.) which help identifying them – and showcasing them on existing media channels (e.g., The Better India, Weekend Leader, Your Story, or even FB pages, etc.).

·         Connect – Create Partnerships: Grassroot entrepreneurs mostly operate in isolation, concerned mainly with the community/segment they serve. As a result, not only they lack access to sources of funding and technical advice, their own innovations are lost to the rest of entrepreneurial community. The challenge of developing a vibrant ecosystem would be to create platforms which allow entrepreneurs to connect with others, and find complementary partners.

·         Converge ‘Ecosystem Platforms’: One very positive development in the entrepreneurial space during last couple of years has been the emergence of many robust ecosystem platforms (e.g., Mahindra’s Spark the Rise, Intellecap’s Sankalp Forum, Villgro’s Unconvention, etc.). Similarly initiatives such as Be! Fund, BYST, etc., provide funding mentoring and technical support to entrepreneurs from the marginalized segments. These initiatives to build the entrepreneurial ecosystems, however, still operate as independent silos. A convergence and coordination among these can bring out the synergy and increase the reach to the grassroot entrepreneurs.

[ps: I had written this about a couple of months back for "Spark the Rise Meet-up" in Delhi (Sept 1, 2012. Since then one convergence has happened: Intellecap's Sankalp and Villgro's Unconvention have formed a strategic partnership to do on main conference in Mumbai in April, and to do many mini-meets in smaller towns.]

3rd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI (Jan 28-30, 2011)

XLRI Jamshedpur is organising the 3rd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship during January 28-30, 2011.

The theme of this conference - Youth, Development & Social Entrepreneurship - aims:

to create a platform for the youth (young professionals, students and the "novice") to explore social entrepreneurship,

to help them to understand the nuances, challenges and opportunities in this field, and

to showcase some of the young social entrepreneurial ventures.

The conference is designed around the following broad themes/ sessions:

The Challenge

Youth, Volunteerism & Social Entrepreneurship

Challenges of Being a Young Social Entrepreneur

Opportunities

Creating Markets for Marginal Producers

Promoting Livelihood & Employment

Leveraging Technology for Social Development

Sustainable Models for Underserved Markets

Getting Started

Options for Funding & Investments

Supporting Eco-System for Social Entrepreneurs

In addition, the design also includes ‘break-out groups’ to provide opportunity and space to facilitate focused interaction among the participants and the resource persons.

Participation Fee::

Download Registration Form

Profiles of Speakers/ Resource Persons:

Anirban Gupta
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Dhriiti

Anirban Gupta is the co-founder of Dhriiti - an endeavor to promote and protect Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and to build and create a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the next generation of Indians.

The core idea behind Dhriiti is to address the the urgent need and potential that is present in the rural and semi urban communities in India. Dhriiti works on the premise that if this potential can be exploited properly, it can yield tremendous results in the form of thousands of highly competitive small enterprises. Correspondingly, it focuses on the youth, and helps them promote small industries by equipping them with modern tools of management and technology.

Anirban holds a bachelors degree from Delhi University, and is an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubneshwar (Rural Management Program). He joined Development Alternatives under their Leaders of Tomorrow Program from campus. He has also worked as a journalist, and with FODRA, a grassroot level NGO working in north east Delhi.


Anshu Gupta
Founder Director
GOONJ
Ashok Fellow

Anshu Gupta founded Goonj in 1998, an organisation which recycles anything that is discarded as an urban “waste” into a resource for others in the rural and calamity-hit areas.

Goonj collects about 20,000kg of clothes every month across India, and turns them into something useable for the very poor - clothing, bags, sanitary napkins, etc. - and reaches them to the needy across 20 states. Goonj achieves this by running collection drives (called ‘Vastradans’) in urban India where people donate clothes which they do not use anymore, but which are in good condition and can be worn. The clothes are processed and sorted in centres run by Goonj across the country. The processed clothes are then channelized through grass root NGOs and provided either free or under the ‘clothes for work’ scheme.

Anshu Gupta is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, and Masters in Economics. Anshu Gupta is an Ashoka Fellow and Ashoka Global Ambassador. For his work, he has been the recipient of Changemakers Innovation Award 2004 & 2006, World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award 2007, NGO of the Year Award 2007, etc.


Ashraf Patel
Co-Founder
Pravah
Ashoka Fellow

Ashraf Patel is a co-founder of PRAVAH, and the current Director of PRAVAH Learning Voyages, which offers real world learning opportunities to youth facilitators and organisations.

