Rustam Sengupta selected 2014 Echoing Green Fellow

Rustam Sengupta (MBA(MBA'08D -) was selected for Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship programme which recognises social entrepreneurs from around the world working to disrupt the status quo for positive change. Rustam is the founder and CEO of Boond, a social enterprise that creates a sustainable ecosystem for sales and servicing of energy access products and services in India.

Boond creates a sustainable ecosystem for clean energy access through sales of solar systems financed by rural banks and micro finance institutions and serviced by trained local technicians. The Boond model eliminates the initial cost barrier that hinders the penetration of renewable energy products in remote poor areas and ensures that the systems last for the requisite life through reliable after sales service. Over the past two years, we have installed over 7500 systems in some of the remotest parts of India for rural businesses, micro-grids based charge stations, schools and milk diaries other than individual households.

Rustam Sengupta is an expert on design and data analysis for products and services for the BoP. He has consulted to numerous universities and institutions on market entry and emerging market economics and won numerous and more importantly has impacted the lives of over 75,000 people in villages of India over the past two years. Rustam is an INSEAD MBA graduate and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.

Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship is a twenty-five year-old program for smart young leaders who are deeply connected to the needs and potential solutions that may work best for their communities. It selects high-potential social entrepreneurs from around the world working create a disruptive change to the status quo. Twenty-two individuals were awarded fellowships in 2014 and will receive a stipend and benefits over the two-year period of the Fellowship, professional development, leadership gatherings, coaching and mentoring plus access to technical support.

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Meena Vaidyanathan & niiti Consulting Wins Ashoka Globalizer Economic Inclusion Award

Congratulations to Meena Vaidyanathan (ISEP 2009-Singapore) founder of  niiti-Consulting for being selected as a winner of the 2014 Ashoka Globalizer,  Economic Inclusion Ecosystem Fund Award for a joint project with Karmany  on “Clearing the Uncertainty of Working in the Social Sector”. The project will develop a web-based tool kit to address the crying need for talent management in the social sector and the need to build a pipeline and a process to address individual basis.

Niiti has recognized that there is a crying need for talent management in the social sector but many number of social enterprises lack the resources to build a pipeline and a process on an individual basis. In response, Karmany and niiti have joined together in the hope of developing a web-based tool kit that helps social organizations assess and evaluate their talent management needs. In addition, it equips professionals with the information and tools to make informed career transitions into the social sector on the other. The tool seeks to serve as a platform to spur competition within the industry, and collective sharing that brings a far larger awareness of the credibility of the social sector to non-industry professionals.

For further information see the niiti Consulting web site and Facebook page.

Impact Hub Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamp "Powered by INSEAD" - August 1-3, 2014

INSEAD has developed a partnership with the Impact Hub in Singapore to deliver the Social Entrepreneurship bootcamp (using the INSEAD manual and methodology) called “Powered by INSEAD” . The facilitators of the bootcamp, Grace Sai and Raya Papp have both mentored during the INSEAD bootcamp, so they know firsthand the ins and outs of the teaching methodology. They are really unbelievable people with a wealth of experience. The Impact Hub social entrepreneurship bootcamp “Powered by INSEAD” also brings in experts from Singapore to help teach, mentor and judge. It is a great programme.

They will be running their next bootcamp during the weekend of August 1-3. If you are interested in attending, here is the link to the sign up page before the 15th of JULY: www.bit.ly/sebootcamp4 and they have also created a microsite with more info here: www.venturesforchange.com

The 28th INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC) showcases social enterprises!

