Social Business Academia Report 2014

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Academia Overview

SOCIAL BUSINESS ACADEMIA REPORT

2014

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“Young people today have all the capabilities and technologies that are needed to overcome any social problem that still exists in our society.� Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Chairman of Yunus Centre


Content

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Foreword Prof. Muhammad Yunus

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Yunus and You - The YY Foundation

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Introduction

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University Profiles

113

Book Reviews

118

Artist Profile Naoyuki Omine

122

Other Social Business Activities

143

About Social Business

146

Acknowledgement

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Foreword

Academic institutions are the place where it all starts for a young person. He gets his introduction to the world. Universities take on an enormous responsibility when educating the next generation of future leaders because this is where young people build their knowledge and develop skills that will enable them to create a better society. Young people today have all the capabilities and technologies that are needed to overcome any social problem that still exists in our society. Nowadays, more and more young people strive to make a difference in the world and universities recognize the need to respond to this increasing demand. Social business is a powerful idea that focuses on creating financially self-sustainable solutions to tackle social problems of any kind. Within only a few years, many great things have happened within the academic field of social business. It is very pleasant to see that universities around the globe have started a variety of social business institutions, initiatives and programs. I am convinced that many more universities around the world will join this movement in the near future and include social business as an integral part of their activities. The world is changing rapidly and the rate of change will become faster and faster. But we must know where we want to go. How we steer ourselves to get to where we want to go. Social business gives us a powerful tool to steer ourselves to create a dramatically better world. Universities need to introduce this tool of social business to the young generation to prepare them to steer their course in the right direction.

Muhammad Yunus 4


“Universities around the globe have started a variety of social business institutions, initiatives and programs.� 5


Yunus and You - The YY Foundation

Institution

Yunus and You - The YY Foundation

City Wiesbaden Country Germany Focus Areas

Social Business

Contact

Dominique V. Dauster / Karen Hitschke

Email

Dominique.Dauster@yyfoundation.com / Karen.Hitschke@yyfoundation.com

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Yunus and You - The YY Foundation

Yunus and You – The YY Foundation is delighted to publish the Social Business Academia Report 2014 as a main resource that provides a comprehensive overview about the many social business activities that take place at universities globally. The YY Foundation strongly believes in the importance of education and the role that social business can play within educational institutions to shape a new generation of conscious young leaders.

programs for children and young people to support the youth upbringing worldwide • Supporting local social initiatives within cities that bring neighbors together for a social purpose such as clean streets, safe neighborhoods and spreading a social conscience • Promoting economic & social integration: Supporting the economic and social development of the least advantaged citizens through the support of entrepreneurial initiatives towards the reduction of poverty.

The YY Foundation is a not-for profit organization founded in 2012 in Wiesbaden, Germany with the main purpose of creating a fairer and more social world through promoting a constructive dialogue between academia, business, politics and civil society and thus leading to the social and economic integration of the least advantaged.

In 2014, the YY Foundation supports a variety of activities. Among other projects, it hosts the GSBS Young Challengers Meeting one day prior to the Global Social Business Summit in Mexico City. This meeting brings together students and young professionals to exchange social business expertise and develop concrete ideas for social business initiatives. Other programs include global accelerator programs to empower young entrepreneurs to establish their own social businesses and act as role models for a whole new generation.

The foundation’s main activities include: • Cooperating with educational institutions to spread the social business concept with a special focus on the young generation, the leaders of tomorrow: support universities, colleges and other educational institutions with the formulation of curricula, joint implementation of research projects, offering inspiring events, seminars and lectures with a focus on an inclusive and fair economy, with the goal of bringing the social business concept into the education sector • Supporting social business events: Sponsoring participation at summits, networking events, social business information exchange forums, and other related social business events, to allow for constructive exchange for members of different cultures, religions, gender, and professional background • Developing a platform towards a more social world: supporting activities such as social business competitions, scholarships, internships and fellowships that will work as a catalyst for accelerating a social mindset around the world and allow for encounters between members of various nations • Encouraging youth development: offering educational

We would like to thank all partners and friends who made this report possible with their contributions and valuable feedback. Specifically, we would like to express our gratefulness to Professor Muhammad Yunus for his visionary leadership and inspiration and we would like to thank Leonhard Nima for taking the initiative to compile this report. The Academia Report 2014 will be available as a download on the foundation’s website www.yyfoundation.com We are exited to see an ever-growing social business movement that will tackle society’s most pressing needs!

Karen Hitschke Managing Director 7

Dominique V. Dauster Managing Director


Introduction

came up to publish a report that summarizes the variety of social business activities that have been established globally and to make this knowledge available to a larger audience.

There is no doubt about the role and importance of education in order to change the world and make it a better place. While some of the traditional approaches have not yet been capable to solve many of the most pressing social problems, it was only a matter of time that new concepts would arise in the academic field.

The 2014 version of the Academia Report features new and updated university profiles, interviews with faculty members, as well as book reviews and profiles of other interesting social business activities. The report takes a collaborative approach with contributions from professors and social business experts from all around the world.

When social business gained momentum within the past few years, many universities around the world started initiatives in this direction. These universities are meanwhile an important pillar of the social business movement.

This report focuses on initiatives that are taking place in the field of social business as defined by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus as a nondividend business to solve social problems. There are many more great initiatives in related fields, which however are not within the scope of this report.

Through teaching social business, universities are able to reach and educate the young generation about ideas and models to solve social problems in a financially self-sustainable way. Through research, universities significantly contribute to better understand and measure the impact that social businesses have. Through practical implementation, universities are able to directly translate social business knowledge into projects on the ground and thus enrich the learning experience for students.

The objective of this report is twofold. On the one hand, we would like to foster the exchange of information and knowledge between universities that are active in the field. On the other hand, we hope that this report will inspire and motivate many more universities to start social business initiatives as well.

In June 2013 we published the first version of the Social Business Academia Report as a digital version. First ideas for this report emerged while thinking about ideas how to better connect universities to foster exchange and collaboration and about the various mechanisms to do so. One of these ideas, the Academia Meeting on Social Business, had been established in 2011 as a pre-meeting prior to the Global Social Business Summit to provide a platform for academics to connect and exchange ideas. The Academia Meeting finally evolved into the GSBS Research Conference on Social Business in 2013.

On a personal note I would like to thank Yunus and You The YY Foundation for their dedication and support. Only with their support it is possible to publish the Academia Report in this format and reach a global audience on a larger scale. Though many great things have happened we are still at the very beginning of an exiting social business journey.

These gatherings have been an important initial step to establish an informal network across universities. Since meetings and conferences have a limited reach, the idea

Leonhard Nima - Editor 8


“Social business education is key to shaping a generation that puts society’s needs first.”


Artist Mr. Naoyuki Omine (Kobo Maru) Japan




University Profiles

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California Institute for Social Business

Institution

California Institute for Social Business

University

California State University Channel Islands

City Camarillo, California Country

United States of America

Focus Areas

Teaching and Incubation

Contact

Dr. Andrea Grove

Email Andrea.grove@csuci.edu

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California Institute for Social Business

About the California Institute for Social Business

Social Business. The Certificate is available to nonmatriculated students and is geared toward members of our community who wish to better understand the principles of social business and social business planning. Our program is grounded in the principle of interdisciplinarity—students not only study social business but must also take courses that help them understand in detail the social, economic, and political issues that social businesses can be designed to address. As part of these programs, three new courses are being taught—the first in the world about social business geared to undergraduates: Introduction to Social Business, Social Business Planning, and Research in Social Business. These courses are not standard classroom courses but have multiple active learning and community engagement components. Students have had face to face and virtual visits by leading social business entrepreneurs and analysts. For example, in 2012-2013, students have had Skype meetings with Eugenio La Mesa (Cure Thalessemia in India), Kerstin Humberg (researcher with extensive expertise on Grameen Danone and Grameen Veolia), and Holly Mosher (filmmaker, Bonsai People).

The California Institute for Social Business (CISB): Intersecting education, capitalism, and social change— Applying market principles to alleviate society’s most urgent needs. The California Institute for Social Business in collaboration with Professor Muhammad Yunus was established as part of the California State University (CSU) Channel Islands’ commitment to prepare students for the world they will inherit upon graduation. The CISB addresses the need for students to participate in local and global experiences and learn new methods of alleviating serious social ills that impact our region and the world. Building on the four pillars of the University, CISB exposes students to opportunities for learning about and addressing local and far-reaching social ills through the application, study and development of Professor Yunus’ notions of social business. The CISB consults with entrepreneurs and organizations in order to assist in the development of social business plans for firms which seek to apply market principles for the creation of social good.

It is our goal to really take our students through the entire process of social business creation as much as that is possible. So in the course of the three semesters that it takes to get the social business minor, the students go from learning about the concept and its best practices, analyzing a social issue and developing high level social business ideas in the first semester, to building on these ideas to develop a fully-fledged social business plan in the second semester. The third semester is then dedicated to actually making these plans a reality by implementing a pilot for their social business idea. Since students often have many other conflicting priorities, they are usually not the social business entrepreneurs, but just support existing or future social change makers in using the tool of social business to create or enhance the social value that they are looking for. So starting at the end of

The CISB has been led by Faculty Director Professor Andrea Grove since its creation in 2010. In May 2013, Martin Loeffler, former CEO of Grameen Caldas, assumed the Director position. He brings expertise in consulting and design of social business that will help the CISB fulfill its vision to incubate social businesses locally, nationally, and globally. Principal elements of the CISB Undergraduate and graduate curricula The CISB has created a Minor and a Certificate in 17


California Institute for Social Business

the first semester, the class is split into consulting teams of approximately 5 students each that are matched with one of our community partners that would like to explore social business opportunities to fight a specific social issue locally, regionally or even internationally.

also off campus, the CISB has recently formed a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to teach social business to high school students as part of their after school program. In the spring semester of 2014, CISB successfully executed a pilot with two high schools in the Los Angeles area, where 40+ students were trained in social business design.

In order to further enhance the students’ learning experience and the output for our community partners and social business entrepreneurs, we started a partnership with the Service Corps of Retired Executives, an organization made up of current or former business executives that provide start-up support to businesses on a volunteer basis. As of the spring 2013 semester, each student social business consulting team has one former executive as a mentor that actively participates at the design, planning and implementation of the social business initiative.

The program culminated with a social business plan competition where each member of the winning team won a small college scholarship and presented their idea of a “Health Super Center” against obesity at the Paramount Picture Studios in Hollywood in front of a couple of thousand students from all over LA. Academic Research In its second year (2011), the CISB named a Social Business Research Fellow. This CSU Channel Islands faculty member, Antonio Jimenez Jimenez, has (a) engaged in independent research to understand the background, evolution, and emerging methodology surrounding the design of social businesses; (b) conducted field research about the Social Business City model in Wiesbaden; and (c) wrote a case study evaluating/analyzing/assessing his subject for a book project sponsored by the CISB.

Examples for social business initiatives include “Farmer for a day”, a community garden that fights food insecurity and now aims at reaching financial sustainability by offering gardening team events to corporations and “Pleasant Valley Neighborhood for Learning” that teaches parents how to be better first teachers to their children. The creation of a social business café in the Dominican Republic is one of our international initiatives. Through this combination of theory and practice and the direct involvement of the students in real life social business projects, we create a unique interdisciplinary, applied learning experience, that mobilizes, trains and then supports our social change agents of the future that tackle our most pressing social issues. Upon graduation, our students ideally already have a job within the new organization that they helped create or they go for the creation of a social business and become job creators, not job seekers once they enter the workforce.

The core research project is the book “Social Business: Theory, Practice and Critical Perspectives” (edited by Andrea Grove, Ph.D., Faculty Director, California Institute for Social Business in collaboration with Muhammad Yunus, CSU Channel Islands and Gary A. Berg, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Extended University, CSU Channel Islands. Partnership development

Expansion to other types of students: In order to further expand our social business activities

We are developing partnerships with local and global social businesses, other community partners, and 18


California Institute for Social Business

academic institutions around the world to: a. speak with students in the social business courses; b. provide future work opportunities for our students; c. consider social business as an option for their existing non- profit organization’s work; and/or d. collaborate in our academic enterprises (teaching and research). e. create social businesses with us and f. Develop international university partnerships to develop and launch international social business study programs.

“The CISB addresses the need for students to participate in local and global experiences and learn new methods of alleviating serious social ills“

Social Business Creation and Advisory In the area of social business incubation and advisory, we have recently created a social business incubation space on campus that we inaugurated together with Prof. Yunus during his visit in February of 2014. We also established a Social Business Club on campus to mobilize additional members of the campus community to engage in social business creation and support. In the area of social business advisory, we recently signed our first consulting contract to help the local food bank create a social business that identifies and then tackles the root-cause of food insecurity in Ventura County. Several other consulting projects are in the pipeline and we hope to make this part of the CISB’s value proposition a significant source of social business creations and revenue generation reflecting the niche that Grameen will aim at in the UK.Super Center” against obesity at the Paramount Picture Studios in Hollywood in front of a couple of thousand students from all over LA. 19


Glasgow Caledonian University

Institution

Yunus Center for Social Business & Health

University

Glasgow Caledonian University

City Glasgow Country Scotland Focus Areas

Research and Teaching

Contact

Prof. Cam Donaldson

Email Cam.Donaldson@gcu.ac.uk

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Glasgow Caledonian University

Overview

These projects are as follows:

Our Centre was established in 2010 under the directorship of Professor Cam Donaldson (Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health). We focus mainly on the pillar of research, with projects on the impacts on health and well-being of social business and microcredit. We have a ‘health’ theme in addition to social business because, despite world class publicly-funded health services in the UK, health inequalities continue to widen. Gaps in life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas of our home town of Glasgow have now grown to 28 years. Our view is that further away from diseases and risk factors are the root causes of ill health – poverty, exclusion and lack of connectedness as indicated by the poverty-health relationship.

Theorising the transfer of microcredit to moreadvanced economies: Reviewing the theoretical literature on microcredit and its adaptation to the special circumstances of Grameenstyle banking, and how this can be applied in more Western settings. The work also involves interviews with ‘early adopters’ of similar loans-for-enterprise approaches to microcredit in the UK and US settings with respect to what they perceive as the barriers and facilitators. Mapping ‘microloans for enterprise’ in Scotland: If a new Grameen-style microloans-for-enterprise institution for Scotland is to garner official support, it is important to know the extent of initiatives and projects that aim to support enterprise and self employment in this country, the aim of this project being simply to identify and ‘map’ provision of lower levels of lending (below £5,000 per loan) - ‘micro-lending for enterprise’ – reflecting the niche that Grameen will aim at in the UK. Our results can be found at the website below – http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/ scot.2014.0016

Without working on these ‘causes of the causes’, moreconventional attempts at public health improvement will have limited impact. It is these relationships that we aim to investigate, based around bringing Professor Yunus’ ideas to Scotland. As well as research, however, we do have programmes for training researchers and social enterprise practitioners which we deliver in collaboration with the Social Enterprise Academy and other new offerings in the social business field subsequent to the appointment of Professor Yunus as Chancellor of our University.

Systematic review of microcredit as a public health intervention: If, in countries like Scotland, we are to think of microcredit (in the form of Grameen-style banking) as a potential route to better health and well-being, then it is important to conduct a systematic review of the literature to assess what we know about the magnitude of impacts on health and well-being and the quality of this literature.

Research programme Since its establishment, Glasgow Caledonian University’s (GCU’s) Yunus Centre has already commenced several projects with financial support from private donations, Scottish Government, Santander Bank, the Church of Scotland, the Medical Research Council and the European Commission. Some of these projects reflect the research that has to be conducted to prepare for bringing Grameen-style banking to deprived areas of Scotland.

From these initial projects we intend to then establish a long-term study following Grameen customers, interviewing them annually about their health and wellbeing and to try to compare this with what is happening in the population more generally and in groups with no 21


Glasgow Caledonian University

such access to microcredit to determine the extent to which it makes a difference.

the causal pathway that takes those who engage with social enterprise though to improvements in health and well-being? How might it be measured, and to then attempt to do just that in a series of case studies. This work is funded from 2014-18 via a £1.96m programme grant funded by the UK’s Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

Our Centre is also open to collaborations on related issues, which involve thinking differently about public health and how it can be improved. For example, other projects exploring related concepts but in other contexts, are:

EFESEIIS (“Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies”) is a major European project funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration. This three-year (2013-2016) project involves 11 different partners across 10 different countries around Europe. It is led by our ‘sister’ Yunus Centre at the University of Florence, and has a budget exceeding 3 million Euros. Teaching social entrepreneurs and new ‘social business & health’ researchers

‘Passage from India’: self-reliance groups in a UK context: ‘Passage from India’ (now WEvolution) was devised by the Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas Committee. 13 women in 7 deprived ‘priority areas’ is Glasgow were selected, and have met as a group prior and subsequent to embarking on an 11-day trip to India to learn more about the concepts and practices of women’s self-help groups and meet those who were a part of them. Having gained such insights, these women will recruit more women to develop other like-minded groups (termed ‘self-reliance groups’) in their own communities, which will encourage different forms of self-reliance but hopefully allow women to pursue business and communityoriented ideas. The aims of the research project are to follow the development of both the groups and the women themselves over a four-year period.

We educate current and future social entrepreneurs through: MSc Social Business and Microfinance A critique of traditional university programmes, put forward by our Chancellor, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, is that: “We prepare our students for jobs and careers, but we don’t teach them to think as individuals about what kind of world they would create.” To begin to redress this imbalance in September 2014 we launch our new MSc Social Business and Microfinance. This new programme will adopt a truly international perspective in examining how social business and microfinance might transform the lives of the poorest, and enabling students to create positive social change in the communities they serve. The programme itself brings together a range of existing modules, which together locate social business and microfinance in the wider political economy,

Social business and well-being in Scotland: Although there are difference between the terms ‘social business’ and ‘social enterprise’, they share the common goals of being mission driven and encouraging some sort of trading activity in achieving that mission. Similar to how we are trying to think of microcredit as a public health intervention, we are also trying to think of social business in a similar light by focusing on its potential contribution to well-being more generally and how one might measure this. This project will involve working with social enterprises in the West of Scotland and five other universities to explore: How social enterprises think about ‘well-being’. How do they define it? Can they articulate 22


Glasgow Caledonian University

and particularly alongside challenges to pre-crisis mainstream economic thought. Students are taught more mainstream business techniques and challenged to imagine how these might be used to advance society. Two new modules led by Yunus Centre staff draw upon the latest research findings to introduce students to the wide diversity of practical and theoretical approaches to “doing” and understanding social entrepreneurship; and to critically analysing the wide variety of social business and microfinance types in existence across the world. Finally students are provided with training in research methods before embarking upon their dissertation. To ensure students from any background are able to study on the MSc Social Business and Microfinance Glasgow Caledonian University has provided a total of six Chancellor Yunus Scholarships and fully funded places worth up to £10,000.

“We have a ‘health’ theme in addition to social business because, despite world class publicly-funded health services in the UK, health inequalities continue to widen.”

We also educate researchers of the future through: An internship programme, where young undergraduates have been able to come and contribute to our agenda. Five people in total have gone through that programme, from Scotland, England, France and Austria, who have been studying at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aix-Marseille 2 as well as GCU. Since our inception the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health has developed a reputation as one of the world’s premier locations to undertake doctoral research in and around the area of social business. We currently have seven PhD students working on various aspects of the above research programme, as well GCU’s wider interests in social innovation, and expect to double this number over the next 18 months. We encourage multi-disciplinary approaches, drawing students with backgrounds in anthropology, economics and other social sciences. 23



Interview without Words


Interview without Words - Prof. Cam Donaldson

Cam Donaldson holds the Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health at Glasgow Caledonian University. From 2002-2009, he held the Health Foundation Chair in Health Economics at Newcastle University, where he was founding Director of the Institute of Health & Society and professor in the Newcastle University Business School. He held the Svare Chair in Health Economics at the University of Calgary from 1998-2002, having first become a professor of health economics in 1996 whilst at the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen. Cam has received numerous competitive awards in recognition of his research, having been: > > > >

an inaugural National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator (2008-2012) a Public Services Fellow in the Advanced Institute for Management Research (2004-5), funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Senior Investigator (2000-2002) a Senior Scholar (1998-2003), funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

Over the past 25 years, Cam has published over 190 peer-reviewed articles in economics, medical, health policy and health management journals and has coauthored or edited several books on various aspects of health economics and public service delivery. 26


Interview without Words - Prof. Cam Donaldson 1) The need for social business in Scotland is ...

2) Social business research is sometimes ...

4) There is enough funding available for social businesses

5) Will Scotland ever win the soccer 6) Social business - Do it with ... world cup?

27

3) Social Impact Measurement is still ...


Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Reseach Center

Institution

Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center

University

Kyushu University

City Fukuoka Country Japan Focus Areas

Research, Teaching and Incubation

Contact

Prof. Masaharu Okada

Email Okada@sbrc.kyushu-u.ac.jp

28


Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Reseach Center

Current Social Business Activities

The Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center (SBRC) has been established in 2011 as the most recent of many social business initiatives at Kyushu University with the first initial activities dating back to 2007.

Research > Conducting research on all types of social business taking place both in Japan and overseas > Creation of replicable social business models and test trials of social business role models

Aim To study, research, and promote social business. The center envisions to produce skilled social architects, to build partnerships with related organizations in the world, and to create replicable social business models to combat global issues (poverty, health, environment, energy, education, natural disasters & crises, etc).

Education > Social business workshops for corporates, governments, NPOs/NGOs, students & individuals > Development of social business exposure programs (study tours) for Japanese professionals and students to learn on site about Grameen social business activities in Bangladesh. The program is developed in collaboration with the Grameen Communication Center and the Yunus Centre. > Publication of educational materials on social business both in English and Japanese > Leading and guiding of the student-run organization “Yunus Social Business Club”, which was formed at Kyushu University under the mission to ”Create a Social Business Hub in Japan by Youth.”

