Articles by Tayo Akinyemi
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Friday
March 27
2009Creative Design for Affordability at Cornell
I vividly remember the feelings of wistfulness and jealousy as I read the course description. I thought to myself, ?I wish Cornell had a class like that.? Well, now we do! Thanks to the vision, determination, (and yes, creativity), of two Johnson School MBA students, Jeff Gangemi and Charles Lo, Creative Design for Affordability...
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Tuesday
March 17
2009How Can We Harness the Talent and Energy Available in this Space?
When I think about visible entry points for BoP-focused MBAs, I can generate a list of "usual suspects". However, after the superstars are chosen, I wonder what happens to the "best of the rest" and the "rest of the rest." What happens to these people?" Is their enthusiasm lost or is it simply redirected? How can we tell? Do we care?
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Tuesday
September 9
2008Keeping the Magic Alive at Lapdesk: An Interview with Greg Durst, Managing Director of Endeavor Sout
After a longer-than-anticipated delay, I am pleased to bring you the third installment in the series of interviews about Lapdesk, an Endeavor company based in South Africa that provides portable desks to school children who need them, all 4.2 million to be exact. If you’ll recall, I had a...
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Tuesday
June 10
2008Lapdesk, Part II: An Interview with Shane Immelman
Welcome to part II of the ?Endeavor? series. You may recall that part I involved a rather interesting conversation with Dan Isenberg, a Harvard Business School professor who had written a case about Endeavor entrepreneur, Lapdesk. Given that dialogue, it seemed only natural to continue...
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Friday
February 29
2008The Truth about Lapdesk, A South African FOPSE: An Interview with Dan Isenberg, HBS Professor
It has been increasingly clear to me that there is a large grain of truth to the not-so-old adage, ?If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.? As I navigated the handful of near misses with Harvard Business School Professor Dan Isenberg, I realized that I had much to...
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Tuesday
February 12
2008Event: Africa Entrepreneurship Platform
If you believe that Africa is indeed open for business, consider attending the launch of the Africa Entrepreneurship Platform at the Harvard Club of New York on Thursday, February 28th. The quarterly forum, supported by the Clinton Global Initiative and administered by the South African...
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Saturday
January 26
2008Innovate or Die
’Innovate or die’ is the challenge issued by the pedal-powered machine contest sponsored by Google and Specialized Bicycle Components. All 102 inventions are based on basic bicycle mechanics; entries range from a pedal-powered tennis ball launcher to the grand prize-winning invention,...
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Tuesday
December 18
2007What?s GOOD: Incubating, Disseminating and Commercializing Appropriate Technology at the BoP
I am sure that few of you are strangers to Amy Smith?s work at MIT?s D-Lab. After all, the D-Lab has been profiled several times here at NextBillion, most recently in an article featured in the news room via GOOD magazine. The article aptly describes D-Lab?s current crop of appropriate...
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- academia