Entrepreneurship | The Pope and the CEO

Making Business Work for The Poor

DIFID, The UK Government aid organization launched a new program to promote entrepreneurs. The Business Innovation Facility, which will initially be rolled out across Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Zambia, and Malawi, will help companies to develop or adapt commercial business models that benefit the poor. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Large companies are encouraged to work with smaller ones to establish their distribution network. An example they cite is Coca Cola. The press release states that, “they were finding it hard to access certain markets in Africa due to poor and narrow roads. In order to get around this problem the Manual Distribution Centres decided to provide bicycles and pushcarts for local deliverers to be able to sell the beverage to retailers in these areas. To date, more than 2,600 small distribution businesses have been formed as a result, creating direct employment for more than 12,000 people, and generating more than $500 million in revenues throughout East Africa.” DFID is known to be one of the better aid organizations with regards to enterprise solutions to poverty. Check out their website to learn more about their programs. A particularly interesting piece on their website is the Private Sector… Read more
Three Word Start-up Advice

Dharmesh Shah’s blog, OnStartups, is well worth following. He often has a good perspective on things, and a way of asking challenging questions. For example, back in January, he put up a post with the question: What is your best start-up advice in no more than three words? He calls them “triplets”. Check out what he came up with on his site. He even received some help from no less than Guy Kawasaki. Having to boil down advice to that level brings across the essence of the advice. Here are some of my favorites: Hire generalists early. Invest in culture. Sell something today. Say “NO” often. Live your vision. And one from the comments section: Prosper from mistakes. I would add “Invest In Values” which could be said to be under the theme of “Invest In Culture,” which he already listed, so another one would be “Don’t Forget God” What’s your start-up “triplet” advice? There’s a little book called “100 Tips To Get Your Business Going,” by G.L. Hoffman, a serial entrepreneur – it’s not in three words, but the tips are pretty good.
How to deliver a winning elevator pitch

Here is one approach to help you prepare an elevator pitch: 1st sentence: State the Problem 2nd sentence: State your solution 3rd sentence: Who you are, why you’re the one to solve the problem 3rd sentence: State the value proposition 4th sentence: Call to action (what the audience or recipient should do next) Businessknow-how.com has a good description on their site as well Have you ever given an elevator-pitch? Share your experience and advice with us!
New Community Corp in Newark and FAME Assistance Corp in Los Angeles – two faith inspired companies…

Keeping the faith is an article about church involvement in economic development. They feature two companies in particular: New Community Corp. in Newark – (they have a great video with its story on the site) was started in 1967 by William J. Linder, a Catholic priest, after civil unrest decimated the community. The 1,600-employee nonprofit organization has no affiliation with the Catholic church, but Monsignor Linder sits on the board of directors, and clergy from 15 religious orders work in capacities ranging from CFO to school director. One of New Community’s first endeavors was establishing a supermarket in a shopping center it had built. It took a while to find a partner who would be willing to move into the community and share equity, but the organization persevered. In 1990, Carteret, New Jersey-based grocery store chain Pathmark came on board. Today, the grocery store’s annual sales are $35 million, and two-thirds of the proceeds are plowed back into the community. New Community now also owns franchises of Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, Nathan’s Hot Dogs, Taco Bell, Mail Boxes Etc. and Magic Fountain Ice Cream. FAME Assistance Corp., a nonprofit organization founded by the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, also sprang… Read more
Social Entrepreneurs?

I like this quote on social entrepreneurship by Christian Seelos of the IESE University in Barcelona Spain. He writes: “We were the first European Business School to teach an MBA level course on that topic. But we found the term misleading and constraining rather than enabling. I always show students a slide with different mission statements from “regular” entrepreneurs and their organizations and “social” entrepreneurs – they soon realize that every entrepreneur attempts to create much value for society – through their products/services and by creating jobs, tax revenues, enabling suppliers and other spill-over effects etc. We now call our course “Innovative business models for social and economic impact.” I agree. There is a danger in the fact that social entrepreneurship has a kind of “halo effect” and thus an “anything goes” mentality that i think should be challenged, or we’ll soon have to invent a new term yet again to define entrepreneurs who don’t abuse or cheat the system. I like to just call them “entrepreneurs” and then call the immoral ones cheaters and exploiters instead of abandoning the name and creating a new one for the good guys. Discussing this is crucially important but still a bit… Read more
The Economics of Social Progress

Just saw Iqbal Quadir’s article on the McKinsey “What Matters” website. Iqbal is the founder of Grameen Phone and makes some very good points on entrepreneurship and development. Check it out! Scale, Scope, Shadow, Source, State Accountability, Self Governance, Sclerosis, Solution: Promoting for-profit entrepreneurship is key to the economics of social progress. … Super good point!