Sports and Social Entrepreneurship

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend a very unique discussion on the importance of sports in children’s lives and how it can be used in social entrepreneurship. Joana Martorell Coordinator of Unicef in Catalunya Spain moderated the discussion with Dr. Simone Kolss, Market Intelligence Manager of Adidas AG, Andrew Walker, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing & Communications for The Women’s Tennis Association, and Todd Beane, the International Director of the Johan Cruyff Institute of Sports Studies.

The panel focused on how sports teach children many life lessons including teamwork, determination, drive, how to follow rules, leadership, and gender equality. These values and skills help children to develop into responsible adults. Sports can also be used to promote health and health education as well. One example of this is that Adidas puts on a soccer tournament and provide all the children with vaccines.

This panel definitely made me think differently about how we can look at the social impact of our work in any industry, whether that is sports, the entertainment industry, etc.

-Scott Berger, Junior, Majors: Chemistry and Spanish (LAMP)

Improving Education for the BOP

I found several events during the course of the weekend particulary interesting due to my interest in education reform and policy. On Friday, I attended a panel titled, “Education: Addressing Development at the Base of the Pyramid.” Personally, I agree with the nonprofit Teach For America in that education inequity is one of the US’s (and the world’s) greatest injustices. UNICEF says that an individual needs at least 5 years of primary education in order to be considered literate, but as one panelist described, this level of education is often not met in impoverished and underdeveloped nations.

One issue that was brought forth in the panel is the problems that face girls in many rural communities. In many cultures, it is believed to be useless for a girl to receive a solid education. To counteract this, many programs and schools have “subsidized” the short-term opportunity cost of a girl going to school each day by providing a cow, sewing machine, etc, to the girl’s program. However, the gains from an education are clear: For each year that a girl is educated, her family can expect a 10-20% rise in income. In order for a family to come on board, many NGOs and schools participate in the “drinking tea philosophy.” In many cultures, sharing tea while discussing an issue brings everyone to a sound solution. In this case, it is the education of a village’s, or just a family’s, girls.

Family expectations are not the only hindrance to education. In Kenya’s largest slum, 75% of students attend a very inexpensive private school because the public education system is a mess. Overall, the panel discussed that there are 3 challenges to universal education:

1) 1. Teachers’ educations are shortened in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

2) 2. By 2015, the world’s schools will be missing 10 million teachers that are needed to educate our children

3) 3. $8 billion USD is missing that is needed to reach the MDGs

The discussion on education continued on Saturday, with the morning’s keynote address given by the Vicky Colbert, CEO of Escuela Nueva, an organization that provides uniquely-structured rural education to students, especially girls. Vicky stressed the importance that in education, one has to be persistent, because results take time. Additionally, she acknowledged that education is far too small a portion of nations' budgets, especially in comparison to other development work and defense.

Vicky described Escuela Nueva’s work at length, and I encourage you all to check out http://www.escuelanueva.org/pagina/index.php?codmenu=2&idioma=2 for more information. In short, the organization uses a unique teaching approach that is child-centered and very engaging in multi-grade schools. The teacher is a facilitator, and does not just provide instruction. This method has proved itself: It was acknowledged by the World Bank as one of the 3 most outstanding reforms in developing countries worldwide. With just a $3 million dollar budget, Escuela Nueva reaches 5,000,000 students.

To be sure, these programs certainly gave me food for thought about how the business, political, social, and education sectors can work together to improve education for the world’s youth.

-Kristina Anderson, Junior, Majors: Economics and Legal Studies

Business across borders

Today I had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion entitled “Can Business Bridge Religious, Territorial, or Ideological Differences?” which mostly dealt with the daily challenges and rewards that are an inherent part of business in what the panelists called “conflict areas.” The panelists were diverse, but the one who captivated my attention was Shainoor Khoja, the Director of Corporate Affairs for Roshan, an Afghani telecom company.

Despite the challenges that Roshan faces in Afghanistan, such as 70% illiteracy, a poorly developed government, little infrastructure, and a lack of human resources development (to name a few), they started turning a profit after only seven months. They did so in a way that also generated community engagement, such as selling rights to 15 towers to the government and people of the surrounding communities as collateral; this served to increase capital for the company while also helping to ensure the safety of the towers (which had previously been targets for terrorist bombs) because the community had a vested interest to protect them.

As an interesting side note, 23% of Roshan’s 1100 employees are women, which adds an incredible cost to their operating expenses because of the hoops they have to jump through to employ them in the first place; families must agree, transportation must be provided, groups must be arranged so that they don’t ever have to be alone. Khoja’s insight certainly gave me a different perspective on sustainable business – it’s not every day that you learn about business practices in one of Afghanistan’s premier companies!

-Liz Kitto, Junior, Majors: Economic Consulting, Public Policy Analysis, and Spanish

Day 2: Raring to go!

Here's a quick outline of our 2nd day at the DGDW Conference! I'm really excited for it: 3 break-out sessions and 2 keynote sessions are bound to keep us actively engage as we enjoy at last day at the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra.

-Nic Perfetti, Junior, Majors: Public Policy Analysis, Economics, and Italian

A recap of Day 1!