PRAVAH works towards promoting youth development and active citizenship. PRAVAH directly intervenes with adolescents and youth and also provides institutional and capacity-building support to youth engaging and youth-led organizations.

Ashraf is a post graduate in Human Resource from XLRI, an Ashoka Fellow and a trustee of the National Youth Foundation. She is also a working group member appointed by the Youth Ministry to make recommendations for the XIth plan.



Dr Ashwin Naik
Co-Founder & CEO
Vaatsalya Healthcare Systems Pvt Ltd

Vaatsalya is India's first hospital network focused on Tier II and Tier III towns. Vaatsalya provides affordable healthcare services to thousands of families across Karnataka through hospitals in Hubli, Gadag, Bijapur, Mandya, Raichur, Hassan, Mysore, Gulbarga and Shimoga. Aavishkaar was the first investor to come on board at idea stage, followed by Seedfund and Oasis Fund.

When Dr. Ashwin Naik, 36, came up with the idea for Vaatsalya Healthcare in 2004, his dream was to get young doctors to come to small-town India. It was also the key to the success of his rather unique business model: world-class healthcare for rural and semi-urban consumers at rock-bottom prices.


Deep Joshi
Founder, PRADAN
Member, NAC &
Magsaysay Awardee ‘09

Deep Joshi is the co-founder of PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action) which is the largest and most professional NGO in the country. He served as its Executive Director till '08. PRADAN was recognised with the India NGO Award 2006.

For his work Deep was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2009, and was honoured with Padma Shree in 2010. Deep is also a member of National Advisory Council, and advises GOI on poverty alleviation strategies.

An MTech from MIT (USA) and an MBA from Sloan School (MIT), he has worked with Ford Foundation before returning to India in early 80s.


Inir Pinheiro
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Grassroutes

Inir Pinheiro is the Co-founder of Grassroutes, and has a combined interest in rural development and sustainable livelihoods.

Grassroutes creates platforms for urban communities to experience authentic village experiences and reconnect with their roots and for the village communities to access and avail of sustainable livelihood opportunities thus conserving their way of life, cultures, biodiversities and knowledge systems. Grassroutes is working towards establishing a network of over 200 village tourism destinations across India, where tourism is owned, managed & run by the local village communities. For its work, Grassroutes was recognised with Villgro's Wantrapreneur Award - Start-Up category '1.

Inir is a Post Graduate in Rural Management from XIM, Bhubneshwar, with over 5 years of varied work experience ranging from fund raising to rural tourism.


Kaushalendra Kumar
Founder
Knids Green Pvt Ltd/ Samriddhi
Ashoka Fellow

Kaushalendra is the Founder and Managing Director of Knids Green Pvt Ltd.,

Knids Green Pvt. Ltd. works towards reorienting the vegetable supply chain to reduce wastage, price spread, lead time of vegetable to reach the customers and customer transaction time. It has developed the unique model whereby both marginal vegetable growers and the vendors are organized in a formal way so that operation can be scaled up to a level where they can become a dominant force. Samriddhii, a brand promoted by Knids Green Pvt Ltd & Kaushalya Foundation for professionalizing and organizing vegetable supply chain of Bihar connects around 5,000 farmers from the villages in Patna, Nalanda, Ara and Jehanabad district with more than 500 vegetables vendors from Patna.

Kaushalendra is an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad, and was the MTV-Youth Icon '08, and the winner of Wantrapreneur Award - Early Growth Category, '10.


Manisha Gupta
Co-Founder/ Director
Start-Up!

Manisha Gupta is the Co-Founder and Director of launched Start Up! - a social venture which aims to demystify the business of "getting started", and partners with social entrepreneurs to incubate innovations, sculpt models, forge connections and raise resources to enable launch of new ideas and ventures.

Manisha has over 17 years of experience in the fields of media, development and social entrepreneurship. She worked in Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global organization that launches social entrepreneurs. At Ashoka, she served as the country representative of India, and later as the International Director for a program on youth entrepreneurs. Manisha was part of the team that launched the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in India - an initiative of the Schwab Foundation, Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation and UNDP. She has authored a book on ChildLine, India’s largest Child Rights movement. Manisha has served as strategic advisor and consultant to several social entrepreneurs and their social enterprises.


Dr Nalini Gangadharan
Chairperson - Trustee
CAP Foundation

Dr Nalini Gangadharan is the Promoter @ Chairperson of CAP Foundation, and a development professional with over 2 decades of experience in change management, scenario development, institutional building and resource mobilization for non-profits both in terms of funding, as well as technical and networking support.

