Happy New Year!
In our recent meeting with the Aga Khan Foundation, a question was raised about the effectiveness of external organizations planting seeds for change in Africa without domestic 'ownership' (read: financial endowment and input into operations) of the initiative.
SE101 has taken the approach to initiate our project on a grassroots level, providing the structure, allowing for our students to take ownership of their business learning and planning and to create a network amongst our past participants as our program grows along their business needs. We are primarily funded by independent North American philanthropy and have not made the choice to secure domestic Kenyan sponsorship yet.
While the argument for domestic vested interest is valid and important to long term success, the issue is more over the foundation and gestation of the initiative. Which comes first and which will result in the most durable and successful initiative? Is it more important that the participants feel ownership or sponsors? Should it be built with integrative channels for domestic sponsors to 'make it their own' along the way or should you be working to involve these domestic players from the outset?
Your insight, reference to relevant sources on the topic and opinions would be appreciated! Please feel free to reply with a comment here, on our facebook page, or on twitter @SE101Africa.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Web2.0 and SE101: Is there anybody out there?
After completing the SE101 project on the ground in Kenya, I packed my bags to go on exchange at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and finish my Sauder MBA requirements abroad. I felt like this was a great opportunity to further expand on my International Business acumen and broaden my experience as a whole. I planned on taking a few courses in Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and Sustainability at CBS and the timing coming from Kenya to the classroom could not have been better. The CBS SE course offered a dynamic look at how Web2.0 (Social Media and User-driven content platforms like facebook, twitter etc.) is being used by Social Entrepreneurs to generate not only interest and support, but also Social Innovation.
Reflecting on what organizations like MYC4, and Kiva are doing with Web2.0, I started to see a need to integrate more social media into the SE101 strategy. While MYC4 and Kiva allow users to actively engage in (near) direct lending to those in need, this has a limited impact on capacity building. Their model is effective for generating funds because of the nature of their social media use - providing those-in-need place to connect with those-with-funds and vice-versa. Nevertheless, their overall use of Web2.0 is rather static, providing a means for information dissemination not idea generation or knowledge transfer. Since SE101 is not a financier (at this point), this model connecting 'investors' directly with our students is not useful. However, in our effort to build capacity on the ground, we do need to raise funds to deliver our program - in effect we need to be connected to donors and sponsors in the same way these other platforms connect those-in-need to those-with-funds. The difference between our models creates a question of impact: Will an exchange of funds alone successfully grow the recipient's business and drive durability or would on capacity building be a more effective stabilizer in the long term?
I'm not sure anyone has the answer to this question. What I can say is, after spending time in Kenya on SE101 and looking into the primarily negative return on investment (ROI) for the social media based funding platforms, I feel capacity building is the better way to equip those in need. By teaching our students the business skills needed to actively research, estimate, project, and plan their ventures, we are creating real value and equipping them with the skills that not only benefit the actual entrepreneurs of our class, but challenging those that are not the entrepreneurial type. Moreover, while in the classroom, we are creating a diverse and dynamic network of individuals with ideas and drive and connecting them to their future employees, service providers and customers - real social networking.
I believe there can be a better use of Web2.0 resources from existing organizations. What might this look like? Well, Kirby, an SE101 Project Coordinator and Content Strategist for the Business Objects Community on the SAP Community Network, has been developing an online community for our students and student teachers to collaborate and communicate in a similar way to Facebook. This means SE101 can offer our students online post-program support and real time access to Sauder business school students and their knowledge. This is capacity building and what I see as the future benefit of Web2.0 in social development.
