Today I have been to Bharati Nagar (BN), a part of Bangalore which – for sure- is not the famous part of a modern Indian city and rarely part of an offered sightseeing tour. It takes you to the heart of poverty and back to past centuries. It’s raining today and very muddy – ,…
Tag: business
Development hubs- a huge opportunity for big business to create market places in India
Huge economic reforms have taken place in India since the 90s. Institutions have been created for more market effectiveness, regulations have been established to make markets work better. The agricultural sector has been opened up to global competition. The development of the third sector, the so-called service sector has been going up. The most…
Talk Love, talk Business – two different worlds
Part-time empathy When I meet people during lunch time, when I talk to neighbors, friends and family, whenever I meet people outside the official business hours and talk about social engagement and empathy, about making the world a little bit better, I’m very often surprised. Most of the people around me get excited and very…
CSR and individual social engagement need to be concrete and simple
It is a strange symptom, but it happens to all of us: if we get used to a negative situation, be it that we observe that old people need to collect empty bottles out of the waste to earn some money, children who fail at school because they miss the right support or homeless people…
The four most inspiring moments I lived in India
Often I’m asked: How was it in India? What did you experience? Was it safe? There must have been a lot of poverty?! Do you go back again? Working with a NGO ? A lot of questions and I could tell a lot of stories, describe places, summarize events … I might be wrong, but…
NGOs of the future: innovation, business skills and thinking across traditional borders needed
The fact that the business world is changing is well known. Continuous business innovation is requested – everywhere. No doubt. There are all kind of efforts going on such as continuous training offers for business people, be it for employees, be it for employers: trainings around administration, marketing and computer skills, the call for innovation,…
Miracle Fruit in Wonderland – marketing practices and empathy all over the world
The miracle fruit “Soursop” , known as Graviola, too, is easily available here in India – in these huge supermarkets, offered not as fruit but – more conveniently- as fruit juice, 50 packages in one container… There are several containers of Soursop juice on the top of the shelf. On a huge promotional banner all…
Social entrepreneurs, where are You going to? One man or woman shows are not enough!
The trend is obvious: social entrepreneurship is ‘hip’. The number of social business conferences, socent challenges, courses offered at universities and numbers of articles published in all kind of magazines is growing obviously. Not just in USA, U.K. and a few more countries, but all over the world. In tapped and untapped markets, countries…
Social Entrepreneurship has many faces
This week I participated in the Ashoka Social Entrepreneurship conference in Berlin. Besides the official workshops and speeches given in the big glass building of the Allianzforum I had the possibility to speak to many social entrepreneurs cooperating with investors, traditional NGOs and Corporate enterprises. It is fascinating to see how all are looking…
To end poverty micro-loans are never enough
Micro-loans – the bestseller among development tools is under fire “Microfinance, not a quick escape from poverty, studies show” – When I came across this article published recently in various media talking about the limited effect of micro-loans, I got angry – and at the same time I was more than surprised that we really need…
Go India, go future! 