http://www.ssireview.org/articles/ Strategies, Tools, and Ideas for Nonprofits, Foundations, and Socially Responsible Businesses en lynch_loreal@gsb.stanford.edu Copyright 2009 2009-11-19T07:00:01+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_innovation_conversations/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_innovation_conversations/ Environment, Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing 2010-01-08T23:01:18+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_social_innovation/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/design_thinking_for_social_innovation/ In an area outside Hyderabad, India, between the suburbs and the countryside, a young woman—we’ll call her Shanti—fetches water daily from the always-open local borehole that is about 300 feet from her home. She uses a 3-gallon plastic container that she can easily carry on her head. Shanti and her husband rely on the free water for their drinking and washing, and though they’ve heard that it’s not as safe as water from the Naandi Foundation-run community treatment plant, they still use it. Shanti’s family has been drinking the local water for generations, and although it periodically makes her and her family sick, she has no plans to stop using it. Shanti has many reasons not to use the water from the Naandi treatment center, but they’re not the reasons one might think. The center is within easy walking distance of her home—roughly a third of a mile. It is also well known and affordable (roughly 10 rupees, or 20 cents, for 5 gallons). Being able to pay the small fee has even become a status symbol for some villagers. Habit isn’t a factor, either. Shanti is forgoing the safer water because of a series of flaws in the overall… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-11-19T06:00:34+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/how_scale_and_innovation_can_coexist/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/how_scale_and_innovation_can_coexist/ Many books and articles support the view that an organization must choose between creating value through innovation and creating value by building scale and wringing out cost. The thinking styles and capabilities required for success appear to be diametrically opposed. Innovators are right-brained people who rely heavily on their intuition, whereas the leaders of large, efficiency-oriented organizations achieve results through rigorous, continuously repeated analytical processes and reject decisions based on instinct and judgment. In The Design of Business, Roger Martin contends that organizations can balance intuitive originality and analytic mastery in a dynamic interplay that he calls design thinking. This approach is necessary, according to Martin, to maintain long-term competitive advantage. As the dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and an advisor to many CEOs, Martin has worked with and studied a wide range of organizations. He has come to embrace the design thinking approach after seeing its powerful impact in a diverse array of companies. The vivid articulation of these company stories, paired with some very useful conceptual frameworks, makes The Design of Business both compelling and actionable. Martin anchors many of his concepts in a framework depicting the way knowledge advances. He… Social Entrepreneurship, Book Reviews 2009-11-19T06:00:01+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/last_look_dive_right_in/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/last_look_dive_right_in/ A prosthetic leg keeps a towel clean and dry in a Prague locker room. The leg usually supports the weight of a school-aged child. But today the prosthesis waits on land while the child joins his friends in the swimming pool, thanks to the Civic Association for Study, Rehabilitation, and Sports Without Barriers, a nongovernmental organization that runs activities for people living with disabilities in the Czech Republic. Jan Nevrkla, chairman of the Czech Association for the Disabled, founded the organization to teach handicapped children swimming and other sports. Nevrkla got the idea for the organization after he taught his best friend, a car wreck survivor and recent leg amputee, how to swim. Observing that athletics not only strengthened his friend’s body, but also restored his spirit, Nevrkla decided to assist other people in the same way. With early funding from Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based health-care products multinational, Nevrkla’s Sports Without Barriers now helps some 500 handicapped children get back into the game. Partnering with the International Center of Photography, Johnson & Johnson recently sent five photographers to document the company’s charitable projects around the world. Portland, Ore.-based Toni Greaves photographed Sports Without Barriers, as well as… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_entrepreneurial_union/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_entrepreneurial_union/ When the Internet company that Karen Kelly worked for was sold and her job disappeared, she set out to become a freelance writer in New York City. Married to a musician and raising a young son, she struggled to find affordable health care. Across the country in Pasadena, Calif., Colleen Nelson had a different problem. As a media consultant, she had steady work with MGM Film Studios. But, working from home, she felt isolated. Both women eventually found their way to the Freelancers Union, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based nonprofit that provides self-employed workers with health insurance, retirement plans, community events, and political representation. Unlike most employee benefits in the United States, which are tied to particular companies, the Freelancers Union’s offerings can travel with independent workers from job to job and from project to project. Through the Freelancers Union, Kelly purchased health insurance for herself and her family. She also met an accountant at a tax workshop, and improved her Web site “2,000 percent” after attending a union-sponsored Web design seminar, she says. Meanwhile, Nelson began collaborating with likeminded union members in Los Angeles. “The Freelancers Union provides a sense of stability knowing that there is a place to go to… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-09-22T15:41:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/staying_vibrant_and_curious/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/staying_vibrant_and_curious/ I remember meeting John Gardner as if it were yesterday. It was 1989 and I was an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. I was sitting in a preview session of upcoming classes when a tall, graceful, elderly man in a gray