The Social Venture Network hosted the competition "Imagine What’s Next: Ideas that Will Change the Way the World Does Business" in June and announced the winners on Monday. This innovation award's objective is to find businesses and leaders that create positive social change in the business sector.

Out of the ten winners, I would like to highlight two because of their work within the BOP sphere:

Design that Matters, Timothy Prestero, CEO (Cambridge, MA): Design that Matters (DtM) was founded to help social enterprises in developing countries scale more quickly by providing them access to better products designed specifically for their needs. DtM’s design work and business analysis is performed by volunteers from academia and industry, using the infrastructure available at their host institutions. Academic contributors include MIT, Stanford and the Rhode Island School of Design, and corporate partners include IDEO and Fisher Price, SolidWorks and Optikos.

World of Good, Priya Haji, Co-founder and CEO
(Emeryville, CA): World of Good seeks to lift thousands of women in the developing world out of poverty. It creates opportunities for hundreds of artisan cooperatives around the world by serving as a bridge to the U.S. retail market and providing access to fair wages, safe working conditions and long-term economic sustainability. ProjectGood.com is the newest venture launched in partnership with eBay to create a people positive shopping experience designed to help millions of consumers connect with producers around the world.

The winners of the competition will be honored at the SVN Fall Conference in California later next week. Since 1987, SVN has been working to promote social enterprises and encourage socially responsible investing, sustainable and green enterprises. They identify businesses and entrepreneurs that value both social concerns and profitability.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development is recruiting for a Managing Director position based in Geneva, Switzerland.The role of this position is to contribute to the strategic direction of the WBCSD.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

Engage the company executives in the steering committee of the Development Focus Area to develop and gain approval of the strategy and overall work plans;

Engage broadly with the WBCSD member companies and regional network partners to raise awareness of development related issues and opportunities for business;

Work with representatives from WBCSD member companies – of many different industry sectors - to lead the implementation of the work program;

Advocate for improvements in the overall investment climate for doing business in emerging economies with government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations;

Explore collaborative opportunities with government, multi-laterals, development organizations and civil society organizations to partner with business to deliver real progress on the ground.

To submit an application for this position send a cover letter and resume to job@wbcsd.org. The deadline to receive applications is October 31, 2007. Click here for more details on the job listing.

This is the perfect opportunity to join the WBCSD team of professionals who share the motivation make a difference in the world and support sustainable development through business. NextBillion encourages our qualified readers to apply!