Key Activities Education and Research SBRC builds social business research models by studying current social business best practices globally. Additionally, it develops advanced curricula for students as well as social business white papers for industries in collaboration with other universities. Partnerships and Alliances SBRC creates and maintains partnerships with universities, companies, governments, NPOs/NGOs and with the organizations of the Grameen family.

Partnerships and Alliances > Building partnerships with key players on the ground and related organizations within Japan > Working on the creation of a social business community and local alliances (e.g. with students/ corporate/volunteer groups) through joint workshops

Events SBRC acts as an open social business hub and organizes social business events such as workshops, forums, symposia and Grameen social business exposure programs to Bangladesh. The social business events are available online through social networks and real-time streaming.

Practice > Support the creation of new social business joint ventures between Japanese companies and the Grameen Family > Incubation of ongoing social business projects

Archiving Social business study materials (books, journals, magazines, social business product samples, etc.) are archived both online and in the Grameen Creative House.

Promotion > Hosting of the annual social business promotion event “Social Business Forum Asia” in Fukuoka 29


Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Reseach Center

> Planning and execution of Prof. Yunus’ annual Japan Tour (Tokyo, Kyoto, Tohoku, etc)

established, followed by the establishment of the foundation Grameen Technology Lab (GTL). GCL@ Kyushu University aims to proactively carry out education, research, and incubation of social business in collaboration with the Grameen family, Japanese companies, NPOs/NGOs, universities, and governments.

History 2007 The work of Professor Yunus was formally introduced to Kyushu University by Dr. Ashir Ahmed (a research fellow, now an Associate Professor at Kyushu University) who started a project at Kyushu University to design and establish an appropriate social information infrastructure for unreached people in developing countries. Subsequently, an agreement was signed between Kyushu University and Grameen Communications to carry out collaborative research to solve global issues through ICT. Since then, several joint research activities and projects have been conducted and implemented in the field of healthcare, agriculture, education, energy, etc..

Since 2007, Kyushu University and the Global Communication Center (GCC) at Grameen have jointly been exploring the field of social-needs-based technology and product development. GCL@Kyushu University was also committed to providing knowledge and facilitating the social business dialogue between different entities in order to benefit society in a positive way. On the other hand, GTL aims to solve social problems defined in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals by: > Developing affordable and usable technologies > Applying the concept of social business to serve unreached communities in a sustainable manner

2008 In order to strengthen the relationship with Grameen, Prof. Ashir Ahmed invited Prof. Hiroto Yasuura (Executive Vice President of Kyushu University) and Prof. Masaharu Okada (Executive Director at SBRC) to Bangladesh to support joint projects between industry and university.

2011 Thanks to the generous donation of Mr. Shiiki, a prominent Japanese businessman, Kyushu University established the Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center (SBRC) including the continuation of GCL@ Kyushu University activities within this center.

2009 Kyushu University stepped into the world of social business. Two MOUs were signed during Professor Yunus’ visit to Japan in September: > GCL (The Grameen Creative Lab / GCL@KU): Established between Yunus Centre and Kyushu University to advance social business in education > GTL (Grameen Technology Lab): Established between Yunus Centre, Kyushu University and NTT Japan to advance social business in technology

After the Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011 the SBRC organized the Public Symposium during the Social Business Forum Asia under the theme of “Self-reliable projects for Survivors of Tohoku Earthquake to recover and rebuild their life on their feet though social business.”

2010 In March 2010, the Grameen Creative Lab @ Kyushu University (GCL@ Kyushu University) was officially

2012 After the successful promotion of the concept of the social business in the previous two years, the SBRC has 30


Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Reseach Center

shifted into the second stage, with a focus on creating social business companies in Japan. The first social business, Human Harbor was established in Fukuoka city in January 2012 and then started its operation aimed to support prisoners on their way towards rehabilitation in society. The SBRC also established a Social Business Fund in collaboration with the Japanese company WATAMI. 2013 In 2013, four additional social businesses were established in Japan. In addition, the second Yunus & Youth Social Business Design Contest (YY Contest) was hold in Fukuoka co-organized by the SBRC and the Yunus Social Business Club, during which 5 projects were presented by students from various universities from Japan. The SBRC plans to extend this YY Contest globally in cooperation with other youth communities all over the world. 31


Interview Prof. Masaharu Okada - Kyushu “I expect that the role of social business in Japan should be enormous, since Japan had been doing social business already back in history. “

Q: You have started social business activities at Kyushu University already several years ago and established the Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center in 2011. As an introduction, please tell us a bit about the overall (economic) situation in Japan. What are the main social problems that need to be tackled?

we did not really have a market-oriented business approach, which had only been introduced by western countries after World War 2. I would say and believe, that the Japanese have social business in their DNA. Q: You are promoting the idea of social business to other Japanese universities as well. How is the response so far?

A: In Japan, since the new Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe has started his mission in December 2013, his new economic policy called ABENOMICS seems to be working well to revive the sluggish economy with fiscal stimulus, aggressive monetary easing and structural reforms. However, as of now it will be too early to finally evaluate its effects. On the other hand, issues related to the recovery from the disastrous damages caused by the earthquake in 2011 and the sluggish economy are still there.

A: Several Japanese universities and many professors are interested in social business. They are looking for new economic approaches to research about and to teach within academia. Moreover, students are now more interested in the idea and the concept. They would like to do something for others and for society. Q: At the SBRC you have a strong focus not only on research, but on incubation, too. How does your approach look like? Please tell us a bit about the social businesses that have been incubated.

In addition, there is an uncertainty among many young people who still seem to be looking for things that they would like to focus on in their life. Also, crime rates have been going up even in this safe country.

A: We are organizing the “Yunus and Youth Social Business Contest (YY Contest)“ every year, inviting the winning team to the annual Global Social Business Summit where they will have the great opportunity to present their social business idea and business plan. For example, this year 52 groups (250 students) have applied for the YY Contest in Tokyo. So far, four companies emerging from the contest have been established as social businesses.

Q: What is the role social business could play in addressing some of these major social problems? A: As one of the tools to solve social problems, I expect that the role of social business in Japan should be enormous, since Japan had been doing social business already back in history. Back then, 32


Interview Prof. Masaharu Okada - Kyushu

Prof. Masaharu Okada

Q: You also work a lot with Japanese companies to get them involved in social business. Please tell us a bit more about these partnerships.

General Counsel International Legal Office Executive Director Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center Kyushu University

A: Initially, I had established contacts with large Japanese corporations to get them involved in social business. However, the idea was wrong because they are too „westernized“ and have a very strong profit-maximizing motive. I am now trying to connect with family owned companies, which exist for a long time, say a few hundreds years or more. They have a natural spirit and understanding of social business and I expect that they will be a great driver to promote social business in Japan and in the world.

In 1979, he joined NTT, mainly in charge of international business management, especially international legal management including intellectual property license, lobbying, public relations, internet business projects, including the Internet Business Development of NTT and alliances with ventures in the field of internet in and outside of Japan. In 2001, after retiring from NTT, he joined Kyushu University. At the University, he was teaching in the Law School. He is also in charge of Corporation-GovernmentAcademia collaboration projects. At the same time, he is the General Counsel of the International Legal Office of Kyushu University. Since 2009, he has been in working on projects with Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006 and the University, establishing the ‘Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center’ as Executive Director. 1953 Born in Fukuoka City 1979 Graduated from Tokyo University (Faculty of Law) 1985 MBA, University of Washington (Seattle, USA) 1993 Attorney at Law qualified in New York State. 33


Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBCUF)

Institution

Yunus Social Business Centre University of Florence (YSBCUF)

University

University of Florence

City Florence Country Italy Focus Areas

Research, Teaching and Incubation

Contact

Enrico Testi

Email Enrico.testi@pin.unifi.it

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Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBCUF)

Description

inspiration from the visionary and valuable ideas and experiences of The Grameen Creative Lab about “Social Business Cities”, which have been used and adapted by the Yunus Social Business Centre University of Florence.

The Yunus Social Business Centre University of Florence (YSBCUF) is the first centre in Italy accredited by the Yunus Centre in Dhaka, founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus.

The SBCP aims to promote social business and social innovation at city/local level favoring synergic strategies and collaboration among various institutions – for-profit firms, cooperatives, public activities, social businesses, third sector activities, etc. – that could act in a complementary and mutually-inspiring way.

The Centre was established in 2011 thanks to a partnership between the University of Florence, PIN S.c.r.l. – Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firenze and the Yunus Centre in Dhaka. It is based at “Polo Universitario Città di Prato” and it is the result of the research and consulting job carried on in these years by ARCO lab (Action Research for COdevelopment) and LAMA d.c.a. (Development and Cooperation Agency) on Social Business and Social Enterprise, Impact Evaluation and Local and Human Development.

The flexibility of the SBCP encompasses – beyond the enterprise’s typology that it devotes attention to – its twofold inclination to figure out suitable interventions coming both from locally contrived initiatives, by providing training, consultancy, technical support and results evaluation. In the meantime, SPBC endeavors to connect virtuous international practices and experiences to stimulate networking and coordination.

The centre works in order to spread the theories of social business in Italy and to offer strategic support to private individuals and institutions that want to put it into practice. The centre also acts as an intermediary with the Yunus Centre in Dhaka and Italian organizations that would like to get in contact with Prof. Yunus.

The general objective of the Social Business City Program is to: “Create and Facilitate a System for the Birth and Flourishing of Social Business and Social Innovation”.

The YSBCUF it is a social business itself. Any profits are re-invested in the activities of the YSBCUF to promote and support the creation of social businesses in Italy and in the world.

The specific objectives of the program are: > To raise awareness for social business and promote social innovation > To facilitate the creation of social businesses > To improve an entrepreneurial mind-set in the young generations

YSCBUF Activities Social Business City Program

Youth and Social Business: Becoming Agents of Social Change

The main activity that has been implemented by the YSBCUF is the launch and the operation of the Social Business City Program in Pistoia.

“Youth and Social Business: becoming active agents of change“ is an educational project carried out by the YSBCUF with Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia and Fondazione Un Raggio di Luce Onlus within

The Social Business City Program (SBCP) takes 35


Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBCUF)

the “Pistoia Social Business City” program. The 20122013 program involved 251 students (age 16-18) from the province of Pistoia and aimed to provide students with all the basic knowledge and tools to approach microcredit and social business concepts and the world of social entrepreneurship.

along with PIN S.c.r.l. and its research lab ARCO, are leading a consortium of eleven European universities, research centers and hubs with the objective of investigating the social entrepreneurship phenomenon from a historical and evolutionary perspective in order to analyze the features of an enabling eco-system for social entrepreneurship and social innovation.

The Yunus Social Business Centre staff distributed a questionnaire in order to understand how the students’ knowledge about social business and microcredit has increased thanks to the project and how they liked it. The questionnaire was composed of two parts: the first part was filled out by the students at the start of the project, the second at the end of the classes. Students were randomly selected after one year resulting in a total of 28 out of 251 students surveyed.

In recent years the importance of social enterprise and social innovation has grown. This can be attributed to their capability of complementing public policy measures, as well as playing an active role in social inclusion processes. The three-years project has four main objectives: To construct an evolutionary theory of Social Entrepreneurship

Knowledge of Social Business Moreover, in order to investigate the results of the activities, the YSBC staff decided to distribute a similar questionnaire to the students involved in the training project a year after the classes, asking them about their interest to become entrepreneurs in the future and what type of entrepreneurship they would like to choose eventually (traditional, social or both).

Social entrepreneurship has developed in different ways across Europe. This objective aims to construct a theory that explains these differences, taking into account the history and trends of social entrepreneurship and how social entrepreneurship and institutions co-evolved over time. To identify the features of an “Enabling Eco-System for Social Entrepreneurship”

Research Project: Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies (EFESEIIS)

The research will identify the conditions under which social enterprises can contribute effectively and efficiently to build an inclusive and innovative society and will lead to a database of good practices.

On the 1st of December 2013 the European 7th Framework research project titled “Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies” (EFESEIIS) officially started.

To identify the “New Generation” of Social Entrepreneurs The new generation of social enterprises emerged in the last five years requires to be better understood in terms of its features, needs and constraints as well as its

The Yunus Social Business Centre University of Florence, 36


Yunus Social Business Centre (YSBCUF)

contribution to social innovation in order to harness its potential for policy making and for other stakeholders such as financial institutions and support organizations. To provide advice to stakeholders The project targets policymakers both at the European, national and local level as well as banks and other organizations, such as chambers of commerce, associations of entrepreneurs and local development agencies. Every stakeholder will be provided with advice on how to draft policies and services to foster social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The project partnership is formed by > PIN S.c.r.l., Servizi Didattici e Scientifici per l’Università di Firenze (Italy, project leader) > Mßnster University (Germany) > University of Southern Denmark (Denmark) > ALTERRA research institute (Netherlands) > Glasgow Caledonian University (United Kingdom) > FREN Fondacija za Razvoj Ekonomske Nauke (Serbia) > University of Northampton (United Kingdom) > University of Warsaw (Poland) > THE HUB GmbH (Austria) > Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (France) > Promoting Social Business (Albania) 37


Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business

Institution

Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business

University

EBS University

City Oestrich-Winkel Country Germany Focus Areas

Teaching and Research

Contact

Prof. Karin Kreutzer / Prof. Andreas Heinecke

Email

Karin.kreutzer@ebs.edu / Andreas.heinecke@ebs.edu

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Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business

About the Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business at EBS

was formed and compiled helpful insights for social entrepreneurs and those contemplating to start a social business. A first publication in 2010 was called the Social Investment Manual: http://www.schwabfound.org/pdf/schwabfound/ SocialInvestmentManual2011.pdf

The Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business aims to discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge in social business that is equally rigorous and relevant and thereby creates positive impact for students, academics, executives and society. We focus on hybrid (or pluralistic) organizations – as social businesses – operating at the boundaries between market and civil society. We study organizations irrespective of their legal form that develop innovative solutions to societies most pressing social needs. We are interested in social innovations that are innovative concepts, strategies and business models for civil society organizations, foundations and socially responsible businesses.

Based on the success, a new task force convened to address as the next logical step after social investment the issue of Corporate Governance of Social Enterprises, in particular Advisory Boards: http://www.schwabfound.org/pdf/schwabfound/ Governance_Social_Enterprises.pdf In a third step a practical guidebook on leadership and human resource management in social enterprises will be compiled. The manual will aim to address the most common leadership and HR challenges that social enterprises face at different stages in their lifecycle, and support entrepreneurs to deal with them with advice that is tailored to the realities of social mission driven organizations of various forms. It also aims to provide hands-on knowledge for SE that will typically not have attended formal leadership education. It will serve as a platform for sharing experiences on challenges as well as solutions, and will facilitate fruitful exchange within the community on this vital topic.

Prof. Karin Kreutzer and Prof. Andreas Heinecke are holding the Chair of Social Business since May 2011. Magdalena Kloibhofer joined the team in August 2012 as a research assistant. Conferences EBS Business School teamed up with Danone Germany to stage the first conference on social business and aging: Age as an Asset – Social Business and the Aging Boomers. The two days conference brought together international researchers, policy makers, business leaders and practitioners to gain an overview about excellence, trends and strategies. The students presented a case study working out the market potential for Danone. The conference was well received and was the kick-off for new activities within aging and social business at EBS Business School.

Teaching

Outreach

Field Case Studies: In the spring term 2012 a cohort of master students developed new social business ideas for Danone in the context of the demographic transition. In the fall term 2012 students are working on an analysis of The Hub and prepare a market entry study for DialogMuseum in Frankfurt.

Under the leadership of EBS Business School, a task force from the Schwab Foundation community

Personal Mastery: Bachelor, MBA and Master experience Dialogue in the 39


Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business

Dark in Frankfurt www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com. Based on this experience the personal mastery course pursues the following objectives: > Leadership in uncertain and critical situations > Leadership, followership and teamwork > Experiencing the significance of clear and precise communication > Bonding, empathy and solidarity > Working out common references & appreciation of team efforts > Experiencing one’s own limits and overcoming them by unleashing hidden potentials > Students have to reflect the experiences and theoretical background in essays. They show clearly the significant impact in terms of inter- and intrapersonal learning.

Research Currently we do have the following research foci: > Mission accomplished? Organizational identity drift > Cross-sector partnerships > Leadership in social enterprises > Aging and social business > Social Innovation Four students are writing as research assistants their doctoral thesis. Various Bachelor, Master and MBA theses were completed.

VIP Curriculum The objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and analytical capabilities central to personal growth, professional success and self-fulfillment. During the course, students meet eight very successful people for half a day each and listen to their life stories in order to understand their personal development, career paths, values, aspirations, challenges, doubts and ideas about what it is to be human. The students learn through these encounters and will sharpen their observation, listening and questioning skills. They might identify role models for their own self-concept and career planning. The VIPs receive feedback and learn through being questioned and challenged.

Publications We frequently publish in the leading international scientific journals and give presentations at conferences. Some recent publications: Lurtz, K. & Kreutzer, K. (2012), Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Context of Social Venture Creation Kreutzer K. & Jacobs C. (2012), Balancing Control and Coaching in CSO Governance. A Paradox Perspective and Board Behavior, Voluntas, 22 (4), 613 - 638 Heinecke, A. & Mayer, J. (2012), Strategies for Scaling in Social Entrepreneurship, in: Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business, Volkmann C., Tokarski K.O., Ernst, K. (Editors), 191-209 Heinecke, A., (2012), Why Can You Not Do Good and Earn Well? Social Entrepreneurs Caught in a Moral Conflict, in Corporate Governance in the New Normal, SID Conference Paper

Lectures For Bachelor students it is mandatory to join the course “Business & Society”. For Master students we started in fall term 2012 “Understanding Social Business”. It is a series of lectures about the context of social business, impact measurement, finance and capacity building. We invited five social entrepreneurs and worked out solutions for their specific challenges. 40



Yunus Center at AIT

Institution

Yunus Center at AIT

University

Asian Institute of Technology

City Bangkok Country Thailand Focus Areas

Teaching and Incubation

Contact

Dr. Faiz Shah

Email Fshah@aitaisa

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Yunus Center at AIT

A collaboration between Professor Yunus and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Yunus Center AIT (YCA) is among the first of its kind, located within a regional post-graduate research university.

SB Challenge: A unique test of skills for building collaborative business alliances to solve social problems while creating wealth. SB Learning: A dynamic set of guided or independent learning options for academics or practitioners rooted in best practice.

Vision Working within AIT’s development mandate, create a world free from poverty by harnessing the power of social business and effective technologies to improve the lives of the marginalized.

SB Academy: Young Leaders’ Program and Yunus Fellowships, offering experiential learning and decision-making skills.

Mission

GCL@YCA: A cycle of creative events in partnership with GCL to spark ideas bridging business and academia.

To establish an action-learning platform that fosters the development, implementation and valuation of sustainable social business models driven by research, technology and partnerships that effectively solves social problems, with a particular focus on gender equality.

Ongoing Initiatives M-HealthAsia – Pilot training & normative SB model assessment in collaboration Italian partner

Approach

YCA and the AIT-based Wetlands Alliance (WAP) are supporting Mobilediagnosis® (MD) in piloting its training among rural communities in Kratie, Cambodia. Based on this pilot and a detailed assessment, a social business model may be evaluated for roll out in similar communities in the Asia-Pacific region.

An Action-Learning approach, with ongoing dialogue at its core, towards becoming an effective, open platform with the professional capacity to process relevant information received from stakeholders and key constituencies within and outside AIT and the Grameen family, and converting it into practical ideas for social business promoted and implemented through diverse partnerships and the effective learning outreach.

MD, an Italian healthcare non-profit has patented a mobile phone application that transmits MMS images from microscopes or optical devices to clinical labs where diagnosis for microbial disease can be rapidly confirmed.

Program Portfolios 2014-15 SB Action: Need-responsive, gender-mainstreamed social business projects, identified and run for their profit potential.

MD has typically offered their application as part of welfare programs in Afghanistan, the Congo, and Madagascar. YCA’s collaboration with MD aims at moving beyond charity towards creating a social business model spread across rural communities around central laboratory hubs located in existing diagnostic facilities

SB Archives: An open repository of practical knowledge, action research findings, case studies and online workshops. 43


Yunus Center at AIT

who choose to participate. As such, YCA’s project goal is not simply to implement one-off trainings for field technicians, but to leverage the technician’s qualification as a marketable social business idea for remote and underserved communities where microbial infection is rife, and where qualified medical staff are physically unavailable.

awareness programs and is working to set up coworking and networking opportunities for upcoming Thai entrepreneurs. A number of co-working space providers in Bangkok offer workspace solutions, most often based on the “creative community” concept. YCA has adapted the concept to attract enterprising young people to social business, and thus introduce the thinking among emerging entrepreneurs that creating wealth and mitigating social problems can go hand in hand.

Goals The Kratie pilot will assess the viability of a social business model where trained and backstopped field technicians will offer services for a fee that covers direct costs of mobile services, doctors’ fee and consumables, and then generate income. If a community finds this service responsive and cost-effective, the demand for mobile technicians’ training will increase. This will in turn feed competition, expanding coverage and as a result, more cost-effective and timely diagnosis.

