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Sasha writes about fear in one of his recent posts
Speaking of fear, just recently something exceptional just happened to me: I had the absolutely worst fundraising meeting I’ve had since starting my job at Acumen Fund three years ago. It’s not worth going into the specifics…suffice it to say it was unpleasant and transactional in the worst way. Paint your worst picture of what a fundraising meeting could be, and that was this meeting.
I admit, I was a little shaken for a little while. I had to vent some to a couple of folks to clear the air.
And then, almost right away, it was done. The feeling was gone, the meeting was in the past. And no real harm was done. The actual experience of the thing I feared – the thing that can keep me and you from picking up the phone or putting yourself out there or standing in front of an audience or pitching a new, crazy idea or going with your gut – was exposed. And it was so much less powerful or meaningful than the picture I’d drawn over time.
There’s the lurking monster I imagined, and the reality that it had no teeth.
A lot of times we cook up stories in our head, simply because it’s easier to do so. Its easier to expect the worst. I have done it in the past. Why? Maybe because we don’t trust people, or maybe because it’s the worst case scenario and it can’t get any worse, or maybe some other reason for that matter.
As a person who exaggerates things at times to find humor in them, I hope I don’t exaggerate fear.
Tagged as:
fear
At the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s Rural Entrepreneurship Development(RED) division we’re on the look out for market based approaches to helping rural communities (often right outside the campus).
However, what is also important is to educate the college community regarding the pressing social issues that plague our nation (and the world) and how enterprises (often community lead) can help uplift sections of society. RED would like to help create a class of more responsible BITSians who are socially conscious and use their technological and business acumen to find solutions to alleviating poverty and help generate income for rural communities.
It is for this reason that we’re creating a RED resource section which will contain information on the emerging sectors, case studies of success stories (and sometimes failure) of models that worked at the Base of Pyramid, books that inspire on to get their hands dirty, reports that show figures and business models, important articles from credible sources. Hopefully, more and more BITSians will skim through it and realize the incredible opportunities that lay in front of them in the responsible business sector.
We’re in the middle of the compilation, which should be completed anytime next week. We also plan to publish this resource on one of the top blogs on social entrepreneurship in India.
If you can contribute to this resource in anyway (articles, books, reports, case studies), please shoot me a mail at rishabh at celbits dot org
Tagged as:
BITS Pilani,
CEL,
ideas,
resource,
rural entrepreneurship
A recurring theme in romantic novels and movies is that you travel all over the world to finally find what you were searching for, right where you began. Could it be that the answer to malnutrition and self sustaining communities be a plant which has been growing in their back yard for all this time? This might be the case with Moringa Oleifera, often dubbed as the Miracle Tree, often discussed as being a savior of vulnerable communities especially in Africa and South Asia.
The plant, which grows in dry soils in tropical lands, is known primarily for the exceptional nutritional value of its leaves. Lowell Fuglie who has been researching abut the uses of Moringa for over a decade (and used to work for the Church World Service) says ”Gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain three times the iron of spinach, four times the vitamin A of carrots, seven times the Vitamin C of oranges, three times the potassium of bananas, and four times the calcium and twice the protein of milk” (a much larger list can be obtained here). “Nutritionally, you can’t beat it.” he adds.
But it doesn’t end here; Moringa Oleifera is known to be a really good water purifier, plant growth enhancer, biofuel (abstract only), and has plenty of medicinal uses. These address some of the most pressing issues faced at the BoP today: Enegry, water scarcity & agricultural yield and most importantly malnutrition. All this being said, one would expect entrepreneurs to jump at this opportunity and capitalize upon it. A Moringa-based idea submitted to the Ashoka’s Nutrition Competition was even adjudged as an early winner. However, we don’t see any major players trying to create an industry based on this wonder plant. Why so?
The opportunities and challenges in the commercialization of Moringa have been summed up well by in a paper written by J P Sutherland, who was involved with a biotech startup called Optima Environment SA based in Switzerland. He cites lack of extensive research, skepticism from the scientific community, barriers to entry in the form of government regulations as well as poor marketing as some of the factors which constraint the commercialization of Moringa products such as oil, water coagulants and packaged food. He emphasizes that if entrepreneurs can find a way to improve the extraction process, moringa oil has a potential to become a useful source of fuel (both industrial as well as domestic) in the years to come. However, it’s also up to the venture capitalists in the agro-health sector to realize it’s importance as a life saving plant and encourage investments in this domain.
What’s really fascinating about this plant is that it is locally available in areas that need it most. The tropical nations provide the temperature and soil requirements that is suitable for its growth. Every part of the plant, be it the stems, the leaves, the pods are useful in one way or the other. Even if it takes time to commercialize it on a large scale, I can see this as a useful community run venture to meet the nutrient needs of villages that are struggling to meet their requirements.
