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Global Social Benefit Incubator 2008
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Microfinance
Oct 21, 2008
Premal Shah - Kiva
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Kiva's President shares with Global X three pieces of advice for fellow social entrepreneurs
1. More traction, less projection!
Premal Shah spent two years at PayPal while he was trying to get Kiva's idea off the ground. In retrospect, he thinks that doing "less PowerPoint, less MS Excel" is best. "Showing traction is a lot better than showing projections (even if the traction is a fraction of what the projections are)."
2. Go public, keep a blog!
Premal Shah thinks that you should start a blog the minute you launch your social venture to show how things are progressing month-over-month. His recommendation: "Make the process transparent online as soon as you can, but don't only talk about your successes, talk also about your failures and your constraints. Make your whole adventure radically transparent!"
3. Share the ownership!
Premal Shah thinks you should build a large advisory board "to share the ability for other people to co-create something with you and track it all online." As he says: "Ink is cheap on the Internet!"
Watch Premal Shah's X-Interview, then read Matt Flannery's blog, the Kiva Chronicles.
Sep 23, 2008
Vikram Akula - SKS Microfinance
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Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, tells Global X how he designed a microfinance institution in a way that "you never have to say no to any poor person who is simply asking for an opportunity."
After working for an NGO, he went back to the University of Chicago to get his PhD and found out that the best way to scale was to:
1- Use a for-profit approach to access capital
2- Draw from best practices from the business world to overcome the constraints of capacity
3- Leverage technology to overcome the constraints of cost
And that's how SKS Microfinance was able to scale so quickly and now serves 1.5 million clients in India.
While in Zurich, Vikram Akula also shared a piece of advice with Global X: "Think big! Think in a way that has never been done!" It is undoubtedly because his goal was initially to eradicate poverty that he was able to achieve so much.
May 13, 2008
Fazle H. Abed - BRAC
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Fazle H. Abed's life was transformed when a cyclone hit Bangladesh in 1970 and thousands of people died. He was working for Chevron and decided to take a few days off to help survivors. What he saw made him realize that he needed to change his life, and he launched BRAC to address poverty alleviation through microfinance, health care and education.BRAC has expanded outside Bangladesh: Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan, which is reflected in his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "You need to be ambitious! Build an organization to its full capacity and grow it. Don't be satisfied too early, and you will have a bigger impact in your work."
Apr 15, 2008
Geoff Davis - Unitus
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Global X interviews Geoff Davis, president and CEO of Unitus, a "microfinance accelerator" with a hybrid model combining best practices from investment banking, consulting and venture capitalism.
A business entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur (he launched a web company, worked in biotechnology and was part of a translation agency), Geoff Davis discovered "the power of microfinance to harness market principles and apply them to social issues."
The Unitus portfolio of microfinance institutions now serves three million families, 140% more than last year. Geoff Davis explains his success: "It starts with a vision for a better future, and a strong culture based on values and principles."
And it takes talent: "It's a people business! The Unitus team left corporate positions at National Geographic, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and McKinsey, and they now apply their business skills to solve social problems."
His advice: "Think big! Think grand! Be audacious! Be bold, and powerful forces will come to support you. You will be able to attract top notch talent."
Yes, it's all about the talent: "Do anything you can to get the best people you can. There is nothing more expensive than a quick, medium hire. And there is nothing better or more powerful than an amazingly talented hire even if you have to take time and leave the position open to get it."
Apr 08, 2008
Edgardo Salomón - FINSOL
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Global X interviews Edgardo Salomón, a Mexican professional banker who discontinued his banking career in 2003 to work for social impact. He launched a micro-finance institution, FINSOL, which now serves 250,000 clients in Mexico and just opened a branch in Brazil.
Edgardo Salomón's secret to success? Hiring both NGO social workers and commercial bankers to work together in his management team.
"The most important challenge is access to managerial talent. The reason we launched new operations in Brazil is not only because there is high demand there, but also because there is access to very good talent." He adds: "Capital is always available for good projects. The main problem is talent."
Another priority: "There is no success without scale, and that's why networking is so important and that's where Unitus can help us."
A final piece of advice: don't rely on consultants! Edgardo Salomón initially hired a team of expensive international advisors. "Then we decided to do just the contrary to what they advised us to do!" Instead, Edgardo Salomón simply asked a lady working on a street corner what kind of financial services would help her, and that's how he found out what FINSOL had to do.