YCA’s Launchpad concept, therefore, serves a three-fold function. One, it introduces the concept to entrepreneurial minds who will lead tomorrow. Two, it links YCA with a vibrant Thai creative community. And three, it allows cross-fertilization of ideas through workshops, creative competitions, and active enterprise creation. Goals

The overall impact is expected to be a market-driven reduction in morbidity in a relatively inexpensive but technically reliable way, while increasing income for field technicians and hub-based doctors. The resulting rise in business is likely to attract CSR funding from mobile operators and pharmaceutical companies for associated healthcare programs. SB Launchpad – Training, support and incubation for Thai entrepreneurs funded by the Thai Social Enterprise Office

The support program has been launched, with one full program cycle completed in May 2014, with quarterly cycles commencing in Fall 2014. Applications will be shortlisted against agreed criteria, by TSEO. The highest scoring applicants will be inducted into the program and benefit from the learning and mentoring program until they can confidently introduce their SB idea into the market. TSE will identify start-up investments that will then return an amount equal to their own scholarship, helping induct new entrants.

YCA has received support from the Royal Thai Government’s Social Enterprise Office towards supporting and mentoring facilities in Bangkok, made available to aspiring Thai social entrepreneurs so they can develop and test ideas and, backstopped by YCA and its partners, introduce them into the marketplace over one year. Launchpad, in collaboration with a number of partners in Thailand offers training and

The foreseen impact of the social business support program will stem from the access to specialized learning aspiring entrepreneurs will have to hone their business ideas and better grasp opportunities that ensure success. As the first initiative of its kind in Thailand, the program will disseminate Prof. Yunus’ philosophy and as a result, further add value to a traditionally entrepreneurial culture that exists in Thailand. 44


Yunus Center at AIT

expanding body of experience from social business. And third, to build practical capacity and skills for enterprise management around social business values among an increasingly aware and widely spread out population.

SB 101 and Master FRAMES Asia – Social business professional courses at AIT in collaboration with partners YCA is working with AIT faculty and our international network to develop and deliver professional development courses relevant to social business, particularly aimed at young people making the transition into working life. Grounded in Professor Yunus’ philosophy, the courses cover diverse areas relevant to social business.

Training and capacity building are essential to put into practice the value-driven enterprise that Prof. Yunus’ approach articulates. The anticipated impact of this program will be most visible as a shift in value-perception and investment behavior not only among aspiring entrepreneurs, but also companies that wish to maximize the social impact of their CSR programs

YCA is housed within the AIT Extension cluster, an interdisciplinary group of specialized units that leverages resources from AIT’s three Schools to deliver professional and executive programs in a number of countries.

Nano-Sanitation – Market-scale self-sanitizing urinal for high-traffic and portable applications. Among its many current research activities, which spans dye-sensitized solar cells, gas sensors, bio-diagnostic tools, microbial sensors, and heavy metal sensors for waste water, is a unique water-repellent coating that can be used in building self-sanitizing urinals that can be used in public places so as to save water and increase hygiene.

The courses span a wide range of topics, geared towards a variety of participants. The introductory SB 101 course is an overview of Prof. Yunus’ social business approach, and within a socio-historical context, highlights successful examples. Other courses, such as SB 111 and 112, focus more on necessary SB skills such as communication, fundraising or behavior influence.

AIT’s Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology (CoEN) is a leading graduate research facility in the region focuses on making use of inexpensive wet-chemical methods to fabricate innovative materials and futuristic device components.

The course offerings in Bangkok have had attendees from over 20 countries. The next cycle includes a course series in Sri Lanka in collaboration with Berendina, the country’s largest microfinance agency. Other collaborations with the Thai Social Enterprise Office and Malaysia’s MyHarapan are being rolled out over the coming year.

CoEN researchers have tested a self-sanitizing waterless urinal comprising a conventional low cost ceramic bowl coated with nanoscale zinc oxide (ZnO), applied using a low-energy process. The nanoscale coating creates a super-hydrophobic surface that makes any water-based liquid roll off even at angles less than 5° from horizontal. ZnO is an expensive and readily available material.

Goals The SB Knowledge program aims for a three-fold benefit that emanates from being situated in regional research university. First, to communicate Professor Yunus’ ideas in a region where the need is great, but communication has been slow. Second, to consolidate and disseminate the

ZnO’s kills bacteria in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light and oxidizes organic compounds such as drugs. A holding tank fitted with a UV light collects the urine and 45


Yunus Center at AIT

renders it bacteria- and odor-free. This nitrogenous waste, when re-watered, encapsulated, and dried can be sold as fertilizer. This coating works on ceramic, metal and cloth.

California State University, is reaching out to institutions in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific to build a synergy platform that allows for social business ideas generated in all the various independently organized YY Competitions to come together meaningfully, and also be disseminated with higher impact potential in a variety of contexts.

Goals The project aims to work with commercial manufacturers to scale up this technology for mass production. Products emerging from this work will be sold through a social business network operated by its manufactures and strategically located distribution outlets. The project goal is three-fold. Firstly, it will link a viable pro-poor technology developed at AIT to commercial channels. Secondly, it promote hygienic and water conservationist behavior. Third, it will build an incremental social business opportunity.

The idea emerges from Professor Yunus’ emphasis on involving youth, and harnessing their capabilities as social business champions of tomorrow. The exchange platform envisaged under this program would comprise a mutually translatable framework for local YY Competitions that can underpin the criteria for a global SB Challenge. Goals

The impact of this project, apart from its obvious promise as a sustainable, high-demand, vertically integrated social business model is the reduction in environmental depletion by promoting an affordable device that actively conserves water, improves sanitation and lowers risk of disease, decreases costs for operators of public water and sanitation service providers.

The global SB Challenge would bring top winning teams from all the various YY Competitions held in various countries and regions to one of the major events on the social business calendar, such as the Social Business Day or the Social Business Summit, where they would be given an opportunity to share their ideas and attempt to come up with collaborative SB solutions applicable to social problems common to their respective environments. The most practical collaborative ideas would be recognized.

SB Challenge & YY Competition – Building an exchange platform for SB ideas from youth around the world. YCA is joining hands with a number of universities across the world to help integrate outcomes of a number of YY Competitions organized locally into a truly international showcase of social business ideas by young people. The initiative aims to bring together winners of local YY Competitions into a global SB Challenge.

The overall impact of this activity is a higher crossawareness among youth, of the power of enterpriseled development, and a greater exposure to working ideas that have relevance in disparate socio-economic environments. The SB Challenge would also focus the limelight on bright young SB champions, helping potential social investors or academic institutions identify upcoming champions.

Being able to interact with counterparts from so many different cultures and regions stands to enrich young social business enthusiasts, as well as enlarge significantly the impact and applicability of their ideas. YCA, working closely with counterparts at Kyushu University, and

SB Splash – Transitioning aid-driven drinking water program to viable social business in Cambodia.

46


Yunus Center at AIT

Under its SB Action mandate, the YCA team is cocreating with Splash Inc., a US non-profit providing clean drinking water to under-served communities in Asia, a new transitional model that may help charity-driven social investments move from funding-dependent project to enterprise-driven sustainable development initiatives.

Taking inspiration form the ideals propagated by Professor Yunus, Splash and YCA have begun with studying the needs and socio-economic context of participating communities in Cambodia, which will then be followed by the design and testing of a social business model that can be rolled out, complete with clear product-market linkages and financial targets, pursued by a trained team.

Splash works to ensure clean water supplies to vulnerable children in a number of countries, and wish to see their aid-driven projects evolve into self-sustaining, viable social business ventures.

SB Learning – Social business professional development courses at AIT in collaboration with partners

Cambodia has been chosen as the pilot for developing a strategy to transition the project towards local ownership and a self-financing independent structure. YCA supports Splash as its technical partner in community economic assessments, stakeholder engagement, business process design, and human resource development, paving the way for a transition model that can be applied to other similar initiatives.

YCA and the AIT-based Wetlands Alliance are supporting MobileDiagnosis in piloting its training among rural communities in Kratie, Cambodia. Based on this pilot, a social business model may be evaluated for roll out Under YCA coordination in similar communities in the Asia-Pacific region. MobileDiagnosis, an Italian non-profit has patented a mobile phone application that transmits MMS images from microscopes or optical devices to clinical labs where diagnosis for microbial disease can be rapidly confirmed.

The driver for this partnership is the conviction, shared by both Splash and YCA that the ideal development intervention is one which is able to make external support redundant by creating local capacities to overcome the gap that required external intervention, over a predictable time-line, and allow local actors to assume responsibility.

MobileDiagnosis has typically offered their application as part of welfare programs in Afghanistan, the Congo, and Madagascar. YCA’s collaboration with MobileDiagnosis aims at moving beyond charity towards creating a social business model spread across rural communities around central laboratory hubs located in existing diagnostic facilities that choose to participate.

Goals This exercise aims to try and show a way for externally funded projects to break the cycle of dependence that confounds both the funder and the recipient, enfeebles traditional adaptation mechanisms that allow communities to face uncertainty and hardship, and leaves funders with the having to disengage knowing that despite significant resources being spent, the original objectives remain often unmet. This requires participating in a learning-driven partnership, which YCA and Splash have established.

As such, YCA’s project goal is not simply to implement one-off trainings for field technicians, but to leverage the technician’s qualification as a marketable social business idea for remote and underserved communities where microbial infection is rife, and where qualified medical staff is physically unavailable. 47


Yunus Center at AIT

Goals The Kratie pilot will assess the viability of a social business model where trained and backstopped field technicians will offer services for a fee that covers direct costs of mobile services, doctors’ fee and consumables, and then generate income. If a community finds this service responsive and cost-effective, the demand for mobile technicians’ training will increase. This will in turn feed competition, expanding coverage and as a result, more cost-effective and timely diagnosis.

rather than merely participative, considering the latter often involves agendas largely controlled by external interests. Advances in the behavioral sciences have generated scientific Behavior Influence approaches whose effectiveness and precision is multiplied by information technologies. Data-mining, viral marketing, neuromarketing and similar tools use informational links and social media to change perceptions and hence modify behavior.

The overall impact is expected to be a market-driven reduction in morbidity in a relatively inexpensive but technically reliable way, while increasing income for field technicians and hub-based doctors. The resulting rise in business is likely to attract CSR funding from mobile operators and pharmaceutical companies for associated healthcare programs.

Goals

SB Thinkfluence – Organic interactive resource for understanding and using Behavior Influence in SB.

This pilot project works to place scientific insights and experience of emerging Behavior Influence approaches within an accessible public space, creating the links necessary for people or organizations to draw lessons from, and offer tools and examples that can motivate action. Users will benefit from this knowledge resource in a variety of sectors and contexts to address a wide range of issues in different fields, i.e. climate change, the environment, health and population, social services, personal finance etc.

The YCA team is facilitating the piloting of a unique online knowledge resource that combines features of a self-generating search engine with those of a social network, helping users understand how human behavior adapts to positive or negative influences, how this insight can be used to encourage sustainable life-choices. Thinkfluence is envisaged by Chris Eldridge, YCA visiting expert, as “a linked set of resources… for the silent majority, who are currently doing little or nothing to address [challenges we face today].”

Thinkfluence aims to occupy a niche, building understanding of Behavior Influence and its positive or negative aspects to empower people and communities towards informed choices between sustainable and unsustainable behaviors. Recent experience of organic websites indicates that the impact of this project is potentially wide in scale and scope, and may directly promote social business solutions.

The project responds to behavioral research, which confirms that “social potential” drives people and organizations to achieve, when they are linked in various ways, what they cannot, when acting individually. It aims to help create knowledge linkages that are transformative 48


Interview with Words


Interview Dr. Faiz Shah - Yunus Center at AIT

Q: YCA is working on projects in Thailand, but also in neighboring countries. How are the social business scenes in Thailand and the surrounding countries? A: Yes, YCA has had opportunity to engage, through AIT’s outreach network, with partners in a number of countries in the region, including Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste. We are not surprised to see that while Professor Yunus is hugely admired in all these countries, not many have contextualized his particular approach to social business. We see unclarity about the non-dividend, profit-making nature of businesses that exist overcome specific social problems.

this richness of experience, which we hope to begin documenting as a learning resource. Q: What is still missing for an extensive and effective social business ecosystem in these countries? A: The missing element is a clearly articulated vision of social business contextualized to local contexts, which can drive policy and enabling conditions. With so many definitions and interpretations of what it constitutes, social business appears to many people, a distant or foreign concept. Once explained, we find, it evokes enthusiasm primarily for its simplicity and do-ability. So, in some ways the first step towards “an effective and effective social business ecosystem” is spreading the word, engaging key stakeholders in dialogue, and then helping these very stakeholders build a case for their own decision-makers. The discussion about building scope, scale and effectiveness can only follow informed engagement. This is role academia can play well. Q: YCA has a strong focus on action-learning with a number of projects on the ground. Do you see this as one main direction especially in the field of social business education?

Yet, the idea resonates quite strongly, at least in the communities we work in, perhaps because it promises to independence and dignity to people who otherwise have few opportunities. In Thailand, we find Professor Yunus’ approach understood within King Bhumibol’s Sufficiency Philosophy, while in Sri Lanka it vibes with a tradition of selfhelp exemplified by Sarvodhaya. In Timor Leste, our partners see social business channeling a young population’s nation-building spirit, just as it offers promise to Cambodian communities caught in a whirlwind of consumer-driven expansion. In Malaysia we see the idea resonate with government and youth, while in India’s diversity, it creates yet another alternative. This is very exciting, because social business as an idea clearly attracts people in seemingly disparate socio-economic environments. At YCA we are looking to engage more closely with

A: Indeed. Action learning remains a powerful platform for social business education and capacity building. We know business savvy does not come from attending classes, but being prepared to act. We also know that grooming people for success in business means having them learn from the consequences 50


Interview Dr. Faiz Shah - Yunus Center at AIT “Action learning remains a powerful platform for social business education and capacity-building. We know business savvy does not come from attending classes, but being prepared to act.”

teaching cases. What are the lessons learned when writing case studies about social businesses?

of decisions, and being able to solve often-complex problems in real time involving many people. Because it is an approach that creates opportunities for tailoring and personalizing learning experience, it is useful for learners who would otherwise not perform well in a traditional or formal educational environment. Perhaps most importantly, action learning approaches have been shown to develop personal leadership as well as group-level problem solving. This makes action learning relevant to social business education.

At YCA we feel there is a need to further develop and consolidate learning resources and capacity for using action learning as a key component of social business education. What we have to offer to prospective learners, students and practitioners is diverse, exciting and relevant. How we present it is therefore, very critical to furthering the aims of enterprise-led development.

YCA seeks to build closer working relationships with peers across the social business education landscape. We are looking to discuss practical modalities with peer institutions that will allow us to expand our respective action learning capacities in scope and scale, and perhaps even develop joint programs or exchange opportunities that will firstly build capacity and secondly help evolve methodologies that make original contributions to this expanding community of learning and practice.

A: Teaching cases are a pillar of the social business education approach I mentioned before, through which YCA seeks to strengthen practical, action learning driven learning. We note that there are not enough teaching cases that focus on social business in general and perhaps even fewer teaching cases developed with the social business entrepreneur in mind.

Q: As part of your activities, you are working on 51

As such, we can either adopt the traditional approach where YCA or academic peers write teaching cases as part of our ongoing research activity, which then accumulate in case-banks for us to choose from. Or, we can create a parallel casewriting engine that performs two complimentary functions. One, it would help document the numerous successes and lessons that occur at the grassroots on a daily basis, which would be lost to us if they weren’t recorded in real time. Two, it would generate a stream of case-leads for case-writers to develop teaching cases around. But the question is: who writes the teaching cases? YCA’s experience in Bangladesh confirms the value of building capacity among instructors, graduate students, and program professionals to develop mini-teaching case drafts that can then be refined into learning materials. Our approach has been to identify aspiring teaching case-writers and run a case-writing workshop series that actually walks candidates through the process of producing a usable teaching case. Of course


Interview Dr. Faiz Shah - Yunus Center at AIT

there are limitations to this approach, in terms of complexity that can be addressed, topics that can be covered, and the comprehensive way in which issues can be covered.

content to Mooc offerings. We recognize a number of challenges too; presented primarily by the diversity of background of social business learners, access to online communication technology, and more importantly, their expectations. As such, YCA would like to work with our peers in determining the various learner categories that might typically seek Moocs and also their expectations from such offerings. So far as we know, there is little. I go on, at least in YCA’s catchment area.

However, the advantage to us in our situation outweighs these. We need a relatively large number of teaching cases to use in an expanding portfolio of offerings, which are directed primarily at learners whose formal education has not necessarily prepared them for the complexity and theoretical intensity of available teaching cases. Moreover, these cases are for people for whom English is seldom the first language, and hence need to be brief and user-friendly. YCA aims to roll out a schedule for our workshop series, where we would hope to collaborate in running a number of programs in collaboration with peers in a number of countries. Perhaps next year we will be able to report on this.

Q: There is a great buzz about Moocs (Massive Open Online Courses). What are your thoughts? Will Moocs replace traditional education or rather complement it? ​ A: Moocs have attracted attention in ways both positive and negative. The criticisms often appear valid when looked at from the perspective of traditional educational environments. However, in the dynamic and evolving world of social business education, where qualifications are perhaps less critical than practical learning, Moocs clearly have a role. YCA is in discussions with peers in ways we can contribute 52

While we go about finding out more about our learners, there is also a need to apply time and resources to identifying and collating knowledge resources that will form content for any Moocs we come up with. Often, it is not a shortage, but an abundance of useful knowledge resources that thwarts learners from engaging with online offerings. I suppose, it’s an important part of our work to compile relevant, cross-applicable knowledge materials generally relevant to learners. This too requires collaboration between peers in a more coordinated way.

For YCA, Moocs is a serious proposition, and we intend to work towards refining our present ideas, which from the MasterFRAMES program, into a wider and more attractive set of offerings. Considering our mandate is to promote propoor technologies to social investments, YCA is looking at both the content as well as access to learning resources. Making Moocs available to our constituency is part of this.


Interview Dr. Faiz Shah - Yunus Center at AIT

Dr. Faiz Shah Director, Yunus Center AIT Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand Dr. Faiz Shah directs Yunus Centre AIT and the Development Management department within the AIT Extension cluster, with faculty affiliation at AIT School of Management. He is visiting professor at the College of Innovation, Thammasat University. Over 30-years as educator, development professional and entrepreneur, Dr. Shah has worked with governments, UN agencies and corporations, grooming 3,000+ grassroots leaders and social entrepreneurs, and overseeing 300+ capacity-building initiatives in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Laos, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and Timor Leste.

53


National University of Singapore

Institution

SVL@NUS (former GCL@NUS)

University

National University of Singapore

City Singapore Country Singapore Focus Areas

Incubation

Contact

Prof. Wong Poh Kam

Email PohKam@nus.edu.sg

54


National University of Singapore

Overview of GCL@NUS The Grameen Creative Lab@NUS was a partnership formed between The Grameen Creative Lab and the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre back in March 2011. It was initiated with the purpose to leverage on the global resources and networks of the Grameen Creative Lab to promote and incubate innovationbased social businesses in Singapore that have the potential to generate scalable, sustainable social impacts, especially for social groups at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The work of GCL@NUS can be broken down into 2 main components- outreach activities that promote social entrepreneurship and incubation of social businesses. (Note: NUS Entrepreneurship Centre also engages in a third component – research & teaching of social entrepreneurship – through collaboration with the Asian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy (ACSEP) at the NUS Business School.) In 2013, the initiative was renamed as Social Venture Lab@NUS (SVL@NUS), to reflect the broader focus to promote social entrepreneurship, which includes social business. Outreach Programmes A flagship programme of the outreach component was Social Business Week (SBW). SBW in 2012 was held in February over a period of 4 days. The programme included a boot camp and three public lectures. That year GCL@NUS was privileged to have the active participation of Professor Muhammad Yunus throughout the programme. The start of SBW was a two-day Social Business Boot Camp. This boot camp was tailored for social entrepreneurs with existing social ventures or developed business ideas. It provided hands-on

training for them to develop sustainable and scalable business plans. One of the tools used for this purpose was the Business Model Canvas. Experienced mentors and facilitators were at hand to assist the participants throughout the boot camp, which culminated with a pitching session to a panel of judges that included social business experts and investors. Participants’ feedback generally concluded that the Business Model Canvas was a useful tool to evaluate and innovate their business plans and the mentorship component proved to be most valuable. Following the boot camp were three public lectures, each targeting three relevant groups- corporates, civil society and policy makers, and lastly youths. The first was the Social Business Forum for Corporate Leaders. This forum featured a panel discussion led by Prof Muhammad Yunus, together with global corporate leaders from companies such as Yukiguni Maitake Co, Unilever Asia and PhilipCapital, a Singapore-based company. The panelists shared their experience and insights in harnessing market opportunities to solve social problems at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). The intention of the forum was to highlight the market opportunities at the BoP, and opportunities for corporate leaders to “do good and do well”. One of the models illustrated was large corporations partnering social entrepreneurs already working at the BoP. At the Public Lecture targeting civil society and policy makers, Prof Yunus spoke on “Creating a Supportive Environment for Social Business”. It was co-hosted with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, reaching an audience of government bodies, NGOs, think tanks, social enterprises and the general public. The last Public Lecture was targeted at youths and co-organized with the Raffles Institution, a high school in Singapore. Through its network, students from high-school to university-level were invited and many were greatly inspired by Prof Yunus’ personal journey from a young schoolboy to where he is today. Held 55


National University of Singapore

during Social Business Week was also a closed-door private luncheon with Prof Yunus and Hans Reitz together with a select group of high-net-worth family business owners, corporate leaders, social impact investors and social entrepreneurs. Social Business Week was rebranded as Social Venture Week in 2013, and it marked the launch of the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia (www. socialventurechallenge.asia).

