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Dear Social Entrepreneurs,
In this update, we want to share some of the highlights of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos as well as provide an outlook for the coming months.
The Annual Meeting 2011, under the theme Shared Norms for the New Reality, started by challenging all of us to cope with a radically different Congress Centre layout. As the main hallways broadened, the Social Entrepreneurs Space moved to prime real estate in the middle of the Congress Centre. This is symbolic of the momentum the movement has gained. As Linda Rottenberg shared in her opening reflections, the question to be answered moved from “So what is social entrepreneurship” to “What has social entrepreneurship achieved?”. In his deliberations “We’re Gaining Ground on Agriculture. But How about Land?” Tim Hanstad applies the impact question to the specific field of land rights and the task force and Forum initiative on “New Visions for Agriculture”.
Many first-timers decidedly shaped “new norms for the new reality” in Davos this year. Read about Sebastian Marot coming up with a powerful mix of our advice and his own strategy to achieve success (link to his blog); Anne Hastings’ power day from an IdeasLab on Haiti to a panel on mobile financing solutions next to the Google CEO; and why Brij Kothari felt it was a “decidedly surreal” experience.
But the Annual Meeting in Davos is not the only global event we are involved in. The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011 (AMNC) in the People’s Republic of China on 14-16 September is turning into a similarly important global event with a focus on technology, entrepreneurship and science. We will hold a private social entrepreneurs’ community meeting to the AMNC and look forward to seeing you there.
Warm regards,
Mirjam and the Schwab Foundation Team
P.S.: If you want to subscribe to the blog’s feed, subscribe at http://www.forumblog.org/socialentrepreneurs/atom.xml
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING 2011, DAVOS-KLOSTERS, SWITZERLAND
SESSIONS HIGHLIGHTS
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS MEETINGS
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 kicked off with three private sessions for Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs and partner companies.
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1. Social Entrepreneurs Community Meeting
Given that half of the group of 25 had never taken part in the Annual Meeting in Davos, we paired up each “newcomer” with an “old-timer” for an in-depth mentoring discussion. The old timer helped to bring the objectives for the five days of the Meeting in Davos into sharper focus. The pairings were drawn out of a hat and serendipity created many interesting matches. Read more.
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2. Partnering for Social Innovation
Social Entrepreneurs discussed task forces and other topics with the Foundation’s Partners:
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Social Investment
Andreas Heinecke presented the “Social Investment Manual” for social entrepreneurs going through the process of raising debt or equity capital. The manual is currently being further elaborated by a team at the Technical University Munich and will then be shared with the community. Thank you to all those who filled out the survey.
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Engaging Policy-makers
The Indian Social Entrepreneurs convened to lay out the next steps for closer interaction with policy-makers.
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Leveraging Technology
Social Entrepreneurs engaged in education in a broad sense met with partners from Intel and HP to identify opportunities for collaboration.
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Key Challenges of Social Innovators
BCG and Accenture Development partners brainstormed with global Social Entrepreneurs on the areas in which strategic consulting firms can add the highest value to the social enterprise sector.
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3. “Emerging Risks” over Dinner
Anne Hastings, Fonkoze, Haiti and Hans Reitz, Founder of the Grameen Creative Lab shared their current challenges with the larger group. Reitz represented Muhammad Yunus, who could not be in Davos in person as the court hearings in Bangladesh had been scheduled for the same dates. Elaine Dezenski from the World Economic Forum tied these emerging political risks for Social Entrepreneurs to the larger risk landscape laid out in a recent Global Risk Report. The dinner conversations focused not only on the impact Social Entrepreneurs can make on many identified risk areas, such as rising inequality and climate change, but also on the fact that Social Entrepreneurs need to prepare for political and economic risks.
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OTHER RELATED SESSIONS
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1. “The Dynamic Duo” – Part 3
Social Entrepreneurs and Tech Pioneers share a common entrepreneurial spirit. This WorkStudio marked the third dedicated meeting to explore how these two communities can collaborate on game-changing paradigms that impact both business and society.
During the first part of the session, Tech Pioneers and Social Entrepreneurs were paired for “speed-dating”. The following group discussions revolved around identifying first shocking statistics and then potential solutions in fields such as health, education and employment opportunities. Read more.
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2. IdeasLab with Social Entrepreneurs
IdeasLab veteran Richard Pascale moderated a packed session which provided the opportunity to five social entrepreneurs to walk the participants through their programme and current challenges in a five-minute presentation followed by breakout group discussions. Despite that these discussions were very short, we have again been delighted to see very substantial ideas and contacts coming out of the discussions.
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Jeroo Billimoria, Child Finance, talked about the burgeoning Child Finance movement and discussed how banks can be encouraged to develop and implement child-friendly banking products in her breakout session.
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Andrea Coleman, Riders for Health, talked about the life-saving role of reliable transportation for millions of Africans in rural areas and discussed the challenges of wanting to double the impact in less than five years.
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Garth Japhet, who already successfully established SoulCity and Heartlines presented his new social media platform “forgood” which connects people wanting to take action in their communities.
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Patrick Schofield presented Indalo Project’s approach of combining Western designers and more than 600 African artisans to produce exquisite handicraft including beadwork, bags and tableware. He asked his group to brainstorm on how new technologies could reduce costs and open new sales channels.
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Ariel Zylbersztejn, Cinepop, presented the Cinepop concept of bringing free outdoor movies along with access to microcredit, mobile phones, health and environmental messages to more than one million low-income people in Mexico and asked for suggestions on how to engage corporate partners to further scale the social impact.
Read more on this IdeasLab as well as on the IdeasLab focused on developing solutions for Haiti with Schwab entrepreneur Anne Hastings, Fonkoze.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS
The Schwab Foundation was delighted to welcome two new members to its Board in Davos:
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Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium
Martin Halusa, Chief Executive Officer, Apax Partners
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OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
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"Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011"
The new edition of our traditional profiles brochure includes the profiles of all 195 social entrepreneurs in our network. You may download an electronic copy (PDF, 233 pages, 4.63 MB). If you would like a hard copy please let us know and we will send you one.
Institutional Brochure: Activities – Impact – Outlook
A short new pamphlet to explain what the Schwab Foundation is. It includes as well a selected number of quotes from social entrepreneurs in the community. Download an electronic version (PDF, 16 pages, 860 KB).
Schwab Foundation Community Charter
Be sure to take a look at the latest Schwab Foundation Community Charter (PDF, 6 pages, 815 KB), especially if you are new to the network.
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A Fistful of Rice
Read Vikram Akula’s journey and motivation behind starting SKS Microfinance. In his new book A Fistful of Rice, Vikram Akula, Founder and Chairperson of SKS Microfinance, reveals how he came to piece together the best of both philanthropy and – to his surprise – capitalism to help millions of India's poor transition from paupers to borrowers to business owners with the help of tiny micro-loans. Akula's compelling narrative and vivid descriptions of the people and events he encountered on his journey reveal the challenges he had to grapple with as he built SKS. A Fistful of Rice offers not only personal inspiration but also lessons for anyone seeking to harness tenacity, creativity and innovation into potent tools for fighting the most seemingly intra.
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