Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 1, 2013

Although she was poor in resources, she possessed the innovation mindset shared by many game changers: they see and act on opportunities , use "and" thinking to resolve tough dilemmas and break through compromises, and employ their resourcefulness to power through obstacles. She went door to door, pleading and pitching.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Innovation Committee Banking 8

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. We know that microfinance alone will not break the poverty cycle.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Rogers Tourism Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

This seemingly banal transaction speaks volumes to the power of how established retail has pervaded our everyday experience in the United States. With no one in the store to demonstrate the HomeStove in real time, it’s pretty hard to understand and trust that a fire can be smokeless, cook your chapatti quickly, and power your cellphone.

Marketing 8

Marketing Microfinance Retail Development 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 22, 2015

” Microfinance and other market-based interventions don’t generally reach them. We need to tap into their creative power. At BRAC , where I work, we call this subset the “ultra-poor.” Predominantly women, they face chronic food insecurity, malnutrition, gender discrimination and often abuse.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance BHAG NGO Participative 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2010

Upon graduation, the governments, nonprofits, or (more recently) microfinance companies give them loans to buy tools and opens shops. We provide the charging stations that can power cell phone chargers, radios, among others to the youth, and they will repay over time. Dropout rates are high; repayment rates are low.

Microfinance 12

Microfinance Seminar How To Education 12

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2014

Or consider Kwabena Darko of Ghana, who helped found that country’s microfinance sector by forging a collaboration between global NGO Opportunity International , his national startup Sinapi Aba , and a myriad of village- and town-based trust groups.

Entrepreneur 12

Entrepreneur Microfinance NGO Mission Statement 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 20, 2012

Makers of solar-powered lights — for example, D.Light and Duron — provide both light and other needed functionality, such as a capacity for recharging cell phones, in their products. Peer groups also drive up the size of sales transactions: A single sale aggregates the demand of many customers.

Bottom-up 10

Bottom-up Microfinance Price Banking 10

CO2

JUNE 4, 2012

But for me, the book’s most powerful message is that we are all connected. My solution was to found a microfinance organization that puts women in a position to create their own destinies and achieve their full potential. My own journey, while different on the surface, is remarkably similar in many ways. Where does one start?

Microfinance 121

Microfinance Travel Open-book Education 121

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

The elegance of entrepreneurship is that, when it works, success breeds success, and so a powerful way of knowing if a program is successful, is to remove the props and see if it stands on its own two feet. Microfinance (Bangladesh), securitization of revenues (Saudi Arabia), and royalty-pay-back funding (Israel) were all invented overseas.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Microfinance Finance 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 30, 2018

.” She brought this mindset to her work, creating a unique organizational culture at her firm that de-emphasized the role of the designer as the sole authority, and instead put decision-making power into the hands of her clients. Change how you relate to others. Encourage others to expand themselves.

How To 11

How To Learning-by-Doing Examples Participative 11

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Power Source and Resource Magnetism. We are proud to have made early investments in the work of Andrew Youn, who founded One Acre Fund; Wendy Kopp, who founded Teach for America; and Vikram Akula, who founded SKS Microfinance. Marquis is building his organization in Massachusetts, a far cry from the Los Angeles of his youth.

Entrepreneur 10

Entrepreneur Planning Taylorism Taylor 10