SVL@NUS) provides incubatees with support such as seed funding, office space, dedicated mentorship, subsidized corporate secretarial services, business clinics, access to networks and introductions to potential impact investors. NUS students are offered a small seed funding of SGD10,000 to test pilot their social venture idea. So far, 6 out of the 11 supported social ventures were recipients of that grant. Once these early social venture ideas are validated, GCL@NUS works with the social entrepreneurs concerned to apply for follow-on funding, including grants of SGD50,000 provided by various government agencies that support student entrepreneurship, as well as investment by impact investors. So far, 5 of the social ventures incubated received these grants, while 2 others have received investment by impact investors. To provide support to the social ventures that we incubate, GCL@NUS worked actively to build up the emerging social entrepreneurship support ecosystem in Singapore and Asia. GCL@NUS has established collaborative relationships with other ecosystem partners such as The HUB Singapore, which offers co-working space for social innovators; Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), which offer platforms for matching social entrepreneurs to impact investors for follow-on funding; the Family Business Network, which provides access to experienced mentors with interest in social businesses; and BOP Hub, a platform operated by Jack Sim to support Singapore-headquartered social entrepreneurial ventures that target BOP markets around the world.

After having a separate prize category on Social Entrepreneurship/Cooperative Enterprise for 2 years under Start-Up@Singapore, an annual business plan competition that NUS Entrepreneurship Centre has organized since 1999, we decided to run a standalone, pan-Asia competition just for social enterprises, partnering the Development Bank of Singapore. The DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia was launched in September 2013, and attracted over 400 entries from nearly 20 countries across the region. The competition will run yearly. Other activities GCL@NUS organized include documentary screenings, panel discussions and talks by social entrepreneurs, which have included Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organisation and Carol Chyau of Shokay. Leveraging on the global TEDx platform, we established TEDxKRP to feature speakers on the theme of social change through entrepreneurship and innovation. The TEDxKRP platform also provided an opportunity to showcase some of the social businesses incubated by GCL@NUS. Incubation Leveraging on the existing incubator resources of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, which has been providing incubation support for technology-based start-ups since 2001, GCL@NUS (and continued through

As mentioned earlier, another more recent key partner is the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) in launching the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia. DBS also provides grants and special banking packages to social enterprises. 56


National University of Singapore

Future Directions Through the experience gained from the GCL@ NUS initiatives launched so far, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre has been able to refine our social entrepreneurship support programs to become more effective in our support of social entrepreneurial activities in NUS and Singapore, now through SVL@ NUS. In particular, we will work on improving the use of the Business Model Canvas analytic tool for social purpose-driven organizations, and providing stronger mentoring support for the social businesses we are incubating. In our mission to further promote social entrepreneurship, we intend to work with the B Lab and a few other partners to influence businesses in Asia to adopt the B Corporation certification, providing an alternative framework for companies that seek to prioritize the social bottom-line. 57


Design for Social Business (D4SB)

Institution

Design for Social Business (D4SB)

University

Istituto Europeo di Design

City Milan Country Italy Focus Areas

Teaching

Contact

Massimo Randone, Academic Coordinator

Email M.randone@ied.it

58


Design for Social Business (D4SB)

Master in Design for Social Business

The four phases of the Master program are:

The Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) is an international education group in design, fashion, visual communication and management, established in 1966. It has campuses in Italy, Spain and Brazil, and offers undergraduate, masters and advanced training courses. Its mission is “to offer young creatives a thorough training - both theoretical and practical – and hand them the ‘Design Knowledge and Mindset’ that will accompany them throughout their lives”.

> > > >

The Social Business Designer is a professional who is capable to:

> corporates, professionals, public authorities > foundations and third sector institutions in general > researchers’ and students’ resources

reformulate the problem setting innovate the problem solving think and act on a local and international scale focus on the goals of social responsibility and economic sustainability through the planning of several integrated design systems layers: strategy, products, services, communication.

The master is held in English, full time, for the global market, for students with various backgrounds and competences. The next edition of the Master in Design for Social Business will take place in 2015. Other Activities

The educational research on social business consists of a theoretical study (in presence and online), and a field research, with direct empirical experience (linked to Yunus Social Business Global Initiatives).

In addition to this program, IED hosted a Social Business Lab in 2010 in Barcelona and organized the Design for Social Business Conferences in Milan in the same year. During the two-day conference 60 leading international experts from various design related and social business related fields gathered in Milan to exchange ideas and to further develop the concept of Design for Social Business. Prior to the actual conference, another Social Business Lab for students, faculty, designers and business people was organized together with The Grameen Creative Lab.

The educational and cultural areas, which have been integrated in the master and adopt a totally innovative approach, are: > > > >

_ Milan and Dhaka _ Milan and Glasgow _ Brazil, India, Uganda _ Milan.

The Masters in Design 4 Social Business is an innovative project; a human and professional training that focuses on the individual, the community and the relationship between Needs and Solutions. In this process of active citizenship, that aims to understand and address the global challenges of our present and future, co-designing with stakeholders is essential. The Master is then designed as a platform for:

With the patronage of the Yunus Centre, in 2010 IED established the Master in Design for Social Business, the first program of its kind globally.

> > > >

Kick off Learning by studying Learning by doing Project & pitch

service and communication design for social issues design thinking methodologies economics for social business yunus social business movement. 59


Design for Social Business (D4SB)

In 2011, the then called Design for Business conference with a strong focus on social business took place in Barcelona. Field Trips to India and Colombia As part of the first edition of the Master in Design for Social Business, in 2010 The Grameen Creative Lab and IED jointly organized two field trips for the students to India and to Colombia to study social business directly on the ground. During the two-week trip to Colombia, the students visited several social businesses that were incubated by Grameen Caldas. They specifically worked with a human centered design approach on the social business Bienestar (now renamed to Bive), a healthcare insurance provider for low-income families. Based on their observations on site, they developed and designed a service model and business model for Bienestar. During the three-week trip to India, the D4SB students investigated the sanitation situation in rural and urban schools and identified opportunities for the design of products and services related to sanitation in schools. Both research projects were subject of their final thesis. Photos by Chiara Esposito, D4SB Graduate, IED Milan, 2010 60


“The D4SB master positioned me exactly where I wanted to be in order to solve social problems: a hybrid designer at the intersection between the private, public and nonprofit sector� Tiago Dias Miranda, D4SB Graduate, IED Milan 2010 61


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

Institution

Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

University

HEC Paris

City Paris Country France Focus Areas

Teaching, Research and Field Experimentations with firms

Contact

FrĂŠdĂŠric Dalsace, Ph.D.

Email Dalsace@hec.fr

62


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

The HEC Paris Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair was created in December 2008. It is co-presided by Professor Muhammad Yunus and Mr. Martin Hirsch, former High Commissioner for Active Solidarities in the French government, now Head of the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris.

consists now of two distinct components: a “theoretical” part and a “field” part with more special sessions with other programs. The theoretical part entails lectures, cases and conferences, both at HEC and in situ of some social organizations. It is divided in three successive phases:

It receives financial support from Danone, Schneider Electric, Renault, the French government (DGCS) and private donors.

> Motives: (Why) should firms be involved in the fight against poverty?

The Chair is led by Frédéric Dalsace, HEC Paris Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Paris and Chair Holder, and Bénédicte Faivre-Tavignot, Executive Director of the Chair and Academic Director of the HEC Master of Science in Sustainable Development. It seeks to promote social business by an action that is threefold: teaching, research and action-research: Teaching The Chair offers several courses to HEC Paris students and guests at different stages of their curriculum. The Certificate This program is a two-month intensive course taught in English. It was launched in 2009. Its aim is to contribute to training a new generation of managers, aware of societal challenges and aspiring to be part of the solution, regardless of their professional activity. Its format: > 7 weeks full-time, from April to June > More than 120 hours of teaching > Around 70 participants from 20 countries

>

Modalities: How can firms deal with poverty issues along three dimensions: firm size (SMEs vs MNEs), geographical scope (poor vs rich countries), strategic intent (for profit vs non for profit)

>

Frontiers: How “mainstream” companies can transform themselves to become more inclusive and sustainable? The “field part”: 1/3 of the total number of days is devoted to a “field part”, so that participants do not only “talk about poverty issues” but also see for themselves in the field what the reality of poverty is and what can be done about it

>

Immersion week - The name says it all: the objective is for participants to immerse themselves in the field of poverty alleviation by spending one week with social entrepreneurs and social organizations. The objective is both to spend time co-working “in the trenches”, and to meet the managers who are putting their effort in alleviating poverty. Such an immersion is meaningful, humanly rich and full of learnings. It has always made an impact on our participants’ lives.

> Field work – Participants work with firms and associations that seek their advice and work to reach their poverty alleviation targets. For instance, students help them conceive innovative social business models. This work is throughout the length of the Certificate.

The SB/EP Certificate has undergone a curriculum change in 2013 to become even more innovative. It now 63


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

Development of special sessions such as:

and HEC Grande Ecole program, we examine:

> Bop4Top: mixing students from the Social Business and the Luxury Strategy Certificates. Conferences and a case study with special guests.

a) the set of reasons that prompt firms to contribute to poverty alleviation b) the innovative business models that they adopt when fighting poverty and c) how firms can actually transform themselves when seeking to become more inclusive and sustainable.

>

Digital4Change@HEC: mixing students from the Social Business and the Digital Innovation Certificates to learn together from dynamic social web entrepreneurs through different workshops on topics like collaborative finance, collaborative consumption and how to move the civil society.

>

Access to Energy: mixing students from the Social Business and the Energy&Finance Certificates to focus on three main topics: Understanding technology: a key to address the energy transition fuel poverty in developed countries and access to energy in emerging countries

We also examine the pivotal role of social entrepreneurs and “intrapreneurs” inside large multinationals, both in emerging and developed countries. Lastly, we study innovative ways to finance these initiatives and to market them. > 33 participants, non-HEC students > 24 years old average > from 20 different countries More information on the dedicated website: http://www. hec.edu/summer-school/

More information on the Certificate on the dedicated website: http://www.hec.edu/Social-Business-Chair/ Teaching/The-Certificate

Executive Education Programs

Elective on Understanding Social Business

An EMBA major: “Reinventing Business for Emerging Markets”, Design new business models and foster innovation

This is a course with 18 hours taught in French to Master 1 students during one semester. Its objective is to raise students’ awareness and foster their reflexion around social business’ main challenges and fields of activities.

This Major is open to all HEC Executive MBA participants. The goal of the major is to inspire business leaders and help them transform global, social and environmental challenges into new market opportunities. The focus is on innovation (frugal and reverse), new business models (BOP and social business) and best practices as well as sustainability challenges.

The Summer School on Inclusive and Social Business The objective of this new program launched in June 2014 is to raise international students’ awareness on the role that firms should and could play in the fight against poverty.

> Two one-week sessions: Cape Town, South Africa (May) and Bangalore, India (October)

During 2 weeks in June at HEC & Paris, in this innovative summer program launched by the Social Business Chair

> Academic partners: the Indian Institute of 64


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

> >

Management Bangalore (India) and the University of Cape Town, Graduate Business School (South Africa) Around 30 participants from 10 countries Director: David Menascé, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Azao)

based on an action learning approach that includes field exposure, applied learning, peer learning, project tutoring and community of practice. This program is co-developed with Danone, SchneiderElectric and Renault. It is co-taught with Ashoka and Hystra. > 15 participants for the pilot in France > Director: Nathalie Lugagne, Affiliate Professor and Executive Dean of Faculty and Research at HEC Paris > Next session in March 2015 in Kenya

More information on the dedicated website: http:// www.exed.hec.edu/executive-mbas/the-program/majordetails/reinventing-business-for-emerging-markets An open-enrolment program for executives and senior managers: “Inclusive Business and Value Creation” new in June 2014

Research

The objective is to build a community of corporate social innovators in connection with social entrepreneurs and support them to develop successful projects in a corporate context. The focus is on innovative business models to solve societal problems (courses) and the conception / development of the participants’ own project.

The objective of the Chair is to develop high quality research into social business and into the broader issue of corporate involvement in the fight against poverty, both in France and abroad. Published articles Yunus Muhammad, Dalsace Frédéric, Ménascé David, Faivre-Tavignot Bénédicte, Berger Jacques: “Fighting Poverty in Developed Countries through Market-based Solutions: Could Social Business complement Low-cost Models?” Paper accepted for publication in the Harvard Business Review (April 2015)

Participants will typically have 10 or more years of management experience. They will be senior executives of private corporations or company owners; senior managers who have, or soon will have responsibility for development and implementation of inclusive business initiatives in their organization; leading social entrepreneurs or leaders from the citizen sector who are using the power of market-based approaches to solve social issues. > > >

Dalsace Frédéric, Vincent Charles-Edouard, Berger Jacques, Dalens François (2012): “The poverty penalty in France: how the market makes low income populations poorer”. Revue FACTS (Field Actions Science Reports Institut Véolia Environnement)

1 week, delivered twice a year in different locations and for different audiences: in France (3.5 day module) in English/French to executives operating in mature economies in Kenya (5 day module) in English to executives operating in emerging economies.

Faivre-Tavignot Bénédicte, Lehman- Ortega Laurence (2012): “Leveraging BOP Markets for strategic renewal: a longitudinal study of Danone”, Working Paper Dalsace Frédéric, Menascé David (2011): “Structurer le débat Entreprises et Pauvreté: Légitimité, Intérêt,

Learning methods: This program is experiential and 65

_65


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

Modalités, Efficacité”, Revue Française de Gestion n° 208209, p15-44

> Quantitative study in partnership with OpinionWay (2013) > Field experiments at Emmaüs Défi (2013-2014) > Field study on the “Suspended coffee” movement in France (2014)

Faivre-Tavignot Bénédicte, Lehman-Ortega Laurence (2011): “Le social business, laboratoire d’apprentissage des stratégies de rupture”, Revue Française de Gestion n° 208-209

When do social projects have a business and transformational impact on firms?

Dalsace Frédéric, Menascé David (2011): “Getting Involved: BoP vs Social Business”, Journal of Social Business, Volume 1, p117-125

> >

Booklet Dalsace Frédéric, Menascé David, Victoria Pierre (2011): L’Entreprise contre la Pauvreté, Institut Jean-Jaurès

Phase 1 (2013-2014): 3 qualitative pilots with 2 multinational companies: Danone and Schneider Electric (France and Brazil) Phase 2 (in progress): quantitative study on more than 50 social projects

How could partnerships between firms and NGOs function in the long term?

Research projects

Dalsace Frédéric, Dragonetti Nicola & Patureau Clémence: “Aligning and Weaving: Managing Social Ventures in NGO-Firm Alliances”, working paper presented at various academic conferences: > Strategic Management Society (SMS) Conference, Atlanta, September 2013 > European Theory Development Workshop (ETDW), June 2014 > European Group on Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Rotterdam, July 2014 > Academy of Management (AoM) Meetings, Philadelphia, August 2014

What are the consumption patterns of poor consumers in France? > Qualitative study (2012) > Quantitative study in partnership with OpinionWay (2013) The HEC team investigates 3 directions: > Are poor consumers different from non-poor consumers: attitudes, values, behavior? > Creation of a typology of poor consumers > What kinds of business models are more efficient to address poverty? 3 main parameters are studied: attractiveness, stigmatization and cannibalization

How could social projects co-exist with regular business projects in MNEs?

“Voluntary differentiated pricing”: when does consumerto-consumer solidarity work best?

Dragonetti Nicola, Dalsace Frédéric, & Patureau Clémence “Killing Me Swiftly: Escalation, Attention and Exit in Multi-Logic Projects”, working paper presented a the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Conference, Madrid, September 2014

Is the “voluntary differentiated pricing” an efficient business model to develop poor consumers’ access to goods and services? 66

_66


Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair

Case studies The Chair has embarked on an extensive case writing program. The Chair developed 2 new cases in 2013-2014: > >

The “Danone Corporate Strategy: combining business and societal objectives” case, submitted at the Case Centre (ECCH) The “Pure Stove” case, focused on marketing issues for social businesses, written and taught several times

These cases have already been developed and are regularly taught. > > > > > > > > > > > >

“Veolia Water in Tanger” “Schneider Electric: the In-Diya Challenge in India” “Grameen Danone Food Limited” “Sarvajal: access to water in India” “Coopa Roca in Brazil” “Veja in Brazil and Europe” “Les Ateliers du Bocage in France » “La Petite Reine in France” “Abbé Pierre Foundation” “Le Relais” “BOP 4 TOP: Nhorla in China and Europe” “BOP 4 TOP: Shanghai Trio in China and Europe”

deployed on a large scale. The HEC team follows the development of a growing number of experiments, involving firms and NGOs: > > > > > > >

A first draft of a case study on Yunus Social Business has been written in 2014. Field Experimentations with Firms The Chair has a privileged partnership with the Action Tank ‘Entreprise et Pauvreté’, a social experimentation lab founded in November 2010 that brings together large firms, public authorities, civil society organizations and academia to develop impactful projects to reduce poverty and exclusion in France that are likely to be

Nutrition: “Programme Malin” (with Danone) Health: “Optique Solidaire” (with Essilor) Mobility: “Mobiliz” (with Renault) Social housing (with Bouygues) Banking services (with La Banque Postale) Access to water (with Veolia) Solidarity Connections (with SFR)

New projects are currently being launched, in particular in the insurance sector. More information on www.hec.edu/Social-Business-Chair 67 _67


The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business Institution

The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business

University

Okan University

City Istanbul Country Turkey Focus Areas

Teaching, Research and Incubation

Contact

Assistant Prof. Dr. Ezgi Y覺ld覺r覺m Saatci

Email Ezgi.saatci@okan.edu.tr

68


The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business

About

Research

The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business at Okan University has been officially launched in December 2011 as the first centre of its kind in Turkey.

Several publications were made in selected publications: > Yıldırım Saatçi, Ezgi (2013), “How Different are Social Business Firms from Social Entrepreneurial Firms: A Comparison of two Successful Cases”, MERC Global’s International Journal of Management, Vol. 1, Issue: 2, pp. 86-102 ISSN 2321-7278 (EBCSO, DOAJ, Ulrich’s, Index Copernicus, ProQuest)

The Centre sets an example in Turkey as a pioneer and envisions itself as an independent and open platform that brings an end to social problems like poverty by creating, promoting, and maintaining microfinance and social business through training and projects for the good of national and international welfare.

> Yıldırım Saatçi E. & Özçam Ö. (2013) “Early Application of Social Business in Turkey: The Case of Diyarbakir/Sur Microcredit Program” Social Business Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp 251-258 ISSN 2044-4087

Through the combination of academic research, worldclass teaching and hands-on practical experience, the Centre started to become a force in the social business world.

> Yıldırım Saatçi E. & Arikan Ç. Selma. (2014). “Factors Affecting the Entrepreneurial Intent of Turkish Women at the Bottom of the Pyramid“ Pensee Journal Vol 76 No. 2 ISSN 0031-4733 (SSCI)

The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Social Business and Microfinance at Okan University works with the purpose to:

> Caliskan, S.C., Arikan, S.C. & Yıldırım Saatçi, E. (2014). “SME’s context of Turkey from the relational perspective of members’ perfectionism, work family conflict and burnout.” International Journal of Business and Social Science, 5 (4), 1-12. ISSN 2219-1933 (EBCSO, DOAJ, Ulrich’s, Index Copernicus, ProQuest)

> Broadly establish the concept of social business in Turkey and the region through research, teaching and practical activities > Contribute to solving some of Turkey’s and the region’s most pressing social needs by inspiring and initiating social business activities and further developing microfinance > Be a hub for international excellence and exchange in the region bringing international lecturers and corporations to Turkey

> Yıldırım Saatçi, Ezgi (2014), “Management through the Lenses of Ancient People” International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 4, No. 5 p.349354 ISSN: 2010-3646 (EBCSO, DOAJ, Ulrich’s, Index Copernicus, ProQuest)

The Centre activities were performed according to the three years strategic plan developed during the Social Business Lab in Istanbul in June 2012 together with Yunus Social Business and The Grameen Creative Lab. The three pillars of activities have been identified as research, teaching and practice.

> Yıldırım Saatçi E. & Arikan Ç.Selma. (2014). “Entrepreneurship Education and Disciplinary Differences of University Students in Regard to Their Tendency to become an Entrepreneur” Journal of Advanced Management Sciences Vol. 2 No.4 p.31069


The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business

Teaching

316 ISSN: 2168-0787 (EBCSO, DOAJ, Ulrich’s, Index Copernicus, ProQuest)

The Centre has given two lectures named Social Business and Microfinance I and Social Business and Microfinance II. 47 students were enrolled and successfully delivered their projects. In addition to these undergraduate courses, a two-hour lecture series was held for high school students and 1.200 students aged 15-17 got their “Social Business Certificate” from the Centre. The Centre has held a lecture named Social Responsibility with 400 students enrolled of which half of them successfully delivered their video projects specifying social problems in Turkey.

> Yıldırım Saatçi E. & Özçam Ö. (2013) “Early Application of Social Business in Turkey: The Case of Diyarbakır/Sur Microcredit Programme” Social Business at Anadolu University Social Business 2013 Conference Eskişehir May 30-31 Proceedings pp 85-90 > Yıldırım Saatçi, E.& Arıkan, S. (2013). A Qualitative Study Of Underlying Emotional And Motivational Factors For Ex-Professional Women That Choose Entrepreneurship Mentoring As A Second Chance To Balance Work And Life” (Sözel Bildiri), Global Conference on Psychology Researches. Antalya, Türkiye, 6-8 Kasım

In alliance with KOSGEB (Turkey Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization) Practical Entrepreneurship Courses were given to 1.400 students in the winter 2013 & spring 2014 semester as a part of the mandatory courses for all university departments.

