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NexThought Monday: Imaginary Engineers
The dabbawallahs, or "box people," deliver about 200,000 home cooked meals daily to about 80,000 offices at lunch time and have achieved six sigma status. This low-tech operation shows systems improvement is not just about applying the newest technology or management principle to an organization.
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- Education, Technology
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Weekly Roundup: 2-19-12 – Going Beyond ‘Potential’ in Southeast Asia
There seems to be no lack of enthusiasm in the potential for China and Southeast Asia as fertile ground for a social enterprise sector. By launching the Impact Ventures Accelerator Program, LGT Venture Philanthropy hopes to go beyond ‘potential’ toward establishing a new a network for cultivating enterprises in the region.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing
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Scaling up Environmental Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies – Framing the Discussion
Although environmental entrepreneurship continues to hold great promise for sustainable development, it also faces great challenges from an overall market perspective. To find some answers to these challenges, we interviewed a number of pioneers in environmental entrepreneurship development.
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- Energy, Environment
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Between Multinational Buyers and Small Farmers, Root Capital Looks to Manage Growth
Willie Foote, founder and CEO of the social investment fund Root Capital, said it is poised for significant growth in the next five years. The challenge, he said, will be in managing that growth.Root expects to triple its portfolio in the next five years to $170 million and build credit up so that it can disburse $284 million in one year.
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- Agriculture
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A Responsibility and a Market: Why Danone May Represent the Future of BoP Business
Eric Soubeiran leads the company’s BOP business efforts as head of Danone’s newly launched BOP Business Unit based in Gurgaon, India. In our recent conversation, Soubeiran described in detail Danone’s trajectory related to BOP markets beginning with the launch of Fundooz, a yogurt product for kids in India.
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- Health Care
- Tags
- nutrition
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Climate, Poverty, Gender, and the Spaces in Between
This past week in Nairobi, PopTech convened a diverse and illustrious group of innovators from technology, gender analysis, development, micro-insurance, mobile, water, agriculture and funding to have a conversation about community-based adaptation to climate change in rural Africa.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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NexThought Monday, Guest Post: Facing the Challenges of BoP Housing in Brazil
Despite a commendable 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty levels since 2003, a cohesive low income housing strategy to eliminate an officially defined deficit of 6.7 million is severely lagging. We believe the Fez Tá Pronto Construction System presents a genuine and very necessary globally applicable paradigm shift.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup: 2-12-12 – ROI (Return on Impact)
Credit Suisse Research Institute, in collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, recently released “Investing for Impact: How social entrepreneurship is redefining the meaning of return." It’s a detailed yet eminently readable report on the state of play.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing, scale
