NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Report from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference

Guest blogger Nicholas P. Sullivan has written widely about technology and entrepreneurship, most notably as editor-in-chief of Inc.com. He compiles the annual Wealth of Nations Index, a ranking of seventy developing countries, is publisher of Innovations: Technology/Governance/Globalization...

Categories

Uncategorized

Microfinance: Good for Growth, or Overblown?

An interesting debate about the efficacy of microfinance has been going on lately, pitting development experts and economists against one another as they seek to understand the impact of microfinance on economic growth and well-being.The whole thing started with an op-ed in the Wall Street...

Categories

Uncategorized

Good News for a Change

My one-line review of Fast Company’s March issue and its annual Fast 50 list: “It’s exciting.” It’s green, it’s sustainable, and it has BOP written all over it, both literally and sequentially (from the Letter from the Editor, to Andrew Zolli’s Business 3.0, to...

Categories

Uncategorized

Behind the Scenes at UN Meets Silicon Valley

Last week, I attended “UN Meets Silicon Valley,” an event convened by the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development.? Craig Barrett, former CEO and now Chairman of Intel (full disclosure: WRI and Intel are partners), also chairs the UNGAID.? Going in, I was a bit skeptical, since...

Categories

Uncategorized

BOP Announcements: Citi Job, Tech Awards, CGAP Prize

As we move into the weekend, here are a couple of BOP announcements (a prize, an innovation challenge, and a job) that should pique your interest. Coming soon ? a report from the UN Meets Silicon Valley event held this week that I attended, and a review of the Fast 50 Awards in this...

Categories

Uncategorized

IPEG Follow-Up: Aman Bhandari and Agora Partnerships

Last Thursday, the DC chapter of the International Private Enterprise Group (IPEG) met at the Science Club in downtown Washington, DC. About 30 people were on hand to hear presentations from Aman Bhandari, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland and Beth Boomgard of AED’s...

Categories

Uncategorized

Tags

partnerships

The Fair and Lovely Debate Continues

Andrew Leonard, author of Salon.com’s excellent “How the World Works” column, continues to track the Fair and Lovely debate between C.K. Prahalad and Aneel Karnani. His latest post, from February 22, is definitely worth reading (sorry I haven’t stayed up on this as much as I...

Categories

Uncategorized

Expanding Rural Access – The Case for MicroTelcos

Over the past ten years, significant progress has been made across the globe with regards to the expansions of mobile telecommunications. This explosive build-out has been the direct result of market liberalization activities launched by a growing number of countries. Today, in most countries...

Categories

Uncategorized