> Yıldırım Saatçi, E. & Arıkan, S. (2014) Optimism and Core Self Evaluations as Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Turkish Women Struggling with Poverty (Sözel Bildiri). 28. Uluslararası Uygulamalı Psikoloji Kongresi (ICAP), Paris, Fransa, 8-13 Temmuz

The Centre has also conducted a “Social Business Certificate Program” for women who are in the process of creating their own social businesses for low-income women in the Pendik area of Istanbul, Turkey.

> Yıldırım Saatçi, E. & Tekaüt Çal B. (2014) “Başarılı Bir Sosyal İşletme Modeli: Grameen Danone Yoğurt” 13. Ulusal İşletmecilik Kongresi, Antalya, Türkiye 5-8 Mayıs

This program provides comprehensive knowledge related to the topics “social business idea”, “social business market analyses”, “social business production planning”, “social business financial planning”, “social business organizational planning”, “development credit conditions”, etc.

The Centre has finished a baseline study on social business with the inclusion of 700 surveys with individuals conducted in the university and during more than 20 site visits. It has also finished a baseline study on entrepreneurial inclination of high school students with the inclusion of a high school students’ survey conducted in high schools in proximity to Okan University. Moreover, the center is in the process of designing an impact study in Turkey focusing on social business and CSR.

The program entails 36 hours with the following courses: > Social Business > Entrepreneurship > Motivation Theories > Social Business Plan > e-business > Case studies of Social Business > Labour and Social Security Law 70


The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business

> > > > >

Business Law Intellectual and Industrial Property Fashion Design History of Art and Design Industrial Design

Practice The Centre has not only engaged in classical academic activities, but also ventured into the field of practice. Field trips have been organized to areas of low-income neighborhoods in Istanbul to examine particular social problems to be addressed. As part of the “Social Business Certificate Program”, the Center supports the launch of social businesses from graduates in the areas of food, handcrafted ornaments and textile. Together with the international enterprise LeGrand, the Centre has organized a conference at Okan University for the International Women’s Day titled “Ezber Bozan Kadınlar”. The Centre is conducting a project for Bergama (a small city near the Aegean Sea placed on the list of Worlds Heritage Sites) with the Bergama Municipality aiming to link this Aegean city economically with a nearby Greek Island through export based social businesses. The Centre establishes connections with organizations both local and international such as McDonalds, to turn CSR activities into social businesses. Furthermore, the center has signed protocols with several municipalities and pioneering NGO’s such as Ashoka, Sogla, Tusev, Habitat, Make a Wish, Akut, Düşler Akademisi, SİM, M-Spark, TurkishWin, B-fit, TOG, Startup Grind, KEDV, Mikado Consulting, TÜSEV, LÖSEV, TEGEV, as well as with several employers’ organizations such as Tikad, Pesiad, Gyiad. With a focus on social responsibility, the Centre is

conducting a project where students from the Social Responsibility course at Okan University produce videos about basic social problems in Turkey. These videos from the university students will be published on a projectspecific web portal titled Ayna (Mirror). The Centre is conducting a project related to Culinary Therapy for young people together with the Gastronomy Department of Okan University. The center has organized a 9 days Social Entrepreneurship Camp Program with SOGLA(The Academy of Social Entrepreneur Young Leaders) and also organized a Social Entrepreneurship Project Competition for high school students named “Liseli Gençler Sosyal Girilşimcilik Proje Yarışması” (Social Entrepreneurship Project Competition for High School Youth). Okan University gives 100%, 50% and 25% scholarships to the first three competitors. Okan University is represented through the Centre at the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in Turkey for thematic entrepreneurship, in the University Council of Tuzla, and at the KOSGEB Entrepreneurship Council. The Centre applied to the Turkey Development Agency with two projects targeting economically disadvantaged women and started to conduct a project with UNICEF Turkey about Social Problems of Early Childhood Development in Turkey and furthermore applied to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for an incubation center. 71


Daffodil International University

University

Daffodil International University

City Dhaka Country Bangladesh Focus Areas

Teaching, Research and Student Forum

Contact

Masud Ibn Rahman, Head Social Business Cell

Email Mir@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd

72


Daffodil International University

Social Business Students Forum (SBSF)

Bangladesh. The whole initiative will be run by the SBSF with financial and operational support from Daffodil International University. There are three aspects of the OrganiCo model. The first one is related to organic mixed cultivation. The Organico cultivation is based on organic grain and organic livestock farming, such as fisheries, animal and square watermelons.

The Social Business Students Forum (SBSF) is a global community of students exchanging views and ideas of social business. In 2012 a group of students and teachers from Daffodil International University established the SBSF. It supports the Poverty free World Campaign through the social business philosophy of Professor Muhammad Yunus. Since its inception, the SBSF motivated students to join the social business movement and to implement social business projects with the objective to become entrepreneurs in this field.

The second part is the OrganiCo chain restaurant named Organic Perfect Day, where we will introduce three types of food such as mountain food, seafood and traditional food. In addition we will develop a few recipes from the Organic Farming project.

Among the SBSF project initiatives are: > Social Business Game > OrganiCo Social Business > Flea Market > Eco Tourism Social Business The SBSF also organized campaigns, festivals, workshops etc. to create awareness among the young community.

The third part is related to Community Development. We will train farmers about modern and organic farming (Most of our farmers are illiterate; they don’t have access to use modern farming technologies). For example, we will introduce Grameen Intel’s agree software in rural areas so that farmers can actually double the yield of their crops.

Some previous events that were organized by SBSF: > Campaign for Social Business 2012 at 18 different universities in Bangladesh > Cleaning Festival 2012 > Social Business Industrial Tour 2013 > Social Business Youth Convention 2013 > Organic Food Festival 2014 > Social Business Exposure Program 2014

In addition we will have different programs like the Social Business Exposure Program (SBEP) and different awareness programs, such as workshops, road shows, seminars, competitions etc. for fundraising, to create an organic movement within the country and to market the expansion. In terms of product distribution we will develop an Organic Mobile Bazaar under the name of Organic Knight, Organic super shop and a flea market.

For more details, please contact info@sbsf.com.bd or visit www.sbsf.com.bd

Social Business Exposure Program (SBEP) The SBSF will launch the Social Business Exposure Program (SBEP), which will engage people from Bangladesh and abroad for a social business exposure tour to Ashulia, in the outskirts of Dhaka. Participants will come to the Permanent Campus of Daffodil International University, stay at the bungalow and visit organic projects for a participation fee. The SBEP will be a social business

Social Business Project Initiatives Organico Social Business Project : The SBSF has undertaken the Organico Social Business Project in 2013 as a concept to produce organic products to solve the food adulteration problem in 73


Daffodil International University

to generate funds for the expansion of these initiatives. The SBEP is a learning based tour. Each year thousands of people from all over the world come to Bangladesh to learn about social business. National and international visitors will be invited to enjoy this unique tour to learn about and enjoy several social business endeavors.

> Susmita Rani, Lecturer, Department of English, DIU, “The Youth Convention on Social Business - A new dimension for the Youth” Few Bangla articles were also published in the SBYC brochure: > Masud Ibn Rahman, Associate Prof. & Head, Social Business Cell, DIU, “One Yunus, His Concept of Social Business and the Future World”

Social Business Game: The Social Business Game is an innovative initiative by the Social Business Cell and SBSF that was inaugurated by Prof. Muhammad Yunus at the SBYC 2013 at Daffodil International University. It is a strategic game to learn about social business in a fascinating manner. The game is available on the website of the SBSF.

An article of Kazi Misu, the President of SBSF was published in The Navigator,62-65, Issue 02, 2014. The title is “Social Business: A New Way to be Successful in Career”. A Research Monograph by the Social Business Cell

Publications from DIU students and teachers:

Recently, a research monograph was submitted by the Social Business Cell to the DIU authority. This project is funded by the university and a team of 22 students and three teachers of the Cell are part of this project. The research study is titled “Empirical Study on the Perception of Social Business in Bangladesh”. The monograph is written by Mr. Masud Ibn Rahman after collecting data from all over Bangladesh and the study will soon be published by the DIU desk.

An academic article of Rumana Parveen, Assistant Professor, University of Dhaka and member of SBC was published in the 3rd issue of the Journal of Social Business in 2013. The article deals with the confusion and anomalies linked to the term of social business within the business world. DIU published a brochure in the context of the Social Business Youth Convention 2013.

Social Business Youth Convention

Some of the contributors are: > Parveen Mahmud, Managing Director, Grameen Telecom Trust, “Transforming Social Business into a Powerful Tool” > Prometheus Siddiqui, Communication and Social Business, Grameen Telecom Trust, “Social Business / Facing the changing Global Economic Order From Companies to Projects.” > Shamsi Ara Huda, Department of English, DIU, “Lets Dream for a Better Society” > Kazi Misu, President, SBSF, “The Concept: Social Business Students Forum”

Daffodil International University, the Social Business Students Forum (SBSF) and Yunus Centre organized the Social Business Youth Convention (SBYC) on 29th June 2013 at the DIU Auditorium, Dhaka. Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus delivered a keynote speech for young people, both the registered participants as well as live stream viewers from many corners of the world. Other than Prof. Yunus, famous academicians, intellectuals, teachers, young entrepreneurs, celebrities, politicians and business leaders were present at this occasion. 74



Utrecht University of Applied Science

Institution

Institute of Social Work

University

Utrecht University of Applied Science

City Utrecht Country Netherlands Focus Areas

Teaching

Contact

Gerian Alofs

Email Gerian.alofs@hu.nl

76


Utrecht University of Applied Science

Minor Social Development Work

students also work on a field project for an NGO of their own choosing, either in the Netherlands or abroad for approx. three months.

Challenging students to reflect and act anew on international development issues.

Although the minor is open for students of all kind of studies, the majority of the students are usually Bachelor students of Social Work, Health Care, Pedagogy or Education. The minor program is being taught in English as we gladly welcome incoming international exchange students.

The minor program runs every academic year from September until the end of January for a group of approx. 24 students from different Dutch and international universities and universities of applied sciences (“Hogescholen”). At the Institute of Social Work, students can participate in the minor program Social Development Work. This program focuses on international development issues and social change in a globalizing world. Social workers and related professionals increasingly have to address social problems that are being precipitated by international worldwide forces and events. The minor program gives students the opportunity to expand their repertoires and competencies by learning about theories, approaches, methods and actors in international development work as well as give them the chance to practice in the field. The course content is founded in the relation between development and social work. Students work on an individual basis and in subgroups on practice related study assignments.

Since September 2013 a course on Prof. Yunus’ vision of social business has been included into our program. A short description of the different courses is listed below: Development Studies 1 and 2 (5 EC each) Why are some countries more developed than others and should anything be done about it or not? This course offers an introduction into the interdisciplinary field of development studies. Ideas concerning the nature of development will be discussed as well as pragmatic attempts to promote development, with a focus on the role of social development work. Topics like the nature of colonialism and imperialism, decolonization and post-colonialism will be scrutinized. Concerning theories of development, a whole range of approaches will be surveyed, including top-down and bottom-up approaches. An added element is the whole discussion about international development cooperation and aid: why is it (not) a good idea and why does aid work or not work and under which conditions. Also, new actors, like China and India, may change the rules of the game. An excursion to the Departments for Development and Humanitarian Aid of the EU in Brussels is included in the program. Social Business (5 EC) In this course we focus on Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus’ concept of social business. Students will address the concept of social business, study and reflect on case studies of social enterprises and find out

The minor program contains topics as: > Theories of development > Community development > Cultural diversity > Social business > Emergencies and humanitarian aid > Field work Dutch and international experts in the field of international development work will give lectures and guest lectures. An excursion to the departments for Development and Humanitarian Aid of the European Union in Brussels is included in the course program. The 77


Utrecht University of Applied Science

how it can contribute to poverty reduction.

Students have basic knowledge about the concepts of social entrepreneurship and social business. Students are able to formulate an opinion on social business case studies, supported by valid arguments and are able to connect the main concepts of the social business model to their own profession.

During the course students are stimulated to formulate their own opinion about the use of social business in relation to their own field of study, which in most cases is social work, pedagogy or education. Although these students have come across a wide variety of methodologies in their studies (like counseling, therapy or educational workshops) to address different social issues, it is usually new for them to start thinking about solutions in terms of a social business concept. The classes are interactive, with plenty of room for discussion. Topics include amongst others: the history of microcredit and its pros and cons; examples of social businesses/ enterprises from the students’ home countries and the principles of Prof. Yunus’ concept of social business. Students also conduct research to the effects of social business on community development using case studies like Grameen Danone and Grameen Shakti.

Community Development (5 EC) Community Development is a powerful ideal. However, this is a complex term, which might also lead to confusion. To work on development within a community, professionals have to value the normative base of the local culture. Students learn that they can’t automatically assume that their assumptions might be the right approach and might also work in other cultures. This course focuses not particularly on knowledge, but stimulates students to reflect on different ways of thinking and of sharing visions. Emergencies and Humanitarian Aid (5 EC) Emergencies arise as a result of natural hazards and conflicts, the latter often in the context of a civil war. Why are some countries more prone to conflicts and emergencies than others? Students critically reflect upon forms of conflict resolution and the roles of mediators in the field of humanitarian aid. An excursion to the International Criminal Court and to the Humanity House, as well as lectures from guest speakers from different backgrounds are included in the program. Fieldwork (5 or 15 EC) In this module students will execute a field project that will benefit an organization (NGO) dealing with development issues. While working on the project the students go through the methodical preparation cycle, implementation and evaluation. During the course both good and bad practices of development work projects will be reflected upon. From the academic year 2014-2015 on, students have the option to work on an extensive field project abroad (3 months full-time).

After each class, students have to formulate and hand in a written statement on a social business dilemma, including pros and cons into their arguments. The statement should be related to the topics discussed in that particular class. A few examples of topics that students wrote about are: “Micro credit is a tool of empowerment to get people out of poverty” “Social Businesses empowerment of women can have a socially negative impact on a woman’s position within her community” “Grameen Danone ought to be culturally aware of the audience and community they market and help sustain” ”If everyone would give up profits, all would gain more” “Social business will soon play an important role in achieving social change”” “Grameen Bank would do well in a Western country like the Netherlands” The competencies and learning objectives are: 78


“During the course students are stimulated to formulate their own opinion about the use of social business in relation to their own field of study� 79


ESPM

Institution

Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre

University

ESPM

City Sao Paulo Country Brazil Focus Areas

Teaching, Research and Incubation

Contact

Mauricio Turra Ponte

Email Mturra@espm.br

80


ESPM

Despite the emergence of topics like social business, little has been researched about how social entrepreneurs develop strategies and about the resources that are required to recognize, evaluate and explore them.

and the analysis of previous projects. Members of the Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre, representatives of the entrepreneur community and ESPM participate in the selection. The characteristics of the entrepreneur, the social impact and the proposed business model constitute the main analyzed criteria.

Hence, the Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre was founded in 2013 as a partnership between ESPM and Yunus Social Business in order to achieve this goal. The Centro de Negócios Sociais is the first Brazilian academic organization aimed at the implementation of the development model proposed by Muhammad Yunus. The Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre is a social business itself, in which social, managerial and educational goals are equally important. Based on the mission of “encouraging companies, individuals and students to promote businesses aimed at solving social problems”, the Centre is divided into three areas: training, social research and social incubator.

The timeline for incubation support is limited to 3 semesters and every semester projects are validated by the Incubator’s management team. The Incubator provides entrepreneurs with training, counseling, mentoring and networking activities. Selected projects are supported by a mentor, who is responsible for supporting the project during the pre-operational planning by identifying resources and knowledge that is necessary for execution of the project and by monitoring their activities. Mentors and entrepreneurs gather weekly with to discuss their progress and the achieved results. Supported by their mentor, entrepreneurs set up an action timetable and identify activities that must be undertaken. This timetable is submitted and approved by the Incubator’s management team.

Social Incubator The Social Business Incubator has the purpose to help the ones interested in developing their own social business. Incubated companies can use the services and the structure that support entrepreneurs to plan and develop their own social business. The Incubator has facilities that can accommodate ten entrepreneurs, including IT facilities and administrative support services. Moreover, entrepreneurs can use ESPM’s own library and access its database. Sporadically, the Incubator uses the ESPM infrastructure to develop activities such as Feira de Negócio Social (Social Business Fair), where projects are presented and an environment for new projects is created. The Social Incubator has promoted social entrepreneurship by organizing the Feira de Empreendedorismo Social (Social Entrepreneurship Fair).

Training and counseling activities are related to six action areas; Marketing Management, Financial Management, Operations Management, Legal and Fiscal Support, People Management and Strategic Planning of Social Businesses. Training activities are developed by ESPM professors after an initial analysis of required knowledge and tutoring for each team. In addition, the Incubator has a wide network of consultants, who meet regularly to advice on strategies and evaluate the achieved results. Moreover, they provide access to their network based on demand and identified opportunities. Fortnightly meetings with entrepreneurs are held to strengthen and expand relationships. These activities are held in different formats, such as lectures, cocktail sessions, expert presentations about cases and projects, etc.

Every semester new supported projects are disclosed by public notice to students and alumni. Projects are chosen based on interviews with the entrepreneur team 81


ESPM

After the project launch, the monitoring process is undertaken in three ways: board membership, strategic planning support and research to improve cases. In the first case, the board member or representative meets entrepreneurs on a monthly basis to evaluate results and define strategic actions. In the second case, the mentor or a team of consultants helps with strategic planning. Through research, the Centre encourages professors and students to understand and analyze practices and management forms applied by organizations involved with social business in Brazil, creating a publication that encourages the development of social impact activities. The Social Business Incubator will be officially launched in the first semester of 2015 in the unit of São Paulo, and will expand to Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre afterwards.

professors and entrepreneurship experts, support for the social business project through active learning processes, coaching and counseling during community visits and the presentation of a final project to a board of experts, entrepreneurs and investors. The course structure provides students the opportunity to review their values and principles in face of ethical matters and current modes of production and consumption. The curriculum is based on a set of general skills related to specific knowledge of entrepreneurship, innovation and social business areas, which are necessary to develop a social business. This set was divided into 3 sections that will be studied throughout the course: Conceptualization (24 hours): > Introduction to Social Business > Development of Social Business in the World > Case Studies on Social Business > Social Problems and Social Business Planning

Training The Center has the educational purpose of promoting a new vision to future generations of leaders, inspiring them and training them to face persistent social challenges. The course Certificação Internacional em Negócios Sociais (Certification in Social Business) intends to create an interest in social business among entrepreneurs.

Instrumentation (30 hours): > Design Thinking > Market and Ethnography Research > Development of Projects and Impact Indicators Strategic Planning (48 hours): > Business Model Generation > Strategic Marketing Decision > Alliance and Partnership Building > Analysis of Financial Viability > Company Games

It is a course that provides a solid foundation by addressing conceptual and strategic aspects of social businesses. The content enables students to identify social problems and develop a social business plan. The training curriculum covers important aspects to develop a social business plan, which is then elaborated by students and presented at the end of the course.

To achieve these goals the course explores active learning and teaching methods including: > Case studies of projects from abroad to understand critical success factors of social business > Classes focused on creating and reconstructing business models, based on knowledge and concepts learned from and coordinated by professors

The course consists of ten sessions with a total of 120 hours. Additionally, there are two meetings with the coordinator to discuss activities and receive advice for the final project. The course is based on four criteria: sharing of experience among social entrepreneurs, conceptual and methodological development undertaken by 82


ESPM

> > > > > >

Applied field research in the community aimed at identifying social problems and evaluating the technical proposals to be undertaken Lectures from experienced (social) entrepreneurs, who encountered similar moments in their careers Company games aimed at creating and applying social business concepts, considering their impact on social problems Seminars to present social business projects, with evaluations & feedback from experts Coaching from experts from the fields of entrepreneurship, strategy and social business A final presentation to a board of social business experts, entrepreneurs, consultants and sponsors

business in Brazil. One of the first projects is the implementation of BRF Social Business Project in Haiti. Simultaneously, 5 social businesses micro enterprises, which have been developed in Brazil in various segments (housing, health, microfinance, finance and nourishment) will be monitored during year two. The learning process, the adopted practices and its challenges will be considered and systematized in order to create a publication that encourages the development of social impact activities.

In order to achieve the objective we use different mechanisms, such as individual and group work, field research, lectures and seminars. The evaluation is undertaken throughout the project. In each session, students are encouraged to apply the acquired knowledge. Projects are periodically evaluated by the coordinator, who provides feedback for upcoming activities that will help to further develop the project. At the end of the course, students will present their final project to a group of experts.

The second research area sets a focus to understand the impact that social actions have on consuming behavior. Based on the premise that consumers can be encouraged to buy products and subsidize the purchase of the same product for consumers with lower purchasing power, consumers are encouraged to buy products at the ESPM Retail Lab; this way the impact of such a practice will be measured. The study investigates price differentiation, different consumer categories and communication stimuli on packages, merchandising and advertising.

The course was initially offered in the second semester of 2013 in S達o Paulo, with two groups of 70 students and 24 projects. In the first semester of 2014 the course was offered in the units of S達o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with 40 students and 14 projects. The course will be offered in the second semester of 2014 in S達o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and will be expanded to Porto Alegre in 2015. Social Research

The result of these research studies will be shared with the community and society at the Central de Cases (Centre of Cases), ESPM own publications and at public events, such as the annual Simp坦sio de Marketing (Marketing Symposium), Encontro de Profissionais de Marketing (Marketin Professionals Meeting), etc.

