Not only did I have a great flight on Virgin on my last trip overseas, but this image from the Virgin mothership is one of my favorites in a long time. The image comes from their page about running a sustainable company, which is worthy of your attention, as well. (Amazing what an image search can turn up, eh?)
As part of our partnership with Innovation Network for Communities (INC), we spent a week in mid-July at the Social Innovation eXchange (SIX) with 120 social innovation leaders from 24 countries.
Our two-part report ran this week at the nuPOLIS blog.
In summary, it was a wonderful and enriching experience for which I am humbly thankful. It has further enhanced our resolve to get to work here at home, creating and amplifying the social innovations that will change the lives of our communities, and ensure a sustainable future for our children.
Don Tapscott, futurist and author of Wikinomics, posted a two-minute video (tip: Kevin Johansen) suggest that it’s time to shift how we think about financial risk. His proposal is based on two concepts:
As readers of Wikinomics know, this is consistent with Tapscott’s position that information and Open Source thinking change business. He positions this within the context of a failed financial system based on closed and proprietary thinking, suggesting that a more collaborative method of risk analysis would create a more stable, and ultimately stronger market.
As nuance readers know, at Business Catapult, we have been working on an evolution of risk management that takes into account sustainability thinking and triple-bottom-line metrics.
As we anticipate the upcoming Social Capital Markets (SoCap) conference (who just hosted the first of three conference-related twitter chats this week), we wonder how our fellow conference goers (and anyone else concerned about the social captial markets) think about Tapscott’s proposition, and how the social capital marketplace could take his advice.
In the world of sustainable enterprise, the tension between focusing on ‘mission’ (ie: do-gooding) and ‘business’ (ie: paying the bills) is extraordinary. Whether the enterprise is for-profit or non-profit, these challenges bring leaders to the brink of their capacity, and pit employees and board members against one another across unnecessarily stark lines.
Further complicating the picture is the question of partnerships and collaboration. Given the already uncertain organizational boundaries (how do we think about volunteers?), the intention of multple enterprises to share resources and align efforts to a common causes is a natural instinct. Sadly, the results of these collaborations are often below expectations, and cause more experienced leaders to shy away from new partnerships.
In an important paper on this subject (PDF), the dynamic husband-and-wife team of Tonya (Exec Director of Center for Social Innovation) and Mark Surman (Exec Director of Mozilla Foundation) have documented their experience in creating successful cross-organizational collaborations, which they call “constellations.”
The constellation model is borne out of seven years of cross-organizational collaboration on children’s health issues in Canada. The network of related organizations overcame many hurdles and refined the model in a pracitical, working environment.
As the social innovation and social enterprise communities expand and address adjacent and overlapping goals, adoption of concepts like this one are going to be key to achieving more change faster. We strongly recommend that anyone in the field review this paper not just once, but keep it handy for reference and guidance.
Zoo York — home of huge banker bonuses (again, already) and esteem-crushing ad campaigns (not so much, these days) — would appear from a distance to be an unlikely home to an interesting sustainability network. A recent 24-hour layover revealed that the seeds of a green apple are germinating throughout the city. Continue reading
We’ll be blogging deeper thoughts later, but tune in to the live twitter feed at #sixlisbon on Twitter. Lots of great collaboration from 100 leaders in 24 countries.
Fascinating work continues at nuance partners Innovation Network for Communities (INC) and the nuPOLIS blogsite, newsfeed and shared information resource focusing on scalable social innovations for communities. Please review and enjoy this update put together for the people who are just getting to know our work: Continue reading
Social entrepreneurs are often challenged by the legal structure of their new enterprise. These entrepreneurs weigh a long list of pros and cons between for-profit and non-profit. A new entity, the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C).
This email from Martin Montero (@montero on Twitter — worthy of a follow), co-founder of the Austin Social Innovation Hub outlines the new legal structure of the L3C. Posted with his permission for your interest: Continue reading
In addition to the fact that Denver has now twice been identified as the major metro area best poised for economic recovery (tip to newbie tweeter Adam Rentschler), there’s some pretty exciting progressive economic activity happening up and down the Front Range.
Coming up on July 9th is the Responsible Economy Roundtable, hosted by Richard Eidlin and his new firm, Progress Group. Our firms share a goal, which is to catalyze support for social entrepreneurs, which Eidlin describes as “triple bottom line (financial, social and environmental) businesses that use market-based strategies to advance a social mission, while generating revenue.”
“The Roundtable is dedicated to supporting the next generation of Denver-area social entrepreneurs from underserved communities, who have the talent and vision, but lack the necessary resources to scale their idea. The goal is to connect these innovative people and their good ideas to business leaders and civic organizations with resources. A particular objective is to deepen the involvement of the private sector.”
We’re not only totally aligned, but fully participating in the Roundtable, as well as the greater movement. This session fits into an ongoing discussion in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and points in-between. This fall and winter, the Local Capital Summit and Angel Capital Summit are both poised to maintain the momentum. Both events are run by our long-term colleagues, and without stealing their thunder, we know you’ll learn about new tools, collaborations and opportunities at each event, which will build toward a more vibrant and sustainable economy in Colorado.
Care to play? Join us on July 9th.
The only thing we have to fear is…. doing nothing.
In a move that could end up having a massive impact on US entrepreneurism, Kiva.org has introduced their peer-to-peer lending service to the US. Kiva was originally built to alleviate poverty by creating a new capital market for global social entrepreneurs — to the US.
In their report on today’s announcement, TechCrunch reports,