CAP Foundation imparts vocational and employability training to underprivileged and out-of-school youth. Apart from facilitating learning, these courses also enable the youth to acquire life skills needed for a positive education-work-life balance. It to provides education and life skills to a wide range of difficult-to-reach groups of disadvantaged youth through community based programmes spread across India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Nalini is a gold medalist from Madras University, and has earlier served as the Executive Director, Dr. Reddy's Foundation. Across her career, she has been responsible for path–breaking development initiatives, such as Clothes Bank, Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS), Child & Police (CAP) Project, Teen Channel program for Linking Learning and Livelihood, Ek Mouka Employability Training (Workforce Development Initiative), etc.


Neelam Chhiber
Managing Director
Industree
& Co-Founder
Mother Earth

Neelam Chhiber is co-founder Industree, a social enterprise, and of the retail brand, Mother Earth, which together work on building up the production base, enabling artisans to become owners of their enterprise.

Neelam’s efforts have aimed to build a the strong production and marketing platform that provides high-quality artisan-made products. By connecting rural producers to urban markets, it drives producer incomes upwards, increase potential of ownership in their own enterprises, which in turn will drive efficiency. The ventures work with a group of SHG's who invest their own working capital in their enterprises and who are provided assured orders, new designs, along with access to improved infrastructure, working capital, and business development skills.

Neelam is an Industrial Designer from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, with more than 2 decades of hands on experience providing design, technical and marketing solutions in natural fibre and hand crafts. She is also an alumnus of Social impact International, as well as Global Social Benefit Incubator , Santa Clara University, USA.


NK Chaudhary
Founder Chairman
Jaipur Rugs Company

N K Chaudhary is the Founder-Chairman & Managing Director of Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt. Ltd, which specialises in hand knotted rugs. He also serves as the Trustee of Jaipur Rugs Foundation - an initiative for planning activities and actions to develop and empower the weavers to improve their standard of living.

Jaipur Rugs was founded in 1978 with just two looms and nine artisans, and has evolved into one of India’s largest carpet exporters to25 countries across the world. It supports 40,000 artisans across 10 states in India. By elevating their status from mere wage earners to become business owners, it provides better ways to artisans, especially women below poverty line to earn more and lead a financially empowered life.

Among many recognitions, NKC and Jaipur Rugs have been a recipient of ‘Sankalp 2010 Award’, 'Best SME Corporate Social Responsibility' by Business Today & Yes Bank, 'Indian Achievers Award for Business Excellence' by Indian Achievers Forum, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Award’ by FICCI (2010), etc.


Pooja Warier
Director
UnLtd India

Pooja Warier is the Co-founder and Director of UnLtd India that finds, funds and supports start up social entrepreneurs in India.

UnLtd India is a seed fund and incubator for social entrepreneurs, which works with early-stage social entrepreneurs to help them to accelerate their progress, develop as leaders, and prepares their high-impact organisations for scaling and further investment. By engaging with almost all other investors and support organisations, UnLtd offers entrepreneurs a complete ecosystem of seed funding, incubation support and co-working space with which to launch their ventures.

Pooja has a Masters in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and is also the Co-founder and Director of Journeys for Change that inspires leaders and social entrepreneurs to create more impact through learning from some of world’s most exciting change makers. Previously she worked with a range of organisations and initiatives like the World Social Forum & M.V. Foundation.


Priya Naik
Director
Samhita Social Ventures

Priya Naik heads Samhita Social Ventures, a social business that aims to provide social organizations with access to funds, people, knowledge, networks and customers. Earlier, Priya had co-founded The Spark Group, an education company that delivered affordable education to low income communities.

Samhita is a philanthropic initiative of the Nadathur Trust, founded by N.S. Raghvan, founder and former Joint MD of Infosys. Samhita, which means 'collective good', aims to create an enabling ecosystem for social organizations, donors, volunteers, service providers and other support organizations. Though it is meant for all stakeholders in the social sector, it primarily focuses on providing greater visibility, more resources and a support system for social organizations.

Priya started her career in Accounting at Arthur Andersen in Mumbai, and has worked as a consultant with the International Finance Corporation in Africa. She has a Masters in Economics from Yale University, USA, a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA and a Masters in Commerce from Mumbai University.


Rajiv Khandelwal
Director
Aajeevika Bureau
Ashoka Fellow &
Schwab Social Entrepreneur ‘10

Rajiv Khandelwal is the Co-Founder and Director of Aajeevika Bureau, which is among the first attempts in north India to provide support services to the millions of unskilled laborers and migrants who seasonally move across the country in search of work.