After a full day of speakers, networking, and discussion the first day of the Doing Good and Doing Well conference has come to a close. From start to finish the speakers captivated the audience and spurred heated discussions. There were three keynote speakers, one being the former Managing Director of the Internal Monetary Fund, Mr. Michel Camdessus, and several breakout sessions to choose from ranging from Microfinance to Driving Social Change through Sports.

Here's a photo of us with Mr. Camdessus!

The conference was composed of students and professionals from all across Europe and the world. It was incredible to compare and contrast ideas regarding responsible business with people from so many different cultures. The opportunity to engage in conversation concerning relevant ideas that not only impact the United States but also several other countries brought a variety of new perspectives.

Lets hope that Saturday brings such excitement as Friday!

-Aimee Light, Junior, Majors: BEPP and International Business

Let's talk about microfinance

As it turns out, IU Professor Mike Tiller has a twin. His name is Chuck Waterfield and he is one of the speakers at DGDW. While they don’t look exactly alike, Mr. Waterfield’s mannerisms, presentation style, and unmistakable enthusiasm for teaching were spot on.

Mr. Waterfield was one of the panelists in a discussion entitled “Social Responsibility v Sustainable Margins: What are appropriate interest rates for microfinance?” During the panel discussion, Mr. Waterfield, founder of MicroFinance Transparency, and two other microfinance experts Javier Fernandez-Cueto (Compartamos Banco) and Michael Steidl (Founder, Micro Service Consult GmbH), tackled some of the toughest questions in microfinance. The panel focused on addressing the industry’s notoriously sky-high interest rates and general lack of pricing transparency.

Most microloans are given out at interest rates of around 50%. To the general public, this number sounds outrageous—how can we really be helping the poor if we’re charging them so much for access to funds? The panel went through a careful explanation of this happens. The short version is that most of the costs associated with providing a loan are fixed. So, if the loan amount is smaller, a higher percentage of that loan is necessary to cover those costs. Through a few more examples and explanations, the panel argued that most recipients of business-related microfinance loans see high enough returns on their business to afford high these high interest rates, making them both necessary and possible.

This panel discussion was fascinating and offered a perspective of microfinance I hadn’t seen before—that of microfinance’s orginiators. We were privileged to hear about the industry (and its future) from experts who have worked in the field longer than the term “microfinance”.

Melissa Frye, Junior, Majors: BEPP and Finance

CSR: Necessity or Distraction?

Each of us have 2 smaller sessions per day that we attend, in addition to group-wide forums and keynote speeches. My first breakout session of the day was titled, "CSR: Necessity or Distraction from Social Responsibility?" See my video below for a quick summary!

-Liz Kitto, Junior, Majors: Economic Consulting, Public Policy Analysis, Spanish

Welcome to the DGDW Conference

Good morning, Bloomington! After waking up bright and early, Kristy, Liz, Missy, Aimee, Scott and I walked from our hotel to Plaza Catalunya to catch a bus to the IESE Business School campus, where the Doing Good, Doing Well conference is being held. Upon arrival, we checked in and picked up our nametags and a booklet explaining all of the events for the weekend, ready to network and learn about responsible business. After listening to an introduction to by the Dean of the IESE, Rodney Schwartz, founder of ClearlySo, an organization described as the first online marketplace for social business and enterprise, commerce and investment, delivered the keynote address.

A truly engaging and motivating speaker, Swartz covered topics ranging from the power of the individual in driving social change to the ethics of a social enterprise versus a social business. He stressed that the social business sector is based off the idea that success is not measured one-dimensionally (risk versus return), but three dimensionally (risk versus return and social impact). closing remarks provided guidance to the students, all of whom are MBAs or PhDs except for us, that included:

1) Get involved in impact investment

2) Become a social entrepreneur

3) Advise social ventures

4) Work in social business and enterprises

5) Participate actively in policy

6) Use your imagination in order to encourage social change

HS Stay tuned!

-Nic Perfetti, Junior, Majors: Public Policy Analysis, Spanish, Economics

Bienvenidos a Barcelona!

After almost 24 hours of travel, I have finally arrived in Barcelona! Since air traffic controllers are on strike in France, my original flight out on Wednesday morning was cancelled. Then, after spending 13 hours in the Paris-Orly airport, flight #2 was delayed. That, coupled with the fact that our plane had to go around France after taking off, thus avoiding French airspace, got me into Barcelona at approximately 1:30 A.M this morning. As they say in France, c'est la vie!

But all is well in Barcelona. Having arrived from the north of France where it significantly colder, strolling along the Mediterranean shore in just a t-shirt felt wonderful this afternoon. After meeting up with Scott Berger and Missy Frye, both Kelley DGDW attendees as well, we visited Guell Park, a beautiful park to the north of the city designed by Antonio Gaudi at the turn of the 20th century.

We're going out for tapas, a traditional Spanish meal, this evening; but we plan to head to bed early: the conference begins early tomorrow (Friday) morning! I'm extremely excited for it! The largest student-run business conference in Europe, the DGDW conference on sustainable business is focusing on the following topic this year: "From niche to mass market: taking responsible business to the next level."

We will keep you posted throughout the weekend about the conference, so keep track of this blog for more posts, photos, and videos!

- Kristina Anderson, Junior, Majors: Legal Studies & Economics