Ideas for Change - Because the right idea can change the world » Social Entrepreneurship

Just received a photo from Palestine

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:30:29 +0000

On both sides of that wall, regular people like me and you are stuck.

I am so proud to tell you about this photo that I received from Palestine. This is what you can see there right now.

No one is alone in this world, not anymore. This project shows how a simple idea can move the world and hopefully bring everyone closer and open the eyes.

Please support our friends at www.sendamessage.nl

Project management on the edge of chaos

Invited Contributor — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:46:07 +0000

Project management on the edge of chaos

by Arne Vestergaard and Marianne Smedegaard

We have for a number of years taught project managers how to manage people and processes. We have heard stories from many different organisations describing numerous ways to understand and execute projects. It seems that there exists not a single correct way to manage projects, but many possible ways. One thing, though, seems to be characteristic of most of the cases. Top management expects the project manager to have complete control over the project and to have answers to any question anyone might want to ask. In many cases it is also a requirement that the project manager ensures that members of the project group have clear goals and that the development of the project is on schedule.

In this paper we want to explore to what extent the effort to control and direct a project is useful, and to what extent a project can be restricted by tight control. Perhaps there are other concepts for project management that better fit with the complexity and variability that characterise projects in today’s world. Perhaps it is preferable to see projects as a living system rather than strategically and bureaucratically.

A change in perspective of this kind would mean that the project organisation must relinquish the idea of having control over the project all the time and, if they do achieve control, see it as a temporary state of affairs. Some degree of chaos then becomes a necessary (but not exclusive) condition for innovation and for handling complexity and change. In other words, the project manager must place the project on the edge of chaos. In this paper we will try to understand what this means in practice.

“HOPE – the Obama Musical Story” World Premiere

HOPE-Musical — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:43:27 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

“HOPE - the Obama musical story” celebrates its world premiere on 17 January 2010!The venue Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt will experience a sound it has never heard before: formed to a huge percussion ensemble, the audience accompanies US president Barack Obama on his successful way into the White House. The event organizer MOVE GmbH promises a double world premiere: at the premiere of “HOPE – the Obama Musical Story” on Sunday, 17 January at 8:00 pm, the audience will rhythmically participate on specially developed percussion chairs – for the first time ever worldwide. “Hope is the first interactive musical of a new generation”, says musical producer Roberto Emmanuele, CEO and creative director of Move GmbH based in Bad Soden. “This is an enormous sound and a great musical experience for the audience.”

The musical stages two moving and exciting stories in parallel plots. The audience looks behind the scenes of the presidential election in 2008 and follows the career of the present US president Barack Obama. The main character is presented less on a political level, but rather as an emotional person who fights for a new, more forgiving and peaceful world and a better future. At the same time, the viewer experiences the societal events from the point of view of a multi-cultural apartment-sharing community in Chicago. Caused by the prevailing tight political and economic situation, societal and social frictions and emotions arise. The people are given new hope by the new spirit of the age.

Author and composer Randall Hutchins works with the best Afro-American singers and actors of the German musical scene. He produces inter alia for “The very Best of Black Gospel”, “Musical the Gift” and he participated in “Starlight Express” as a musician. In “HOPE”, he combines an affectionately arranged mix regarding taste and aesthetics of different music styles in the field of Pop, Soul, Gospel, HipHop and Rock. The diversified mixture of catchy melodies electrifies the audience right from the beginning. Undoubtedly, the songs have what it takes to become hits.

For “HOPE”, 30 world-class artists, singers, dancers and actors perform on stage. They participate in the production with great enthusiasm and dedication. “The spirit of the show is carried by the spirit of the entire team”, praises the producer Roberto Emmanuele. Della Miles and Jimmie Wilson, known as the dream duo of the Michael Jackson musical “Sisterella”, as well as Dynelle Rhodes, the original lead singer of the Weather Girls, join the cast as soloists. They are supported by well-known performers who are leads in “Cats”, “The Lion King” and “We will rock you”. The rehearsals took place inter alia at mediaArt FORUM in Bad Soden.

The production is realized in German and English, so that the story line can be followed by everyone.

