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Kerry Event (This Moment on Earth Part IV)
Okay this is the last post on yesterday’s book talk/signing with the Kerry’s. Now we’ve come to the Q&A which had a lot of great questions.
1. Will Kerry change his position on the Cafe Wind Farm and not wait for the Minerals Management Service (MMS)?
His current position:
Seed banks and frozen zoos
I’m sort of fascinated by this:
Millennium Seed Bank
The San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo
Ask and you shall receive?
Hey folks,
I’m putting an all call out there to our friends and supporters. As you may know, we’re a young organization (we’re entering our third year of existence. Hurray!). We’re up and coming and have accomplished ALOT given a) how small and b) how young we are. We’re starting to have a bit of momentum in terms of getting our name out there, but we need your help.
So I want to ask you all a favor. If you believe in what we are trying to do and what to help us grow and build, please take 5 minutes out to tell four of your friends about us. You all are our best advocates and we need you to make our dream of getting green and renewable technologies to the rural poor a reality.
Click here to help us Spread the Word.
Other ways you can help
If you are signed up with Technorati, write a where’s the fire post about us: http://www.technorati.com/wtf?new&topic=AIDG. That would be a huge help!
If you have your own blog or website and want to help us with our 6 degrees campaign, post this charity badge on your site. The group with the most donors (not the most cash) by March 31st can get a $10,000 matching grant from Kevin Bacon.
http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/PersonalCharityBadge.aspx?pcaid=102749
Thanks so much for that taking this journey with us.
Warm regards,
Cat
So let me put my biases on the table before I begin the discussion. I’m black, a nice chocolaty black, not so black that I’m purple, but black. In the black community as in many communities around the world, lighter skin is viewed favorably particularly in women. There is the whole “lighter is brighter” thing plus the “good hair vs. bad hair” thing. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, watch Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, particularly the scene with the women are having a pow wow. Anyhoo, that’s where I’m coming from when I read about the Fair and Lovely Debate being played out between C.K. Prahalad and Aneel Karnani from U. of Michigan. See these posts from Salon’s HTWW () and NextBillion.net () for a summary.
Here are a few questions the whole debate made me think of:
1) Is it progress when a person purchases a product that allows them to rise above their station when the underlying discrimination that determines their station doesn’t change?
This is one of those questions is that much better with examples as my answers definitely vary.
Example 1: A person with a thick Mancunian accent gets elocution language to sound posh like Lady Di.
Okay, that seems fair enough. Sure it would be nice if all regional accents were equal (some are actually quite lyrical) but that doesn’t bother me too much. It saddens me because diversity is lost, but it doesn’t really bug me.
Example 2: A
Example 3: A person with dark skin buys Fair and Lovely to lighten their skin.
Now that really bothers me. I was trying to figure out why aside from the obvious reasons.
2) Is it empowerment when people who would not have dared to try to “pass” can buy things that allow them to do so now?
I think it is in that people are recognizing the racist system in which they live and doing what they can do get by within it. It is crafty and from the buyer’s side is a smart move.
3) Is it an example that I would use to illustrate the success of the BOP concept?
Uh no. It’s creepy. However you slice it and regale the customer’s rationale choices, Unilever is making a profit off the fact that a certain type of racism/classism exists in India and other places. Ew. Yes it is a product that the people want, but ew just the same. Sure, I probably would be less bothered if it were any other cosmetic and yes I am sensitive about this issue, but still.
Bentley Leadership Forum Part II: Panel Discussion
This post is sooooo late [Over a month late, but still worth posting. Thank goodness].
A quick refresher. Bentley College held a leadership forum at the end of April on the subject of “The Business of Healing our World”. In attendance where social entrepreneurs (e.g. Vikram Akula of SKS Microfinance), CEOs (Jeff Swartz of Timberland, Dean Kamen of DEKA) and scholars (e.g. Jeff Sachs of Columbia University’s Earth Institute).
The following is a recap of the panel discussion featuring Vikram Akula, founder and CEO, SKS Microfinance; Dean Kamen, founder and president, DEKA Research and Development Company; the Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, MD, co-pastor of the Bethel AME Church and co-founder of My Sisters’ Keeper, Sudan; and David J. Refkin, director of sustainable development, TIME, Inc.