Headquarterd in Udaipur, the Aajeevika Bureau provides identity, skill training, placement, counselling and social security to rural youth at the threshold of migration and helps them become more successful and secure as they shift away for work from villages into urban markets. As a strategy the Bureau works with migrants at their rural source and also in their urban destinations. The Bureau also provides specialised micro finance service for rural migrant workers as well as has a robust vocational training and placement programme for migrant youth.

Rajiv holds a bechelor’s degree from Delhi University, and post-graduate degree from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). He has earlier worked Centre for Environment Education. In 1998 Rajiv had also launched, Sudrak, a field research and advisory agency, which contributed to nearly 50 projects in various technical and advisory capacities. For his work, Rajiv was felicitated by Schwab Foundation with Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award ’10.


Ramakrishna NK
Co-Founder & CEO
RangDe.org

Ramakrishna NK is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rangde.org, which is a peer to peer lending platform, which leverages technology to to lower the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities.

Rangde.org provides an online platform where the borrowers pay interest rates that are fair and the social investors can make a meaningful difference to other people's lives. Through a network of committed field partners and social investors, Rangde.org enables access to micro-credit to the underserved communities, thus creating a positive impact on business, education, health and environment of the borrowers’ communities.

Ramkrishna is a BTech from Nagarjuna University, and started his career with Satyam Computer Services. Subsequently, he served as Principal Consultant with Vignette Europe Ltd, and with IFMR Trust as Vice President (Technology)


Saloni Malhotra
Founder and CEO
DesiCrew Solutions Pvt Ltd

Saloni Malhotra is the Founder and CEO of DesiCrew, "a non-urban, socially motivated" enterprise, which provides IT enabled service centers in rural areas, employ and train local people to meet the back office demands of clients. With a social mission driving the business, DesiCrew focuses on generating wealth in the rural economy rather than extracting wealth from the rural areas. DesiCrew services span industries, geographies and multiple Indian languages/ dialects. Our back office services cater to verticals such as Insurance, Market Research, Internet & Mobile, E-Governance, and the Social Sector. It currently employs over 130 people across 6 centers in Tamil Nadu.

Launched in 2007, Saloni's work with DesiCrew has been featured in leading newspapers and magazines across the globe such as BusinessWeek, BusinessToday, The Economic Times, Fast Company, The Hindu, etc. She was nominated for BusinessWeek's Asia's Youngest Entrepreneurs, MTV Youth Icon 2008, E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 and was also facilitated in the presence of the President of India by the CII.

Saloni is an engineer from the University of Pune, and started her career in an interactive media start up, Web Chutney in Delhi, before founding DesiCrew.


Sandeep Farias
Founder & Managing Director
Elevar Equity

Sandeep Farrias founded Elevar Equity “to provide equity to entrepreneurs who challenge discrimination, help them prove their business model, establish the right governance, and raise additional capital to grow.”

Elevar Equity is a leading global growth investor focused on the underserved four billion at the base of the pyramid in developing countries. It provides equity capital to entrepreneurs providing microfinance, financial and other services to customers at the base of the economic pyramid in emerging markets. Elevar invest in ventures which focus on customer, innovation, growth, and profitability combine to create opportunity and prosperity in local communities. The Elevar philiosophy revolves around investing for social and economic returns: returns based on open access for everyone to life changing services.

Sandeep has an integrated law & arts honors degree from the National Law School of India University in Bangalore, India, and has worked with Nishith Desai Associates, before venturing into world of microfinance and investment. Prior to co-founding Elevar, he founded Unitus’ India operations in 2004, and also served as its Chief Innovation Officer at Unitus, test piloting ideas and projects on a global basis shaping Unitus’ long term strategy. He also serves as a Director of Madura Microfinance and has served as a Director of Ujjivan and Comat Technologies. In different capacities, Sandeep has represented or advised organizations such as Google, Amazon, Ashoka, Singapore Telecom and IL&FS Trust Company.


Solomon Jaya Prakash
Founder
LabourNet & Maya Organic
& India Country Director
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Solomon JP has an engineering background and began his career in the electro-chemical processing industries. He later worked in Europe for an international youth exchange organization. Back in India in 1989, Solomon founded MAYA with a focus on children’s rights and the eradication of child labor. They work with the state government of Karnataka to recruit parents and communities across slums and villages to take ownership of public schools.