Originally posted on Nextbillion
Tagged as:
africa,
bop,
ideas,
india,
miracle tree,
moringa,
moringa oleifera,
plants,
sustainability
If something isn’t broken, do we still fix it? This is something one hears quite often and it’s importance in Base of the Pyramid contexts is often neglected. A recent talk at BITS Pilani by (Retired) Brigadier P. Ganeshan, Andhra Pradesh head of Honeybee (we have earlier covered Honeybee here), focused on just that. In a nutshell, Honeybee is a digitized compendium of rural innovations and local practices implemented by rural communities in Indian villages. It currently houses over 100,000 innovations from all over India. Talk about an idea pool huh?
The crux of his talk was the need for knowledge-based growth. Despite India being a knowledge-based economy, he said, it is surprising to see how the knowledge possessed by BoP populations is being neglected and not given the attention it deserves. He stressed that many social entrepreneurs, though willing to spend vast amounts of time lending an ear to the problems of villages, aren’t as willing to accept that these villages have come up with solutions to their own problems. The critical part, he believes, is optimizing these solutions to maximize their output.
He spoke of how India’s farmers usually follow 30-35 farming practices, but no initiative is in place to optimize these practices and introduce appropriate technologies. According to him, villages are the oldest and most natural and form of open source knowledge, with potential to be further improved for the benefit of the entire nation.
The best thing social entrepreneurs could do is understand local technologies already being used and optimize them with local knowledge gathered from the insight of their users. Local solutions in the villages are often the most eco-friendly and sustainable, and they are also locally made, cutting down on operation costs.
The pic is a washing machine cum exercising machine which was invented by Remya, young girl from Kerala and is now patented.
Moses Lee highlighted the notion behind the above in a previous post, calling it “survival entrepreneurship”. Similarly, Fast Company has referred to the overarching trend as “trickling-up innovations”. The sheer simplicity of this particular example amazed me. It doesn’t require any electricity, it is sustainable and, hey, it even keeps one fit. Ganeshan added that for a nation like India, it is production by the masses and notmass production which will alleviate poverty. Hence it’s critical to involve the community from where the idea is taken in the manufacturing of a product. This would ensure inclusive growth.
What about the innovators themselves? This question led Prof. Anil Gupta, founder of the Honeybee Network, went on to found the National Innovation Foundation, which then started the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN). GIAN allows entrepreneurs to take ownership of technologies, commercialize products and scale production. As far as innovators are concerned, some want to simply be compensated for the technology while others are more entrepreneurial and desire venture funding. More about that can be read in their Business Opportunities section (North, West).
It’ll be interesting to see how entrepreneurs can utilize this goldmine. There’s huge potential for the knowledge of informal sectors to be leveraged and introduced into the formal economy. Once entrepreneurs and investors start realizing this and giving it due recognition, I’m confident that we’ll see India’s villages achieve growth at a much faster rates.
published originally at Nextbillion.net
Tagged as:
bop,
honeybee,
informal sector,
prof anil gupta,
Social Entrepreneurship
Yep you heard it right. Just got the news that I have been selected as a student delegate for the 13th World Business Dialogue at the University of Cologne in Germany, one of the most prestigious student symposiums in the world.
So how is this one different from most of the symposiums out there?
Well for one, the speaker line is simply mind blowing. Yes I know that is what the brochure of every student symposium would say, but don’t take my word for it, check it out your self. Another important thing to look for in these student symposiums is the legacy and this one sure has a great one, 25 years strong.
This years theme is Crisis Demands: The End to Anything Goes”
The efforts demanded by crises are tremendous. Especially in the current global economic crisis this fact became obvious. The 13th World Business Dialogue wants to portray and discuss important questions and tasks dealing with this topic.
The conference will deal with the dynamic status of our world today, what has changed in the way we look at businesses, what needs to be done.
The application process was pretty simple but I suppose that made it all the more competitive. I am told the applicant pool was 1400 and about 300 were selected finally, which is a lower selection ratio as compared to other equally awesome symposiums such as St Gallens (whose application is also open, in case you’re interested).
The trip is in mid March(16-18), which also means that I don’t miss out on BITS Pilani’s tech fest APOGEE and the TEDxPilani, an event I am personally involved with and am really excited to attend.
Finally I would like to thank my buddy Abhishek Nayak, who has possibly made the largest impact on me here and is one of the coolest and smartest chaps I have come across during my college years.
Tagged as:
germany,
markets,
recession,
symposium
Jaipur, India in March 2010
Grassroutes
Hope Phones
Mutiny.in