On percussion: the audience sitting on specially developed musical chairsIn the course of the musical, the audience develops to co-musicians. For they sit on a musical instrument with an astoundingly high sound quality. Approximately 1200 of the 2000 available seats in the domed hall of the venue Jahrhunderthalle will be equipped with design chairs which house the smallest set of drums worldwide. The special construction of this musical furniture allows for a distinctive bass and snare sound. The people play while sitting, drumming with their hands on the percussion surface. Inspired by this characteristic sound, Roberto Emmanuele and his partner Patrick Strese call the innovation “BAFF musical furniture”. The other musical spectators do not sit quietly on their chairs either. They are handed out rattles, so that the sound of “HOPE” will fill the entire hall. The producers want all people to have access to music as a strong medium.

As early as in September, the musical company enthused about 45,000 viewers with a first musical foretaste during a successful performance at Commerzbank Arena next to stars like Bob Geldorf and Samy Deluxe. After only a short period of time, the entire stadium swung and clapped along to songs never heard before like “Rock the Vote”. Experts of the German music scene praised the high level of the American Pop music and certified the sound to have “Earth Wind and Fire quality”. The most important concert organizer worldwide, Fritz Rau, says: “Respect and two thumbs up for this musical”. According to the slogan “Yes we can”, the musical is to tour in Germany after having premiered in Frankfurt.

Tickets for the premiere can be purchased via the ticket seller EVENTIM within the price scope of 40 to 149 Euros in several seat categories. Following the premiere, a VIP premiere party will take place, at which special culinary refreshments will be served to the guests and the musical performers can be experienced up close in an “unplugged performance”. The VIP tickets can be bought for 99 Euros directly from the HOPE production.

Important note from the HOPE production team:
The “HOPE musical production” does not pursue any political interests with their production. Being artists, we merely stage a piece of attitude to life of the “historic year 2008″ with topics still prevailing today as well as good entertainment and music!

“How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free” (Bob Dylan)

banafshe.zabeti — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:10:47 +0000

This text was first published as a guest entry on www.se-forum.se/

When I first heard about the social network www.Ideasforchange.tv was via JMK (the department for Journalism Media and Communication), where I had studied and from where I graduated last year. I was immediately interested to find out more about the project and thought what if I could make a difference and contribute with my ideas.

“Ideas for change”, was really like lovely music to my ears: “the right idea meets the right problem”. I could imagine myself be fully engaged in this project, to be able to contribute with my ideas. It was not a question about how to contribute; the whole project was so clear and brilliant in my eyes that I did not hesitate before I contacted the project manager Daniel Daboczy (who later became my new boss at the web-agency Dabber TV, but that is a whole different story that I’d love to share next time).

I thought: this is my big chance to increase the awareness about global warming. This is my big chance to increase the awareness about children’s rights and the perspective of the child, a term used by researchers in cultural studies. More importantly, this was my chance to engage people and make them contribute with their ideas. Sometimes you only need the right voice to actually understand that you do not need to be a part of a NGO, a governmental institution etcetera to make a change. After a few seconds on www.ideasforchange.tv you will understand that it is like the whole planet has collected the very best ideas on a web site and you realize that it can only grow bigger and wiser. So many voices. So many faces. So many tears. So much pain. All floating next to each other, like an universe of its own called: ideas for change.

Most recently I realized that social entrepreneurship is a matter of trying, a matter of acting rather than just reacting. It is awareness about the fact that we all actually can make a difference and have a responsibility to contribute with our ideas to turn up the volume against injustice and rise together to fight and literary create a better world.

Some say that you cannot change the world in one day. I most certainly agree. However, who said that you cannot change your attitude in one day?

On Friday the 4th of december the artist Shakira was one of the eminent guests at the popular show Skavlan and said “we all need to be political but we do not have to be politicians”. Well put Shakira! I share her point of view and must say that a political act is not monopolized by those holding the greatest power or those voices that are too noisy today. WE must never forget that we all have the power and possibility to make our voices heard, internet is the best listener in these times. The outcome of the presidential election in Iran and the anger and disappointment it caused is one of many examples. The people of Iran screamed and we all heard their voices. Imagine if they had thought that their voices could never be heard? We all have a responsibility to share our ideas and knowledge, so I truly hope to see more contributors on ideasforchange.tv and more arguments to reach a better world.

Viola Zabeti

Make A Promise To Save The Environment In Your Own Way And Get 500GB File Hosting Account For Free

Daniel Daboczy - Editor in chief — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:41:56 +0000

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. If we do nothing to stop it, climate change will cause severe water shortages, rising sea levels will swallow cities, and pest outbreaks will sicken people and kill crops. One of the early signs we are already experiencing is an increase in extreme weather events such as destructive storms, drought and floods.

