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A New Movement: From Divergence to Convergence?

A few days ago a friend of mine, Sonny Garg, asked me “is this movement (social entrepreneurship) really any bigger or different than any other social justice movement we have seen? And if so, why?”. After giving it more thought, my answer in short, was “yes”. Below are some of the ideas that came out of our dialogue and we would be very interested in your thoughts and reflections.

Any Larger?

The first argument for this movement being larger is the concept of “extended community”. Sonny said “Perhaps what we are seeing is not so much an increase in a commitment to social change but rather a broadening amongst young people (and society generally) of their definition of community, hence expanding the pie”. From my perspective, this is happening from three main reasons.

The first is the rise of social media. Just last week I was at the Women in the World conference and met an incredible entrepreneur from Uganda who I had been following on twitter. While I had never met her before when we “met” at the conference it was as if she and I were old friends. Even before we met in person, we felt connected, a part of the same community. Facebook, twitter, social networking sites, Kiva, they all can have the same impact.

The second is the increase in international travel and study abroad programs (like Global Citizen Year, School for International Training, Atlas Corps) which allows people to see social inequality face to face rather than on an infomercial. Living abroad changes people lives, redefines stereotypes, challenges assumptions, humbles you, and most importantly expands your community.

The third is the democratization of knowledge. Knowledge used to be owned by the elite but that is changing and the voices of the marginalized are becoming louder. Take for example TEDx, the Arab uprisings, Grameen Phone, which have not only disseminated knowledge to the poor but more importantly allowed the poor to share their voice on a global stage (Watch this TED talk by Chris Anderson if you don’t believe).

Because of this extended community, I do believe this movement is bigger and perhaps we can show the world what global inclusivity truly means.

Any Different?

The second part of the question was, “is this movement any different” than any other social justice movement we have seen?

I do think this movement is different. This movement is more about convergence than divergence. For example the 60’s were about divergence from the mainstream while this movement is about convergence of a social agenda into mainstream thinking and in particular business practices. We are seeing an emerging group of system changers that are pushing us to think beyond the traditional silos that force us to make a decision about whether we build our careers in business or nonprofit. These system changers are starting to experiment with integrating their social change passion with their private sector professions and vice versa.

Take for example 2009 Acumen Global Fellow Heidi Krauel. Heidi is one of the most astute business women I have ever met. Heidi has chosen to build a career that straddles both business and social change, she is the COO of New Island Capital, a social investment fund that deploys patient capital – at scale — to generate risk-adjusted financial returns. What people like Heidi are doing is validating for the rest of us that you do not have to make a choice between business or social, in fact you can find a way to do both (disclaimer here, it is not easy and does involve sacrifice). Other movements were more exclusive, only for the activists or the tree huggers, this movement is for anyone.

This concept of increasing the size of the pie is a fundamental aspect of our leadership strategy at Acumen Fund. We want to extend the idea of community and create role models (currently through our team, the Global Fellows Program, and now the East Africa Fellows Program) who can transcend boundaries and have the operational and financial skill sets combined with the moral imagination to build a more a more inclusive society and social system. If we can make social impact a board room topic (see Michael Porters recent article on “Shared Value”) and make financial sustainability, transparency, and accountability a part of the grassroots discussions then we can break down barriers that keep us so divided (and have prevented social movements from being as pervasive as they could be).

So, in short, I do think this movement is different and more pervasive, do you?

The Next Step for Women Leaders: Redefining Power

Last week I was reminded of how far we, as women, have come and how far we, as a world, must to go. I attended the Women in the World Daily Beast Conference, an event that captured the voices and celebrated the accomplishments of the most incredible women in the world. As I stood in the lobby surrounded by flashing cameras, shining jewelry, and brightly colored, impeccably tailored clothing, I felt like I was at high end gala in New York City. But then, before I had a chance to question if I was in the right place, I was pulled into a conversation with friend and mentor, Jill Iscol and Ngozi Okonjo Iweala. It was at that moment I realized I was surrounded by my heroes, the freedom fighters of my lifetime.

