Entrepreneurship Event in Barcelona

Microsoft forwarded us the information about this event that they are organizing in Barcelona on the 20th of May at 6pm. If you'd like to attend just subscribe at www.barcelonanetactiva.com

SER EMPREDEDOR SOCIAL

En el mes de abril AIESEC en cantoblanco, ha hecho otro círculo de aprendizaje, sobre la temática de ser emprendedor pero esta vez hablamos de emprendedores sociales.

Debatiendo surgieron muchas ideas, compactadas y entrelazadas es lo siguiente:

El emprendedor social es alguien que plantea soluciones innovadoras a problemas sociales e intentar mejorar la sociedad, quieren hacer ver a la sociedad que tiene que haber un cambio, lo que le diferencia del emprendedor empresarial es que no sólo quiere prestigio propio, sino conseguir ayudar a los demás.

Algunos ejemplos de emprendedores son Isabel Guirao, que quiere que los discapacitados en la sociedad, Jean Claude se centra en los inmigrantes que están desfavorecidos en recursos financieros.

El emprendedor social en definitiva busca el éxito para la sociedad.

Vimos el vídeo de un emprendedor llamado Iqbal Quadir, que explicaba que es importante impulsar la economía de los países pobres en vez de simplemente darles dinero o regalarles comida, esto es incluso contraproducente a lo que se pretende, ya que esto no fomenta el desarrollo.

Hay que dar ideas para desarrollar e incrementar los negocios.

Por último, se da mucha importancia al ser emprendedor empresarial, pero ello es producto de unos valores y una forma de ser, en AIESEC se fomenta la proactividad como forma de ser emprendedor, y en AIESEC siempre está abierto a nuevas ideas, pero no sólo a nuevas ideas, sino que se trata de llevarlas a cabo.

Una visión sin acción es sólo una alucinación.

Social innovation: Good for you, good for me

Big firms are joining the queue to follow in Muhammad Yunus’s footsteps by developing businesses designed to fix social ills.
Muhammad Yunus has for more than 30 years challenged business leaders to find radical ways of creating new markets in poor countries. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s latest book, “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism”, is no less ambitious. It explores how big companies can invest in external partners to develop products and services that will benefit the poor.

Yunus outlines the concept of a “social business”, which he defines as a “no loss, no dividend” company with social objectives. Social business ventures are set up by a “social entrepreneur”, such as Yunus, who combines the risk-taking of enterprise with an explicit mission to address urgent problems, such as access to healthcare, sanitation, education and so on. The new products and services that these inventive individuals devise are examples of “social innovation”.

Unlike charities, social businesses do not need to keep applying to governments or foundations for grants. They support themselves by selling goods and services at cost, or at a small profit – all of which is reinvested to fund their expansion. But to do this, social entrepreneurs must find investors willing to help take a new idea to scale.

Now multinational companies are emerging as an important source of funding for social innovation. Big companies are looking for exciting and potentially lucrative new ways to meet their sustainability goals.

Read the whole text at Ethical Corporation

Business Game

Want to try building a sustainable and responsible business? On the website of British Telecom you can try out if you have the right analytical skills to do so, go here: Business Game
You need flash player but the game doesn't take too long, so have fun playing!

Cheers, Sarah

Business at the Base of the Pyramid

Hey everyone,

last week I had the chance to assist at an event organized by Compromiso Empresarial that brought together researchers and case studies from companies that are working with the "Base of the Pyramid" - BOP (yes, there's lots of acronyms also outside of AIESEC :-)). The BOP is being constituted of 4 billion people all over the world who earn less than 4 Dollars a day. This huge amount of people usually encounters the following obstacles if they want to buy basic goods and services:

• Price: prices are artificially high, for example because there exists a monopoly and not a competitive market
• Quality: Companies don't produce products of a high quality for "poor" people
• Access: low-income consumers usually don't have access to the same range of products as high-income consumers

Different companies that are doing business in the BOP presented their cases, they were:

• Adopem, a microfinance bank from the Dominican Republic
  
• Procter and Gamble, manufacturing products for the BOP market since 5 years, presenting it's challenges and solutions in Colombia.
  