SmashingApps and FileBanker are teaming up to do their part for the environment. Average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper per year, highest compared to anywhere else in the world. Hundreds of thousands of trees are cut down per day to support the consumption of paper that can be easily avoided.

SmashingApps believes that we can change that by helping people save and share their documents electronically instead of printing them out each time. We do not want you to print so much so they are offering 500 GB file hosting accounts for free at FileBanker. You will need to enter “smashingapps” in the promo code field. You can use these accounts to share all your documents without ever having to print anything.

Independece is to dare

Book Fair Visitor — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:36:31 +0000

To dare live your life regardless of the expectations or rules of your society. To always work towards reflecting and [...] Related posts:

Akvo and the Social Web: In the need of clear fresh thinking for clear fresh water

anders.abrahamsson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:04:36 +0000

There are currently one billion people living without access to clean water and almost two billion people lacking access to sanitation. In a sense, the ”water issue” is more urgent than climate change.

At the same time, taking another look at it, coming from outer space and looking upon the world, the problem seems to be paradoxical. Lack of water should not be a problem – our surface is covered by 70 percent of it. At the same time, to make it usable and drinkable for humans is lack of two things – desalinated fresh water and distribution with pipes.

When attending World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2009, I was confronted that there were so many ”boxes” in the fair space. Project after project, organization after organization – it seemed like alot of double- and triple job. And still the issues remain far from solved.

A breath of fresh air – or shall I say a sip of fresh water? – was the hangout and the thinking of the guys managing the Watercube.tv, the innovative startup Akvo. They sent live from the fair space, with interviews of keynotes, attendees, organization representatives and bypassers, giving a ”user’s voice” in the front seat directly to the web. Akvo has set up a web solution where field projects related to water and sanitation gets easier matched with funding partners and supportive organisations all over the world, currently with over hundred affiliated organizations.

Their innovative approach made the local community of Norrköping arranging the Twestival – the Twitter Festival – pick one of their projects supported in Tbilisi, Georgia, as a target for the charity fundraising. The social web made for social change, using a social software platform developed by Akvo, matchmaking directly peer to peer. If this was done more systematically, this would move us closer to the solution, rather than just recycling the reports of the problem.

Words produced should be transformed to action distributed, so more clean water can be consumed!

/Anders Abrahamsson

Anders is a serial sustainopreneur and has been the driving force in the conceptual development of Sustainopreneurship, and published its Wikipedia article in 2008. He has published a number of publications on this topic, and is currently authoring a popular book on subject, one blog post at a time. Founder of SLICE Services and Publishing.

Putting sustainopreneurship into play in the local and regional context

anders.abrahamsson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:04:22 +0000

Many of the problems related to the ”sustainability agenda” occur in the local economical context. At the same time, a fresh approach to the problems is required – enters the concept of ”sustainopreneurship” – or ”business with a cause”, in short “entrepreneurship and innovation for sustainability”. Mentioned first time in year 2000, developed further 2003 and onwards, and manifested 2008 in a Wikipedia article, the concept represents that we need to go from old thinking to new doing in taking our burning issues globally and deploy sustainability innovations - mostly locally.

Sustainopreneurship can acquire some facilitating factors through start centres, not just in the context of developed economies, but certainly in developing as well as in emerging economies. These ‘Micro Sustainopreneurial Zones’ could create dynamic synergies that would speed up a process of making sustainopreneurship a proactive force for sustainable development in these geo-social settings – especially if they are focused on triggering proliferation and innovation diffusion aimed at rural modernization. In short – sustainopreneurship can be put into play by first and foremost giving it a playground, physical as well as virtual.

Sustainopreneurship applied in local and regional interaction gives great hope where settings utilize their own embedded natural, social, knowledge and creative capital to solve their unique place- and culture-defined sustainability problems and to find equally unique solutions, turning them into viable business models aiming at self-sustainability, empowerment and independence. Outside, non-colonial, respectful empowerment and micro-intervention should focus on technology transfer (e. g. solar energy, telecommunication, computers, Internet connection), taking place by the terms set by the locals and their formulated needs. The international financial capital coupling the technology transfer should be fuelled through micro finance intermediaries together with localized mentoring for sustainopreneurial businesses from other local and seasoned, experienced people transferring their experiences in order to strengthen tacit knowledge generation in play – on, and with respect to, their own living conditions.