Vikram Akula
Vikram Akula starts off with his well-perfected pitch. The mission of SKS Microfinance is to empower “the poor to become economically self-reliant by providing financial services in a sustainable manner.” When they first started, SKS was just offering collateral free loans. Sivdama landless labourers earning at that time a dollar a day. Had to put their son in bonded labor just to get enough cash to buy grain fro their fam for that year. First year loan for 1000 rupeees about $20, fruit stand. 2nd loan Fruit trees.3rd year fishing nets… portfolio diversification, 4th yr all nets for all men’s friend, fruits 5th 25000, $500 fridge, so much fish; 6th and 7th contracts with distributors, 8th 50,0000 $1000, eight people working for her, $12 a day. Indian middle class. Her son is out of bonded labor, out of high school,) [that’s a darn good narrative. While the currently have about 650,000 borrowers.
At SKS, the spiel that the loan officers give is carefully scripted. The idea is that standarization makes things more efficient and streamlined.
The fatal flaw of microfinance … (a teaser; cheeky, very cheeky)
Gloria White Hammond – For $33 dollards you can earn the freedom of a girl.
7 women. Intentionally small. Pooled together palm pilots and atm cards for a small village in sudan.
Education girls, fastest shortcut to increasing well-being … 1000 girls. Going to start building. Because of peace agreement in southern sudan. Folks are comng back. Just want a fraction of oprah’s lunch money. No need for fireplaces.
You couldn’t have peace in sudan until you had peace in the entire country.
What she’s learned from Samantha power’s America in the age of genocide. Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil. Do not good.
Mentions China’s enterprises in Sudan and recalcitrance about using economic input to levarage influece in sudan.
David J.Refkin – sustainable business practice
How to turn this into something meaningful at your jobs. 1) understanding your impacts 2) realizing that these are opps, they shouldn’t be waiting to get attacked. There is a better way. Offense, people, offense. Rather than responding to campaigns (and after getting a wake up call of getting attacked by an NGO about 13 years ago). Making sure the people they do business with are doing the right thing as well. Protecting brand, maintaining credibility. Challenges but also opps. Toyota (5,000 a yr, now 18K a month). Time doesn’t own paper plants, etc. supply chain issue, have to influence. 500,000 tons a paper. 5yr they knew that only 5% of lands…. 2006 80%… only got to 70%. How, find innovative people that you can work with. Find governors who are interesting. Engage in dialogue. Take to the loggers. Answer their questions, tell them why this is important to them.
Remix: getting folks to recycle their mags. getting 1 in 6 mags recycled. Issue with slick coated paper… couldn’t recycle years ago, now can… launched add campaign…
Published a book by… measure carbon footprint by time and in style… not thrilled, but got to measure to act.
Did a forestry project in Russia (wood in Russia, paper in finland)… hard, trying to work with illegal loggers, can . carrot carrot carrot, giving more business to the guys doing well. Reward them for doing well. Time only company that has sustainability report in the publishing industry. Not about greenwashing, gotta show warts and all. It’s about making change and promoting sustainability.
Sustainability is going to be ingrained in biz. This is hwo we’re going to do the right thing and make it work for our business.
Deam Kammen
Technologist, physicists, engineer, . No laws of physics as changeable as the laws of man. They are subtle but not cruel. They cannot be revoked.
Stirling … 2 boxes … would take any water 1000L a day, 1/3 of the power as a hand held hair dryer. No filters, no membranes.
Other box that will make electricity that will make money out of anything that will burn. Vapor compression distiller. Neat piece of thermodynamics. Stirling … cycle … 800 psi working fluid of helium. Fuel cow dung. 30 villages to families that have never had any electricity.
Invention vs. innovating. Make stuff do stuff, fun. Getting people to use it in a meaningful way. These 2 boxes: $50m
50% of all chronic (?) disease is water related. Must verify this fact. … schistosomiasis. 50% of global population have never used electricity.