The pillar of Social Research has two focus areas. It first encourages students and professors to understand, analyze and systematize tools, practices and managerial forms developed by organizations working with social 83


Stockholm School of Economics Riga

University

Stockholm School of Economics Riga

City Riga Country Latvia Focus Areas

Hands on teaching with a positive impact on society

Contact

Fionn Dobbin

Email Fionn.dobbin@sseriga.edu

84


Stockholm School of Economics Riga

Social Business in the Curriculum of the SSE Riga: One of the main events in the Baltic region in the field of social business is the Social Entrepreneurship Forum at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. The forum was established to assemble, inspire and educate social entrepreneurs from the Baltic States and contribute towards creating a favorable working environment among social entrepreneurs and decision-makers. The theme of the forum changes every year to reflect key issues in the Baltic region.

the rural areas such as woodworks, pottery, pickles, marmalades, juices and so forth. They are produced in small quantities and sold and traded with neighboring villages.

Besides the Social Entrepreneurship Forum, the SSE Riga is running several courses and workshops on the topic of social business such as the Laboratory of Entrepreneurship, a mandatory course on Entrepreneurship for Year 1 students of the Tallinn Summer School.

The aim of the course is to help those micro entrepreneurs to upscale and professionalize their business, to become an employer in the region and to be able to reach out to a bigger market. Groups of students have developed business, marketing and design strategies in collaboration with several marketers, designers and business consultants to help the villagers to upscale and professionalize their business.

The main course on social business is the “Connected Village” course, which was successfully launched this year in a cooperation with The Grameen Creative Lab and the marketing agency NotPerfect Riga. The pilot project was financially supported by the YY Foundation and the Soros Foundation Latvia.

Status Quo At the moment we are developing a “Connected Village“ toolbox, which will contain the workshop structure, slides, a brand book and a design strategy. The tool box will give students and teachers the opportunity to run a social business course with a hands-on experience while creating a real positive impact on society.

What is the topic of the course “ The Connected Village“? The workshop is focusing on unemployment in rural areas. The first pilot of the workshop took place in Spring 2014 on the Latvian countryside in a village with an unemployment rate of 90%.

The toolbox will be launched during the Global Social Business Summit 2014 in Mexico City.

Our initial research has revealed that residents in rural areas with a high unemployment rates are becoming micro entrepreneurs to support their families and themselves with an additional income.

Roadmap During the next year we will launch a sales platform where connected village products from all over the world will be sold.

Products and services are reflecting the traditions of 85


McGill University

Institution

Desautels Faculty of Management

University

McGill University

City Montreal Country Canada Focus Areas

Teaching

Contact

Prof. Robert David

Email Robert.david@mcgill.ca

86


McGill University

About Beginning fall 2014, the Desautels Faculty of Management will be offering one of the first programs of its kind in Canada, driven largely by student input and faculty collaboration. The Concentration in Social Business & Enterprise is housed in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. It is intended for students interested in harnessing the not-for-profit, civil, and for-profit sectors to tackle social issues. Students will be challenged to reconceptualise strategy formation and implementation with an emphasis on economic development, the environment, corporate social responsibility, and social impact. The concentration imparts a comprehensive set of management skills, encompassing cross-sectoral collaboration and social entrepreneurship. It encourages students to complement their courses in business with an array of course offerings from outside the faculty. The option complements concentrations and majors in other management areas, adding a holistic and integrated perspective. Moreover, the opportunity to enroll in an independent studies course on social business will enrich students under the guidance and mentorship of an in-house professor. This allows for an experiential component, as the student would carry out field studies, interviews, and in-depth research in the area of choice within the field. An article on how the Concentration started is available online at http://ow.ly/uL5MmÂ

CONCENTRATION IN SOCIAL BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE

Student registration in the Concentration has been open since April 2014, and students will be able to graduate with this Concentration, complementing their major field of studies, as of September 2014.

http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/programs/bcom/ academics/courseinfo/concentrations/strategicmanagement-social-business-enterprise 87


Interview Prof. Robert David - McGill University

Q: Could you please tell us about the concentration and the idea behind it?

are deeply involved in this space are much closer to the ground than we are as faculty members, who have interests for the most part in different areas.

A: It is important to know where we started. McGill has had a concentration in this space – not necessarily and specifically in the social business space, but in the social context space - for maybe 15 years now.

The Social Context of Business concentration was a very general one for students who were interested in the not-for profit and civil sector. We had a grab bag of courses that did not have a great coherence, but nonetheless gave students who were interested in the civil and not-for profit sector something that they could take and put on their transcript. Over time we realized that this program needed to be revised and needed essentially more focus and coherence.

But at that time we, the faculty members did not have a strong sense what that should be. At that point I met the student Joanna Klimczak and it turns out that independently a group of students led by Joanna and Mariana Botero explored an initiative in the direction of social business. We had an interesting first conversation and had subsequent conversations about common interests and decided to work together.

Q: How did the faculty student collaboration practically look like? Did you have regular meetings and how long did it take to get the final approval for the concentration? A: My Area had formed a small task force with four faculty members to look into revising the existing concentration. The revision of the concentration was part of a larger project that also involved a Major in Strategic Management (a Major is ten courses with 30 credits and a concentration is five courses with 15 credits). The two students Joanna Klimczak and Mariana Botero were put on that task force as our student representatives. Some people in my area wanted to call this concentration Social Enterprise. And Joanna and Mariana were quite intense on calling it Social Business. And frankly as the chair I didn’t have a strong preference, the nuances on these terms were a little bit lost on me. Eventually we settled on Social Business and Enterprise and you may see this as a compromise solution, but I see it as something better than a compromise solution. I see it as something that conveys the meaning that both groups wanted to convey.

We came to the table with a very general sense of what we wanted to do and Joanna and Mariana helped us to really sharpen that into what we see now. My research is not necessarily in the area of social business and in many ways, the students who

88

There were six levels of approval by six committees. To go from when Joanna and I first started talking to


Interview Prof. Robert David - McGill University “The student input was data driven. Universities and especially professors love data. We are academics, we like data, we like evidence.”

Q: What are the main lessons learned? Any advice you could give to other universities that would like to start something similar?

go to the Undergraduate Program Committee took about ten months. We first started talking in January 2013 and the final approval by the Senate came in April 2014, but that is not counting the pre work that the students had done and the pre work that we had done at the area level, which took a few extra months.

A: The main lesson learned is that faculty members really need to be open to their student’s ideas. A lot of faculties have students on the committees; they all have mechanisms for students to give input. But that is not necessarily the same as true collaboration. And the students who serve on these committees are not the only ones who should be listened to.

But I think the bulk of the work was from January until October 2013, because once it was approved at the Undergraduate Program Committee, it was mostly set and it was just a matter of running it through the additional committees.

Q: When is the concentration finally starting? A: We consider the starting for the concentration this coming academic year 2014/2015. That said, it is already on the books and any student taking the specific courses can already count these courses towards the concentration.

I should say that the Major in Strategic Management consists of our two concentrations, the Social Business & Enterprise that we have been talking about, and then we have Global Strategy, which one might consider a traditional strategy concentration that you might find at other schools. It has a very traditional business approach. The Major is actually a combination of the concentrations roughly speaking. So students who graduate with that will have those two aspects to their curriculum, which I think will be very interesting. 89

Very frankly, the reactions of many of my colleagues were a bit skeptical why students are taking such a big role in this. The fact is students are taking a big role because they have great ideas and they know what they are doing. We need to be open to that.

On the flipside, the students needed us, because we know what will work and what won’t work from the university governance point of view. We know what has to be in these programs, we know what can’t be in these programs. For example, when you have courses in your concentration, which I think is one of the distinctive aspects of this concentration, from three or four different faculties across the university, from a student point of view that seems like a perfectly natural thing to do, from a university point of view that is a radical thing.

You have to talk to the Department Chairs, you got to get their permission, you got to talk about


Interview Prof. Robert David - McGill University

enrollment numbers, you got to talk about financial issues. Including courses from many different faculties in the university is a big, big deal. And that ends up being one of the distinctive things of this program. If you look at the courses you will see management courses, but you will also see courses from the agriculture school, geography, from international development, political science. And that is something quite unique especially for business schools, which tend to not always speak to the other parts of the university. The key turning point was when the group of students decided to work with us and I think given what I know about university governance structures, it is exceedingly difficult for anything to happen without having the faculty on board. And I think the learning on the student side was to do it with us rather than parallel to us. In this case it worked out great and unfortunately it doesn’t mean that it is always going to work that way. I think it was a question of the individuals involved to some extent. If this openness is shown more generally then it can work in many cases.

The student input was data driven. Universities and especially professors love data. We are academics, we like data, we like evidence and the way Joanna and her colleagues presented things to us was very data driven. In many ways a lot of their input was related to the actual selection of courses. The students presented course outlines, learning points, how it fits with the concentration, and quotations

And any reasonable person, who looks at that, will say that this input is great. We expect students to bring enthusiasm and certainly these students did bring enthusiasm, but what they also brought was an analytic and professional look at things, which we don’t always see. The level of maturity in terms of the way they were presenting, and the data that they would bring was very, very high.

That’s what made things work.

from students who have taken the courses and what they have to say.

90


Interview Prof. Robert David - McGill University

Robert J. David is Associate Professor of Strategy & Organization and the Cleghorn Faculty Scholar at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. He is also Director of the Centre for Strategy Studies in Organization at McGill. Dr. David studies the evolution of management practices, organizational forms, and industries from an institutional perspective. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Research Policy. Dr. David recently co-edited a volume titled Institutions and Entrepreneurship as part of the Research in the Sociology Work series. He serves on the editorial boards of Organization Science and Strategic Organization, and is an associate editor at Journal of Management Inquiry. Dr. David holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Theory from Cornell University.

91


Zeppelin University

Institution

Civil Society Center

University

Zeppelin University

City Friedrichshafen Country Germany Focus Areas

Research and Teaching

Contact

Professor Stephan A. Jansen, Chair for Strategic Organization and Financing and Director of the Civil Society Center

Lisa Hanley, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Civil Society Center

Email Lisa.hanley@zu.de

92


Zeppelin University

About the Civil Society Center

University It’s main aim is to investigate the feasibility, utility, limits as well as long-term effects of social economic empowerment with a focus on entrepreneurial solutions to social problems in particular Latin American and African countries. The network counts with a close circle of partner universities in selected countries including Adama University in Ethiopia, the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, EGADE Business School in Mexico and the University of Stellenbosch Business School in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Civil Society Center (CiSoC) has the main objective to measure the emergence, methods, players and interdependencies, as well as provide international comparative analyses that are evolving in today’s new social interactions and the implications of the debate about the future of public affairs. Since its foundation in 2010 by Zeppelin University’s Chair for Strategic Organization and Financing in collaboration with numerous partners, CiSoC is embedded in a research network of partner chairs within and beyond Zeppelin University at both the national and international scale. CiSoC operates on an interdisciplinary, empirical basis – embedded in the research fields of philanthropy, wealth psychology, sociological and anthropological exchange theory, constitutional and institutional economics, public goods theory, organization theory, the theory of social innovation and of new social movements and observing non-profit and nongovernmental organizations, charities, sponsoring markets and social entrepreneurship.

Within this network, six doctoral theses in local and international research contexts are funded. This permits a compilation of primary data on specific issues pertaining to social economic empowerment in the two regions. Moreover, in the interest of further collecting and evaluating primary data, the research network launched a special study in 2012 titled “Social Finance: Understanding Demand and Supply in Emerging Markets - A survey on Social Enterprises and Social Investors”. Designed to explore and compare the social finance landscape in Kenya, Colombia, Mexico and South Africa, the findings of this study aim to develop practical recommendations for social investors and entrepreneurs and will be presented during the course of 2014.

Based on the university’s strategy, which considers research, teaching, and knowledge transfer as a unit, the center’s core orientation is research. In this sense, research constitutes the basis of all CiSoC activities, which also include teaching and outreach. Research projects have focused on the organization, communication, financing and markets of social businesses and social enterprises from an emergence, legitimacy and governance perspective.

Furthermore, regular conferences allow for an exchange of experiences and knowledge with internationally leading scientists and institutions in the wider field of social economic empowerment. Overall, the work of the research network will lead to practical recommendations for specific projects, sectors, countries, regions and topics related to social economic empowerment in developing countries.

International Research Network on Social Economic Empowerment | IRENE|SEE

It is hoped that the results produced by the international research network elaborate concrete tools and guidelines with regard to establishing new social enterprises or providing financial support to existing ones.

The IRENE|SEE project was initiated and financed by Siemens Stiftung in 2010 and is coordinated by Zeppelin 93


Zeppelin University

Selected Additional Research Projects: Mercator Research Network Social Entrepreneurship | MEFOSE The organization, communication, financing and markets of social enterprises from an emergence, legitimacy and governance perspective Partners: Mercator Foundation, Ashoka Germany and Schwab Foundation Innovation Systems of Charity Organizations Research Center Strategic repositioning of the voluntary charity associations as civil society organizations against the backdrop of new requirements and framework conditions Partner: Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart Caritas Association Study on Imperfections in the Social Investment Market Identification of market imperfections and failures in the assessment of investment needs in the area of social enterprise in the European Union. Partner: European Commission Teaching CiSoC is involved with at both the Bachelor and Master level at Zeppelin University. One of the courses offered on a regular basis is the research seminar titled Social Entrepreneurship. Additional courses in nonprofit management, development administration and business ethics are also taught. 94


North South University & Eastern University

University

North South University & Eastern University

City Dhaka Country Bangladesh Focus Areas

Teaching

Contact

Dr. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Ph.D

Email Provc@easternuni.edu.bd

95


North South University & Eastern University

North South University and Social Business:

distinctive social business research projects funded by the Research and Innovation Grant Committee.

Social business as a new discipline was first regarded and recognized in Bangladesh’s higher education sector by North South University (NSU). Social business, currently one of the most prominent research and seminar topics, was first introduced during the International Conference on Knowledge Globalization 2010 with Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the keynote speaker. During this conference Prof. Yunus introduced the premises of social business and this initial introduction has initiated the social business activities at NSU. Together with the Yunus Centre, The Grameen Creative Lab, the South Asian Youth Society and various clubs, the University has organized many successful seminars, competitions and paper presentations on social business. In 2012, NSU and the Professional Society for Social Business (PSSB) jointly organized the Social Business Forum 2012 (which is the biggest social business program in Asia until now) to add another highlight in its series of social business events. In 2013, NSU again jointly organized Social Business Forum 2013 together with PSSB.

Published Papers: Wali, F I, Md, Chowdhury, A. H., Alam, K, Md. S., Wali, Md Wali Maruf., Islam, Md. M., Collaborative Education: New Frontier for Future Education and Yunus Social Business. Business Education and Accreditation (BEA), 6(1), 101 110, 2014 USA Hussain, M., Chowdhury, A. H., and Hussain, B., “Sweets and Sours of Social Business: A Case study on Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., ”World Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 256 - 266, 2012, Australia and Proceedings of the International Business Research Conference, Dubai, June, 28, 2011. Bashir, M M A; Khalil, Z T; Haider, ASM S; Chowdhury, A. H. and Mustafa, M S, “Social Business: Scopes and Challenges,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Globalization, 178 - 180, 2010, Bangladesh. Presentation and Talks:

The following events with a social business context were organized by NSU: > Social Business Plan Competition in collaboration with NSU Young Entrepreneurs Society (NSU YES) > Social Business Plan Competition in collaboration with South Asian Youth Society (SAYS) > Workshop on Social Business: building prosperity with South Asian Youth Society (SAYS) > Youth Social Business Idea Competition with South Asian Youth Society (SAYS) > Social Business Forum 2012 and 2013 with the Professional Society for Social Business (PSSB)

Chowdhury, A. H., Hossain, Saad Md. M., and Haider, S., Role of Economic Parameters to Assess the Wealth Status of Type 2 Social Business Owners. First GSBS Research Conference, Kuala Lumpur, November 5-6, 2013, Malaysia. Chowdhury, A. H., Panel discussion on Social Business Movement in Academia, Social Business Forum 2012, Theme: Social Business Practices - Evaluating Impacts, Organized by North South University and Professional Society for Social Business (PSSB), Bangladesh, March, 29, 2012.

Besides these events, NSU faculty have published various academic papers, articles and presented different topics related to social business in world renowned academic journals and conferences and are actively working on two

Chowdhury, A. H., Panel discussion on Social Business and Academia, Social Business Day 2012, Theme: 96


North South University & Eastern University

Transforming Societies Through Social Business, Organized by Yunus Centre, Gonoshasthaya Kendra, Savar, Bangladesh, March, 28, 2012

USA” accepted for Publication in the Journal of Marketing, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh Ongoing Projects (Funded by NSU Research Grant Committee):

Chowdhury A. H., Panel Discussion on Social Business, Keynote Speaker: Professor Cam Donaldson, Yunus Chair for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK, Keynote Speech on “Markets and Health in the Home of Smith and Yunus,” Career Portal Launching Program, Organized by North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 7, 2010

Perception of business people towards social business Leadership in social business Articles (by NSU faculty members): Haider, S. ASM and Chowdhury A. H. “Social Business: Bridging the Gap Between Growth and Inequality,” Social Business Forum 2012 Brochure, 34, 2012

Bashir, M M Al; Khalil, Z T; Haider, ASM S; Chowdhury, A. H. and Mustafa, M S, Social Business: Scopes and Challenges. International Conference on Knowledge Globalization (ICKG), Dhaka. Organized by North South University, Bangladesh, May 8-10, 2010

Miah, M. K., Mohiuddin, K. G. B., and Chowdhury A. H. “Business Performance and HRM Practices in Social & Conventional Businesses: A Theoretical Framework for Comparison,” Social Business Forum 2012 Brochure, 3133, 2012

Chowdhury, A. H., Social Business - Present, Future and Perspectives. Keynote speaker at the Seminar on Social Business, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh, March, 28, 2012

Chowdhury A. H. and Zarjina T. K., “Social Business: Scopes and Challenges,” Social Business Forum 2012 Brochure, 27-30, June, 2012

Chowdhury, A. H., Strategies for on Social BusinessChallenges and Opportunities. Keynote paper presented at the First South Asian Youth Leaders Summit, Bangladesh, February, 16, 2012

Chowdhury A. H. “Prelude to an Awe-Inspiring Journey,” Social Business Forum 2012 Brochure, 25-26, 2012

Chowdhury, A. H., Strategic Discussion on social business and global academic collaboration. Global Social Business Summit 2011 organized by Grameen Creative Lab GmbH of Germany, Vienna, Austria, 10 – 12, November, 2011

Chowdhury A. H. “Social Business: Is the debate going to follow the footsteps of microcredit?” Reprinted at Grameen Dialogue, Newsletter Published by Grameen Trust, Bangladesh, 78-80, July, 2011 Chowdhury A. H. “Learning from Global Social Business Summit” The Daily Star, Special Issue: 20th Anniversary. 38-43, April 04, 2011

Book Review Chowdhury, A. H. and Hossain, M. S. (2014) “Building Social Business - The new Kind of Capitalism that serves Humanity’s most pressing Needs - by Muhammad Yunus (2010), Published by Public Affairs, Perscus Books Group,

Chowdhury A. H. “Social Business: Is the debate going to follow the footsteps of microcredit?” The Financial Express, 4, March 12, 2011 97


North South University & Eastern University

Chowdhury A. H. “Dr. Yunus and the current debate: Perspective of an academic bystander” The Daily Star, March 16, 2011

coming from Asia. Upon its inception in May 2012, it has already successfully hosted a global event - the Social Business Forum 2012 and organized a dialogue on social business with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus including 35 university teachers, professionals and academicians at the Yunus Centre. It now has more than 1,500 active members.

Articles (by NSU students in Social Business Forum 2012 Brochure, 2012): Corporations in Social Business: A Win-Win Situation (by Iftekhar Alam) Youth and Social Business: The Guidelines for the Younger Generation (by Maruf Wali) Achieving MDGs through Social Business: An Effort to Reach Goals Pertaining to Education (by Monica Islam)

Nobel Laureate Professor Yunus, former astronaut Ron Garan and many other eminent persons of Bangladesh and abroad have aligned to lend credibility to this platform. PSSB successfully organized the Social Business Forum 2013 and Dr. Muhammad Yunus was present at all activities of the Society.

Professional Society for Social Business (PSSB):

Eastern University and Social Business Activities:

The Professional Society for Social Business (PSSB) as a social body is globally recognized. The first pillar of this social initiative was built by different university teachers and professionals of Bangladesh. Dr. Chowdhury is the founding president of this professional platform. PSSB is envisioned to be an acclaimed association for scholars, experts, practitioners, academicians, consultants and the inquisitive minds that aspire to learn about social business. The core objective of the society is to create a platform for professionals, researchers and academicians in the area of social business. Being the first of its kind, PSSB shall promote the concept and spread the message of social business in order to develop a better understanding while at the same time accelerating the economic development of Bangladesh through social business.

Eastern University, in collaboration with the Yunus Centre, has organized the “Social Business Youth Convention 2014” in July 2014. This one-day event focused on the theme of Empowering Youth through Social Business. In addition to this, discussions took place about the prospect of social business in Bangladesh, sharing of experience with social business ventures, youth involvement in developing social businesses and the impact of social business to solve vital causes that exist in society. Two workshops were held to create awareness about social business among young Bangladeshi students and to motivate them to develop innovative social business concepts. Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus was the keynote speaker at the event. The program attracted university students from all over the country and aspiring young entrepreneurs, academics, professionals as well as eminent individuals, journalists and media personalities in this event. Besides this, Eastern University also organized two workshops on social business for the students of different academic institutions of Bangladesh.

