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The 4 Ways Big Corporations Flirt with Socially Responsible Business
The last decade has given rise to many experiments by companies to incubate socially responsible business models. Large financial institutions have become hosts to microfinance divisions (Citi, Morgan Stanley). Energy companies have experimented with base-of-the-pyramid business models for emerging markets, aligning social utility (access to energy) with business strategy (long term growth). And social enterprises like The Body Shop and Ben & Jerry’s have been acquired by major multin...
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CSR Fail: Why It’s Time for a BoP Tech Revolution
It’s up to all of us to change the tide and think about the intersection of technology inclusion and education more critically. It’s time for corporations to stop giving away their scrap computers to the developing world and calling it CSR. It’s time for NGOs to be more judicious about the hand-outs they accept and the indirect costs endured.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Housing Series: Why Dow Corning Sends Employees to Serve BoP Projects around the World
What would happen if major global companies sent their employees to work with people in emerging economies for weeks at a time to get to know their cultures, needs and daily patterns of life? Not as "poverty tourism," but rather part of a strategy to see all that is happening and and then to think how that translates to product innovations.
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- Uncategorized
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Accelerating BoP Development at the Intersection of CSR & Impact Investing
Innovation in base of the pyramid development flourishes at the intersections. Through a new collaborative model, the BoP management strategy and innovation firm, I-DEV International, focuses on the intersection of multi-national corporate interests and impact investing to build lasting, profitable, and high-impact SMEs at the BoP.
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- Uncategorized
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Telefonica and Inclusive Businesses: Interview with Alberto Andreu
Many firms are dabbling in various ways in initiatives related to inclusive businesses, social entrepreneurship, and social innovations. The challenges they face range from scope, process of forming partnerships, funding, and adjustments in the organizational structure. Telef?nica is a company that has focused strategically on these topics.
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- Uncategorized
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Inclusive Business and CSR ? How To Grow Local Innovation Clusters? Reflections From Cali
Do concepts like ’base of the pyramid’ and ’Inclusive Business’ really enter into the mainstream practice of businesses located in or close to poor communities? Do local business leaders really care about the "endless opportunities" that academic thought-leaders proclaim? Or do they smell another buzzword storm and continue with business as usual?
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- Uncategorized
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Healthcare Series: To Emerging Markets and Back Again (Part 2)
In every village where Healthpoint operates, it builds a permanent clinic, which costs roughly $50,000. Through the clinic, the organization provides North India residents with access to technology in the form of telemedecine, a diagnostics lab, provision of medicines and clean water. "Partnering is critical," says Healthpoint Founder Al Hammond.
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- Health Care
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NextThought (Tuesday): Meeting Customers in the Middle and Other HBR Insights
This month’s Harvard Business Review ambitiously re-calibrates the dialogue on corporate social responsibility and the true meaning of shared value in rebuilding capitalism?s sullied reputation following the financial crisis. The HBR authors also implore established companies to "take a page from startups" by treating each emerging market as new.