Water and power, top down and municipal things. Power companies, transmission lines very tough for very isolated communities. Need a new way. Gotta stop assuming that 18th century tech is going to solve these problems. Gotta use . grameen phone not needing subsidies from … . called iqbal quadir … what if I could give you a box that would do for water
Going to take a sabbatical from my sabbatical… 3 entrepreneurs. Mr Exxon (the cow dung ), mr con ed (who runs th ebox) an dmr GE (who cells the LEDs)
Each village had one fridge, …
If you could build those machines for $1000, you could microfinance that and sell it …
(US pharmaco pia standard for injectable water). In village (could make water for under a penny a liter). Very very cool. The price has come down A LOT. Hurray!
Vikram: What is the fundamental flaw: microfinance for all the success it has locally is not able to scale to large numbers. We have 3 billion people, living on $2 a day. Only reaching to 15% of need. Ifit was a telco, you’d write off the industry as underperforming. Microfinanciers give themselves a pat on the back and hand out awards.
Barriers: problems of capital à ngos that really on grants
Capacity à small mfi, small villages, most only get to 10,000 clients
Cost à high cost, lots and lots of 100 dollar loans with repayments of 1-2 dollars a day a week
Don’t have the people power and the issues. She said… am I not poor too. Do I now deserve to get a chance to get my family out of poverty. SKS how do you design a mfi so that you don’t have to say no to
Accessing capital: don’t be an ngo, pursue a profit model, that way you can access commercial capital. 24% return on equity. Sequoia capital (also invested in yahoo)
Capacity: finding … from the business world. Standardization baby. How does starbucks rollout. SKS does 60K new customers a month. Best practices from business
They EXTENSIVELY use tech to overcome costs. Introduced an automated … using cell phone based tech, leap frog some of the landline constraints.
Dean: tech when properly applied can be a terrific amplifier for the things that people do. They trouble is it can amplifier everything (the good and the bad). Monty python… I have a plan, it doesn’t work, I’m going to stick to it. Why is mmicrofinance flourishing when it is on th emargins. (so many large institutions are battleships). Leverage in the very very near future …
Be will reduce by 50% the number of people who don’t have access to water. For at least the next 15 years, at least 50% will still be dying. What will they say. Nothing they will be dead. … you couldn’t get away with that …
$1000 box, serve
1 billion dollars. How is it sustainable… not top down, bottom up… making a million job (or 3)… if we believe in capitalism why do wecheck out brain at the door when it come sot helping the poor. Let’s make the grameen phone fo rwater and power. Institutionalize that… 15 yr plans for that never happen on budget and we never seem to get what we wants.
Question: how to fund, and how to profit from this investment
They did not design, conceive, tool up, develop cell phones. They didn’t have …
In his model there are a not few 100 million people who need … $30 million … every he knows would happily pay $1000 to do that … I’m going to have to spend 2 yrs to design and build… the incremental thousands are easy to get (like venture, the first money is hard to get then it gets easier). They need to find another use for these boxes so someone else will pay for design and dev or there needs to be a another way to do development.
Most people at leat subconsciously believe that we have all these technologies because we are rich. No no no we are rich because we have all these technologies.
Poor folks are looking for opps. There is a way to givev a helping hand and get a financial return
Shorebank in Chicago, calvert has a social investment fund. Compartamos just went public, kiva for online lending. Institutional things $100m endowment gift to tufts from omidyar ?… has to go into microfinance. Very very cool
Q for Gloria
As a pediatrician how has that background influenced your experience in sudan and how would that ….
She was impressed with the integrity of the slave redemption work and the level of resilieance tha tpeople had. Lydia polgreen? Indices of hope of cultures that expereicnes great calamity. Highest indices in Africa … see new news out of Africa. One of the reasons that … so much of the news that comes out is so bad. She goes to list some of the good news that is coming out ….(plug for wedia). People perservere and believe that there is going to be a better way.
Q despite all of the innovative programs… at what point do they tell themselves that they are simply not doing enough… how far should a company like time go
They are starting to see othe rcos in their industry who would ask why they are spending time on these issues… journey without a destination (constant improvement… find the Japanese word)… announcing a project in Canada… measuring whether birds are reproducing in various types of forestry regimes…
Programs and initiatives are very important steps in this direction (sustainability) Continue reading
