San Francisco, is unmistakably one of my favourite cities in America. The chill from the bay, the magnificent view of the Golden Gate, the crooked Lombard, all reminded me of the July 4^th weekend of 2004. The city was as beautiful as ever. My MBA cohort that had embarked on the SE (Social Entrepreneurship) trek shared a big lovely house in Fillmore. Being co-located helped in a big way. Every morning and afternoon, before we left home to visit one of the organizations, we had a quick session educating one another on what the organization does, discussing what should we learn from them ?, and if there were any specific areas where we could offer consulting ?. After every visit we took time to debrief and reflect on our meetings. We spent a week in San Francisco (April 12-19) and had twelve formal meetings with social entrepreneurs, as well as a handful of less formal networking sessions.

The trek began with a visit to Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto. Their research arm, the Skoll Center at SBS offers three electives in the MBA’s Trinity term. I was thrilled to meet Victor and Jason with whom I had only interacted over emails. During the Skoll World Forum, I had written a series of blogs for Social Edge. Victor greeted me saying “So, there is a human being behind the blogger !” The Skoll Foundation family was very cordial and shared with us the work they do behind the scenes for the SWF. It was an amazing team and an apt way to begin our trek.

We then visited IDEO which was familiar to us from the case study we did on the TIS (Technology and Innovation Strategy) course. This design and innovation firm offers design thinking to a wide variety of areas from mundane kitchen issues to social issues. The team also did a consulting session with Mobile Metrix. Mobile Metrix is a market research company that assists the “invisible poor” by gathering data that shares their reality with the world. Accurate data is the first step to solving any social problem, because it directs resources and drives change. Working with partners IBM, Palm and Stanford University, Mobile Metrix has been instituted as a social enterprise and is contracted by private companies, foundations, NGOs, governments and international organizations who target the “base of the pyramid”. New Schools Venture Fund (NVSF), is another interesting organization that we visited. NSVF is a small organization trying to have a huge impact on K-12 education in the US. It is a non-profit that works as an intermediary. Their vision is a system of high performance schools. They look for a compelling role to play, where there is a market failure and where the private sector hasn’t addressed the demand, and incubate such solutions. They are ambitious and look at and invest in any aspect of the education system: from school meals to high policy levels, from teacher pay to curriculum development and grading.

Kiva was probably the most well known of all the organizations. Kiva is a social enterprise that allows individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. The organization became the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website. Further, we met with the Founder of New Leaf Paper. New Leaf Paper leads the paper industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers. Their goal is to inspire, through our success, a fundamental shift toward environmental responsibility in the paper industry. Global Footprint Network, was one of the last organizations that we visited. We met with Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of GFN, and centered our discussion around GFN’s new Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative (ECDI – see: www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/ecological_debtors_and_creditors).

The other organizations we visited were:

· Benetech, which is providing technology solutions to social problems. One of their projects is for people with vision and reading disabilities, wherein they have formed the world’s largest accessible digital library of scanned material.

· KickStart, that designs and develops cost-effective tools that support sustainable economic growth. They work in rural areas of Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

· Good Capital, which is an investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty.

Amidst all these, we also met with the BASES student group at Stanford University. BASES includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as leading faculty members from all schools at Stanford including Business, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Humanities, and the Sciences, promoting entrepreneurs through networking, discussions, competitions etc. We also had a chance to meet some like-minded MBA students on campus over lunch.

In summary, the SE OBN trek was one of the best student organised treks that was very educating and also helped us make valuable contacts in the Social Entrepreneurship space.

PS: The first part to this blog post is here.

6:30 AM Wake-up (Snooze) Wake-up

7:00 AM Breakfast – Cereal and milk (while remembering how nice it would have been to have idlis and dosa)

8:15 AM Bike to school, dump your stuff in the locker, check which of lecture rooms you ought to be in and go to class.