In 1992, he developed a youth-at-risk training workshop for those living on the streets of Bangalore, a program adopted later by many other organizations. In 1996, Solomon created a common platform for numerous children’s rights groups to come together and campaign against child labor. MAYA also developed an education reform program, which operates in several thousands of schools in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2004, Solomon spun-off MAYA ORGANIC, a network of collective enterprises run by the working poor, which produce competitive, market quality products. MAYA Organic facilitates each business’ engagement with the mainstream market, enabling it to negotiate, make a profit, and thereby benefit the whole group. In 2005, Solomon founded LabourNet, meant to create and enhance job opportunities for the informal sector service workers in urban areas. LabourNet connects jobs and workers, improves work systems at job sites, encourages skill development, and provides access to social security. He was elected as an Ashoka fellow in 2006.

In February 2010, Solomon JP joined the Ashoka team as the new Country Director in India.


Tarun Agarwal
Promoter-Director
FINO FinTech Foundation

Tarun Agarwal is Director Promoter of FINO Fintech Foundation, a Section 25 company, which is a national level BC for FINO (Financial Inclusion thru Technology Oriented solutions).

FINO is a technology start up incubated by ICICI Bank& promoted by IFC. The organisation provides a combined technology-and-distribution channel to the banks to enable a rapid reach-out to the under-banked populations of India for identifying and enrolling new customers in geography of bank’s choice, as well as supporting subsequent transactions for these customers. It promotes sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor and underserved classes by helping them become economically self-reliant, through the provision of Financial and Insurance services and technical assistance in an integrated and sustainable manner.

Tarun Agarwal is an ICWA, and holds a post-graduate diploma in Financial Management from IMT Ghaziabad and an MBA degree. Prior to FINO, he has earlier served a Chief Manager (Business Development), SBI and as Chief Manager (Agriculture Technology Group), ICICI Bank.


Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya
CEO
EkGaon Technologies
Ashoka Fellow

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya is a development professional with hands-on experience in institution development, development research, communication systems and grassroots networking. He has considerable experience in developing systems and platforms for enabling enterprise support. He co-founded Ekgaon Technologies where he serves as the Chief Executive Officer.

Ekgaon Technologies focuses on affordable and appropriate open source software solutions, and designs and develops technologies and information systems to meet the needs of developing communities. As more and more companies compete for the “bottom of the pyramid” markets in rural India, Ekgaon’s technological solutions force private companies to compete fairly and offer better services to their rural customers. In return, Ekgaon’s platform offers these companies the aggregated consumer information they need to develop stronger and cost-effective products and services. Ekgaon Technologies’ work has won a number of recognitions and awards, which include NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours 2010and Dell Small Business Excellence Award 2009.

Vijay is an Electrical Engineering Graduate with a Post-Graduation in Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.


Vijay Shukla
Partner – Investments
Setu Ventures

Vijay Shukla is the Co-Founder of Setu Ventures, a firm that provides professional and financial assistance to early stage companies and entrepreneurs, and has over 15 years of industry experience (with Steel Authority of India, E&Y and GlaxoSmithKline). Vijay specializes in the areas of strategy, business development, consulting and engineering, and is interested in the areas of value creation, technology, entrepreneurship and education. He is a ‘parallel entrepreneur’ and has earlier co-founded Eduvisors, India’s largest education sector focused business consulting and research services company, and ValueFirst, India’s leading enterprise mobile data services company.

An engineering graduate from IT-BHU and MBA from XLRI, he has mastered the ‘art’ of evaluating business strategies and organizational processes through his career with working in the domains of public sector, entrepreneurship, information and mobile technology, FMCG and management consulting services.


Vineet Rai
Founder & CEO
Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund
Ashoka Fellow

Vineet Rai is a founder and the CEO of Aavishkaar – a micro venture fund which seeks to nurture and initiate creative thought processes at the grassroots level and convert them into thriving enterprises.

The primary focus of Aavishkaar is to effect change by promoting growth of grassroots ideas and enterprise. Rural entrepreneurs face an uphill task of crossing the first threshold of taking an idea beyond the point of an experiment into a successful business. Even limited resources, in terms capital, business knowledge and a certain degree of hand-holding, applied at the right juncture go a long way in transforming local ideas into sustainable businesses. Aavishkaar provides such resources to transform nascent rural and semi-urban ideas into coherent business entities by funneling resources at the point and time where they can be most effective.

Prior to Aavishkaar, Vineet was a founder and the CEO of GIAN, an incubator for rural innovations and ventures based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. At GIAN, he was responsible for identifying, evaluating, nurturing and launching grassroots innovations based micro level enterprises for poverty alleviation. Vineet holds a Post-Graduate diploma in Forestry Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.


