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Overcoming a Roadblock to Scale: How Can We Attract Top Talent to Inclusive Businesses?
Inclusive business is a key way to create sustainable livelihoods for the global poor, but the sector is hitting a roadblock: finding employees. The growing number of inclusive businesses has meant that the demand for talent is outstripping supply. And as existing inclusive businesses scale up, the talent they require has become more specialized. So it's no surprise that in a recent survey of over 100 prominent social enterprises, talent was flagged as a top challenge. Christian Jahn and Susann Tischendorf at the Inclusive Business Action Network discusses the problem – and some emerging solutions.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Finding the Right Balance: A Toolkit for Regulating Digital Financial Services in Emerging Markets
The number of financially excluded adults has dropped from 2.5 billion in 2011 to 1.7 billion in 2017, thanks largely to digital financial services (DFS). However, finding the right regulatory balance for these services is not easy: Too much regulation can undermine the business case for DFS, while too little can leave consumers exposed. Anton Didenko and Ross Buckley at the University of New South Wales discuss a recent paper that seeks to address these challenges through a comprehensive analytical framework – what they call the Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Five Things We’ve Learned Creating Data Standards for Inclusive Fintech
It’s no secret that capital is flowing into fintech. In 2018, global fintech investments exceeded USD $100 billion. Yet this investment is highly concentrated among a relatively small group of companies. Blaine Stephens and Chrissy Martin Meier of MIX share five insights from a new research initiative based on 40 interviews with fintechs, investors and ecosystem actors, designed to drive capital to inclusive fintechs in hopes of reaching 1.7 billion unbanked people around the world.
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- Finance, Investing, Technology
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The Power to Produce: How Indian Energy Entrepreneurs are Approaching the Next Big Frontier
The Indian government says 99.99% of houses in India, a staggering 214 million of them, are now on the electrical grid. Even with errors and omissions, it’s an incredible number. So if nearly all dwellings in India are now grid-enabled, is this the end of energy access challenges in the country? Not exactly, writes Ananth Aravamudan at the social enterprise incubator Villgro, since the existing grid does not provide satisfactory service. He shares several mini case studies of innovative startups building energy solutions that create both value and social impact.
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- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Growth on Your Own Terms: Three Tips for Scaling Your Social Enterprise – Without Selling Your Soul to Investors
Every development-focused organization faces the challenges of funding, but the issue is especially acute for social entrepreneurs seeking to scale. Funding an expansion often means incorporating the opinions and vision of investors – some of whom may not be aligned with the enterprise’s mission or business plan. Sam Alhadeff at Finding Impact shares some essential advice on how to acquire funding that lets you scale without selling out, based on conversations with several prominent social entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Courage, Optimism, Defiance: Impact Investment Exchange Founder Durreen Shahnaz Discusses her Journey of Empowerment
Growing up in Bangladesh, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) Founder Durreen Shahnaz tended to rebel against tradition, preferring boys’ clothes to saris, and exploring the streets on her bike rather than staying indoors. Yet she never rebelled against her family's core focus on charity. Her long and distinguished career in social business and investing has been defined both by her maverick spirit and by her humanitarian values. NextBillion caught up with Shahnaz to discuss her inspiring story and IIX's ongoing work, as the company celebrates its tenth anniversary.
- Categories
- Investing
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Why Women Should Not ‘Invest Everywhere’: The Trouble with Gender-Blind Investing
As an impact investor interested in gender equity, Pique Venture CEO Bonnie Foley-Wong recently shared a call to action on LinkedIn encouraging investors to focus more money and attention on women-managed funds. She soon faced some pushback from a male impact investor, saying that women shouldn’t just invest in other women, they should invest everywhere. She explains why that advice is not as simple as it sounds.
- Categories
- Investing
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Why Data Ownership is a Bridge Across Digital Divides
Emerging markets have traditionally experienced “data poverty” – data that is inaccessible, and poorly captured, controlled and distributed. But big data sources are now serving as proxies for all kinds of information – on everything from GDP and growth to demographics and poverty. This represents a big opportunity for emerging markets to leapfrog the technical limitations faced by developed economies, writes Gavin Heaton of the company Hu-manity.co. He sees a day when lower-income citizens have the opportunity to profit from their data, rather than being subjugated by it.
- Categories
- Technology