8:45 AM First class of the day – These are long 3.5 hour classes; struggle to be awake

9:15 AM Resist opening lap tops; Slowly, people start checking emails and make diligent notes side-by-side

10ish Coffee break – Grab a coffee or tea and also the free Financial Times and Wall Street Journal at the Common Room. Brood over when the economy will be on track or catch up with group mates on the assignments due.

11ish to 12:15 PM Back to class; Case Study time – Most classes begin with theoretical concepts and end with a discussion on the case study that was on the reading list.

12:15 to 1:30 PM Lunch or luncheon group meetings; If you aren’t lucky to have a relaxed lunch, grab a sandwich and come back to sit in one of the career presentations or an OBN meeting

1:30 to 4:45 PM Second class for the day; A similar schedule like the morning class, with a coffee break ofcourse.

4:45 PM Technically done for the day with all classes complete during Michaelmas and Hilary terms.

5:00 to 8:15 PM During Trinity term, a third class may be on schedule depending on the electives chosen.

5:00 PM to late You could end up doing one or all of these – Group meetings for discussing assignments; Writing and uploading assignments; study at the library; attending weekly debates at the Oxford Union; attend guest speaker events at school or elsewhere in the university; do pre-readings for next day’s class; attend a BOP; listen to a concert at the Sheldonian; workout at the college or university gym; attend meditation classes and an umpteen other things.

10:00 PM Back to comforts of the room; cook food; watch NDTV news over dinner (atleast in my case); do pre-readings for next day; plan calendar for next day; write journal entries and more…

12:00 midnight Time to crash…

Apart from all this, you can make time to row on river Isis, go punting on river Cherwell, take a walk in Port meadows, read in the Bodleian library, attend a prayer at the Church, visit one of the many museums, attend a book reading, be an activist, play cricket for the SBS team, walk down Corn market street to have the famous West Cornwall Pasty, drink beer at Eagle and Child, eat Michel’s crêpes at Bonn square, hear a Nobel laureate speak at the Sheldonian and many many more things. It is all a matter of priority and time management. If you are at Oxford, you will do them all and have one of the most enriching years of your life.

In 2004, when I returned to India, a progressive government was in its infancy. It had taken shape much to the succor of millions of people that were otherwise forlorn in an age of loathsome bigotry and skewed developmental agenda of the previous administration. India today is still grappling with its tryst with destiny, and confront questions on how it should redeem itself in an age of neo-liberal capitalism, highly interconnected and globalised world and at a time when crisis on all fronts is lurking behind images of an otherwise ‘shining’ India. If I tear through the clutter that is seen in the current pageant on Indian elections, ‘inclusive development’ seems to be the need of the day. The time has come for decisive, informed, responsible choices to be made to spearhead the billion people towards a progressive future. A future, that does not smack of arrogance of the elite or the fundamentalism of the religious zealots. The challenge is huge but the hope is promising.

These are times of uncertainty and turbulence. The world is changing at a rapid pace. I am today in a better place to be able to comprehend and opinionate on much of what is happening around in the world, than I was a few years ago. This has come partly out of the natural process of growing up, reading, conversations and substantially through the education in the last few months and the interactions and debates with informed people at Oxford. To that extent I am glad to be in the place I am and the perspectives the experience is offering me. I am also hopeful that the next few months will be defining in various ways.

The trip to San Francisco was also a brick laid to that edifice. I traveled with a cohort of MBAs to visit various organizations and enterprises working in the social entrepreneurship sector. The business trek is organized by students of the SE OBN (Social Entrepreneurship – Oxford Business Network) with active support from the Skoll center at Saïd Business School. More about the business trek in part two of the post.

A note to prospective and incoming students: The business treks are undertaken to various destinations of students’ interest around the world during the Spring break. The Careers center and the school do provide logistical support and guidance. The treks are sponsored by the students themselves. Various colleges offer travel grants to their students and that can partially cover the expenses. This past Spring I chose to go both to San Francisco and the Geneva treks.