Watch this short interview then read the Unitus case study.
¡En español!
Apr 01, 2008
Julian Costabile - Fondo de Inversion Social
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Julian Costabile tells Global X that he launched FIS in Argentina after reading Muhammad Yunus's book. He loved the ideal of putting the money behind the people. "A very powerful idea!"Launched in 2002, FIS now has 4,000 clients and is the second largest MFI in Argentina. In addition to loans, it provides solar panels to families living in zones where there is no commercial electricity. "Yes, there are people in 2007 who have never had access to electricity," explains Julian Costabile.
Listen to his advice to fellow social entrepreneurs: "Find a couple of mentors or advisors compatible with your mission who have 20 or 30 years more of experience and who can help you go through the entrepreneurial phase in a better way."
Watch this short interview then read the Unitus case study.
¡En español!
Mar 11, 2008
P.N. Vasudevan - Equitas
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Global X interviews P. N. Vasudevan, an entrepreneurial leader with a background in commercial finance who is now CEO of Equitas, a for-profit microfinance institution working in Bangladesh and India.
He remembers noticing that poor women usually don't have a place at the table because they don't bring food, "but microfinance creates a perceptible shift in the power balance" when women start bringing revenues.
Microfinance helped P. N. Vasudevan open his eyes. As he tells Global X, he now realizes that he never noticed women cooking on the sidewalk by his house and young children defecating on the street without any supervision, then going back to eating without being cleaned up.
"I never saw it in the past, even though it happened every day, but I just never noticed."
Watch this short interview then read the Unitus case study.
Mar 04, 2008
Urmee Mehta Mankar - Swadhaar
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Global X interviews Urmee Mehta Mankar, with Mumbai-based microfinance institution Swadhaar (Self Support). Even though this microfinance institution is quite young (it was launched only two years ago), there is lot to be learned from this interview.You may want to pay attention to Urmee at 2'27" into this interview, when she recommends to "get out into the field and learn about the market reality." Before launching Swadhaar, Urmee and her CEO spent a year in several slums in Mumbai to find out what Swadhaar's potential customers really needed.
To their own surprise, they found out that women were willing to pay higher interest rates but didn't want to work in groups and be held responsible for other's financial situations. Her advice: "Go out and understand the market!"
Urmee then tells Global X a very moving story, one that involves a 12-year old boy who was selling tissue paper boxes at a Mumbai intersection. Urmee was fascinated by his sense of pride when he told her: "I am not begging, I am doing my job!"
She concludes: "This is typical of the spirit of the people that we are trying to help. He has become my mascot!"
Watch this short interview then read the Unitus case study.
Feb 26, 2008
Dhattatreya Hosagrahar - IIRM
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In this three-minute interview with Global X, Dhattatreya Hosagrahar, CEO of the Institute of Integrated Resource Management in India explains why he is helping the indigenous tribal people of Assam: "I had an accident in 2002..."He also describes his success metrics: "Our team members, who work day and night for the organization."
Watch this short interview then read the Unitus case study.
Feb 19, 2008
Harsha Moily - MokshaYug Access (MYA)
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While traveling in the Philippines, Global X had a chance to talk to Harsha Moily, CEO of MokshaYug Access (MYA), a microfinance institution based in Karnataka that has close to 100 employees and US$2 million in loans.MYA goes beyond microlending. Harsha Moily's philosophy is that microfinance should always include a wide range of financial services and other offerings for the poor. His advice: "Focus on the needs of the customer!"
Which is why MYA offers goat, cow and buffalo insurance: the death of an animal can have catastrophic consequences, as a source of income disappears and farmers can't pay back their loan. MYA needs to provide risk mitigation.
Why is Harsha Moily doing what he is doing, asked Global X? His response: "I can't be a spectator to what's happening India. I need to be a player."
Watch this three-minute interview then read the Unitus case study.
Feb 12, 2008
Vincent Perlas - Lifebank
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While in the Philippines, Global X had a chance to interview Vincent Perlas, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Lifebank Rural Bank, a microfinance institution that helps marginalized women in rural areas get out of poverty. See the Unitus case study to better understand the challenges he is facing and the solutions he is bringing.Vincent Perlas, a medical doctor by training, was quite dissatisfied with medical practice and entered the field of microfinance to "use the power of finance to move lives of people, to be of service to them. And I knew that traditional banking would not have helped those who really needed help."
