-
Financing Business Skills Development for Impact Enterprises: Who Pays?
One of the main barriers preventing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from getting to scale in emerging economies is a lack of core business skills. To meet this need, a plethora of stand-alone business incubators and accelerators have emerged over recent years. All play a critical role in preparing companies for the market, but who ends up footing the bill?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Avon’s ‘Lipstick Evangelism’ Shows Promise in Poverty Fight
Lipstick may be the newest weapon in the fight against global poverty. A recent study (PDF) by University of Oxford researchers suggests that selling Avon (AVP) cosmetics have helped women in South Africa become financially independent. Other businesses are mimicking Avon’s model of direct sales as a way to alleviate poverty in developing countries.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
NexThought Monday: Are Managers Ready to Lose Control?: The bottom-up development perspective in base-of-the-pyramid ventures
Does inclusive business mean that the poor are only included in “our” businesses? Or should it also mean that they have their own flourishing enterprises and we become integrated in their activities? What if the poor want to play a bigger role than being just instruments included in a process that was defined by outsiders?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Future Group to pitch Mother Earth chain against retailer Fab India
MUMBAI: Future Group, the country's largest retailer, will pitch its Mother Earth chain directly against ethnic products retailer Fabindia by expanding rapidly and borrowing its rival's social enterprise-style business model.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
-
Is Your Social Venture Really Worth Scaling?
Although scaling is the holy grail for most social entrepreneurs, not everyone should attempt it. In a previous post, I outlined the key capabilities I've found to be present in the social ventures that are able to reach sizeable impact (which can be remembered with the acronym SCALERS—they are Staffing, Communicating, Alliance-Building, Lobbying, Earnings-Generation, Replicating, and Stimulating Market Forces). Before a social entrepreneur gets to work building those capabilities, however, it makes sense to ask the question: Is this venture really ready to scale?
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- scale
-
Will Crowdfunding Ignite Investing For Profits And Purpose?
Can you earn a healthy return on your investment and help change the world at the same time?If you haven’t been paying attention, there are already thousands of entrepreneurs and investors betting that you can, with a multibillion-dollar market to show for it.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
With Business Training, Lenders Stitch Kashmir’s Private Sector Back Together
Young business people in Kashmir often find processes slow, corrupt and inefficient, leaving them disillusioned and leading them to give up. But local government is taking steps to streamline the registration process, and providing support to young entrepreneurs through its Entrepreneur Development Institute. J&K Bank has partnered with the local government and Mercy Corps to develop a "Youth Start-Up Loan Scheme" at a competitive interest rate and worth up to 35 percent of the project’s costs.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Government assisting SMEs development to reduce poverty
Islamabad—The government has made strategic shift in its strategies to assist infrastructural development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in order to enhance productivety and exports of this particular sector to help reduce poverty in the country.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.