In this section, you can access to portraits of social entrepreneurs, in microfinance, IT, training, venture... and read some trends ands news of this sector in India I focus in this section on experiments that bring product, services, IT... to rural areas ; on enterprises that mix social objectives and profitable activities ; on organizations that support the so-called "poor" to invent new financial, economic and entrepreneurial projects.
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Tuesday, 17 August 2010 15:29 |
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More and more funds in India are looking for social business project. Whether they are dedicated to this segment, or are looking with interest to a sector in which there is now at least one IPO to follow (microfinance organization SKS)! More and more foreign funds are eyeing at India. Some french also, but not enough! Emmanuelle Larroque has just spent few weeks around Chennai to gather information about social funds in India. Have a look on her interesting listing (in french only!) here
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Friday, 30 April 2010 03:39 |
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Done! We have finally managed to find 10 days to meet with Mireille and organize a tour in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore. The idea was to mix a french social investor (Mireille) and an indian-based social business developer (myself) to go and meet social enterprises in south India. We were hoping to meet both headquarters in cities and ground organizations locally. The expected output was ideas to strenghten relationship between france and india regarding social business! I let you read the report and comment. All ideas and contributions are of course welcome. Report can be downloaded by clicking here. You ll find some idea. One of them is to organize this tour again, with 8 to 10 people coming here for a touristic/discovery tour! I ll be in France from 18th may to 5th of july, if some are there!
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Tuesday, 23 February 2010 16:15 |
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 This bullet point is not from me. It is from Julien Fortin, my associate in a new consulting group we are quietly launching. He also found the name of this group, Palaam, meaning bridge in Tamil. But I won't say more now, and just copy/paste what he learnt by reading The Blue Sweater, by Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen's founder and CEO. He is part of our current "back to basics" effort. Read, interview... to find the way we want to act in this fascinating but confusing BOP universe. So, of course, it doesn t mean that we share all that we read and write in this blog, but that we hear!
A small personal reflexion. The more I read, the more I meet, the more it looks like BOP share a lot with start ups! Immature markets, infinite players trying to find their way because technology is more and more affordable, struggling to find an efficient model, claiming that they found but rarely really sustainable!
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Thursday, 18 February 2010 11:51 |
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 Today is dedicated to the bible of all social designers, Out of Poverty, from Paul Polak (Paul Polak, Out of Povery, What works when traditional approaches fail, Tata McGraw Hill Edition, 2008). The lattest is the founder of the biggest social design company in the world, IDEI! You find a bit between Prahalad and Karnani, want to come back to less theory and more action. This book should fit!
Just a first sentence before you all click on "read more" for the first series of bullet points about this wonderful book. I like the way he introduce simplicity and ground-based principles.And the proof that engineering is not exclusively for engineers (Paul Polas was psychiatrist before going to social design... special tribute to Thomas!) "Poverty plays such a critical role in the incidence and prevalence of all forms of illness, I have always believed that learning about poverty and what can be done to end it should be a basic science in every medical school and psychiatric-training curriculum.". Read more by clicking on... read more!
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010 10:08 |
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 This second serie of bullet points about major document regarding BOP market is for a very detailled report made by the World Ressource Institute, from household income from 36 countries.
The report assumes the "orthodox" theorical framework of Prahalad, and give detailled figures about BOP market. This market is considered as gathering every people gaining less than $3000 per year. It makes a large and heterogenous group, but facing common unmet needs, BOP traps.... Focus is not so on poverty fighting, but on providing better access by sustainable models. The comprehensive report can be found here
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:18 |
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 After one year assuming a concrete business development position at Prakti Design, around dissemination improved cookstoves, I found it useful to take some distance and read again texts and articles, in order to find some sense in this strange BOP universe!
I already spoke in this blog about an insightful survey about innovative model for this new type of market. I will start a serie of 10 (or more!) bullet points of major text and books. First is a very famous critic of Prahalad's Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,by Karnani. Let start by the conclusion, you can read more by clicking on... read more! "Private companies should try to market to the poor. However, the profit opportunities are modest at best and I suggest a cautious approach. Large companies that require scale economies should be even more hesitant. The best opportunities exist when the firm reduces price significantly by innovatively changing the price-quality trade-off in a manner acceptable to the poor.
The private sector can help alleviate poverty by focusing on the poor as producers. One way to do this is to make markets more efficient such that the poor capture more of the value of their outputs. Certainly the best way for private firms to help eradicate poverty is to invest in upgrading the skills and productivity of the poor and to help create more employment opportunities for them. This is the win-win solution ; this is the real fortune at the bottom of the pyramid."
Simple, clear, and indeed, I myself faced these questions : what quality/price point, expensive cost of distribution in rural area, who are we really focusing, do we target enough the poorest? how can we make poor not only consumer but also producer?
You can download the full article in PDF here.
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Trends and News of Social Entrepreneurship
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Written by Cyril
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 09:10 |
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I had this morning my second lesson about the importance of "auspicious" in India! My first one was some months ago, when we had to quickly finalize documentation for our accountant. Happy to meet the deadline on sunday, I was expecting to rush monday and give it the file! But a good advisor suggest us to wait for one day, for a more auspicious accounting day! My second one is more interesting. Our combustion chamber is in part made of bricks, which are a very interesting material, light, insulative, low cost... But sometimes, during wet season, bricks can crack. That has absolutely no incidence on the performance of the stove. But one of our partner, working closely with Self Help Groups around Auroville, explained us how it was badly perceived by ladies using the stoves. In a traditionnal terracota stove, when a brick crack, it is immediatly change, it is not auspicious. That helps understand how well-intentioned development program, giving stoves for free, can completely fail. Give 1000 stoves, nice, efficient, reducing wood consumption... If one brick crack, you don t care as an ingeneer, but your stove will never be use and the 999 remaining users will be aware in 2 days! That is the interest of a pilot phase, which bring concrete feedback you can t guess otherwise, and a good personnal lesson about auspicious things you have to take care of.
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