On June 20th, the 28th INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC) was held by the INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship (ICE) on the Fontainebleau campus with videolink to Singapore. The competition is a platform for INSEAD MBA and EMBA candidates to showcase their entrepreneurial skills and ideas and bring these ideas forward into venture plans, which in turn will become real business ventures.   This year, the winning team, Kookooli, and the team which won the Coromandel Foundation Social Impact Award, Missing Middle, were both launched during INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Bootcamps. Kookooli was launched during the Fontainebleau October bootcamp and Missing Middle during the November Singapore bootcamp. It is exciting to see the bootcamp methodology pay off with such creative and impactful ventures.  The winning team, Kookooli, took home a prize of 10,000 Euros and consisted of MBAs Eirik Hogner, Frederik Kongsli and Itamar Stern. Kookooli is an online marketplace where people can buy fresh food from local food producers at their own convenience. Through their web and mobile platform, consumers can access a wide-range of top quality food products at affordable prices. Kookooli will pick up freshly made products directly from the producers and then deliver the orders to customer’s homes or to centrally located pick up points. The second prize winner, Team Treasure Bowl, took home a prize of 5,000 Euros and consisted of MBA members Angela Flaemrich, Aleksandra Zhdanova, and Leon Williams. Their idea involves an innovative toy product for kids in Europe.  Finally, the winning team of the Coromandel Foundation Social Impact Award for 5,000 euros, was team, Missing Middle, composed of MBAs Mehmet Energin, Lisette Steins, Marieke Ebbing. When one of the team members worked for a micro-finance organization in Uganda, she saw that small loans can have a large positive impact on borrowers’ lives. She also realized that these loans were merely a short-term solution for entrepreneurs – they did not manage to grow their new business beyond a certain limit. Once the entrepreneurs outgrew the micro-finance loans, there was still a long way to go before they could fulfil the requirements of a retail bank and receive the necessary funding for scaling up. In addition to the strong social impact seen in the winning teams, ICE was also delighted to welcome two of our INSEAD Social Entrepreneurs in Residence to campus for the finals. Charlotte Hochman served as a finalist judge, and the keynote speaker for the finals was Ms Caroline Watson who is the founder and director of a social venture in China, Hua Dan. ICE is grateful to the IVC sponsors for their support of entrepreneurship at INSEAD and to alumnus, Sajan Koch EMBA’08, for his generous contribution to the Coromandel Foundation Social Impact Award. IVC Contacts: Magdalene Khng – Operations & Admin Joanne Loi – Coordinator, Asia Campus Jane Venet-Fellowes - Coordinator, Europe Campus entrepreneurship@insead.edu I www.insead.edu/venturecompetition

Global Impact Forum (GIF), on October 8-9, 2014 in Zurich !

"The Global Impact Forum^TM is a two-day partnering event with a uniquely forward-looking and outcomes-oriented design. The forum presents exceptional social entrepreneurs and impact leaders to an audience of potential partners.  Connections are made using an efficient system that allows attendees to screen potential partners and pre-arrange one-to-one meetings. Carefully curated presentations, high-level speakers and an exciting mix of participants make attending the Global Impact Forum a powerful experience."

INSEAD alumna launches social enterprise, Lulea, producing luxury leather goods for the global market. This is her story…

Topy Namasaka-Muga (MBA 2012J)

I graduated from INSEAD in July 2012. While undertaking my MBA, I shared the beginnings of the Lulea story with my colleagues at school. Lulea is a social enterprise which specialises in training Kenyan workers to create sustainable luxury leather goods for the global market. Together with five of my group members in the Business Planning entrepreneurship elective, we developed the idea for Lulea and worked out a viable business plan. The INSEAD faculty, and in particular Christine Driscoll Goulay, the Associate Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, supported the venture and introduced me to a number of other social entrepreneurs. After months of hard but rewarding work we have just opened the doors to the Lulea Centre of Excellence in Kenya (a training facility) and have trained a small team of employees, some of whom are sourced from a nearby women’s shelter (Baraka Women's Shelter).  I am happy to say that we are now ready to take orders and in order to grow we have recently launched an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign -  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lulea-we-make-the-bags-you-make-the-difference. Please take the time to check out our campaign and support and share wherever you can.

Brazil: Annual ISEP Reunion in Paraty

More than two dozen ISEP Network members attended the conference in São Paulo and the reunion in spectacular Paraty that followed on 8-9 May. The day opened with a dynamic session focusing on the opportunities and challenges faced the social entrepreneurs attending. The reunion also featured two workshop sessions; one on Scaling Social Enterprises and a second on Risk Management presented by Filipe Santos and Timothy Ma Kam Wah (Hong Kong, ISEP 2009-S) respectively. You can find the meeting agenda, the participant list, plus notes and presentation slides from these sessions here 

As it does every year, the reunion also served as an opportunity for ISEP alumni from the many years the programme and from all over the world to learn about each other’s work, exchange ideas and insights, and get to know each other through the numerous meals and informal discussion opportunities and outings. The meeting culminated with an excursion through some of Paraty’s beautiful islands. Click here for photo collection.

While the formal sessions were led by René Saloman Vargas (Bolivia, ISEP 2011-F) and Hans Wahl, special thanks goes to Carolina Coutinho (Brazil, ISEP 2013-F) and Suzanne Rodrigues (Portugal, ISEP 2012-P) who led the enthusiastic group in organising the social and recreational outings in Paraty.