Vishal Talreja
Director Founder
Dream A Dream
Ashoka Fellow

Vishal Talreja is the Co-founder & Director of Dream A Dream, a venture which empowers children from vulnerable backgrounds by developing life skills while at the same time sensitizing the community through active volunteering leading to a non-discriminatory society where unique differences are appreciated.

Dream A Dream is a professionally-run Public Charitable Trust, and provides children from vulnerable backgrounds with non-traditional educational opportunities designed to allow them to explore, innovate and build important life skills. These life skills are fundamental to child/youth development and to the successful transition into adulthood and becoming fully functioning and productive members of our society. It works through partnership with 9 NGOs, 1200+ volunteers, and imparts life-skills - interpersonal skills (e.g., teamwork, communications, negotiation and coping skills), cognitive skills (e.g., decision-making, problem solving and critical thinking), creativity, confidence, self-awareness and a passion for learning – among children from marginalized communities.

Formerly an investment banker and venture capitalist, prior to founding Dream A Dream in 1999, Vishal worked with Xerox and co-founded an investment bank, Technology Holdings. Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow and also sits on Boards of many organizations including UnLtd India, ITIHAS and Bangalore Cares.

Details of the Conference are also available at:
http://3rd-se-conference-at-xlri.blogspot.com/

from small beginnings... what makes a social entrepreneur?

Ever since, I got interested in the field of Social Entrepreneurship (which is quite recent in life), I was fascinated by the small beginnings from where some of the life/world-changing social ventures started.

Describing the beginning of SEWA, Ela Bhatt once wrote:

"In 1971, migrant women working as cart-pullers in the city’s cloth market came to me in TLA, where I had started my work life working for textile mill workers of Ahmedabad. The women who lived on the footpath, were seeking help for better living conditions. Next month came the head loader women of the same cloth market, feeling agitated about very low rates of payment (30 paise per trip carrying the bale of cloth from a wholesaler to a retailer). They felt exploited by the traders. Then followed the used garment dealer women in search of credit facility... That was 1971. Some of these urban, poor, self- employed women workers came to the meeting that I called in a public garden where we formed our trade union (1972). We called it the Self Employed Women’s Association, SEWA."

Similarly, David Bornstein described how Grameen Bank was born out of Mohammad Yunus’s chance meeting with Sufiya Khatun who would work hard to make bamboo-stools throughout the day, and yet earn just about 2 cents:

"… When Yunus asked why her profit was so low, she explained that the only person who would lend her money to buy bamboo was the trader who bought her final product - and the price he set barely covered her costs.

(Yunus) wanted to see if there were other villagers in similar circumstances… and compiled a list of forty-two people whose capital requirements, in order to buy materials and work freely, added up to about $26.00.

Through the years he would recount that story hundreds of times… "I felt extremely ashamed of myself being part of a society that could not provide twenty-six dollars to forty-two able, skilled human beings who were trying to make a living."

Likewise...

Delhi-based GOONJ, which collects about 40,000 k.g. of garments every month, and reaches them to the needy across 20 states, started in 1998 when its founder Anshu Gupta was struck by the bundle of garments lying unused in his almarah: “Here we are, a young family of two adults, new home-makers for just three years, not wealthy by any means and we have 67 pieces of good, usable garments we don't want any more. Yet, but for the disaster we wouldn't be giving them away."

AID (Association for India’s Development), which has 36 chapters in USA and operates more than 100 projects in 18 Indian states, started with a modest proposal by its founder K Ravi to his friends to contribute $10 to start a school in some Indian village.

The idea of providing affordable solar electricity to rural poor came to Harish Hande, the Ashden Award winner founder of Selco India, when he visited the Dominican Republic as a part of his Master’s thesis. Today, Selco has more than 30,000 installations and 25 service centers.

The Rickshaw Bank was conceived when veterinarian Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah asked his rickshaw puller how much money he makes, and found that even after 16 years, he did not own the rickshaw, earned a paltry Rs. 25/day, and had to pay half his earning as rent.

Child Rights and You (CRY) started when 25-years old Rippan Kapur and 6 of his friends, sitting around his mother’s dining table, contributed Rs.50/- each to create a fund that could “do something for the underprivileged Indian child”. Today, it has grown into one of the largest child rights movement in the country.

…the list goes on.

What also puzzled me was that people who started these ventures were ordinary individuals. They had limited means and modest backgrounds. What stimulated them to create/do something significant was also just a commonplace occurrence, similar to myriad situations which we all encounter in our lives.

And yet, there was “something” they had, which allowed them to transform an everyday experience or act into sustainable ventures which could create major social impact.

So, what was that “something”?