In Israel today, Jewish and Arab citizens live in segregated environment with little or no opportunities for meaningful interaction between them. This segregation is more marked in the field of education where formal education in both elementary and secondary schools is almost entirely segregated. Hand in Hand – Centre for Jewish Arab Education, was founded in 1997 to fill this gap, with a vision to promote opportunities for meaningful and deep interactions in the field of education between Jewish and Arab children.

Hand in Hand (HIH) has its national office in Jerusalem and operates four schools across Israel in Jerusalem, Galilee, Wadi Ara and Beersheva. Over a 1000 children are enrolled across these four schools. Under the HIH model, each school is co-directed by Arab and Jewish Co-Principals, has equal numbers of Jewish and Arab children, and each classroom is co-taught by Jewish and Arab teachers in Hebrew and Arabic. By teaching in the two official languages of Hebrew and Arabic in an integrated multicultural environment, HIH schools have helped provide a space for education where the narratives of Jewish and Arab cultures coexist. It has further helped build a community of teachers, parents and neighbours that have worked and lived together and engaged in constructive dialogue even in times of extreme volatility in the external environment.

 

Children at the various HIH Schools

The nature of the HIH initiative is such that it lends itself to a long term experiment, with its various stakeholders perceiving the organization and its way forward in different ways. We performed a series of extensive interviews with the stakeholders of the organization, included those who are currently engaged and those who were previously associated, to elicit their views on HIH’s work, the value created by the organization, and how they believe the organization should evolve. Interviews were also conducted with people in other organizations working on coexistence to determine how HIH fits into the coexistence landscape. The feedback received was analysed thematically and we chalked a future strategy that places HIH at the intersection of the organization’s core competency, available resources, and strong positioning within the coexistence movement. We developed scenarios to illustrate the different directions the organization could take. Drawing upon the various MBA courses that we had taken from Strategy, Marketing and Finance to Social Entrepreneurship and Technology and Innovation Strategy was a challenge. However, in the end, the report was well received and we hope that it will guide future choices within the organization.

An Arab teacher in one of the classes

It was just amazing to see these children study together. There was no way one could tell who is a Jew or who is an Arab.

The summer can be spent in various ways for an Oxford MBA. You could choose to do electives or an internship or the SCP. The former leaves you to work by yourself and sometimes with a lot of time to job hunt or pursue other things. However, an SCP is a unique opportunity to stick your toes in the real world and apply your education. I strongly recommend anyone to take it on vis-a-vis the other choices. The University of Oxford tag also helped us during this period, while also bringing the onus to not just perform but excel.

These two months were enriching not just because of the unique experience that the project offered but for the opportunity of travel that this part of the world offered to me. From exploring the ancient city of Jerusalem to the Golan Heights, from the modern metropolis of Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea, from the pious city of Bethlehem to the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, and many many more, I was not just fascinated, but often left disconcerted with the complex tapestry of human identities and the problems it has left behind. In a land where Jesus, Mohammed and Moses walked, I only wish there was more space in human hearts and minds for the love and peace that they taught. I have made a humble beginning to chronicle the immense amount of experience I had in this region from random conversations to personal experiences. This blog piece was however devoted to the SCP and the rich experience around it.

Being the co-founder of an NGO that works in the education sector empowering underprivileged children in India, it wasn’t difficult from me to draw from that experience to look at how HIH works. However, never in my wildest imagination, did I woolgather that I will use my MBA learning with an organization in Jerusalem trying to solve its strategic problems. I learnt immensely from my group members who have abundant experience working with Social Enterprises. It was simply the best way to complete the MBA course.

PS: I do have some contacts in the region that could fructify as potential Strategic Consulting Projects (SCP) or an Entrepreneurial Projects (EP) in future. Once you are in the course, do drop in a line if you are interested and I will be happy to help.

The business trek was an opportunity to visit organizations and people in the space of International Development and engage in meaningful dialogue with them. This attempt stems from the interest to learn about the functioning of these organizations, the impact of their work and also to establish personal contacts with people at these places.

