It is my absolute honour and privilege to be part of the board of the Women’s Business Initiative International and address entrepreneurship.
How would you like to create your moral manifesto for impactful change as an entrepreneur?
As entrepreneurs we are all leaders and we can be impactful change-enablers to make the world a better place. To be sustainable, we need to deliver services or products that are needed by market segments and which are truly benefit not just to shareholders, but also to the community in which our businesses operate. Imagine the result if we combined both of these ideals with the vision of making a positive and lasting impact on the customers we serve?
What is impactful entrepreneurship?
Manifesto for a moral revolution by Jacqueline Novigratz is a transformative book which embraces impactful entrepreneurship. The author co-founded Rwanda’s first microfinance institution, Duterimbere, before launching the groundbreaking impact-investment and activist platform, Acumen. Nineteen years in, Acumen has helped build more than 128 social enterprises across Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the United States, bringing affordable education, healthcare, clean water and energy to more than 300 million people.
Jacqueline illustrates how one can create profitable business models while helping the world’s poorest and being a change leader. She demonstrates how there are different ways of running a successful business that benefit all of us, not just shareholders. She outlines a set of principles grounded in the idea that a better world can only emerge when individuals seek to serve others as well.
A new sector of ‘impact investing’ emerged as a result of the inspirational work of many entrepreneurs thinking outside the box. Impact investing is a general investment strategy that seeks to generate financial returns while also creating a positive social or environmental impact. Impact investing has increased substantially as more members of the millennial generation have become active investors. Their investments may include money aimed at supporting sustainable agriculture, renewable energy or microfinance – which is where small businesses can benefit.
We, as entrepreneurs, can remake an imperfect world be more sustainable with a positive impact on people.
How do we become impactful entrepreneurs?
Jaqueline encourages us to begin by cultivating a moral imagination, or the ability to ‘view other people’s problems as if they were your own’.
What is needed, whether you are working in high tech or low income communities, is the moral imagination to ensure that our future solutions and institutions are inclusive and sustainable. Jacqueline Novigratz
Secondly, we need to redefine success and how we measure the impact we make as change leaders and entrepreneurs.
Building on the theme of moral imagination, Jacqueline states: ‘a new generation has a newer, better set of tools with which to reimagine and build models of inclusive and environmentally sustainable capitalism’.
I believe every action in this direction is a win to be proud of and celebrate. At the Women’s Business Initiative International I have seen the positive impact members are making first hand. I am proud to congratulate members on their individual and collective wins. The collaboration of members helping members is to be celebrated.
We can also intentionally take bold steps consistently by transforming our fears into challenges and actions. We could take many examples from the powerful and inspiring memoir of Michelle Obama’s Becoming. In addition, Viktor Frankl’s incredible book Man’s Search For Meaning is a must read for every entrepreneur at any stage of their journey to evolve and grow, to find their purpose. To help drive revolutionary change, he explains ‘when we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves’.
Why do we, as entrepreneurs, matter?
According to the World Bank, the proportion of the world’s population living below the Bank’s extreme poverty line (adjusted for county standards) fell from 34% in 1993 to 10.7% in 2013 as stated in The life you can save by Peter Singer. Entrepreneurship is a big contributor to these positive trends.
An entrepreneur’s journey focused on serving shared humanity will be inclusive and sustainable:
The Start Your Own Business (SYOB) seminar organised by WBII in collaboration with Webster University on Thursday 11 November is a good opportunity for entrepreneurs to network and gather more knowledge.
The Acumen Academy, created in 2001, with its fellowship programmes and online courses embraces impactful entrepreneurs.
‘Charlene’s Bubble’ by Nira Satguru
Founder director
Future Of Learning
www.futureoflearning.nl
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nira-satguru-13840020/
Cover Photo credit Clark Tibbs
It is my absolute honour and privilege to be part of the board of the Women’s Business Initiative International and address entrepreneurship.
How would you like to create your moral manifesto for impactful change as an entrepreneur?
As entrepreneurs we are all leaders and we can be impactful change-enablers to make the world a better place. To be sustainable, we need to deliver services or products that are needed by market segments and which are truly benefit not just to shareholders, but also to the community in which our businesses operate. Imagine the result if we combined both of these ideals with the vision of making a positive and lasting impact on the customers we serve?
What is impactful entrepreneurship?
Manifesto for a moral revolution by Jacqueline Novigratz is a transformative book which embraces impactful entrepreneurship. The author co-founded Rwanda’s first microfinance institution, Duterimbere, before launching the groundbreaking impact-investment and activist platform, Acumen. Nineteen years in, Acumen has helped build more than 128 social enterprises across Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the United States, bringing affordable education, healthcare, clean water and energy to more than 300 million people.
Jacqueline illustrates how one can create profitable business models while helping the world’s poorest and being a change leader. She demonstrates how there are different ways of running a successful business that benefit all of us, not just shareholders. She outlines a set of principles grounded in the idea that a better world can only emerge when individuals seek to serve others as well.
A new sector of ‘impact investing’ emerged as a result of the inspirational work of many entrepreneurs thinking outside the box. Impact investing is a general investment strategy that seeks to generate financial returns while also creating a positive social or environmental impact. Impact investing has increased substantially as more members of the millennial generation have become active investors. Their investments may include money aimed at supporting sustainable agriculture, renewable energy or microfinance – which is where small businesses can benefit.
We, as entrepreneurs, can remake an imperfect world be more sustainable with a positive impact on people.
How do we become impactful entrepreneurs?
Jaqueline encourages us to begin by cultivating a moral imagination, or the ability to ‘view other people’s problems as if they were your own’.
What is needed, whether you are working in high tech or low income communities, is the moral imagination to ensure that our future solutions and institutions are inclusive and sustainable. Jacqueline Novigratz
Secondly, we need to redefine success and how we measure the impact we make as change leaders and entrepreneurs.
Building on the theme of moral imagination, Jacqueline states: ‘a new generation has a newer, better set of tools with which to reimagine and build models of inclusive and environmentally sustainable capitalism’.
I believe every action in this direction is a win to be proud of and celebrate. At the Women’s Business Initiative International I have seen the positive impact members are making first hand. I am proud to congratulate members on their individual and collective wins. The collaboration of members helping members is to be celebrated.
We can also intentionally take bold steps consistently by transforming our fears into challenges and actions. We could take many examples from the powerful and inspiring memoir of Michelle Obama’s Becoming. In addition, Viktor Frankl’s incredible book Man’s Search For Meaning is a must read for every entrepreneur at any stage of their journey to evolve and grow, to find their purpose. To help drive revolutionary change, he explains ‘when we are no longer able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves’.
Why do we, as entrepreneurs, matter?
According to the World Bank, the proportion of the world’s population living below the Bank’s extreme poverty line (adjusted for county standards) fell from 34% in 1993 to 10.7% in 2013 as stated in The life you can save by Peter Singer. Entrepreneurship is a big contributor to these positive trends.
An entrepreneur’s journey focused on serving shared humanity will be inclusive and sustainable:
The Start Your Own Business (SYOB) seminar organised by WBII in collaboration with Webster University on Thursday 11 November is a good opportunity for entrepreneurs to network and gather more knowledge.
The Acumen Academy, created in 2001, with its fellowship programmes and online courses embraces impactful entrepreneurs.
‘Charlene’s Bubble’ by Nira Satguru
Founder director
Future Of Learning
www.futureoflearning.nl
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nira-satguru-13840020/
Cover Photo credit Clark Tibbs