• Codensa, an energy retailer which presented its activities in Colombia
• TIA-Multiahorro, an Equatorian retailer
  

"All these four presenters offered their insights into what had been the most important factors for their respective businesses in allowing them to succeed. Factors common to all four cases are well-known to NextBillion.net readers: knowing the customer, accessible products, products and services adapted to meet BoP needs and with a pricing structure that allows purchasing by BoP customers."

source: thenext4billion.net

If you're interested in the statistics, where do these people live, what do they spend their money on, etc. you might be interested in a publication by the World Resource Institute called "The Next 4 Billion". On the website you can find more information around the concept of the Base of the Pyramid as well as interesting articles on other topics related to the concept and especially around Social Entrepreneurship.

Saludos, Sarah

Intrapreneurship

Do you think being entrepreneurial only means setting up your own business? Is there room for entrepreneurs inside other organizations? Have you heard the term "intrapreneurship"?

"Intrapreneurship is the practice of entrepreneurial skills and approaches by or within a company or at home. Employees, perhaps engaged in a special project within a larger firm are supposed to behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources and capabilities of the larger firm to draw upon. Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.) is claimed to be quite valuable in otherwise static organizations.

An Intrapreneur is the person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organizational environment. Thus, Intrapreneurs are Inside entrepreneurs who follow their founder’s example."

Source: Wikipedia

First Learning Circle AIESEC Cantoblanco

AIESEC in Cantoblanco (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) did on November, 29th its first Learning Circle within the Empren-D Project. 10 of us got together to talk about entrepreneurs and their characteristics.

Here are the outputs - some ideas that were mentioned:

Proyecto EMPREN-D

Un CÍRCULO DE APRENDIZAJE consiste en un debate sobre un tema de interés común que tiene por objeto el aprendizaje a partir de los distintos puntos de vista de los asistentes.

El Miércoles 29 estuvimos hablando de ¿qué se necesita para ser emprendedor?

Estas fueron nuestras opiniones:

- CREAR UNA EMPRESA con el objeto de LLEVAR A CABO TUS PROPIAS IDEAS.

- También se puede ser emprendedor dentro de una gran empresa---> empresarios buscan personas emprendedoras

("Busisness angels" empresas que buscan el punto de encuentro entre "ideas innovadoras" y financiación)

- Importancia de conocer los "factores fracasos". Para quién esté interesado, este es un buen libro para estar al día sobre el tema:

El libro negro del emprendedor, Fernado Trías de Bes
En este link encontrareis un breve resumen: http://www.leergratis.com/otros/el-libro-negro-del-emprendedor.html

- Un buen emprendedor debe asumir riesgos.

- Emprendedor es aquel que VA POR DELANTE AL RESTO.

- Sentimiento de seguridad: trabajar para otros nos hace estar más seguro, mientras que asumir responsabilidades nos hace ser consciente del riesgo de la toma de nuestras decisiones, pudiendo crear más inseguridad.

- Responsabilidad se diluye entre las personas.
(ej: varias personas pueden estar viendo un acto de maltrato en medio de la calle y pensad: "ya hará alguien algo" y que nadie haga nada...esto se debe a que la parte de responsabilidad que tiene cada persona es tan pequeña que todo el mundo esperara que "el otro" haga algo).

- Crear una empresa con baja financiación, a través de una buena idea.
(ej: "conduzco por ti": personas que te llevan el coche a casa después de que tú te hayas tomado unas cuantas copillas y no veas ni tres en un burro. Los conductores se desplazarían en bicis facilmente plegables para guardar en el maletero de los coches)

- Para ser emprendedor es necesario que te APASIONE TU TRABAJO.

Según una encuesta estas son las 3 CARACTERÍSTICAS para ser EMPRENDEDOR:

• AUTOCONTROL (fuerza de voluntad, asumir propias responsabilidades)
• AUTOCONFIANZA (sentirse capaz)
• SENTIMIENTO DE URGENCIA (proactividad)

We hope you enjoyed reading, feel free to comment, and tell us about your own learning activities!