The trek lasted 5 days and covered a breadth of organizations. Here is a brief overview of the organizations we visited.

· Global Humanitarian Forum: GHF was established by Kofi Annan in 2007. Its initial focus is to highlight the ‘human impact of climate change’, rather than the purely environmental aspects, and empowering societies to end that human suffering.

· Dalberg Consultancy: Dalberg is a management consultancy with offices around the world, focusing on strategic advice in International development and Globalisation.

Global Humanitarian Forum - with CEO Walter Fust

· World Health Organisation: Here we met with people in departments focusing on procurement and technical implementation of health programmes to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB.

· World Economic Forum: WEF is the foremost global community of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society who are committed to improving the state of the world. The Forum is an independent, not-for-profit organization that brings these leaders together to work on projects that improve people’s lives. We met with an SBS alumnus here, who is a Scenario Planner, looking at alternative futures for financial systems, amongst other things. During the course of our visit, we were plesantly surprised to encounter Klaus Schwab, the Chairman of WEF. He had a few good words of advice for us. He stressed on the need for us to spend time each day to read about what is happening around us in the world. An ability to synthesise all this information and form an opinion is essential in today’s world, he said.

At the World Economic Forum

· Global Fund: GF now separate from WHO, finances key programmes on HIV/ AIDS, Malaria and TB, through partnership working, donor support and UN funds.

· The International AIDS Society: IAS is the world’s leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals. It provides critical platforms for presenting new research, sharing best practice, education and networking, in tackling HIV/AIDS.

In these interactions, we not only learnt about the operations of these organizations, but also the key economic, environmental and health issues facing the world today. We became more aware of the role played by them in engaging with governments and shaping global policies. While the students displayed keen interest on how they could engage themselves in any of these organizations, the hosts themselves were pleased to offer guidance on career prospects.

The cluster of International organisations in Geneva is both strength and a weakness. While it allows for debate and free flow of ideas, there seemed to be a tendency for the rest of the world to bracket them out as elite and out of touch with grassroots’ realities. The truth is somewhere in between.

At the UN General Assembly

Geneva - by the night

We also found time to soak ourselves in the beauty of the city and just enjoy the sun.

]]> http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/mba-20082009-bloggers/vinay-nagaraju/oxford-mbas-geneva-trek/feed/ 7 http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/oxford-life/white-spaces-cii-young-indians-meet-oxford-mbas/ http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/oxford-life/white-spaces-cii-young-indians-meet-oxford-mbas/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:13:54 +0000 Vinay http://mba.sbsblogs.co.uk/?p=778 As I was peering through the paintings of Picasso and Monet at the Tate Modern in London, I couldn’t help but notice that the paintings had no white spaces in them. No, this probably has nothing to do with impressionism or surrealism; it is just how painters are. Although surrealists’ works feature an element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions, generally painters make use of every ‘white space’ on their canvas to create their piece of expression. Talking about white spaces, I recollect here what Rahul Mirchandani, National Chairman and head of the CII Young Indians delegation said – He said he as a kid had an art teacher who taught all the children never to leave any white space in their paintings. Every bit of the blank paper had to be coloured. Rahul likened entrepreneurs in the society to painters. Entrepreneurs always look for white spaces that could be filled. It is this quest that drives them to places, seek ideas and pursue opportunities that are untapped.

The highlight of the event was an impassionate speech by Rahul who shared the joys of creation as an entrepreneur. Introducing the entrepreneurial space in India, he spoke of the nuances of cultural baggage and the importance of native intelligence in a diverse country like India. He eloquently drew upon stories of how our ancestors had little luxury to waste resources and which automatically translated into them being entrepreneurial to solve the problems of the day. Summarizing the essentials of being an Entrepreneur he said that an innovative idea, integrity (inspiring trust with all stake holders) and collaboration (cross-sector sharing of best practices) were key elements of success. Anoushka from NetxGen’s Oxford chapter gave a fervent speech on Oxford Tutoring, a social enterprise started by her as also Oxford Emerging Markets.