I could go on and on about what I learned at the conference, but the piece that really hit home for me was the panel discussions on women leaders and power. Just to give you a taste of the conversation:

· Sherly Sandberg, COO of Facebook, talked about how women must keep their foot on the gas until the very moment when it is truly time to slow down. She claims we are losing talented women leaders in the world because they “lean back” to early.

· Susan Sobbott, President, American Express OPEN, said we have to stop saying women are opting out of the traditional corporate world. Instead, if you look at the growing number of privately held women owned businesses it is clear we are opting in to create our own paths.

· Kirsten Gillibrand, United States Senator, New York, stressed the need for more women to get into politics because if we do not have a seat at the table on issues related to our lives we will not be happy with the outcome.

· Mika Brzezinski, Co-host, MSNBC's Morning Joe, talked about how women are great at negotiation, but not good at negotiating for themselves, they are too concerned about being likeable.

So as sat in the back of the small auditorium nodding my head in agreement, I found myself, at the same time, realizing there was a voice missing from the table. In the only topic (Power) that the conference organizers saw worthy of two panels (including 10 panelists), not one of the panelists was from the nonprofit sector, let alone the field of social enterprise.

This moment made me realize that, while we have come so far, perhaps we are still allowing a critical word “power” to be defined for us rather than creating our own definition. In the professional world, should power only be defined by having a seat on the board of a FTSE Company (which by the way only one sixth of the top 100 FTSE companies have a woman on the board), making as much money as our male counter parts, or rising to the highest positions of politics?

I am not saying we should give up the fight to achieve equality in the above mentioned areas. In fact, I think it is critical. What I am saying is that we are at a moment in time when traditional power is being democratized though technology (take the example of cell phones across Africa and Asia creating access to information and education for the poorest), social media (look at the uprising in the Arab world), and the merger between the for-profit and non-profit worlds (Michael Porter wrote a recent piece on HBR about the creation of shared value).

So in this unique moment in time, when women leaders are taking traditional and non-traditional positions of power, we should not only fight to achieve equality but perhaps we could completely redefine what power means.

Listening to the Voices of Experience

Last month I traveled to India, Pakistan, and Kenya to recruit the Class of 2012 Acumen Fund Global Fellows and had the opportunity to spend time with the current Acumen Fellows, Fellows Alumni, and future Fellows. These moments and these individuals reminded me that this movement is asking us so much more of ourselves and of our world.

We, at Acumen Fund, created the Global Fellows Program because we wanted to build a core group of leaders from across the globe who not only had the intellect, passion, and business skills but also the experience of what it was like to serve low income consumers in some of the most challenging environments in the world. Last month I got a glimpse into that complexity.

In Pakistan I found myself in a small, dark, bustling back alley on the outskirts of Lahore with, Fellow Benje Williams and his colleague from Pharmagen, Shakeel Awan. Benje, Shakeel, and I exchanged a smile as a group of men in their spotless white kurtas sitting nearby got a good look at the Americans. While there, Shakeel showed me how Pharmagen was able to clean their water with reverse osmosis treatment in the back of the store before selling it to customers, while Benje raved about the new marketing plan they had developed to reach more low income consumers. The plan was built from months of customer surveys and a trip to India where Benje met with Fellow Brenda Williams who shared best practices from Water Heath International, an Acumen investee that builds community water systems in rural India.

Just two days before my visit to Pharmagen a 12 year old boy took his life in a suicide bombing near one of the Pharmagen shops. Yes, life can hand out fear and hope in one single breath. The leaders of our time must handle this complexity both in its beauty and in its sadness. Benje and the Pharmagen team are handling this with grace.

In Mumbai, as I sat waiting for Acumen Fellow, Chikako Fujita, along the face of the Arabian Sea I watched the bustling road filled with honking rickshaws as hundreds of men gathered in ankle deep in water to relieve themselves and take their morning shower. The injustice enveloped me like a cloud of diesel smoke. Chika arrived late and exhausted. Chika has been asked to design the standard operating procedures for 1298, the first private ambulance company in India, as they scale up across the country. Chika, with a solid background in business from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Sanyo in Japan, must take that learning and apply it to a growing social enterprise, who through government contracts, is now seeking to scale their ambulance fleet from 326 to 1000 by 2012. I think Chika found a breath last week, I hope.

