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This week, we welcomed four new people to the NextBillion team: Maria Zheng, Andrew Eder, Bryan Farris, and Adeena Schlussel. Staff writers took new looks at how enterprises can intervene in education and early childhood to create new security and prosperity into the future.
Today I'd like to introduce you to four new members whose name you'll see more and more often in NextBillion: Maria Zheng, from the University of Michigan, Adeena Schlussel from Acumen Fund, Andrew Eder from NextBillion's partner Technoserve, and Bryan Farris from Bain & Co.
I read a brilliant article 'Design Thinking for Social Innovation' published in the Winter 2010 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review today. The article talks about the need for human-centric design to solve complex problems and takes one through the key elements in the 'Design Thinking' process.
Early childhood development is a term used to describe the personal growth of a child until he reaches the age of 6. Poverty at this stage will have irreversible consequences on individuals’ future lifetime opportunities. In this post I explain the role of BoP businesses in serving this vulnerable population segment.
It is clear that in the long run, the solution to terrorism is to deconstruct the life circumstances that encourage members to join organizations like the Taliban. This is not an easy task, but social entrepreneurs are working diligently to help.
The rationale for why emerging markets are a source for disruptive innovations is simply because in order for a product or service to be successful, it has to be more affordable, easier to use, and offer more value then existing products on the market. I was recently referred to an article written by Niti Bhan on this topic...
Two innovative product companies that came out of one university course are delivering some basic things to children (of different ages): warmth and light. In the case of the latter, there are also some great lessons how to grab the public's attention and imagination for a new product for the base of the pyramid.
With patient capital, philanthrocapitalism, and venture capital models becoming ever more popular ways to fill the voids of the base of the pyramid (BoP), the power of the market is emerging as increasingly vibrant. Vestergaard Frandsen, a European manufacturer of emergency relief and disease control products is harnessing that very power.
"Once you don't have it - that's when you realize the value" -- David Kuria, founder and CEO of Ecotact, speaking about toilets. As an investor and partner with Ecotact, Acumen Fund is eager to continue the celebration with Kuria and his team, as they grow from 17 facilities to a target of more than double that within the next year.
