28. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Business Models, Businesses, Interviews, Podcast, Products •
by admin
If you want the real story from a successful for-profit social entrepreneur, click the player to listen to Aseem Das talk about founding and transforming World Centric. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] World Centric evolved from a nonprofit to a nonprofit with a revenue-earning component to a for-profit [...]
5 Comments
27. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, Business Models •
by admin
A social business venture packs a lot of punch. If you care strongly about mission and impact but don’t want to solicit donors and institutional funding, it might be the right model for your work. By definition, this type of enterprise generates profits, which are reinvested into the business to advance the cause and sustain [...]
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26. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, Business Models •
by admin
I’m refocusing on the crux of cause capitalism: building a business to drive social (or environmental) change because I believe that the force of capitalism can be used to solve many of the problems we face and because it’s in companies’ best business interest to do so. I see cause capitalism is a continuum with [...]
4 Comments
23. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Businesses, Interviews, Micro-lending, Podcast •
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Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] After he left Amazon (“one of the hardest, scariest and best decisions” he’s made in his life) Kushal Chakrabarti knew he would start a company. Â He’d done well at Amazon, helping to improve its product [...]
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22. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, Rants & Raves •
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If you caught my poll earlier this week asking what areas you find meaningful in the cosmos of business and social responsibility, you know that I’ve been thinking hard about how to make the biggest impact. Â On one hand, there’s the CSR approach, which I’ll generalize as reaching more people but having less direct impact [...]
1 Comment
06. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Businesses, Commercial & Nonprofit Partnerships, Interviews, Podcast •
by admin
Click the player to listen to our conversation or right-click and save for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Rachael Chong thought it was inevitable that someone would create a platform that matched professionals to skills-based volunteer opportunities. Â As an investment banker, she realized there were better better ways for her to [...]
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02. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Business Models, Rants & Raves •
by admin
I’ve read a string of great books lately, parts of which occasionally flash into my consciousness, but none has made the same impression as Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.  It’s the self-told story of John Wood’s departure from Microsoft to create libraries at first, then classrooms, then schools and finally scholarships in Southeast Asia and [...]
5 Comments
01. Jul, 2010 •
Categories: Build a Purpose-driven Business, Interviews, Podcast •
by admin
How much control of your company are you willing to give up in exchange for funds? is a question that all investment-seeking entrepreneurs need to answer. Social entrepreneurs are confronted with another key question that impacts how they want to set legally establish their organization: How important is profit versus mission? With these two questions [...]
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24. Jun, 2010 •
Categories: Events, Interviews, Podcast, Tools •
by admin
We’ve heard from entrepreneurs before on this blog about the importance of building a network that can support and guide your social enterprise. While he was developing Energy Inside, Veer Gidwaney “networked pretty aggressively over a couple of years,” and Teju Ravilochan who co-founded the Unreasonable Institute “went to where the action was.” Conferences can [...]
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18. Jun, 2010 •
Categories: Rants & Raves •
by admin
“But who are you? What is this idea? It doesn’t fit any of the existing patterns because they were set up to serve the old idea…. “ This is Ashoka founder Bill Drayton’s description of a feeling often experience by social entrepreneurs, himself included. Â I’m sharing it because it’s something you’ve probably felt, as have [...]
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