Social Media in many ways rests on the laurels of Crowdsourcing, essentially outsourcing tasks to a community and leveraging mass collaboration to reach an ideal result - think monkeys typing on typewriters. While SE101 is developing the typewriter to integrate its Kenyan and UBC students, we also need to inform the public about what we are doing (static) and engage our potential donor networks (dynamic) to help fund our efforts. This is where SE101's integrated use of blogging, Facebook, and Twitter come in. We hope that by using social media we can enhance our venture, engage our stakeholders and generate more significant donations. Only time will tell if using these channels will be more or less effective than traditional fund raising efforts. Ideally, if we could exceed our annual 'project' need and start generating greater income from donors, this would ultimately provide us with a greater ability to create long term ROI in the form of successful, sustainable development in Kenya. Until then, we hope we can at least use these channels to further document and legitimize our existing successful efforts and future goals.
Please feel free to engage SE101 through any of our available Web2.0 channels (blogging, Facebook, and Twitter) or by email, telephone, telegraph, snail mail or carrier pigeon. The point being, we want you to engage us, we have a lot of incredible stories to share with you and we want to show you how your support will make a lasting difference.
Reflecting on what organizations like MYC4, and Kiva are doing with Web2.0, I started to see a need to integrate more social media into the SE101 strategy. While MYC4 and Kiva allow users to actively engage in (near) direct lending to those in need, this has a limited impact on capacity building. Their model is effective for generating funds because of the nature of their social media use - providing those-in-need place to connect with those-with-funds and vice-versa. Nevertheless, their overall use of Web2.0 is rather static, providing a means for information dissemination not idea generation or knowledge transfer. Since SE101 is not a financier (at this point), this model connecting 'investors' directly with our students is not useful. However, in our effort to build capacity on the ground, we do need to raise funds to deliver our program - in effect we need to be connected to donors and sponsors in the same way these other platforms connect those-in-need to those-with-funds. The difference between our models creates a question of impact: Will an exchange of funds alone successfully grow the recipient's business and drive durability or would on capacity building be a more effective stabilizer in the long term?
I'm not sure anyone has the answer to this question. What I can say is, after spending time in Kenya on SE101 and looking into the primarily negative return on investment (ROI) for the social media based funding platforms, I feel capacity building is the better way to equip those in need. By teaching our students the business skills needed to actively research, estimate, project, and plan their ventures, we are creating real value and equipping them with the skills that not only benefit the actual entrepreneurs of our class, but challenging those that are not the entrepreneurial type. Moreover, while in the classroom, we are creating a diverse and dynamic network of individuals with ideas and drive and connecting them to their future employees, service providers and customers - real social networking.
I believe there can be a better use of Web2.0 resources from existing organizations. What might this look like? Well, Kirby, an SE101 Project Coordinator and Content Strategist for the Business Objects Community on the SAP Community Network, has been developing an online community for our students and student teachers to collaborate and communicate in a similar way to Facebook. This means SE101 can offer our students online post-program support and real time access to Sauder business school students and their knowledge. This is capacity building and what I see as the future benefit of Web2.0 in social development.
Social Media in many ways rests on the laurels of Crowdsourcing, essentially outsourcing tasks to a community and leveraging mass collaboration to reach an ideal result - think monkeys typing on typewriters. While SE101 is developing the typewriter to integrate its Kenyan and UBC students, we also need to inform the public about what we are doing (static) and engage our potential donor networks (dynamic) to help fund our efforts. This is where SE101's integrated use of blogging, Facebook, and Twitter come in. We hope that by using social media we can enhance our venture, engage our stakeholders and generate more significant donations. Only time will tell if using these channels will be more or less effective than traditional fund raising efforts. Ideally, if we could exceed our annual 'project' need and start generating greater income from donors, this would ultimately provide us with a greater ability to create long term ROI in the form of successful, sustainable development in Kenya. Until then, we hope we can at least use these channels to further document and legitimize our existing successful efforts and future goals.
Please feel free to engage SE101 through any of our available Web2.0 channels (blogging, Facebook, and Twitter) or by email, telephone, telegraph, snail mail or carrier pigeon. The point being, we want you to engage us, we have a lot of incredible stories to share with you and we want to show you how your support will make a lasting difference.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Part 3 - The Way Forward
In part 1 and part 2 of a 3-part blog about Social Entrepreneurship 101: 2009, I discussed the program details and micro-finance options. In this final part of the blog, I share with you the 5-year plan for the SE 101 program.