As I learned more about such social entrepreneurs (be meeting them and reading), even their field of work may have been different (e.g., tribal and rural development, primary education, women empowerment, micro-credit lending, etc.), five qualities seemed to be common across them:

a. Belief in possibility of change and human potential
Underlying their efforts was the optimism that despite adversities and lack of resources/support, it is possible to create large transformations in a social system. This optimism is supported by a belief in the human potential – their own and of those others who are focus of their efforts - to make such changes happen. Ela Bhatt, for instance, was driven by the firm belief that even the poor illiterate women have a vision of personal change, and the capacity to make it happen.

Similarly, Harish Hande’s vision of reaching solar power to poor communities was based on the conviction that poor can afford, pay for and maintain technology.

It was this optimism and certainty that allowed them to envision futures that can be created by leveraging on this human potential for self-empowerment.

b. Inspired Pragmatism
While the underpinnings of their motivation was an internal need to create ‘social value’, to ‘do something for the marginalised’ or to ‘contribute back to the society’, etc., they did not adopt any charitable model to address the social issues. Their effort was to develop a model of “business” which was sustainable, and therefore, scalable. As Prof Yunus once explained his approach to eradicate poverty:

‘…I wanted to give money to people… so that they would be free from the moneylenders to sell their product at the price which the markets gave them …. (I charged interest because) I thought if you do things in a businesslike way, then the project can become as big as you want it to because you are… not dependent on anybody.… This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty.’

c. Capacity to Reframe Problems as Opportunities
Perhaps, what distinguished them from most of us was their opportunity-orientation. Their actions do not start from the decision about how best they can deploy the resources that they have; rather, they start from the issues need to be addressed, and then work backward to identify the resources that are needed to solve those problems, and innovate opportunities for generating those resources.

Consider, for instance, the Delhi-based Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), which provides education, meals, boarding facilities, information on basic hygiene, counseling and medical help, and rehabilitation to around 3500 street- and platform- children each year. To partly finance its activities, SBT innovated the “guided street walks”, which are conducted by the street children. Not only this helps in humanizing the interface between the street kids and the social elites, it also provides a source of income to them and SBT.

d. Heightened Sense of Accountability to Those Served
The ventures they created were, of course, based on a deeply felt sense of obligation and accountability to the constituencies they served. There was an ethical impetus which guides their actions. But there is another, more important rationale for this sense of accountability.

Unlike the business entrepreneurs, markets do not work well for social entrepreneurs in providing a feedback on their actions. When one is in the “business” of creating social/environmental value, it is difficult to evaluate – and monitor - the intangibles such as social improvements, public good (or harm), or benefits for the marginalized, etc.

To offset this inefficiency in the environment in which they operate, they developed mechanisms to assess the needs of the communities which they aim to serve – and the extent to which their efforts and actions make an impact in meeting those needs. Wherever possible, they design market-like feedback mechanisms that reinforce their accountability to their constituencies. SEWA, for instance, developed a unique methodology to monitor its impact by asking 10 questions related to its twin goals of providing ‘full employment’ (including income and social security) and ‘self-reliance’ to its members.

e. Ability to Work Across Boundaries
They built not just the organizations, but also a collaborative network across different stakeholders in the issue (e.g., local population, state machinery, technology partners, micro-financial institutions, donors, etc.). Selco India, for instance, tied up with micro-finance agencies to provide credit to their customers/ beneficiaries; Goonj works through more than 100 grass-root organizations across the states to deliver need-based garments; and, CRY works with more hundreds of NGOs to reach the resources to those who need them, etc.

What perhaps made their ideas and actions sustainable was their ability to collaborate, to create networks, to share ideas, resources and credit with others to increase the sense of ownership in that network.

After all, as Harry Truman had said long time back:
“It is amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit”

*****

Conceptualising Social Entrepreneurship

Ever since, I have got involved with this field (which is quite recent in life), I had always felt that the understanding and conceptualisation of Social Entrepreneurship is skewed by history.... or rather by its recognition as a line of human endeavour in the history.

Business Entrepreneurship was discovered and conceptualised earlier, and so it has come to mean The Entrepreneurship... and since detection of Social Entrepreneurship is more recent, somehow it is seen/conceptualised as on the fringe of the business entrepreneurship...

Last month, during the meeting of the Advisory Council of University Network at the Skoll Forum for SE, I was able of articulate my understanding of where does Social Entrepreneurship fit into the "entrepreneurial space"...