The CII Young Indians delegation had visited the University of Oxford on June 25^th as a part of their UK tour. The event was hosted by the UKIBC (UK India Business Council). Young Indians (”Yi”) was founded in December 2002.  It is an integral part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and comprises of a group of young Indian achievers and professionals below the age of 40 years from various walks of life. Yi believes that young Indians can contribute to the community and society at large. Yi is a forum that focuses on issues of national importance and motivates a generational change in the economic and social agenda of India.

The day also marked the official launch of UKIBCs Next Generation Network’s Oxford Chapter of which Anoushka Babbar will be the Head. NGN is a network of young people interested in the UK India business relationship. The visiting delegation were taken around a small walking tour of Oxford through the covered market and a stop at Ben’s Cookies, Oxford Union, Radcliffe Camera and the Queen’s college where the event was hosted. The event also brought together a networking event where many MBA students spent time with the entrepreneurs exchanging ideas, notes, experiences and business cards.

Speaking of Entrepreneurship, do visit http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/ to learn about the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Said Business School that hosts a series of talks on Building a Business between November and February. They also host the Venture Fund competition every year in Hilary term. The center is of strategic importance to Said and is an important part of the SBS MBAs experience. I am sure this year given the impact of the downturn there will be more MBA students than usual who will turn to being an entrepreneur and fill white spaces in the society.

As an end note, I want to say that some of us students of the current MBA batch are keen on continuity of the relationship established with the CII – Young Indians team. A virtual event in the form of a discussion, key note speaker event is planned with leading Indian B-School students and CII – YI in September. So, I call upon any of you (MBA batch of 2010) interested to write to me at Vinay.Nagaraju@sbs.ox.ac.uk or Abhishek.Pathak@sbs.ox.ac.uk on your arrival dates and we shall take it forward from there. See you soon !

An evening with Vikram Seth

I had read of his coming to speak to the Oxford Union book club. All members of the Union can meet the guests by writing to the President in advance. I did so and had this opportunity to have dinner with Vikram Seth and spend a few hours with him before a book reading night. It was very memorable because we were in close proximity to Vikram and shared many a things from our lives and hear from him. He recollected his days at Oxford and shared his fond memories from India. At dinner it was time for light hearted conversation with people sharing about their upbringing et al; As I shared about my childhood in Bangalore, I jokingly said that he has to set his next novel in Bangalore! Later in the evening he read some of his poems, bits from novels, shared his opinion of contemporary India, how he admires RK Narayanan and that if RKN had written of North India he would never dared to do something similar J, he spoke of how communal hatred can be detrimental to India in the long run, gave advice to a few budding writers on how to accept criticism and how to take it constructively. That evening as I said “Good night Vikram, I take leave of you, it was a memorable evening indeed. Hope to meet you again.” He turned around and up and said “Good night Vinay. It was nice meeting you all.” I started walking towards the gate and then he gave a shout “You know what Vinay, my next novel may after all be set in Bangalore. See you soon !” A memorable evening indeed…

Earning a quick buck

After donning the role of a student, there has only been out flows from my bank account. However, the prospect of earning a few quids is not very bleak. CESS, the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences at Nuffield College here is a place that promotes and facilitates experimental research by social scientists at the University. So, time to time these social scientists need ‘guinea pigs’ for their experiments. If you are registered on their distribution list you receive invitations to these experiments. You can choose to volunteer your time usually between 30 mins to 1.5 hours or so, depending on the experiment. During these experiments we answer various questionnaires… for example on elections to European Union (on a political orientation experiment), played games with randomly paired participant (on a strategic decision experiment) and so on. I have earned 10 to 15 quids everytime I volunteer and that is a decent amount ! The department of Psychology and the Medics usually need people for their studies and many student volunteer their time and earn a buck too.