After four years, while we have a comprehensive and well-tested curriculum for teaching how to write a business plan, we realize that SE 101 could not JUST be about UBC students travelling to Kenya or other African country to co-teach business planning. It is important to have a sustainable and scalable program.
In lengthy discussions with our local business partners and associates, we mapped out a 5-year vision to establish an (youth) entrepreneurship center, jointly supported by the Sauder School of Business and a Kenyan educational institution. The center would have the mandate of teaching youth how to write business plans, providing access to loans at reasonable interest rates, incubating and supporting businesses, conducting research, and providing for-fee consulting and executive education services (to sustain the center’s operations). The Sauder School of Business will take part in student and faculty exchanges, but the majority of the operations will lead by local partners.
In the more immediate future, we will be dividing the program into pre-core, core, and post-core segments. The pre-core program will help interested program participants develop their ideas, gain experience running a business, and learn basic business skills. The core program will continue to teach business planning but will focus on those participants who have had some demonstrated entrepreneurial experience. Clearly, not everyone can or should be an entrepreneur and therefore we must focus our efforts on those individuals who have the highest chance of success. By training and supporting these individuals who have shown a passion and talent for entrepreneurship, we aim to launch businesses that can provide jobs to other community members. Finally, the post-core program will teach intermediate and advanced business skills training. Throughout all the programs, SE 101 will bring in mentors and advisors from the local business community to provide guidance to current and past program participants. In fact, the first post-core program is currently running at our sites, run by our local coordinator, Barlet Jaji.
We have big plans for the SE 101 program, with many details to be worked out, tasks to be completed, and people to speak to, but we are truly excited about the opportunity to have a positive, sustainable impact on (youth) unemployment in Kenya. I will continue to provide updates on our progress and welcome any feedback or suggestions for what we can do to make this vision come to fruition.
Part 2 - Micro-Finance
Part 1 - What a Difference a Year Makes
After four years, while we have a comprehensive and well-tested curriculum for teaching how to write a business plan, we realize that SE 101 could not JUST be about UBC students travelling to Kenya or other African country to co-teach business planning. It is important to have a sustainable and scalable program.
In lengthy discussions with our local business partners and associates, we mapped out a 5-year vision to establish an (youth) entrepreneurship center, jointly supported by the Sauder School of Business and a Kenyan educational institution. The center would have the mandate of teaching youth how to write business plans, providing access to loans at reasonable interest rates, incubating and supporting businesses, conducting research, and providing for-fee consulting and executive education services (to sustain the center’s operations). The Sauder School of Business will take part in student and faculty exchanges, but the majority of the operations will lead by local partners.
In the more immediate future, we will be dividing the program into pre-core, core, and post-core segments. The pre-core program will help interested program participants develop their ideas, gain experience running a business, and learn basic business skills. The core program will continue to teach business planning but will focus on those participants who have had some demonstrated entrepreneurial experience. Clearly, not everyone can or should be an entrepreneur and therefore we must focus our efforts on those individuals who have the highest chance of success. By training and supporting these individuals who have shown a passion and talent for entrepreneurship, we aim to launch businesses that can provide jobs to other community members. Finally, the post-core program will teach intermediate and advanced business skills training. Throughout all the programs, SE 101 will bring in mentors and advisors from the local business community to provide guidance to current and past program participants. In fact, the first post-core program is currently running at our sites, run by our local coordinator, Barlet Jaji.
We have big plans for the SE 101 program, with many details to be worked out, tasks to be completed, and people to speak to, but we are truly excited about the opportunity to have a positive, sustainable impact on (youth) unemployment in Kenya. I will continue to provide updates on our progress and welcome any feedback or suggestions for what we can do to make this vision come to fruition.
Part 2 - Micro-Finance
Part 1 - What a Difference a Year Makes
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