The PSSB will also undertake projects for promoting economic activities including human resources development, project evaluation, quality improvement and research work. Currently PSSB has extended its reach beyond Bangladesh and is recognized as one of the strong global social business organizational bodies 98


Academia Overview

_99


Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)

Yunus Program – Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) The Yunus Program is an initiative by the MTSU. The program has been created to inspire students, faculty members, administrators and alumni, as well as leaders in the mid-south region of the U.S. to study the philosophy of Prof. Yunus and to join him and his global partners in efforts to eradicate economic poverty and reduce social problems in the world. Among others, the program components comprise: > Developing a “Yunus Collection” (e.g. books, monographs, and audio-visual materials) > Internships at the Grameen Bank in Dhaka > Lectures and courses on micro-credit finance and on social business as well as on related areas > Implementing the Yunus Commemoration Agreement of Friendship and Exchange between the University of Chittagong and MTSU > Establishing, as a long-term goal, a mid-south institute for social business at MTSU or elsewhere in the region, an incubator for social business development in collaboration with area colleges and universities, private enterprises, government agencies, and the like > Working closely with the Yunus Centre in Bangladesh and with its collaborators throughout the world, especially academic institutions in the U.S., West Europe, and Japan For more information on the initiative please visit the Yunus Program website www.mtsu.edu/yunus/ 100


Oregon University System (OUS) & University System of Georgia (USG)

Oregon Social Business Challenge – Oregon University System (OUS) The Oregon Social Business Challenge brings together leaders from across the state to discuss ways that higher education can better meet the economic, social and environmental challenges facing Oregon. It was initiated in 2012 by OUS, a system of seven public universities and one branch campus in the State of Oregon. The challenge features a statewide competition between university student teams that have been working to develop ways to address these issues. The students’ application of the ideas is judged and awarded at the end of the day-long event. In addition, the event is featured by keynote speeches. For the first time the challenge was held on 01-Oct-2012 when sixteen student teams took part in the competition to present their ideas. In addition, keynote speeches were held by Governor John Kitzhaber, Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Prof. Yunus. For more detailed information on the initiative, please visit secure.ous.edu/socialbusiness/

Georgia Social Business and Microcredit Forum by University System of Georgia (USG) The Georgia Social Business and Microcredit Forum is a one-day conference by the USG, an organizational body that includes 35 public institutions of higher learning in the U.S. state of Georgia. The conference took place on 17 October 2011 and was organized to bring together economic development interests from all regions of the state to hear Prof. Yunus’ social business concept of combining business knowhow with the desire to improve quality of life. In addition college student teams from across Georgia developed business solutions to pressing local and state issues. For more detailed information on the initiative, please visit the conference website www.usg.edu/social_business_ microcredit 101


Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The Muhammad Yunus Innovation Challenge – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) The Muhammad Yunus Innovation Challenge was established by the MIT in 2007. The challenge is part of the program of the International Development Initiative (IDI). It was initiated and is supported by MIT alumnus Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel. Each year the challenge highlights a pressing need of the world’s poor and enables MIT students to develop solutions through a variety of mechanisms. Among others, the mechanisms comprise public service fellowships, the IDEAS Global Challenge (an annual invention and entrepreneurship competition), lectures and courses as well as internships and grants. The topics of previous Yunus Innovation Challenges were: 2013 Education Innovations 2012 “Waste: Put it to Use” 2011 Improved Agricultural Processes for Better Livelihoods” 2010 “Promoting Clean Hands for Health and Prosperity” 2009 “Affordable Small-scale Energy Storage Solutions” 2008 “Improving Indoor Air Quality to Break the Cycle of Poverty” 2007 “Increasing Adherence to Tuberculosis Drugs in Rural Developing Country Contexts“ For more information on the initiative, please visit the International Development Initiative (IDI) website http://web.mit.edu/idi/yunus.htm 102


San Yat-sen University

Social Business Center at Sun Yat-sen University China: Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, a 112-year old Chinese educational institute, has set up a Yunus Centre for Microcredit and Social Business to promote poverty focused social businesses. The new centre at the university was established through a partnership between Sun Yat-sen University and Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and will be managed in collaboration with the Yunus Centre. It was announced at the inauguration of the International Forum of Microcredit and Social Business organized by the business school of the university and The Time Weekly media group. The centre will set up sustainable microfinance programs for the poor in China and introduce social business initially only in the communities in Guang Dong province. At a later stage, social business activities will be expanded to other provinces.

Weekly media group to set up these programs based on experiences in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Professor Yunus was chief guest at the forum. During a visit in China, the founder of Grameen Bank addressed business forums in Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei that were attended by government representatives, business leaders and students.

Academic courses will be offered through the business school of the university. A team from Yunus Centre and Grameen Trust is working with the faculty and management of the university along with The Time 103


National University of Malaysia (UKM)

Lecture series – National University of Malaysia (UKM) Since 2011, the UKM National University of Malaysia hosts several initiatives to foster social business. The activities aim to bring social business forward and comprise lecture series, workshops and talks with Prof. Yunus. In July 2011, Prof. Yunus was honored Laureate-inResidence. The lecture of Prof. Yunus on “Social Business: A way to solve society’s most pressing problems” was attended by more than 2,000 students. In June 2012, Prof. Dato Dr. Rahmah Mohamed (Deputy VC at UKM) held a speech on the Social Business Day 2012 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Malaysia itself is special to Prof. Yunus because it was the first country outside Bangladesh to adopt his microfinance scheme; he is on the board of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, a Grameen replication project. In December 2012, the National University of Malaysia has announced to establish UKM Yunus Centre for Advancement of Social Business (UKM–Yunus CASB). 104


Hult International Business School

Hult International Business School is a business school with five campuses around the world in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai, as well as two rotation centers in New York and Sao Paulo. The business school was established in 1964 and formerly known as Arthur D. Little School of Management. In 2003, the school was renamed to Hult International Business School and named after Bertil Hult, the founder of EF Education First. Next to a variety of programs (MBA, Executive MBA, Master and Bachelor programs), they established the Master of Social Entrepreneurship program at their London campus in 2011 and in San Francisco in 2012. Within the first nine months of the program, students will learn both theoretical and practical knowledge, which they will then apply for their final real-world Action Project together with an international company, non-profit or social business. Moreover, Hult International Business School has created the Hult Prize, the world’s largest student competition and a start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship. The Hult Prize provides the opportunity to win USD 1 million for the winner of this annual idea competition that runs in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. 105


Interview with Words


Interview Dr. Kerstin Humberg

Q: Why did you decide to write your doctoral thesis on “Poverty Reduction through Social Business”?

solutions to societal challenges is an appealing, but extremely broad concept. Against this background everybody seems to have a slightly different understanding of the term. While Muhammad Yunus is defining the social business joint ventures with multinational companies such as Danone or Veolia as no loss, no dividend businesses with a social purpose, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is running its own profitable social enterprises. BRAC describes them as a “unique model of sustainable business that defines corporate social responsibility”. The biggest debate is however around the distribution of profits: How much dividends should be allowed for a social purpose business, if at all?

A: Inspired by Muhammad Yunus’ book, Creating a World without Poverty, I realized that a dissertation on social business would be a fascinating opportunity to combine my interest in development topics with practical business skills and knowledge. Finally I got really excited to explore opportunities, challenges, and risks of social business as a new market-based poverty reduction approach in one of the world’s least-developed countries – Bangladesh. Q: What were/are your experiences with social businesses in Bangladesh?

Q: Do you think social businesses can actually contribute to fighting poverty?

A: Bangladesh can be considered as a laboratory for social business. Yunus’ Grameen Bank and joint ventures with multinational companies such as Danone, Veolia or BASF might still be the most famous examples. However, alongside Yunus a vast number of private social entrepreneurs are exploring new sustainable models in the fields of waste management, information technology, rural employment generation, tea production or education for street children. Check out the websites of Waste Concern, CellBazaar, Hathay Bunano, Kazi Tea or StreetWise.

A: Yes, they can. My research illustrates how they contribute to poverty reduction in terms of the sustainable livelihood approach. They can create access to economic opportunities, advance poor people’s economic, human or social capital and reduce their vulnerability to stresses and shocks. To give an example: Although the net income for Grameen Danone’s sales ladies (distributing yogurt in rural villages) might be limited to 50 to 100 Taka (or 50 to 100 Euro Cent) per day, they benefit from having a regular source of income, new social capital related to their formal job, more freedom to move in public space, and an improved self-concept. During one of our focus group discussions one sales lady

Q: Do they all have the same understanding of social business? A: The guiding idea of finding sustainable business 107


Interview Dr. Kerstin Humberg

said: “I have never been to our neighbor villages before. Now people know my name and invite me for lunch”. Another woman said: “If you contribute to your family’s income, your husband will love you”. However, since early Grameen social business examples struggle with their profitability, their overall significance seems to be rather limited so far.

to identify major challenges in business operation and mitigation strategies, the livelihood outcome appraisal employed rapid rural appraisal techniques, including focus group discussions with all relevant stakeholder groups. Q: What is the difference between social business in Bangladesh and social business in Germany? Is there a difference at all?

Q: In the course of your research, you met Muhammad Yunus, the often-called “Banker of the Poor”. What impression did he make on you?

A: In Germany, the term social business is strongly linked to Yunus’ approach and collaboration with multinational companies such as BASF. This is however only one kind of social (business) entrepreneurship – which is why I would recommend to call it “Grameen social business”. In Bangladesh Yunus’ concept seems to be less popular than in Germany. When I asked Yunus for the reason, he said: “It’s not surprising, because people in Bangladesh basically think knowledge always came from the west. They don’t pay attention to someone who is doing crazy things next door”.

A: Professor Yunus is an extremely charismatic man with impressive communication skills. At the same time he is very much down to earth. Whenever we discuss my research, he behaves like any other commendable Economics Professor – asking challenging questions, giving advice, making jokes. But he always stays focused on his overall goal: Creating a world without poverty. Q: Could you briefly tell us something about your field research in general?

Q: Let’s say I wanted to set up a social business, but had to choose to do this either in Germany or in Bangladesh. Which country would you recommend?

A: Sure. Two case studies on Grameen Danone Food Ltd. and Grameen Veolia Water Ltd. were at the heart of my dissertation. Their purpose was to explore the ground realities of high-profile social business examples in order to generate lessons learnt for future social businesses in similar contexts. In both cases, I conducted a business model analysis as well as a livelihood outcome appraisal. While the business model analysis aimed

A: It depends on your social mission and networks. If you want to reduce mass poverty, you might want to go to Bangladesh and make sure that you find local partners with deep market insights. Otherwise 108


Interview Dr. Kerstin Humberg

it’s extremely challenging to create a low-cost driven social business model with a promising value proposition for the poor. If you want to combine your philanthropic motivation with a professional future in Germany, try to connect with individual social entrepreneurs or get in touch with Ashoka or similar organizations.

Who is benefiting – the target beneficiaries or the investors? According to Yunus, investors should not receive any dividend after they have received back their initial investment. The profit should rather be used to expand the social business or to improve the price-quality ratio of its offerings. From an academic perspective social (business) enterprises lie somewhere at the intersection of traditional nonprofit activities and for-profit business; and although the lines are extremely fine, the hybrid spectrum in between comprises of at least four types of hybrid business models. However, as soon as economic value creation (e.g., shareholder value) becomes the primary purpose of a business, I would rather call the organization a socially responsible business or a company practicing corporate social responsibility.

Q: Social businesses: a replacement or a supplement to charities? A: A supplement; social business is a new way to overcome societal challenges in addition to existing business and charity approaches. Projects based on philanthropy will always depend on external support. Once the money is spent, it is gone. In a successful social business the money can be used much more effective. However, traditional charity has its own value and will always be needed for ultra poor that do not have a single cent to spend, or in response to natural disasters, famines, etc. Q: What is your view on a social business concept that integrates social (environmental/ethical) and commercial objectives (like profit maximization) and therefore differs from Muhammad Yunus’s perspective? A: Any social business requires a profitable business model, but in a “Grameen social business” the social mission comes first. The key questions are to what extent profit will be maximized within the boundaries of the social mission and how profits will be used. 109


Interview Dr. Kerstin Humberg

Dr. Kerstin Humberg is an Engagement Manager in McKinsey & Company’s Hamburg Office, since Jan 2006. Since she earned her PhD in Economic Geography in 2011, she has been closely affiliated with McKinsey’s global Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice. During her field research on poverty reduction through social business in Bangladesh, she joined Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and companies such as Groupe Danone and Veolia Water in their effort to develop sustainable business solutions for the poor. In 2012, her PhD dissertation was awarded the KfW Bank’s Prize for Excellence in Applied and Development Research as well as the Körber Foundation’s German Study Award. Before joining McKinsey, she obtained a Master’s degree in Geography and worked as a social sector journalist in Germany, South Africa, India, and the Philippines.

110


“Social businesses can create access to economic opportunities, advance poor people’s economic, human or social capital and reduce their vulnerability to stresses and shocks.� 111



Book Reviews


Book Review - Social Business - Theory, Practice, and Critical Perspectives Title Social Business - Theory, Practice, and Critical Perspectives Author(s)

Andrea Grove, Gary A. Berg

Publisher

Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg 2014

Contact

Dr. Andrea Grove

Email Andrea.grove@csuci.edu

114


Book Review - Social Business - Theory, Practice, and Critical Perspectives Since social business is still a rather new concept, there are only a few books available that provide a comprehensive resource to be used for teaching social business. The book “Social Business - Theory, Practice, and Critical Perspectives” by Dr. Andrea Grove and Gary A. Berg is a comprehensive collection of articles and case studies. It is one of the first books that combine theory and research in the emerging field of social business. The diverse group of authors comes from around the world and from various disciplinary backgrounds representing leading experts within the social business field. The book is structured in five main parts. While the first part of the book examines theoretical aspects of the concept, the second part features several case studies of social businesses from all around the world. Next, there are chapters focusing on practical implications and issues that arise during the planning, marketing, and evaluation of social businesses, followed by a section that reflects on a critical perspective of the concept and its application. The final part looks back at the lessons learned, points out gaps in research and sets an agenda for future work.

2

Mission, Finance, and Innovation: The Similarities and Differences between Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business: Markus Beckmann, Anica Zeyen, and Anna Krzeminska

Introduction—a word about methodologies: Andrea Grove

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Nutrition (Grameen Danone): Kerstin Humberg

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Regional Approach to Poverty alleviation

Education (American Educational Loan Organizations): Gary A. Berg

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Disease: Social Business for Malaria Free World (Grameen BASF Social Business Ltd.): Sheikh Rubaiya Sultana and Nahiduzzaman

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Energy; Grameen Shakti – A Winning Model for Social Business: How Shakti became the World’s Largest Off-grid Solar Provider: Nancy Wimmer

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Information Technology: Marriage between IT and Social Business (Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd.): Nahiduzzaman and Sheikh Rubaiya Sultana

The Mystery of Small Social Business by the Poor: Lessons from the Creation of Creative Solutions Based on the Poor’s Potential: Nguyen Chi Nghia

Part III Practice: Lessons Learned About Designing Social Businesses 11

Social Business Planning: Management and Financial Issues: Maria Ballesteros-Sola

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Social Business Marketing Mix: Zarjina T. Khalil and Mehdi Hussain

Part IV Critical Perspectives and Policy Implications

Part II Case Studies

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Part I Introduction: Background and Theory Historical background – evolution of social business; review of research literature: Gary Berg and Andrea Grove

(Grameen Caldas): Nahiduzzaman

9 Social Business City: Wiesbaden: Antonio Jimenez-Jimenez

Foreword: Muhammad Yunus, Speech given at Launch of the CISB

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13 The One and the Many Sides of Social Business – A Critical Reflection: Karin Kreutzer and Stefanie Mauksch Part V Conclusion 14 115

Gaps in Research/Setting a Research Agenda/ Final Thoughts: Andrea Grove


Review - The Power of Social Business

Title

The Power of Social Business - Lessons learned from corporate engagements with Grameen

Author(s)

Ulrich Villis, Rainer Strack, Muhammad Yunus, Saskia Bruysten

Publisher

The Boston Consulting Group, November 2013

Contact

Bcg-info@bcg.com

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Review - The Power of Social Business

Since social business is still a rather young discipline, there are not too many publications available yet, especially ones that focus on best practice examples and lessons learned. Social business is clearly driven by pragmatism. Therefore, it is self-evident and not surprising that not only academics, but also practitioners write about their experiences and learnings. Specifically within the social business field it is more important than ever to learn from experiences, successes and failures alike. The Boston Consulting Group, one of the leading global management consulting firms, and Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives have teamed up to publish the study “The Power of Social Business – Lessons learned from Corporate Engagements with Grameen”.

This study reveals refreshing insights, since it points out successes of these social businesses, but moreover shows many of the challenges that the social businesses came across. The study concludes that there are always solutions for these problems and that social businesses need to be very pragmatic about them. Additional insights from social business experts reveal more about the practical approaches that social businesses like Grameen Danone needed to identify in order to tackle problems that they have never considered during the initial planning process.

They investigated ten social businesses in Bangladesh, either joint ventures with international corporations such as Grameen Danone, Grameen Intel, and BASF Grameen, but also social businesses that have been set up independently, such as Grameen Shakti, Grameen Fashion & Fabrics or Grameen GC Eye Care Hospital. In this study they share their lessons learned clustered in five key success factors that they have identified: > > > > >

The study delivers valid arguments for companies and corporations to engage in social business, but also provides very practical advice for any social business that is currently in place or planned.

Choosing the right focus area Designing a successful business model Continuously learning and adapting Building efficient and sustainable operations Managing for impact

The study is available online at http://de.scribd.com/ doc/203132473/BCG-Insight-Study-Power-of-SocialBusiness 117


Artist Profile


Artist Profile - Mr. Naoyuki Omine / Kobo Maru

Kobo Maru Kobo Maru was founded in 1997 by Shuichi Yoshida, a photographer who worked with disabled children for his final university project on how to enable communication through photography and arts. The welfare workshop “Maruworks” is a creative studio space for disabled people in Fukuoka. It has been created to make a difference in life for people who are considered as “people with obstacles, people of non-importance“. This open place aims to change society’s view on disabled people and wants to show that everyone is an individual and unique person.

Artist - Mr. Naoyuki Omine Mr. Naoyuki Omine was born in 1977 and lives in Fukuoka. He is a resident of the Kobo Maru center for disabled people since 2008.

Kobo Maru’s name derives from ‘maru’ for ‘circle,’ which means to represent a power to enfold everything, expressed by hands as well as words. It is a place where anyone with or without disabilities, without any classification of age or work matters, could communicate and open up to creativity in order to let personalities bloom.

Replicating his thoughts and ideas automatically into drawings, he always escapes from giving sense and explanation about his creations. Full of kindness, humor and strength, his drawings do not need words to be explained. A contradiction of motives such as “Sun and Moon” or “ Light and Shadow” occasionally appear in his drawings and seems to be the maelstrom of his expression of joy and pain in his heart.

Through art, Kobo Maru tends to progressively change the perception of the disabled and believes that each person has a role and a special relation to play in our society. Kobo Maru proactively supports the development of the creative studio and social activities in order to diminish the barriers that still exist for disabled people in society.

With the kind support of Kyushu University, we are delighted to feature selected artworks of Mr. Omine in this report. The artwork on the following page has been made by Mr. Omine specifically for this Academia Report. 119



“A flower to make your dreams come true. In the hands of young people with a heart for the future.� Naoyuki Omine, Japan 2014


Other Social Business Activities


The Grameen Creative Lab

Institution

The Grameen Creative Lab

City Wiesbaden Country Germany Focus Areas

Social Business

Contact

Michael Brohm / Fritz Francke-Weltmann

Email

Michael.brohm@grameencl.com / Fritz.francke-weltmann@grameencl.com

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The Grameen Creative Lab

About The Grameen Creative Lab

Eventually GCL’s activities lead to the creation of social businesses. GCL initiates and supports the creation of social businesses, both joint ventures between international corporations and Grameen companies, but also many small social business start ups.

Prof. Yunus and Hans Reitz founded The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) based in Wiesbaden, Germany in January 2009. The GCL was created to serve society’s most pressing needs by accelerating and spreading the social business movement in Europe and worldwide. As GCL is a social business itself, all fees charged for its activities are used to cover its operating expenses. Any profits are reinvested into the company to expand its outreach and add momentum to the social business movement. In order to succeed GCL attempts to maximize its impact by following a three step approach: Firstly, creating awareness about social business through setting up conferences and education events about social business, network and connect with all levels of governments, corporations and civil society and publish as well as speak about social business. The Social Business Tour 2010 is an example for such an activity to interact with a large community and to create sustainable impact. The tour was initiated to introduce the social business concept to Central and Eastern Europe. The tour took place in six countries and six cities providing insights into social business through a series of events and an idea contest with the objective to solve a clearly specified problem through social business.

