Of the MNCs with which we have worked, none goes to greater lengths than Vodafone to create opportunities to listen to its "stakeholders" - and the company counts us as one.  I attended such an occasion in New York Wednesday evening, linked to the publication of a new Vodafone report, "Economic Empowerment Through Mobile," (pdf) to which we contributed a piece.   Cynics will say that these gestures are mere flattery, or worse, bribery, designed to disarm potential critics, and no doubt many companies do just that, but in the case of Vodafone, I don't buy it.  Vodafone understands what it takes to generate innovative ideas - and it's not gathering only like-minded folks to reinforce everything they already know.  In my experience, the company actually listens hard to what outsiders say, and they try to respond.  As Vodafone is a big company, and there are lots of competing interests and priorities - and the demands of the market (Vodafone has had a few bad years, and it has slowed them down) - but, in the main they are inclined to be responsive, and that puts them in a class of company with few peers.  And by the way, read the report, it's good, if we must say so ourselves.

Continuing the social butterfly circuit, I returned to DC to attend yet another soiree related to the release of the full study of Wizzit, the South African BOP-focused cell service on which we have previously reported, that is contained in the aforementioned Vodafone publication.  This study, "Mobile Phone Banking and Low-Income Customers: Evidence From South Africa", (pdf) was done in cooperation with CGAP and UN Foundation.  CGAP's Elizabeth Littlefield made it abundantly clear why mobile phones are the platform of the future for all manner of BOP-related activities, including financial services.  It's just in the numbers - try 20 million total existing outlets worldwide for financial services as traditionally defined, and 2 billion mobile phones today, with the number rising by the hundreds of thousands a day, mostly from growth in emerging economies. 

In Indonesia, less than half of small businesses have access to formal financing. This fact is staggering given the importance of entrepreneurship in the thriving South Asian economies and it is one of the main reasons why New Ventures hosted its First Annual Investor Forums in India and Indonesia.

Earlier this week, 350 investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and business leaders convened to see the twenty new enterprises being added to the New Ventures portfolio. These entrepreneurs represent a variety of sectors like clean energy and ecotourism, but all share a common vision of markets where sustainable practices lead to even greater market value.

Virginia Barreiro has the full story including the six big winners, but check out a few of the comments overheard from her and others attending the forums:

It's a classic example of traditional vs. "modern," market efficiency vs. sustainability. Agriculture in Indonesia is largely divided between two types of producers - those that practice environmentally friendly, small-scale methods, and those that have adopted the more efficient, large-scale, Western techniques.

The first is characterized by an intelligent use of resources to stay within the capacity of the natural environment, but also an inefficiency that does not lend itself to profit potential in a market economy. The second has much more growth potential, but is characterized by the unsafe and unsustainable use of pesticides, monocropping and overuse of fertilizer that actually decrease crop yields over time while damaging the local community.

 

Ben and Blair Ripple created Bening Big Tree Farms to reconcile both...

I've been reading through a slew of successful BOP business models and am continually and consistently amazed and inspired by people’s fortitude and creativity. I find myself thinking, "How did they come up with that?" and other times I wonder "Why didn’t I think of that?" Sometimes it's as simple as taking an existing activity and giving it a new life as a working business model. Sometimes, it comes from wanting to give something back to the community that you grew up in as you see it deteriorating. Other times, it originates from wanting to use the skills you possess for something more. Whatever the motivation, you could say that it’s the fact that they took action to make these things happen and follow them through that is most inspirational.

Check out the Activity Database homepage, and read on for a synopsis of newly-added projects.