Center for Social Innovation

Published: December 23, 2007 Download  35 minutes, 16.1mb, recorded 2007-03-27

What must the new models of social enterprise include to become the "next big things" in effecting social change? In this panel discussion from the 2007 Skoll World Forum, experts envision how passionate, creative, and clever social entrepreneurs can take their ideas to the next level of effectiveness. They talk about good organizational models, the role of government, incentives for entrepreneurs, and examples of success stories in the field of social enterprise.

Roger Martin is dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and director of AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship. A Canadian from Wallenstein, Ontario, he was formerly a director of Monitor Company, a global strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass. During his 13 years with Monitor, he founded and chaired Monitor University, the firm's educational arm, served as co-head of the firm for two years, and founded the Canadian office. Martin's research interests lie in the areas of global competitiveness, integrative thinking, business design, and corporate citizenship.

Martin Fisher is cofounder of Kickstart, a philanthropic capital organization working to end poverty in Africa. He was born in London, England, and grew up in Ithaca, N.Y., where his father was a physics professor at Cornell University. Fisher received a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell in 1979, an MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1980, and a PhD from Stanford in theoretical and applied mechanics in 1985. From 1985-1986 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Kenya, where he studied the connection between technology and development. He then joined ActionAid-Kenya, a British nonprofit, where he established a large rural water program, developed and promoted low-cost farming and building equipment, and co-established and ran the Appropriate Technology Unit. Fisher left ActionAid in 1991 and cofounded KickStart (formerly ApproTEC) with Nick Moon.

Mindy Lubber, JD, is president and a founding board member of Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. She is also founder of two environmental investment funds, former regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office, a leading environmental attorney in New England and a strategic advisor on Ceres' Sustainable Governance Project.

Taddy Blecher, is a director of CIDA City Campus, a nonprofit, private, higher education institution founded in Johannesburg in 1999 to contribute to the social and economic development of South Africa by providing access to quality higher education and skills development for financially disadvantaged students. Blecher went to Wits University where he graduated with a BS degree, majoring in actuarial science and statistics. After graduation, he worked first as an actuary and later for international management consulting firm Monitor Company. He became a senior project leader and was voted consultant of the year, in the firm, three years in a row.

Roshaneh Zafar is pioneering the development of a women-centered and women-managed initiative that combines a micro-level lending and savings operation with related training and support activities at the community level. The formula is currently being tested and refined in two Pakistani villages and is expected to serve as a model for similar undertakings in other parts of the country. In 1995, Zafar founded a new organization, the Kashf Foundation, to spearhead the development of a new model for a “full-service organization,” managed by and for women, that combines in-house, micro-scale banking and lending operations with closely integrated training and support services.

Resources

• 2007 Skoll World Forum agenda
• Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto
• Kickstart: Tools to End Poverty
• Ceres.org Investors and Environmentalists for Sustainable Prosperity
• CIDA City Campus
• Kashf Foundation
• Rediscovering Social Innovation (Stanford Social Innovation Review article)
• Social Entrepreneurship Revisited (Stanford Social Innovation Review article)