Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture about microfinance, and got sucker-punched. Expecting to hear a litany of pros and cons about the business, and an exploration of good and bad models, I was instead greeted with a knockout punch: Microfinance doesn't work, at least not in the way we think it does. That's nice.

Microfinance 13

Microfinance Due Diligence Cost-Benefit Analysis Industry 13

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2013

And while some foundations bucked the trend and made double-digit investment gains in recent years, the average foundation in Chronicle's analysis netted out 14.9 When presented with a surprising idea, smart organizations will bravely listen, because what comes next might just be game-changing innovation.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Rogers Tourism Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Cities and counties should become the units of analysis, not the nation. Encourage financial entrepreneurship and innovation. Entrepreneurship in financial services has been given a bad rap as one contributor to the economic crisis, but we desperately need innovative financing models for start-ups.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Microfinance Finance 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

And we are often happy to review these start-up plans — which include the typical elements such as a product description, competitive analysis, estimate of market size, and projected financials. Applying a formal spreadsheet-type analysis to an early stage concept can be " disastrous." Has it been tried this way before?

Entrepreneur 10

Entrepreneur Planning Taylorism Taylor 10