Are you a graduate or undergraduate student interested in emerging markets and/or private equity? Want to spend the summer in Washington, D.C.? Well, EMPEA’s got a job for you: the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) is hiring 2 graduate interns and 1 undergraduate intern to work in their Washington, D.C. offices this summer.

The job descriptions are available at the EMPEA web site, along with a good description of the organization itself. Don’t forget (shameless self-promotion here) that NextBillion.net is also looking for a few good interns.

(Via IPEG)

One of the fundamental principles for business engagement with the ‘base of the pyramid’ is to take a triple bottom line approach to business model development and evaluation. This approach takes into account environmental and social impacts in addition to – and in support of – the financial bottom line.

Whole Foods has built a successful business around this principle. It’s co-founder and CEO John Mackey states that “the enlightened corporation should try to create value for all of its constituencies. From an investor's perspective, the purpose of the business is to maximize profits. But that's not the purpose for other stakeholders-for customers, employees, suppliers, and the community. Each of those groups will define the purpose of the business in terms of its own needs and desires, and each perspective is valid and legitimate.”

This business philosophy runs counter to a famous article written in 1970 by future Nobel laureate Milton Friedman whose title aptly summed up its main point: "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its