Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 1, 2011

Microfinance has come under fire in the past 18 months, triggered in part by SKS Microfinance's IPO. Critics complain that the institutions supporting microfinance have become too greedy, and many are using this as an argument to deeply regulate or, even more, cut support to microfinance operations. I hope not.

Microfinance 13

Microfinance IPO Bottom-up Finance 13

Harvard Business Review

MAY 18, 2016

and globally, and Habitat for Humanity, which works in 70-plus nations to provide home construction, rehabilitation, and increased access to shelter and financing, gathered data from their sites to make the case for profound change. Based on this insight, Habitat sought to address the deficit in more systemic ways.

Microfinance 9

Microfinance Strategic Planning Finance Globalization 9

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2013

Six years ago, David and Donna Allman approached Opportunity with an idea that fell outside our traditional microfinance model: to build a Community Economic Development (CED) program in Nicaragua. Together, we've constructed school libraries, repaired churches, built roads, and, crucially, ensured clean water through new aqueduct systems.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Rogers Tourism Engineering 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. Size inevitability leads to hierarchy, to rigidities in the system, and bureaucracy.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Follow-up Bureaucracy Self-aware 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 13, 2011

A better understanding of the drivers of behavior is needed for both banks and consumers to understand risk, and for the financial system to provide timely and targeted interventions. Yet unlike in finance, where distributing risk across institutions is the goal, in drug development the focus is on isolating risk.

Banking 11

Banking Pharmaceuticals Microfinance Risk Management 11

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2016

Currently, impact can mean anything from venture investments in new health technologies to microfinance loans in Peru; from affordable housing in the US to renewable energy in India; from social impact bonds to private equity funds that create jobs. Paradigms : Investments that attempt to change an entire system for the better.

Class 8

Class Microfinance Supply Chain Education 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 10

Entrepreneur Planning Taylorism Taylor 10