The visits in the field keeps him moving, especially the stories of lives that have been changed. He remembers a woman with physical disability (she can't easily express herself) who received a first loan of 4,000 pesos/US$80 to open a convenience store. She has done so well that she has extended her operations in the pig meat industry, transportation business and ready to wear garments. She now owns a huge house with all the appliances, send her children to school. She even asked her husband to quit his job to work for her!
Vincent Perlas has three ingredients to success:
1. Spirit
As a social entrepreneur, you have to be persistent, even (or especially) when things don't work well: "When you are in hell, you go on. We had the will to move forward."
2. Methodology
Vincent Perlas learned from another institution based in Bangladesh, but adapted the business model to the local context. Lifebank grew quickly "thanks to the right methodology, the proper approach, and simplified, cost-effective standardized model."
3. Gas to grow
Unitus opened many doors for Lifebank by helping them get international rating, which in turn helped them get funding very quickly.
Vincent Perlas has a piece of advice for fellow social entrepreneurs: "Face the challenges! There is light at the end of the tunnel."
Feb 05, 2008
Muhammad Yunus
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Global X has had many chats with Muhammad Yunus, but most of the time when the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate was talking to other interesting people, such as Peter Gabriel, Pamela Hartigan, Vera Cordeiro, Rachel Payne, Sakena Yacoobi or Albina Ruiz.
Global X even met his daughter Monica Yunus, a soprano with the Metropolitan Opera in New York who sang in French just for him (and a few thousand other people): a piece from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Her French was very good, thought Global X at that time.
At last, a few weeks ago, Global X had a chance to sit down with the Professor to have a little chat. Just the two of them (and a movie crew).
Global X, for once, was mesmerized and actually became speechless. Listen to Professor Yunus as he tells the story of the first US$27 loan in a village of Bangladesh, the loan that launched the microfinance movement. Watch him as he recalls how surprised he was that it took so little money to free village women from modern-day slavery, humiliation and torture.
CS Ghosh - Bandhan
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Global X was recently in the Philippines, where he attended the Unitus Leadership Summit. He sat with CS Ghosh, founder and CEO of Bandhan, the Kolkata-based microfinance institution which ranked second in the Forbes' list of the world’s Top 50 MFI’s. You may want to read the Unitus case study here to understand the challenges and the solutions.
In this short (four minutes) interview, CS Ghosh tells Global X why he launched a social venture to help the poor in India and gives advice to fellow social entrepreneurs.
Three words: “Focus, focus, focus!”
Sep 11, 2007
Ayeleen Ajanee - Pakistan
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Acumen Fund Fellow - Class of 2007
As an Acumen Fund Fellow, Ayeleen Ajanee was based in Lahore where she worked for the Kashf Foundation helping women entrepreneurs who earn less than $4 a day.In this two minute interview, she tells Global X how important it is to communicate the plethora of knowledge she has acquired and to share it with other communities.
This is Ayeleen Ajanee's second interview with Global X. You may want to watch the first one here.
Sep 04, 2007
Matt & Jessica Flannery - Kiva.org
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They launched Kiva, the online micro-lending venture. They tell you why. And how!
Global X interviews Matt and Jessica Flannery, co-founders of Kiva, before Oprah can get the chance. Watch Matt as he explains how he made the decision to quit his Silicon Valley job and work full time for Kiva. And listen to Jessica as she describes her pre-marital problems, which actually led to Kiva’s birth!
(Don't forget to read Matt's blog on Social Edge. Here are a few pictures of Matt, here and there...)
Jun 19, 2007
Roshaneh Zafar - The Kashf Foundation
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Social entrepreneur Roshaneh Zafar, founder and managing director of The Kashf Foundation, Pakistan's third largest microfinance institution, tells Global X why she had to unlearn what she learned about economics. She also shares what happened when she realized that she was sitting at a conference next to a gentleman called Muhammad Yunus.
Jun 12, 2007
David Bornstein - How to Change the World
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David Bornstein (picture here), author of How to Change the World, told Global X (picture here) what happened when he was a young journalist and he first met Muhammad Yunus (picture here) in Bangladesh. He also talks about his aunt Suzan, who taught him to climb the fence when necessary: "The world is a playground, and one shouldn't follow the rules at all times."
