Business and Markets

Given enabling environments for social entrepreneurship, both individuals and institutions will have similar incentives (beyond their social motivation) to innovate, explore, pursue and develop solutions, goods and services for their local communities and global markets.

TAVOS Media Network is a trail-blazing venture based in Palo Alto, California, that empowers people in underserved communities around the world through local media services. Our vision is to build a global network of local media microfranchises to give voice and promote the life and prosperity of every community.

I recently watched Muhammad Yunus full of joy, sharing his story and advocating for his ideas during his Nobel Lecture of December 10, 2006, at the Oslo City Hall, Norway. I was deeply inspired and connected to his values and believe. I would like to contribute my 2 cents in promoting his lecture in this post.

Everyday in the news media in India one reads of Indian companies acquiring global companies, both big and small. Then there are press releases of FDI, Fortune 500 companies coming to India, Indian companies collaborating with global companies, startups being invested in or VCs going after companies whose technologies will leverage local opportunities, the list is endless.

Why business models are critical to innovation in emerging economies – From social entrepreneurship to building an idea or a business – Part 1

Emerging economies represent new challenges for ideas and businesses, which is why new social entrepreneurship opportunities are now the Petri-dish for what is emerging. Some examples exist of great reference;

From a recent Fortune magazine that I read that most companies in S&P have been rated as risky. This represents a huge challenge for companies as new emerging economies such as India, China or other countries mean new business models which have to be sustainable and scalable and I do not think that there are in most text books or case studies of today.

I am collaborating with the Graduate School of Business here at Stanford, and usual working with students is always an intriguing and fruitful experience, which I usually cherish a lot. We did touch a quite interesting matter of what a social venture really is during a discussion on the project. Do all social ventures include a non-profit approach or can you have social ventures based on a ‘purely’ for-profit model? Can a commercialised approach ever do any good?

In TiE Women's Leadership Forum, Rayona Sharpnak, founder and president of Institute for Women's Leadership, brought together three panelists from industry to share with a roomful of women their successful stories as female leaders, and discuss the topics that are mostly of concern by women in their career.

There is much to be learned about creating interfaces for non-literate populations. Since this is not a group that most companies target, very little hands-on research has been done with non-literate user groups. Most of what I have learned is theoretical, based on user research on sight-impaired users, or is from very limited case studies. Some of the best information has come from other the projects of RDVP fellows and the work they have done. (Thanks, Aman.)

At SVASE (www.svase.org) main event “Where the Hot Money Will Be Going in 2006,” the panelists from Onset Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson talked about the innovations they see that are coming to reshape the landscape of software, semiconductors, Internet, telecom, energy and bio-tech industries.