Here is what I understand:

Entrepreneurship – whether social or business – is all about “creating wealth” in/for society

Wealth in a society would include 3 components:
- Economic Capital
- Social/ Community Capital, and
- Environmental Capital

Traditionally, Business Entrepreneurs focus only on creating “economic/financial wealth” – even though their product/services may have impact (+ve or –ve) on the Social/Environmental Capital (This is also because in traditional economic terms/assumptions, society/environment are seen either as a cost factor in production... or, worse, the impact on them is dismissed as "externalities")

However, if one accepts that "wealth" is not just money/profits, but also the social/environmental capital (i.e business is part of society, and not the other way round), then there is a need to look at entrepreneurship from a different perspective.

In my understanding, there are two dimensions of "wealth creation":
- (1) Nature of wealth that is being created by the entrepreneur, and
- (2) who is the beneficiary of that wealth.
see the figure below:

Business entrepreneurship primarily - and by choice - creates wealth that is economic/financial in nature, and the primary beneficiary of the the wealth is the entrepreneur and his/her business.

That is, the business entrepreneurship (or The Entrepreneurship) is only a small sub-set of the entire entrepreneurial space.

I hope, this will help me - or someone else - to build a typology of the variety of social entrepreneurshial ventures in the overall "entrepreneurship space"... I have tried to put a few in the diagram below:

The Sensitization Challenge

I had posted this elsewhere before I started this blog. Am binging it here because it fits with the theme of this blog

Here are the excerpts from the The Sensitization Challenge:

...."Voluntarism can also be termed as a study of attitudes. While there is much ado about the need of volunteering people's time and efforts towards social causes and societal development, we have in the past seen the percentage of responsiveness, indicating scope for change.

"25% aren?t even interested to know anything beyond their nose. For example - any person untouched by happenings beside him/her!

Out of the balance 75%,

- 40% are information seekers to wet their souls. They are overwhelmed listening to social issues and talk a lot about them, nothing beyond. For example, retired persons, especially from the Government, housewives and some academicians!

- another 30% would like to involve in " known" organizations, have elements of doubt and limitations of thought beyond "feeding" or helping ORPHANS! They eulogize the Sacrificers of Lives (demigods who run "charitable" organizations), visit these places and are satisfied with the beaming smiles from the "beneficiaries" and go back, hearts full. For example, individual donors.

- 20% progress to give time due to internally driven or externally driven motives, and study projects and their progress and support organizations and causes that fall in line with their thoughts. For example, funding organizations, Lions, Rotarians and their likes).

- 5 to 8 % are more keen, they start organizations themselves - a group of them, for instance, to promote and advocate a cause. They involve greater time, but in isolation work independently to cause pockets of change, with replicable programs and very little interfacing with Governmental or other Service Providing Agencies. For example youth groups, bank employees, corporate staff groups)

- Less than 2% feel the need for interdependency and networking. They understand the dynamics of social change and the possibility to work in tandem with existing systems. They are motivated when they hear about problems, and work within their area of control and influence to bring about model systems of interdependency in their community, tapping local resources, and utilizing it to develop their community with an idea of sustaining the growth, without "patronizing" and increasing the dependency factor. For example local leaders, Facilitating Organizations and individuals).

What about you!!??

Social vs. Business Entrepreneurship

I had my first class for the Social Entrepreneurship course, last evening. The following were the key points that came out from discussions:

1. Like any business entrepreneur, social entrepreneurs also find gaps and create a venture to serve the unserved 'markets'.

2. The primary difference between the business and the social entrepreneurs is the purpose for setting up the venture. While the business entrepreneurs' efforts focus on building a business and earning profits, the social entrepreneurs's purpose is to create social change.

3. A business entrepreneur may create changes in the society, but that is not the primary purpose of starting the venture. Similarly, a social entrepreneur may generate profits, but for him/her that is not the primary reason for starting the venture.

4. Profitability - not 'profit-making' - however, is important for the social entrepeneur. Being 'profitable' helps self-sustainability of the venture, and also works as a mechanism for self-monitoring. To quote from Dr Yunus (Grameen Bank):
"Grameen's central focus is to help poor borrower move out of poverty, not making money. Making profit is always recognised as a necessary condition of success to show that we are covering costs. Volume of profit is not important in Grameen in money-making sense, but important as an indicator of efficiency."

5. Another key difference between the social and the business entrepreneur is in the meaning of wealth creation. For the business entrepreneur, 'wealth' is same as profits. For the social entrepreneur, however, wealth also encompasses creation/sustenance of the social and environmental capital. Therefore, to be viable, a social entrepreneurship venture must show a positive Social and/or Environmental ROI.