suit and a fedora stood up to speak. His figure was lithe and his step was easy. He carried a sense of gravitas that made it impossible not to listen to what he had to say. “Why do civilizations rise and fall?” he asked. “Why do some people stop growing at age 30, just going from work to the couch and television, when others stay vibrant, curious, almost childlike, into their 80s and 90s?” I was hooked. I knew I needed to know this man, for it was clear to me even then that he would play an important role in my life. The grace and humility with which John spoke that day belied his powerful career. He’d been secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Lyndon Johnson, and president of the Carnegie Foundation. He’d written numerous books. And most thrilling from my perspective, he was an extraordinary social— and serial—entrepreneur, having founded Common… Social Entrepreneurship, Book Reviews 2009-08-18T23:00:01+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/rethinking_human_nature/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/rethinking_human_nature/ The conventional view of human nature is that self-interest is our strongest instinct. In this narrative, every action and decision that Homo economicus makes—the choice of a mate, what work to pursue, whom to befriend—is ultimately driven by self-interest. Even child rearing is merely a way to propagate one’s genes. This view of human nature is not without merit. Most people would agree that self-interest is a powerful driver of human activity. But is this a complete and accurate portrait of human nature? What about people’s proclivity to act cooperatively and altruistically? Is it the case, as Adam Smith and T.H. Huxley believe, that prosocial behavior is solely a cultural construct created to curb our supremely selfish base impulses? These are the questions that Dacher Keltner tackles in his new book, Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, strives to unearth clues about the neglected dimension of human nature: “positive emotions that bring the good in others to completion”—emotions that he believes have been serving mankind for millions of years. As a postgraduate student Keltner worked with Paul Eckman, a pioneer in the study of emotions… Human Rights, Social Entrepreneurship, Book Reviews 2009-08-18T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_fine_green_niche/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_fine_green_niche/ Growing up in Guangzhou, China, in the 1950s and 1960s, Maria Yee dreamed of being a physicist. At the same time, her father, a professor of architecture, inspired in her a lifelong interest in design. But when China’s Cultural Revolution scattered Maria’s family across prisons, mines, and farms and sent her to labor in a rock quarry, neither physics nor design seemed to be in her future. She eventually wound up working in a machinery factory while studying mechanical engineering at night school. Years later, however, Yee immigrated to California. There, she combined her knowledge of engineering with her early interest in design to establish Maria Yee Inc. (MYI), an ecologically friendly luxury furniture company based in Santa Cruz, Calif., that uses traditional Chinese joinery techniques in unique home furnishings. Since its founding in 1988, MYI has become a $30 million-a-year business that distributes its goods through retailers such as Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, and Best Buy’s Magnolia Home Theater. The company also owns its two factories in China—a rarity in the furniture world and a source of competitive advantage for the company. MYI has also earned a reputation as a leader in green furniture manufacturing. The company… Environment, Social Entrepreneurship 2009-08-18T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/funding_the_future_in_china/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/funding_the_future_in_china/ Growing up in a small farming village in rural Jiangxi Province, Liao Zhicheng dreamed of becoming China’s “outstanding entrepreneur” so he could “change the fate of the poor family,” he writes on a Web site. His rags-to-riches hopes started to come true when he enrolled at the Finance and Economic Vocational College of Jiangxi and earned top academic honors, including a national scholarship to supplement family support. His father encouraged him to use the extra funds “to eat a little better.” But when his father fell ill, the family budget got even tighter. Liao, 21, realized he needed to borrow 6,000 yuan (about $875) to make ends meet. A small loan would mean the difference between staying in school and going back to the village. Pondering how far he might go with a little help, he remembered a Chinese saying: “Give me a drip, I’ll return you the wellspring.” Liao’s saga—and his earnest promises to study hard, make prompt repayments, and bring honor to his ancestors—has convinced 18 Chinese lenders to pool their money and invest in his future. Their goodwill comes with terms: 8 percent annual interest and regular payments spread over 13 months, all tracked on a Web… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-08-18T23:00:00+00:00 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_revisited/ http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_revisited/ Social entrepreneurship is one of the most alluring terms on the problem-solving landscape today, and is in use even in the new Obama administration. The President is quite familiar with the term and has embraced a first-of-its-kind investment fund for social entrepreneurship. The question is not whether social entrepreneurship is a term in good currency, but what it actually means. This question motivated my three-year search for social entrepreneurship, which was funded by the Skoll and Ewing Marion Kauff man foundations. Ashoka founder and CEO Bill Drayton first used the term “social entrepreneurship” in the early 1980s, and it continues to inspire images of audacious social change—the kind that sweeps away the old approaches to solving intractable social problems such as disease, hunger, and poverty. Like business entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship involves a wave of creative destruction that remakes society. Although we will always need traditional social services— even more during times of great economic turmoil—social entrepreneurship focuses on changing the underlying dynamics that create the demand for services in the first place. Instead of treating society’s distress, social entrepreneurship holds hope for eliminating the distress altogether. Although people generally agree on this broad definition of social entrepreneurship, confusion reigns over… Social Entrepreneurship 2009-07-07T15:46:00+00:00