In Nairobi, I sat in a hot, dusty, diesel-filled, traffic-packed, 10 mile ride (which took us 1.5 hours!) with Khuram Hussain on our way to meet with the team from Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Women (an incredible program committed to providing 10,000 underserved women business and management education). Khuram is currently a Fellow at Ecotact a company working to provide affordable yet high-quality sanitation services to low-income communities in Kenya. I listened as Khuram discussed his new role building the strategy for the Ecotact mobile toilet program for high end consumers in Nairobi.

Khuram did not anticipate that serving the poor would involve spending so much time serving the wealthy. “What about building more ecotoilets in the slums of Nairobi,” he asked? Khuram is coming to terms with the reality sometimes building a business at the base of the pyramid is about tradeoffs and often involves subsidization. This can be a complex, daily balancing act for a social enterprise: make money, create social impact, create social impact, make money. Every day, every minute, they live that tension.

Using the market for social development has a depth of complexity that cannot be found in the classrooms of the top business schools or one week field visits to the slums. It takes deep learning from courageous people who are willing to live lives of immersion. While I realize we will all not be able to, nor should we, live lives of immersion, it reinforces the need to create more space for those voices of authentic experience in an increasingly noisy field.

Leadership on the Edges

For the past few years, I have been responsible for building the Global Fellows Program at Acumen Fund and now we are working to develop our new regional programs around the world, the first will launch in Kenya this summer. From these experiences I have begun to understand what makes talent in this field unique, and I want to share these reflections with those of you who aspire to be leaders in the social sector.

From my perspective, social entrepreneurs are masters at forging connections between opposing worlds. These leaders aren't just comfortable bringing together two opposing ideas; they thrive on it. Take for example, non-profit venture capital. This is radical. Why? Well, because our mind likes to keep our creative process in silos (black/white, right/wrong, business/social, rich/poor). Things are simpler that way. In her TED talk, Chimamanda Adichie discusses the danger of a single story. Leaders embrace the tension created by many different stories; they find innovative ways to allow opposing narratives to co-exist, merge, and create new value in the world.

Now the question is: How do you as an aspiring leader in this field build these capabilities? I believe it is about living and thinking on the edges. Understand your sector but step out often to learn from others. Then bring that knowledge back to develop something new. True visionaries are the ones who recognize and develop synergies across the boundaries in which we are normally contained.

So how do you do this? The greatest piece of advice I can give is to listen. I don’t mean just close your mouth. I mean actually listen so hard that you are willing to change your mind. Synergies come when you allow yourself to silence your point of view and recognize the value of someone else’s story and ideas. This is not just about low-income communities. This concept should be applied whether you are talking to the wealthiest or the poorest in the world.

To give you a couple of examples, 2011 Fellow Benje Williams just posted a blog on the synergy between design and development. Most people don't think these two have anything in common. Another example comes from the slums of Nairobi. While many people might overlook the concept of leadership development in the context of a place like the Kenyan slums, the current manager of our Kenya leadership program, Suraj Sudhakar, helped spearhead TedxKibera and continues to cultivate in leaders in this locale.

The second piece of advice I can give is exposure yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking as often as possible. To give you an example, when people ask us about the social entrepreneurship curriculum we teach the Fellows, I always tell them that while we do teach social entrepreneurship, our curriculum is much more than that. We expose Fellows to design thinking (IDEO does a training), business (we have trainings with professors from Columbia and New York University and have conversations with everyone from Seth Godin to Bill Mayer), art (we have been known to do our performance development plans in the Met), music (thanks John Forte), finance, the latest technology and social media (Carlos Dominguez from Cisco spend a day with us), philosophy (inspired by Aspen Institutes Good Society), and storytelling (Ariel Group runs a training, and see the results)!

So what I am proposing is that social entrepreneurship is, in fact, not a field but a way of thinking. A way of building bridges, of seeing the world not for what it is but what it can be. My mentor C.K. Prahalad used to say to me, “I don’t like to think outside the box, I like to create my own box.” So for those of you trying to build your careers in this field, create your own box and then leave it often to explore how you can make it stronger. Build a box that listens to and incorporates the voices from the slums of Mumbai to the penthouses of Manhattan. Because at the end of the day we are all the same and the more we can recognize these synergies the closer we get to creating a more inclusive economy and social system.