Meeting Ko Aung at the Amnesty International event

Amnesty International Oxford and the Oxford Union hosted Ko Aung from Burma. Ko Aung was a student leader in Burma in 1988 during the uprising. He led thousands of students as they took part in mass protests. The protests would end in 3,000 deaths. He was arrested and repeatedly tortured. Two years later he received a jail sentence for his role in the protests at a trial Amnesty believed to be unfair. He spent the first three years in solitary confinement. He was released from his detention in 1994 and subsequently fled to the UK. It was very inspiring to listen to him and the extremely difficult times he has gone through. It was evident how those trying times had built his character. I walked back home re-kindling the activist spirit in me.

John Howard @ Sheldonian

John Howard ex-Australian PM, spoke at the Sheldonian on 28^th May. He was speaking as a part of the quincentenary celebrations of Brasenose college, he delivered a talk on ‘Lessons in Governance’. I am no center-right sympathizer, but John Howard’s speech and his way of engaging the crowd was honest, simple and elucidating. He spoke at length about the three greatest democracies of the world – America, India and Indonesia. He steered himself clear of making any comments on the recent MPs expenses scandal of UK, but he heaped great appreciation on the Indian democracy, its triumph in spite of its diversity and its leader Dr.Manmohan Singh whom he hailed as an intelligent man and one of the finest statesmen in recent times. John was a fine orator and the evening was particularly interesting.

John Howard (ex-Australian PM) at Oxford

Voting in Oxford

Apparently being a student in Oxford with a resident permit VISA, I was on the electoral rolls of the local council. I did not realize it until I received a voting card with details of my polling station for the recently held European Parliamentary Election and the Oxford Council Elections. Having missed the opportunity to cast my vote in the recent General Elections, it was a great opportunity to exercise my ‘right’ here in Oxford. The St. Giles Parish center was my polling station and I promptly went there after class on the 4^th of June to cast my vote. I had three votes in all and I had to use the good old ballot paper to mark a cross with a pencil to indicate my choice ! We have come a long way in India in this regard with a 100% electronic voting in every nook and corner of the country.

These were just random experiences in Oxford that makes life vibrant and interesting here and I thought you would like to know…

In the last four months, the Hilary term and the Spring break have passed by so quickly that I have hardly had any time to capture those moments and we are now in the thick of Trinity term. Time indeed is fleeting and more so when there is so much packed into it. For most of us, the Hilary term began in right earnest. There was the ‘baggage’ of experience and learning from the Michaelmas term that we were all geared to apply and make the Hilary term a better one in all respects. Now that the Hilary term exam results are out, I must say it was much better and fulfilling than the first term. Taking cues from the response I received on the Michaelmas term blog piece I intend to throw some light on the academic aspects of the Hilary term. I will save the details of events and other experiences for another blog.

In the Hilary term we had two core subjects – Operations Management and Developing Effective Managers. The electives that were on offer were Global Strategy, Customer Insights, Strategy II – Technology and Innovation Strategy (TIS), Macroeconomics, Managing Innovation in Bio-economy, Finance II and Financial Management. We had to choose 3 of these. That makes it 5 courses in all and an Entrepreneurship Project.

Learning operations management through the discovery exercise in class

I was keen on continuing to focus on Strategy, Entrepreneurship and also learning the fundamentals of Economics. So, I chose Global Strategy, Technology and Innovation Strategy and Macroeconomics. Global Strategy taught me tools to critically evaluate market and non-market forces in a global economy before formulating and implementing strategies for global expansion of a business. My favourite bit was a group study involving three World Bank 2020 Scenarios and applying all that we learnt to evaluate what Toyota’s strategies should be in future and giving a presentation in class. Technology and Innovation Strategy (TIS) was an intersection of technologies, organizations and markets. Although the course perhaps involved the maximum pre-reading, each article or case study was chosen with a lot of forethought and helped me learn a wide array of concepts from network building, to dominant designs in innovation, organizational roles in innovation and how technology markets work in various businesses including public sector and social innovation. The course involved the maximum assignments too; but in retrospect I am happy that I was on my toes and learnt many a things much before the exams. Macroeconomics was probably my favourite for many reasons. Prof Dr. Oren Sussman was an awesome lecturer who teased our brains very often as he helped us make sense of a gamut of economic terminology from GDP, Productivity, Growth, Inflation, Financial Crisis to Exchange Rates. We covered a lot of ground from Great Depression, Keynesian Economics, Asian Miracle to the latest financial crisis.

