Blog Archives

A humbling second chance for SKS

May 14, 2012
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News broke early Friday morning that SKS Microfinance would be shuttering 78 branches and letting go of 1,200 employees in the battered Andhra Pradesh region. After weathering the storm through 2011 and into 2012, SKS believes it is on the upswing and the markets are tending to agree, with SKS’s stock value up by 20% at one point in the last 9 months.

This timely piece of news comes shortly after the government moved one step closer to signing a bill centralizing the authority of microfinance regulation. The passage of the Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill would have provided SKS the upper hand in situations like the state government crackdown in late 2010. Read more »

Always Be Learning

May 7, 2012
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“Always Be Closing”
- Glengarry Glen Ross

In the iconic movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin famously preaches this line which has become the inspiration for many businessfolk. It speaks more about the mental state you must be in as a salesperson than anything. Of course you know you want to close the deal, but you must be leveraging that thinking in your actions and conversations. It’s more than knowing – its acting on it. Read more »

Microfinance Monday: Can technology help trim MFI costs?

April 30, 2012
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A couple months back, we highlighted the inability of Indian Microfinance Institutions to accept deposits as a major roadblock to their growth and sustainability model. A litany of roadblocks stand in the way of passing the Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Act, with deposit taking appearing to be a deal breaker.

With the RBI taking a hardline approach on their stance, methods of improving MFI profitability have begun to take an interesting turn.

While most efforts to date have been focused on increasing the revenue side of the profitability equation for MFIs in India, the lack of progress from a policy level is forcing the hands of MFIs to act in other ways. There have been recent calls for compensation levels to be checked, but more importantly, to reduce operational costs within MFIs. Read more »

Don’t just blend in

April 23, 2012
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On a daily basis, is your goal to stand out from the crowd, or blend right into the wallpaper and avoid any attention?

Often times we may find ourselves at this juncture and more often than not we tend to side with the choices that don’t rock the boat or draw attention. It can mean something as small as not speaking your opinion in a meeting or can have much larger implications by deciding not to share an idea with the team.

Our decision (subconscious or not) signals a lack of confidence – either in the idea itself or in our ability to explain or defend it. We quietly shoot the idea down in our head and never give it the opportunity to see the light of day. This rationalization is selfish and detrimental not just to our development, but to the mission that we aim to support. Read more »

Volunteers – The Unmeasured Asset

April 16, 2012
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Most of us have volunteered at some time in our lives. Whether it is building a house via Habitat For Humanity, helping to babysit or lending your time at a soup kitchen – many make the effort to lend their time to a cause that they support.

For startups, especially social enterprise startups, volunteering can mean the world of difference. Entrepreneurs are quickly and often taught that it’s not what you know but who you know. On top of putting on different positional hats every day, entrepreneurs are consistently faced with the trade off of taking the time to research and learn a new skill or to put their effort towards what they already know.

Volunteers, too, tend to wear many hats along the way – but the most important asset they bring to the table is their energy. Rarely do you see volunteers who acting under duress. Volunteers act because they’re passionate. Read more »

What more can we learn?

April 9, 2012
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Stanford Social Innovation Review posted a great article about the importance of data in the non-profit world, and how one specific organization, Data Without Borders (DWB) is making a difference.

DWB’s mission statement begins with the line, “Data Without Borders seeks to match non-profits in need of data analysis with freelance and pro bono data scientists who can work to help them with data collection, analysis, visualization, or decision support.”

A noble task indeed. Of the resources available to non-profits, data visualization and analysis is typically not at the top of their list. Non-profits are mainly concerned with looking for the next batch of funding, and working to drive impact true to their mission. Read more »

Add value to your organization by subtraction instead of addition

April 2, 2012
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Whether you’re working at a startup or not, one of the common questions you might ask yourself is, “How am I adding value on a daily basis?” The challenge behind each day is not how much work you can avoid, but how best you can spend your time driving value to your organization.

So how do you add value?

Through years of education, training, and work experience, we’ve discovered what we’re good at. Those with a college or advanced degree spent years honing in on specialties to prepare us for the real world.

During your work reviews, you’re challenged to take your skillset to the next level by producing more than you have in the past. As an entrepreneur, you’re consistently challenged to “do one thing and do it well”. Well, it’s only natural for us to focus on what we’re good at, and lean on that in order to do that one thing well. Read more »

Microfinance Monday: Full steam ahead…for what?

March 26, 2012
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Amid a damning report from one of the industry’s heavyweights, financial activity in the microfinance world is picking up, clearing the way for more opportunity – but at what cost?

David Roodman, one of the world’s foremost thinkers on microfinance, presented his newest book in a column last week that might appear to strike a spear through the heart of microfinance champions everywhere.

On current evidence, the best estimate of the average impact of microcredit on poverty is zero. So microcredit as a whole appears neither to live up to the hype nor justify the harshest attacks against it as modern usury. Microcredit does not appear to be the financial equivalent of cigarettes.

Well that’s good to hear! At least we’re not addicted to cancerous activity. Yet, the heart of what Roodman is getting at is something secretly feared by microfinance champions for years. Does it live up to the hype? Is this truly impactful? Read more »

Are we disillusioned?

March 19, 2012
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As a new entrant into the social entrepreneurial world, I have encountered so many people using their skills for good, yet the data seems to be singing a different tune.

A recent article written on GOOD Environment asks, “Are Millennials less committed to the environment than Baby Boomers?” Author, Sarah Laskow, posits that traditional routes of service may be not resonating with the millennial generation due to a lack of faith in the results.

“We don’t want to get ‘involved in programs to clean up the environment,’ because we spent all of elementary school involved in programs hoping to save the rainforest, only to find out the rainforest is worse off than ever.”

So are we, as a generation, disillusioned? Have we seen way too many black and white commercials preaching doom about the ever-thinning ozone layer? Have too many major oil spills and nuclear scares shocked us into a state of inaction regarding the effects of our daily actions? Read more »

Boy, I really wish they invented Solar Lanterns*

March 12, 2012
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(*Insert innovative product here)

How many folks at the Bottom of the Pyramid woke up every morning lamenting the fact that their kerosene lamps weren’t eco-friendly enough, and wanted something more sustainable? Sure, the danger of kerosene fires was a real problem, but no one had yet introduced a way harness the power of the sun as a viable replacement.

People just knew that their current solution wasn’t optimal, but in the absence of anything better, they kept operating as normal. Even when companies like d.light introduced this new product, people were unsure about switching from what they’ve known.

In yesterday’s Sunday Morning Coffee, Bryan discussed the fact that companies exist to solve your problems. Well, what if you don’t know that you have a problem? Read more »

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