Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

Making something wildly profitable will of course attract the attention of financial markets, and thus increase the chances it will scale effectively. Impact investing can learn from the history of microfinance — the provision of debt and other financial services to the poor — an industry that was at a similar stage 15 years ago.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance IPO Real Estate Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2013

Following Abed's twist on Schumacher — "small may be beautiful, but big is necessary" — it now touches the lives of an estimated 126 million people with healthcare, education, enterprise development, microfinance and a slew of other programs. These programs were later spun off into stand-alone businesses.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Follow-up Bureaucracy Self-aware 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

As Amar Bhide said in " Bootstrap Finance: The Art of Start-ups " (a 20-year-old HBR article that is an uncanny precursor to today's "lean startup" meme), traditional business planning processes are less relevant to bootstrappers — where resilience trumps planning and energy trumps experience. In short, the business plan is overrated.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Planning Taylorism Taylor 8