Entrepreneurial Project (EP) is the highlight of the term. Each team (self-formed) is tasked to brainstorm an idea and build a business proposition out of it. The ideas are created by the teams themselves and then the groups use the skills gained from the courses we have taken so far, to identify market space, competitors, business model, operations, revenue models etc and submit a business plan for evaluation. Before the final submission we pitch the idea to a VC (Venture Capitalists) panel that critiques and questions the proposition in an effort to make it more robust and give us guidance to ameliorate it. My team was an international team, with the 5 of us hailing from Korea, Canada, Peru, England and India with a diverse background – from Aerospace, Non-Profit, Education, Journalism, Social Media, Environment Conservation. We learnt a lot in the process of forging an idea – that of developing a Consulting Firm called ‘Future Calling’. Future Calling specializes in scenario based, game enhanced training for MBA’s that engages students in critically imagining and creating the future, preparing them to achieve authentic positive change in their organizations and the world.

eam - L to R - Jessica (Canada) Yours truly (India) Anna (England) JinSeo (Korea) Frank (Peru).JPG

The assessments in Hilary were a mix of exams, formal course works (reports submitted to Examination Schools at the Univ), individual and group assignments, class presentations, field work etc. The term was an enriching one again. I spent the Spring break on student business treks in San Francisco and Geneva (you will read more on that soon). We are in week 2 of Trinity term now and the sense that things have gone by so fast lingers. Nonetheless as Kipling said…

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Beautiful 'Daffodils' that bloom in my college garden in Spring - Wordsworth's Country it

Folks, here is my final piece from the Skoll World Forum 2009 in Oxford. It has been a humbling, inspiring, overwhelming, connecting and a fulfilling experience these last few days.

Pamela Hartigan, the Director of Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School was the hostess of the closing plenary. She began by telling us that the Skoll World Forum was 6^th most twittered event in the world in the last couple of days. Hosting it at Oxford University, the oldest university in the English speaking world was illustrating the importance of it. She said that her vision for the Skoll center was to have Social Entrepreneurship as a harbinger of future systems and practices in this space. Skoll center has been awarding scholarships for MBA students that have worked on transformational change. So far, 25 Skollars (as the Skoll Scholars are called) are influencing ecosystems where they work and are the first line ambassadors of Skoll. This year there are more than 60 MBA students interested in this space and member of the Social Entrepreneurship OBN (Oxford Business Network). These students serve as infectious agents combining markets and meaning. She added that Skoll intends to contribute by convening researchers and practitioners. Skoll center is now actively pursuing the teaching fraternity at the B-school to introduce case studies on SE in subjects of Finance, Strategy etc. developing a business culture with a passion for social change.

Lord David Puttnam who spoke on “Citizens, Institutions and Shifting Power”, is a filmmaker and politician and a member of the House of Lords. He has spent recent years in the field of education that he says are the building blocks for children’s lives. Known for producing Oscar award winning movies like ‘Chariots of Fire’ he was drawing upon his rich know-how in various sectors. Quoting HG Well he said “History is a race between education and catastrophe.” He hopes in future Education triumphs. He said there was a need for a movie like Inconvenient Truth to stress on education. He held the world premiere of his new work by showing a 7 mins clip on education to the audience.

The present threat to our planet is inaction in the face of global challenges. This inaction will precipitate matters. Environmental costs he said have to be accounted for in all economic activity. The whirlwind of 200 years of economic and environmental inactivity will be catastrophic. He was glad that there was hope. He said he was confident to see that the social entrepreneurs in the gathering were well equipped to deliver on that hope.