In the end, with these virtual and physical frames as facilitators, a process is created intended to generate a result as illustrated – in contrast to the institutional framing that introduced this chapter – a sustainable world where all local and regional settings are empowered through sustainopreneurship.

/Anders Abrahamsson

What is social entrepreneurship, anyways?

anders.abrahamsson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:04:04 +0000

In times when a concept gets popular and gains traction, it is important to take a deep look at its meaning. Turning to the driving forces and original sources of the conceptual development of ‘social entrepreneurship’ gives a frame that is quite vague in its outline.

A key source to get what it is, is Ashoka Foundation, founded by Bill Drayton, pioneering with the work of social innovation;

“[I]ndividuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.”

Skoll Foundation, another strong advocacy with Jeff Skoll as institutional entrepreneur, puts it this way;

“Social entrepreneurs share a commitment to pioneering innovations that reshape society and benefit of humanity. Whether they are working on a local or international scale, they are solution-minded pragmatists who are not afraid to tackle – and successfully resolve – some of the world’s biggest problems.”

No one of these descriptions mention explicitly business formation, but when set up, they “prioritize social return on investment”. As it is put in Wikipedia;

“A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society.”

The descriptions above does not state what institutional form the organizing is done. Many imply cause-oriented “not for profit” organisations (charities, NGO’s, Foundations, Associations, Cooperatives), where the mainland for social ventures is in the voluntary sector.

The broadened business sense in social entrepreneuring, though, is suggested to have socially oriented businesses fulfilling unmet social needs, or having innovation to make profit in order to reach social goals, or as an explicit tool for social change.

Put in an anthology by Kai Hockerts;

“[Social Entrepreneurship is] in practice, recognized as encompassing a wide range of activities: enterprising individuals devoted to making a difference; social purpose business ventures dedicated to adding for profit motivations to the nonprofit sector, new types of philanthropists supporting venture capital-like ‘investment’ portfolios; and nonprofit organizations that are reinventing themselves by drawing on lessons learned from the business world.”

As believed to be a part of the response of this conceptual vagueness as all of these expressions generate all together, and an emphasis towards creating a self-sustaining organization and institution, two conceptual responses has been created – Muhammad Yunus’ “Social Business” (see separate category and introductory blog post here on Ideas For Change) and my contribution of the development of the concept of “Sustainopreneurship” – or “Business with a Cause”.

/Anders Abrahamsson

Changing the World with Social Businesses

anders.abrahamsson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:03:31 +0000

“By defining entrepreneurship in a broader way we can change the character of capitalism radically” – Muhammad Yunus

Social Business is a concept developed from 30 years experience of the Grameen buildup of Muhammad Yunus over the years. It emerged from a need where current institutions did not manage to fulfil social needs. Where public sector, private enterprises and charities have fell short to reach all the way to solve social problems, social business take a different stance. With the cause orientation found within charities, NGO’s, foundations and associations, and the efficiency, creativity, innovativeness and drive found within private enterprising, social businesses make positive social change and money at the same time. Thus, it releases itself from third party dependence for financing, and gets allowed by its investors and owners to focus primarily social return on investment as its main cause.

Prof. Yunus has already shown the effectiveness of this new type of business: his clear focus on eradicating extreme poverty combined with his condition of economic sustainability has created numerous models with incredible growth potential.

Muhammad Yunus defined the Grameen Social Business seven principles as follows.

The 7 principles of Grameen Social Business

1. Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization
2. Financial and economic sustainability
3. Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money
4. When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement
5. Environmentally conscious
6. Workforce gets market wage withbetter working conditions
7. …do it with joy

With these principles, it distinguishes itself more clearly than social entrepreneurship in general. Social entrepreneurship is addressing the same social needs, but only look on the way things gets organized – “in an entrepreneurial and innovative way”. It does not focus on what type of organization it is – it could be any kind of ”third sector” institution as mentioned above – charity, NGO, a foundation or association, a cooperative or a business. With the social business concept a focus is put on the long term self sustaining of the organization created due to its own revenue generation.

The concept of social business is developed more deeply in Yunus’ book ”the Future of Capitalism”.

/Anders Abrahamsson