Articles by Al Hammond
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Wednesday
August 24
2005Interview with Kurt Hoffman, Director of the Shell Foundation
Small and Medium-Size enterprises (SMEs) create most of the jobs in any economy, and they also play a critical role in providing goods and services to low-income communities. But there are very few sources of financing to help SMEs scale. Interest in SME funds is growing, however, so finding...
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Monday
July 11
2005Africa’s private sector strategy for alleviating poverty
In a short cover story in the International edition of Newsweek, dated July 11, the magazine contrasts the promises at the G-8 summit with the entrepreneurial revolution already taking place on the ground in Africa. It’s not planned, rather much more spontaneous and bottom-up. But the evidence...
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Wednesday
June 1
2005Big Thoughts on How to Reach the BOP
My colleague and first mentor in BOP business strategies, Stuart L. Hart, is one of the world?s authorities on the implications of sustainable development for business strategy. Stu is S.C. Johnson Professor of Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell?s Johnson Graduate School of Management,...
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Wednesday
June 1
2005New energy options for the BOP ?
I’m struck by the seeming convergence of a number of new options for providing/generating energy in rural BOP areas. Wind-up radios and pedal-power water pumps are already succeeding commercially in Africa. Photovoltaic packages look promising for powering cell phone and other mobile device...
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Wednesday
April 20
2005Summing Up the Show in San Francisco
The conference left a powerful impression?of huge companies and NGOs more or less on the same page, of governments and aid agencies endorsing business approaches to poverty, of entrepreneurs and visionary CEOs from enterprises in developing countries being recognized as pioneers in new...
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Friday
April 15
2005Davos, Bednets, and Movie Stars
Inspired by this Time Europe article.Many commentators have noted how movie stars turned heads at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, in their efforts to drum up support for dealing with poverty. They also shifted attention away from?and may have undercut?perhaps the most promising...
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Tuesday
April 5
2005Does Low Cost Mean Low Quality?
That?s often the initial response when people hear of the $30 cell phone that Motorola is building for emerging markets. Or the $185 internet access device (a PC, except that you can?t load new software on it) that AMD is shipping to India and the Caribbean. Or a nifty little home water...
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