Academia Activities The university activities play a major role for The Grameen Creative Lab, since universities are the ideal partner and multiplier to further spread and develop the idea of social business. Vision To bring social business into universities and create a culture within academia with the goal to serve society’s most pressing needs through social business. Mission Our mission is to connect with leading universities worldwide and encourage research as well as teaching and practical implementation of social business. In order to accelerate the social business movement within academia, we support universities with our services and expertise in a variety of areas in order to help them to implement their individual social business initiatives. Approach GCL connects with universities within the pillars of Seeding, Networking, and Consulting & Joint Initiatives. Within the pillar of Seeding are all activities that can be seen as a first starting point to engage with social business and help to raise awareness about the topic of social business. Workshops and conferences at universities are a great way to start initial activities at universities. The GCL team has experience in offering speeches and lectures, organizing field visits to social businesses and also offers a variety of workshop formats for a broader audience or specifically tailored for existing

Once awareness is created, GCL focuses on the incubation and experimentation of social business ideas, which is done through collaborations with universities to integrate social business into research, teaching and practice. GCL’s university network currently consists of around 20 universities worldwide and is the leading platform to connect and foster maximum exchange and collaboration within the field of social business. GCL provides numerous services such as speeches at conferences, lecture series, social business labs, idea contests or consultancy on implementing social business centers or institutes. 124


The Grameen Creative Lab

social business entrepreneurs. If a university is interested in implementing social business activities within their institutions, GCL provides consulting services to explore all options to engage in social business. In order to match the social business activities to the core competencies of the university, consulting activities can include many activities within the topics of research, teaching and practice. If desired, we help universities to establish a multi-year strategic plan to build a social business initiative that can include Social Business Centers, Social Business Institutes or Social Business Incubators within universities. In addition to the consulting activities, we of course work closely with the universities, which will lead to joint initiatives in some cases. With GCL@University we have established a very unique joint initiative. Both, the university and GCL jointly decide about the scale of social business activities and the fields of operations. GCL@Kyushu University e.g. successfully established the Social Business Forum Asia, which was held again in July 2014. In addition to the GCL@University initiatives, we have also teamed up with the Istituto Europeo di Design to develop the first Master in Design for Social Business. The networking aspect plays an important role and will help to foster exchange and collaboration with universities and between universities that are engaged in social business activities. The GSBS Research Conference on Social Business is taking place annually for two days prior to the Global Social Business Summit. During this two day conference, professors and faculty members from universities all around the world come together to share their latest ideas and activities, but also to develop and identify new ideas and projects for collaboration. In 2014 the Research Conference on Social Business will take place from November 25-26 in Mexico City. 125


126


Yunus Centre

Institution

Yunus Centre

City Dhaka Country Bangladesh Focus Areas

Social Business

Contact

Lamiya Morshed

Email Lamiya@grameen.com

127


Yunus Centre

University activities of the Yunus Centre Since October 2006, when Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize, local and international interest in Professor Yunus’ work has continuously increased. In order to address this ever-growing attention, the Yunus Secretariat was created as an organization aimed primarily at promoting and disseminating Professor Yunus’ philosophy with a special focus on social business. In July 2008, the Yunus Secretariat was renamed the Yunus Centre.

positive social change through business. Based on this format, the Yunus Centre’s academia team conducted a series of seminars and workshops at more than 15 other universities across the country over the previous years. The following universities took part:

The Yunus Centre is a global hub for promoting the concept of social business among academia, researchers, practitioners, corporations and governments worldwide. It is a one-stop resource centre for all social business activities related to Grameen, both globally and in Bangladesh, spreading the global social business movement through various events, social media, publications and websites.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

The Yunus Centre also helps to forge lasting and productive relationships among all social business institutions around the world. The centre is chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and its Executive Director is Ms. Lamiya Morshed. The Yunus Centre formed an academic team to promote the concept of social business among university students. In order to bring social business to universities in Bangladesh, the Yunus Centre held its first academia seminar with creative workshops on social business on October 27, 2011 at the University of Dhaka, the oldest and most renowned public university in Bangladesh. The seminar was jointly organized by the university’s Marketing department and more than 300 students from different fields attended the seminar. The objective of the seminar was to engage next generation leaders with the idea of social business, to plant a seed for

University of Chittagong University of Khulna University of Rajshahi Jagannath University Daffodil International University Eastern University East Delta University Dhaka International University South East University North South University Prime University Bangladesh University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh Stamford University BRAC University United International University Uttara University

Besides the activities in Bangladesh, the Yunus Centre forms partnerships with universities all around the world in order to establish social business institutes and social business centers as featured in the various university profiles in this report. For more information about the various activities of the Yunus Centre, please visit their website www.muhammadyunus.org 128


Yunus Centre

129


Nima Social Business Consulting

Institution

Nima Social Business Consulting

City Munich Country Germany Focus Areas

Social Business

Contact

Leonhard Nima

Email Mail@nima-sb.com

130


Nima Social Business Consulting

About Nima Social Business Consulting In 2013 Nima Social Business Consulting was founded by Leonhard Nima in Munich, Germany in order to provide a range of social business consulting services for companies, foundations and universities. The services are clustered in the three pillars Inspiration, Ideation and Implementation. Inspiration Although social business has grown tremendously over the past years, many people have not yet heard about the idea of solving social problems in a financially selfsustainable way. Services include speeches and lectures at universities and conferences, as well as the (co-) authoring of case studies and publications that help to further spread the concept of social business and to reach an interested audience all around the world.

Implementation While great ideas are an important starting point, only the successful implementation of a social business idea will finally generate social impact.

Ideation Tackling persistent and yet unsolved social problems makes it inevitable to think about new and innovative solutions. Coming together with other individuals to exchange thoughts can lead to groundbreaking new solutions.

In order to facilitate the implementation of social business ideas, there is a broad range of consulting services for universities, companies, entrepreneurs and foundations. Services include business planning and financial planning, strategy development and project management for companies and other organizations, as well as curriculum and content development for universities.

Workshops are an ideal tool to develop new ideas and solutions together with likeminded people. Services include various workshop formats that focus on idea generation, strategy development or other specific topics such as financing or social impact measurement.

You will find more information about the various services on www.nima-sb.com 131


Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

Institution

Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

City Frankfurt Country Germany Focus Areas

Social Business

Contact

Saskia Bruysten

Email contact@yunussb.com

132


Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

About Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives (YSB)

and international development to the table.

Co-founded in 2011 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, YSB is a global social business accelerator. It replicates the success in Bangladesh, and draws upon the social business experience of the wider Grameen family, to work with local entrepreneurs to build solutions from the ground up.

Our Unique “Incubate and Finance’ Model YSB runs its operations with the discipline of an investment fund, and we expect our social businesses to operate as market-based private-sector companies. We do not donate to the social business we work with; we instead have an ‘Incubate and Finance’ model that we believe maximizes the long-term impact of philanthropic capital.

YSB applies business approaches to the world of social development. It has developed an innovative ‘Incubate and Finance’ methodology, which bridges the gap between social businesses and philanthropic lenders and donors.

How We Incubate YSB invests in people, in their dreams and in their abilities. A social business – like any business – is shaped, fostered and strengthened by the team behind it, not the other way around.

YSB has an on-the-ground presence in seven countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Uganda, Albania, and Tunisia, where local country teams search for, coach and mentor entrepreneurs to create strong, investmentready social businesses. An important component of these activities is YSB’s local accelerator program that is offered on a regular basis in the different countries. YSB provides financial support predominantly in the form of soft loans to the most promising social businesses. Postfinancing, YSB provides on-going advice and support as well as peer-to-peer exchange with other social business entrepreneurs.

We therefore work hard to identify the most promising entrepreneurs that have a clear vision, a strong profile and a deeply rooted desire to create an impact within their communities. Once we have identified entrepreneurs, we work handson and side-by-side with them and their founding teams, through our local teams of business-development experts. Our emphasis on business incubation and acceleration – both structured and as-needed coaching, training and other support services – helps the entrepreneurs and founding teams build their social businesses.

To this end, since its inception in late 2011 until the end of 2013, YSB has deployed $5.7 million to 20 social businesses; directly financing and committing over $2 million. An additional $3 million has been mobilized by YSB from co-investors. More than 800 jobs have been created and/or sustained to date and over 10,000 customers have been served essential products and services.

Our support, pre-financing, helps us better assess the risks and potential of financing those businesses. Our post-financing support allows us to safeguard the capital by ensuring the success of the social business. It is this indepth support to and knowledge of the social businesses that allows us to operate where other lenders typically refuse to go.

The YSB global and local teams are a diverse mix of experts, bringing experience in entrepreneurship, consulting, venture capital, business incubation, finance 133


Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

We further assist our entrepreneurs in growing or complementing their skills by helping them find partners for their growth. Our strong international network helps to bring in experts from various fields, quickly find new partners in developed markets and support businesses in promoting and marketing their products and services.

philanthropic lenders in proportion to their share of the total capital contributed, up to the nominal value of their initial investment. YSB Global and Academia Partnering with academic institutions has been key to YSB developing a robust social business ecosystem within the countries where it operates, as shared below. In doing so, YSB is more effective in delivery its incubation activities, while providing resources to and strengthening the social businesses of our entrepreneurs.

The close partnership between YSB and the entrepreneur builds entrepreneurial capacities, strengthens the ties between the entrepreneur and YSB and ultimately builds the confidence amongst entrepreneurs to successfully run their businesses. How We Finance

Specifically, YSB Brazil played a significant role in founding the Yunus ESPM Centre in partnership with ESPM, while also working in partnership with other international universities such as HEC Montreal such that they learn from and solve pressing problems facing Brazil (this is highlighted in greater detail elsewhere in this document).

While a traditional investor invests for financial gain, a philanthropic lender provides a loan to benefit society. A philanthropic lender’s goal is to maximize social return on his or her loan and is thus motivated to support the most effective social businesses. Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives pools philanthropic capital from donors and philanthropic lenders to finance social businesses that have been selected and prepared by the YSB country teams. This selection process is based on a detailed due-diligence process and feasibility assessment centering on the following criteria: the strength of the entrepreneur and the team, its potential for social impact, its financial sustainability and risk profile, and its potential for replicability and scalability. Our loans are generally structured as long-term soft loans, sometimes combined with a small equity portion, leading to a minority stake in our portfolio companies. The loans feature below-marketconditions and grace periods adapted to the needs of the growing social business, to give the social businesses breathing room at the start.

YSB Tunisia has partnered with the Yale World Fellow Program to develop the curriculum of its accelerator program for entrepreneurs. Yale has kindly shared best practices with regard to the selection process and has supported us in the development of our accelerator modules. We are in discussions to expand and deepen this collaboration for our other accelerator programs, in particular in Uganda. YSB Albania has created partnerships with multiple local universities such as the University of Tirana, Epoka University, Tirana Business University, New York University and others to educate students about social business and its potential for making an impact on the country’s development. Regular workshops, lectures and business idea competitions inspire new generations to engage in social business. YSB Albania is also working with university partners, including international universities such as Lund University and Bocconi University, to design

As the social businesses pay back the capital, YSB re-finances other social businesses, and/or returns it to 134


Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

a world-class accelerator program for social business entrepreneurs in the country. This includes curriculum design, input on key knowledge areas, training of the accelerator cohort by university staff and defining clear and efficient monitoring and evaluation processes.

inspire social entrepreneurs throughout Brazil with 12 workshops being planned to cover 12 Brazilian cities. The first stop of the SB Lab Tour was held in November 2013 in Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais with 30 participants including entrepreneurs and representatives from businesses, the public sector and NGOs.

For more information on Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives, please visit our website at www.yunussb.com

2) Social Business Game

Yunus Social Business Brazil – Education

The Yunus Social Business Game is an online electronic platform designed to spread the concept of social business and its principles in a fun and insightful way. It emulates the traditional business games, but more specifically aims at developing a new mind-set when dealing with business: the social business mindset! The primary audience is students and teachers at Colleges and Universities but it can be used by any group that is interested in social business and that is seeking for a joyful and intuitive way of training and educating themselves about social business.

YSB Brazil, a country organization of Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives, was launched in March 2013 and in the same year, the Education Unit of YSB Brazil started its operations, with the main objective of disseminating the concept of social business, in order to enrich education in the region and shape citizens who are committed to social challenges and prepared to be social business entrepreneurs. Knowledge and education are the basis to empower change agents. These tools are the central pillars of YSB Brazil Education Unit strategy. The YSB - Brazil Education Unit was involved in the establishment and running of the Yunus ESPM Centre, which is covered in a separate section of this document. Besides this, YSB - Brazil engages in a variety of activities as listed below.

How does it work? The game takes place in a fictional country. Information about population data, the lack of affordable housing, general household income and income of the target audience, the macroeconomic environment (inflation rate, GDP, sectors of the economy) as well as information about the sociopolitical context will be provided. Based on real life learnings, students need to consider what has already been tested in terms of affordable housing, what went right, what went wrong, as well as key lessons, opportunities and obstacles.

YSB - Brazil Education Activities 1) Social Business Lab Tour The Social Business Lab is a one-day immersion workshop to spread the concept of social business and empower entrepreneurs on how to design social business solutions. By using creative tools entrepreneurs generate prototypes of their enterprises aimed to solve the social problems they wish to overcome.

The success criteria include the number of people served and their degree of satisfaction. The winning team is the one that achieves the higher scores for these two indicators, still maintaining its economic sustainability after ten years (= 10 decision rounds).

Moreover, the SB Lab Tour intends to empower and 135


Yunus Social Business - Global Initiatives (YSB)

Development Stage: The logic behind the game is fully designed, pre-selling material is available and it was presented during the GSBS2013. Actually we now seek for partners and financial support to conclude the software development and allow cloud storage. 3) International Partnership Programs The International Partnership Program was developed as part of the efforts to further spread the social business idea. Because Brazil is such an attractive destination packed with challenges but also good examples of social problem solving enterprises, we decided to launch this program inviting international institutions to come and visit us and to learn from real examples and thus help to solve the innumerous social challenges faced by Brazilian society. HEC Montreal was the first institution to join our program. In May 2014 graduate and undergraduate students had the opportunity to do a deep dive into social business concept and cases. Through on-the-ground experiences, they had the chance to learn directly from Favelas’ entrepreneurs about how they run their business, what problems they faced and about the positive impact of their enterprises. For more information about the education activities of YSB Brazil please contact Mr. Ricardo Mastroti at Ricardo.mastroti@yunussb.com 136


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GSBS Research Conference


Academia Overview

„It took only three years from a workshop to an international research conference” Hans Reitz, Co-Founder of The Grameen Creative Lab

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GSBS Research Conference

etc, the Expert Sessions were based on topics related to corporations, foundations and academia. One of the outcomes of the academia session was the demand for a separate meeting to have a full day dedicated to a range of topics related to social business in academia.

Both, collaboration and cooperation play a big role in the business world, but an even more important role in the social business sphere, where it is crucial to join forces to tackle some of the most pressing social ills. The Global Social Business Summit is the annual gathering of the social business community and aims to provide a platform to make this collaboration and cooperation happen. It is a platform to exchange ideas and to connect with participants from the private sector, public sector, academia, civil society, etc.

2011

With a growing social business movement in academia, the demand from academics emerged to have a separate meeting and more time specifically dedicated to university topics. What started as a three hour workshop session during the GSBS in Wolfsburg (Germany) in 2010 has evolved into the two day international GSBS Research Conference only three years later.

Based on the feedback from the previous year the Academia Meeting on Social Business was established as a one-day pre-meeting to the GSBS in Vienna (Austria). With the GSBS taking place in Austria this initial Academia Meeting took place at The Hub Vienna (now Impact Hub Vienna). The charming location proofed to be the ideal place for this gathering of 50 participants from 20 countries. During this one-day meeting several presentations and creative workshop sessions took place, covering a variety of topics within research, teaching and practical implementation of social business.

2010

2012

As part of the second Global Social Business Summit in Wolfsburg (Germany) several workshop sessions with a variety of topics took place. While Focus Groups dealt with specific topics such as healthcare, financing,

The second Academia Meeting on Social Business again took place in Vienna, but this time at the Modul University located in the hills of Vienna with a beautiful view of the city. More than 60 participants from 22 countries 140


GSBS Research Conference

attended this meeting. Again, several presentations and workshop sessions took place throughout the day. While workshop sessions focused on a variety of topics related to teaching, research and practice, one specific session focused on establishing a research conference on social business. The working group outlined initial ideas how such a research conference could look like and developed a first timeline to initiate this project. 2013 Throughout the year the plans for a research conference were further refined and finally the GSBS Research Conference on Social Business was established. As an evolvement of the Academia Meeting, the Research Conference has been extended to two days taking place as a pre meeting to the GSBS 2013 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). The research conference was hosted by the UKM (National University of Malaysia) on their campus outside of Kuala Lumpur.

2014 - The Outlook The second GSBS Research Conference on Social Business takes place in Mexico City on November 25 & 26, 2014. The conference will be presented by Siemens Stiftung and organized in cooperation with Glasgow Caledonian University and the Monterrey Institute of Technology that is hosting the conference on their Santa Fe campus.

Different to previous years, the Research Conference started with a call for papers in June. A committee of several professors reviewed and selected the contributions that were then presented at the conference.

For more information about the Global Social Business Summit and the GSBS Research Conference on Social Business please visit www.gsbs2014.com

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Siemens Stiftung

Siemens Stiftung empowers people to lead independent and dignified lives. Our goal is to reduce existential care needs and strengthen necessary social structures. Within the post-2015 Development Agenda of the United Nations, Siemens Stiftung focuses on projects in the areas of water, energy, and environment in Latin America and Africa.

Therefore the Siemens Stiftung has become the Presenting Partner of the GSBS Research Conference 2014. On November 25 -26, 2014 The Grameen Creative Lab, the Siemens Stiftung and the Zeppelin University are organizing the GSBS Research Conference on Social Business in conjunction with the Global Social Business Summit in Mexico City.

We focus on the use of simple technical solutions that solve problems in basic services and empower people to improve conditions for their families and communities. In our projects, we combine technical innovation with training and social entrepreneurial solutions. The training programs equip people with skills they can use to shape their future and take responsibility. With entrepreneurial ideas, they can build self-supporting structures that allow them to permanently respond to social needs.

Since several years, the academic community around the topic has grown and since three years an academia meeting one day prior to the Global Social Business Summit has been organized. This year is the second time this academia meeting takes place in the form of a research conference to account for the increasing interest in researching the different aspects of social business.

Our approach is to identify innovative and proven solutions that we can implement ourselves or together with partners. We seek to adapt these solutions to regional conditions and implement them as broadly as possible.

During this exciting event, the Siemens Stiftung will host two pre-organized panels at the research conference as a part of the conclusion of a joint research project with the Zeppelin University, IRENE I SEE, the International Research Network on Social Economic Empowerment, which was launched in 2010 and supports six doctoral students in five countries to work on the link between social enterprise and social economic empowerment.

To facilitate this knowledge transfer, we analyze the methods and impact of our concepts. We offer research and exchange opportunities as well as partnership platforms for social entrepreneurs, application experts, and academic partners. 142


About Social Business


About Social Business

With the idea of social business, Prof. Muhammad Yunus has introduced a new dimension for capitalism: a business model that does not strive to maximize profits, but rather to serve humanity’s most pressing needs. The first motive of a social business is not profit, and second, it does not pay its investors dividends. Instead, it aims at solving social problems with products and services at affordable prices, or giving the poor and marginalized people ownership in a business and therefore allows them to share in its profits. A social business only pays back the original investment amount and reinvests all additional profits in innovations or further growth to further increase its social impact. Although a social business is pioneering in its aims, it is traditional in its management. Its workforce is professional and paid according to market wages.

Social business follows seven principles, which serve as its defining elements. The seven principles of social business:

This type of business may or may not earn profit, but like any other business it must not incur losses in order to be able to sustain itself. In every sense a social business aims to be sustainable: in its direct environmental impact, the impact along the value chain, and critically, in its financial independence.

1.

This is a key difference between social business and charity. Once the initial investment is repaid, the social business aims to be financially self-sustaining, giving the independence and security to focus all efforts on the long-term improvement of the lives of the disadvantaged.

3. Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money

Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization

2. Financial and economic sustainability

4. When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement

A social business is a new type of business and “social business entrepreneurs” are a new type of entrepreneurs who are not interested in profit-maximization. They are totally committed to making a difference in the world. They want to provide better chances in life to other people and they want to achieve this objective through creating and supporting sustainable social businesses.

5. Environmentally conscious 6. Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions 7. …do it with joy 144



Acknowledgement


Thank You!

We would like to thank all our partners and friends who made this Academia Report Social Business 2014 possible with their valuable contributions: We would like to specifically thank: > Prof. Cam Donaldson, Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland > Dr. Andrea Grove, Faculty Director, California Institute for Social Business, California State University Channel Islands, United States > Prof. Masaharu Okada, Executive Director Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center, Kyushu University, Japan > Frédéric Dalscace, Associate Professor, Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair, HEC Paris, France > Bénédicte Faivre-Tavignot, Executive Director, Social Business/Enterprise and Poverty Chair, HEC Paris, France > Prof. Andreas Heinecke, Danone Endowed Chair of Social Business, EBS University, Germany > Enrico Testi, Director of International Relations, Yunus Social Business Centre, University of Florence, Italy > Dr. Faiz Shah, Director of Yunus Center at AIT, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand > Prof. Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Pro Vice Chancellor, Eastern University Dhaka, Bangladesh > Gerian Alofs, Institute of Social Work, Utrecht University of Applied Science, Netherlands > Prof. Robert David, Associate Professor of Strategy & Organization, McGill University, Canada > Lisa Hanley, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Zeppelin University, Germany > Massimo Randone, Academic Coordinator, Design 4 Social Business, IED, Italy > Fionn Dobbin, Stockholm School of Economics Riga, Latvia > Dr. Beate Grotehans, Senior Project Manager, Siemens Stiftung, Germany

> Prof. Wong Poh Kam, Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, National University of Singapore > Mauricio Turra Ponte, Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre, ESPM, Brazil > Lamiya Morshed, Executive Director, Yunus Centre, Bangladesh > Ricardo Mastroti, Education and Institutional Relations Manager, Yunus Social Business Brazil > Ezgi Yildirim Saatci, Assistant Professor, The Muhammad Yunus International Centre for Microfinance and Social Business, Okan University, Turkey > Masud Ibn Rahman, Head Social Business Cell, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh > Dr. Kerstin Humberg, Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company, Germany Of course, we would like to extend a special thanks to all faculty and team members who are working closely together with the above mentioned professors and contribute significantly to the overall success of these great social business initiatives. A very special thank you to Mr. Naoyuki Omine from Kobo Maru who contributed his beautiful artworks for this report. Furthermore, we would like to thank Prof. Muhammad Yunus for his inexhaustible dedication and commitment, which was indispensable for the establishment of many social business initiatives all around the world. Social Business in Academia – Do it with joy! 147


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