Entrepreneurship Notes

Please read the business plan of Ruby Cup. What do you feel are its strengths? What do you perceive as its weaknesses? My answer: The Ruby Cup team prepared their business plan which had some weaknesses and strengths, but they learned a lot and corrected themselves along the way to take their plan from paper to practice. And, they seem to be successful so far. According to me, following were the strengths and weaknesses in their business plan: Strengths: 1. Dual market approach - Targeting low-income and high-income markets with different strategies. 2. Donations - They decided not to donate their cups in order to protect their brand and so that women don't feel that it is 'poor people' product. 3. They considered Prahalad's Bottom of Pyramid Theory. Weaknesses: 1. The team did not consider challenges that they might have to face like Kenyan bureaucracy etc. 2. It might have been more beneficial for them if they had considered working separately on different aspects of ...

Julie and Veronica, RubyCup co-founders Kai Hockerts, Professor, Copenhagen Business School Ruby Cup is on a mission to provide a sustainable and healthy menstrual hygiene solution to women and girls worldwide. What do RubyCup co-founders, Julie and Veronica, think of business plan writing process? 1. It helps in shaping the thoughts around the idea. 2. Provides means for communication with others. 3. It allows the team to know if there business is really viable. Kai Hockerts on RubyCup business plan: Strengths of the business plan: 1. Clearly identifies an uptapped market at the base of the pyramid 2. Social impact is convincing and strongly portrayed as potentially huge 3. Use of enganging story telling transports the enthusiasm of the founders Weaknesses of the business plan: 1. No clear information how the capital raised would be used. 2. Financial data generally comes late and is vague. Not very detailed and gives not much confidence on financial side of the plan. 3. Marketing pla...

Apply the business model canvas method to Hueforbi. Given that the assignment should be short you are not required to address all elements of the canvas. However, in any case you should focus on value propositions, channels, and customer segments. Add as many additional canvas elements as you like and spell out how you see the business model of Hueforbi develop. My answer: Hueforbi is a social enterprise selling beanies made from leftover wool and helping the people of the street. Applying the business model canvas method to Hueforbi: Value propositions: This is what Hueforbi offers to its customers (products or services). Customers get "beanies" which are produced using the leftover wool. Apart from beanies, customers find this product valuable as this contributes in helping the community and is environment friendly (as it is made up of recycled material). Customer channels: These are channels through which products reach customers. For Hueforbi, mouth to mouth publicity is ...

Your Assignment for the week will be to compare the two microfinance platforms kiva.org and myc4.com. Your assignment is to outline how the two platforms differ and to select one that you prefer. Argue for why you have selected this website. My answer: Kiva and Myc4 both are microfinance platforms that are helping small entrepreneurs who need money on loan. Kiva is non-profit organization, whereas myc4 is a business model where the lender can make some money. Myc4 is working in Africa and Kiva has access to small entrepreneurs in various parts through their field partners. Though, both websites are doing excellent work and provide sufficient details so that you can lend money to entrepreneurs, and it is difficult to choose one over another, I would go with Myc4. I would go with Myc4 for the reason that it allows you to make some money. Now making money is not your primary goal when you're out there to help people, but this is what makes Myc4 little interesting. The extra money that...

Should you start a social business? I don't know. I think it's a fantastic opportunity. I don't actually think the social business is something new. I think social business has existed forever. A social business is something where you want to find a solution to communities, or people, or countries, or areas needs. It's a need which you'd like to cover in a way which has a social aspect. If you want to do that, I think you should team up, find some people who can share your vision about what social challenge you would like to do something with, and you should quickly go into collecting data about it. If somebody already has done it, if you can learn from others and then build a prototype on this. See if it works. Go out and ask those you would like to help with their needs if this really is right. If this really is the best model for covering that. Then refine your model and then see how you can scale it and learn from it. Don't be afraid of sharing it, your mist...

Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other branches. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. (Wikipedia) Kiva is a 501 non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in 77 countries. Kiva's mission is "to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive." (Wikipedia) MYC4 was an internet marketplace where you and investors from around the world can lend money directly to entrepreneurs who are doing business in Africa and create growth together with them. That me...

Anirudh Agarwal, Research Fellow at Copenhagen Business School Grameen Veolia is part of the family of the Grameen Bank. Bangladesh lies in South Asia. It is around Ganges. And the water there is not clean and contains lot of arsenic & other heavy materials which cause physiological problems when consumed. The Grameen Bank knew what the social problems are, knew how the market is. But they didn’t have the technologies. So, they found a Veolia and formed a joint venture to address these social problems. Identify a social disequilibrium and convert that disequilibrium into an opportunity. And then use a lot of creative means to address that opportunity such that it becomes a sustainable business proposition. Once you have identified a social opportunity. Reach out to people: different stakeholders, politicians, funding agencies, your customers. Find the right set of people to work with and then write a business plan/a project proposal. And then basically look for the right funding ag...

Johanna Mair, Professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin Gram Vikas based in Orissa, India works with mission to bring equality and empower rural womens . Gram Vikas works in the village only if everyone in the village is on board which means that the village, across cast, across gender, has to be on board for Gram Vikas to actually work with them. Gram Vikas started with good intention of helping people in rural areas. But they soon had to understand and learn to twist & tweak their intervention, their innovation to the needs of the population they serve. Initially, they started with providing irrigation to land owners and helping poor farmers. But they learned very quickly that once benefitted from irrigation, land owners don’t stick to their commitment of sharing the benefits. Then they tried to bring dairy products, dairy farming to very remote villages, tribal villages. But they found that tribes actually do not drink milk because it is against their beliefs. What ...

The assignment for this week will be for you to read through two websites of organizations supporting social entrepreneurs: ashoka.org and unltd.org.uk. As you will see the two organizations differ in who they consider to be social entrepreneurs. Realizing that there is no “right” or “wrong” answer, your assignment for Saturday is to select one of the two organizations and to argue for why you prefer their interpretation of who is a social entrepreneur. My answer: Broadly speaking, both the organizations, consider social entrepreneurs as change makers (people who bring change in the society). After going through the Ashoka's website and listening to what Rebecca Altman said in the interview, I would prefer Ashoka's interpretation about social entrepreneurs. Apart from social impact, following are some points (which, I think, are really important to be a successful social entrepreneur) that Ashoka considers while looking at social entrepreneurs: 1. Innovation: It is important f...

UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom set up by seven organisations that promote social entrepreneurship. The organisation offers cash awards, networking and mentorship opportunities for social entrepreneurs in the UK, and has affiliate organizations in a number of other countries. (Wikipedia) From interview with CEO of UnLtd Our belief is that, if we enable social entrepreneurs to flourish and create an environment & infrastructure that is supportive of social entrepreneurs, that then they will be able to tackle many of the social issues that affect our country, and that they will create role models for business, for public sector and for non-profits on how we can combine the best of those three sectors. What we find is that the most important thing is that you inspire the social entrepreneur, that you take the passion and the idea they have and you let them thrive with it. The main trigger is experience of adversity: w...

Ashoka (branded Ashoka: Innovators of the Public ) is an international organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by affiliating individual social entrepreneurs into the Ashoka organization. Their stated mission is "to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world's citizens to think and act as changemakers". (Wikipedia) From interview with Ashoka Scandinavia Asa Burman, Co-Director, Ashoka Scandinavia and Rebecca Altman, Venture and Fellowship Manager, Ashoka Scandinavia Ashoka, started in India, by Bill Drayton, to become network and support social entrepreneurs – entrepreneurs applying entrepreneurial principles to social problems. Not only to identify these entrepreneurs but actually connect them to the resources & individual people and communities that they needed in order to spread their work. Key qualities of Ashoka fellows: 1. New ideas: innovation, system changing new...