A Story From Kenya

As you know I have been in Kenya for the past few weeks working building a local fellows program, which is beginning to come together and more importantly feel more like a Kenya program than a New York program… it is all exciting and I can’t wait to share more.

But the reason for this email is because I wanted to share some thoughts and a story from a recent trip to Kibera, (the largest slum in East Africa).

This trip has been a learning one so far... A few days ago I had an interesting day because on the eve of my birthday I came into contact with someone who reminded me of myself at 20. She was young, incredibly capable, fearless, and determined to fit in as a native. The young woman I am referring to is Jessica, a recent graduate of Welsley, who is doing some incredible work in Kibera, with her co-partner, Kennedy, (both echoing green fellows). They have built an all girls school in the heart of Kibera. While the school is free, they have developed a model that ensures repayment in other ways. They have the parents commit 5 weeks of work to the school a year and have services around the school they change for like pay per use toilets, a community center, a health center...really amazing...


Back to Jessica. It was so amusing, she had me meet her at this shopping mall, which is where I thought we would hold our meeting...so of course I show up, white pants, nice silk shirt, long flowing scarf, gold bangles, and she quickly wisks me away from the comfort of the mega mall to a nearby mutatu (small local bus transport) which we crammed into for the ride into the slums... as I sat there smushed between two people body odor filling the bus only to be over powered by the smell of burning garbage, in an instant I was back in Senegal (where I lived at 20) taking the local road, the hard road everywhere, at any cost...we exited the mutatu as I looked down at my already dirt and grease stained white pants and jumped onto the red dusty road that leads into Kibera. We walked together followed by groups of yelling kids who were dying to hold my hand, touch my leg, and just be noticed,... I had almost forgotten what that was like... (most of my time here and in my last few trips has been a very priviledged existence).

As we walked down the road, she buzzed with energy to tell me what she was doing, so inspired so proud so accomplished for a young woman of 20 ( I admit while I saw myself in her, in no way had I accomplished all this
J). When we finally arrived at the school deep in Kibera I meet Kennedy her co-founder. He is one of those people who just radiate energy, he stood there in front of their community site in a rainbow colored tyedye shirt and jeans with a huge Kenyan smile...he walked up to me and welcomed me to his community and we talked about what they were doing and what I was trying to do. They told their story I told mine… Kennedy told me he admired me because I was "way up there" but also "way down here"... I sat there thinking how can this young man admire me?

After our conversation Kennedy walked me through the long winding road out of Kibera. We passed many men yelling in Swahihi “who is the white woman with you?” (Kennedy had translated). He stopped to chat with a man who was making wooden bed frames. They exchanged greetings and we were off. Kennedy told me about 4 years ago he had raised 2000 Shillings ($25) and invested it in 20 businesses in Kibera. For his small investment he asked that the borrowers not pay him back but instead pay it forward to someone else.. The man selling the bed frames, was doing quite well and had the option to pay it forward and also pay Kennedy back. I felt a tinge of guilt flow through my body as I thought about the last thing I did with $25.

Kennedy was born in Kibera to a girl of 15, he never knew his father. At the age of 9 he was living on the streets, and was angry at the world, but then at 12 he met a priest who helped educate him, Kennedy told me he was determined to learn English so he could speak to the white people...Kennedy is currently in his second year at Welsley in Connecticut.

As shared with me his story I looked around and was so intensely reminded of the pain and sadness that exists and has existed in the world The anger and resentment that lives in many of the individuals that have experienced the injustice that this world has to offer. My friend and I recently had a long talk about the legacy of colonialism and the implications of that on the economic and psychological lives of many Africans. I wonder if there ever will be a point when we can find a place where we are all truly given the opportunity to realize our potential as individuals and as a world. Acknowledgment and forgiveness are such hard things to achieve...

And then there are people like Kennedy and Jessica and all of you who remind us that there is hope and that things can change.

I guess on the eve of my Birthday I am thinking, just thinking about what could be accomplished in a lifetime…

Hope you all are well and if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope to hear your stories soon.