Soraya Salti, Senior Vice President, MENA, INJAZ al-Arab, spoke of the golden age of Islam and the current state of the education system. She said this had created unprecedented rates of unemployment in the Arab world. She spoke of the need to invest in education for prospering. She quoted Khalil Gibran on Work “‘You work so that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons and to step out of life’s processions that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite…when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream assigned to you when that dream was born”. She told she came from the land of prophets and wanted to present a book to the ‘modern day prophet’ Jeff Skoll. The audience gave a standing ovation to Jeff Skoll as they witnessed this gesture.  

Jeff Skoll, summed up what a great forum we have had. Referring again to urgency and hope, the two issues of today he said “Both are on an upward path”. Charles Darwin, whose bicentenary Oxford is celebrating had impact on science, religion and society. Not until the DNA double helix model was discovered to provide hard scientific evidence to the work he had done on the Beagles journey; – Jeff said a similar process is in play in Social Entrepreneurship space; SE field has evolved, strengthened and been challenged over time. Now is the time for it to be on the main stream – economic crisis may solidify SE model to be THE model for social and economic change. Referring to the SE community he said “You are a keystone species in the social change architecture. Your role is strengthened by the economic crisis. We leave Oxford with a renewed sense of what is possible. Last year we said Social Entrepreneurs had arrived; now I say SEs are to take lead and show the way to the rest of the world. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

Colin Mayer, Dean of Said Business School gave the concluding remarks. Referring to the evolution of Kaizen in Japan in post World War II period, he said that institutional innovation was the need of this decade of the 21^st century. Skoll Forum was a contrast to the gloom and doom in other conferences he has attended in recent times. Forum is an enduring innovation in its own right he added.

Pamela concluded with an Irish blessing:

“May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

The closing plenary was followed by a networking event called “Conversations – Leaders for the Future”. Current MBA students spent time speaking to practitioners and delegates discussing ideas revolving on various themes from Human Rights, Education to Youth empowerment and media.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

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PS: All the beautiful pics are courtesy Photovibe.

Next Billion featured some of my write-ups: http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/author/vinay-nagaraju

Social Edge write-ups are here: http://www.socialedge.org/search?Creator=vinaynagaraju&sort_on=Date&sort_order=reverse 

 

My classmate Julia and I at the Forum

The evening began to foot tapping performance by KT Tunstall , a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. In introducing her Sally Osberg, President and CEO of Skoll Foundation said that KT has been contributing to the cause of Climate Change by taking buses on tours that run on bio-diesel. I knew little about her but thanks to Wikipedia I am now enlightened on this amazing performer.

Sally Osberg rightly said that the Skoll Forum was convening in exceptional circumstances when the old order was collapsing and the challenge to create and morally justifiable and sustainable world was in front of us. She likened Social Entrepreneurs to ‘scouts’ in ant communities that go out in search of new sites. “Social Entrepreneurs are humanities scouts. – signally there is something out there that is hopeful. Skoll amplifies such signals.” Follow her address were three shortfilms on healthcare and it footprint, Rootcapital and their transformative work with Tanzanian farmers and one on the use of IT education to bridge the digital divide in marginalized youth communities in Brazil.

R.K.Pachauri, Nobel Peace Prize winner and chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  delivered the key note address. He praised Social Entrepreneurs as missionaries of a fair and just society who are today fashioning a new development paradigm in tune with grassroots realities. “Social Entrepreneurs also provide a form of powerful governance.” He shared an anecdote of Mahatma Gandhi while stressing the importance of sustainable use of natural resources. I paraphrase it here – Once, a British friend of Gandhi asked him if he did not want India to proposer like Britain. Gandhi paused and said that if Britain needed half the resources in the world to be what it was, then imagine what would happen if India wanted to be as prosperous as Britain. Climate change he said was only a subset of the dangers of unsustainable development. The most affected in any catastrophes are the poorest of the poor. This he said was an inequitable impact. While giving the shocking statistic that there are 1.6 billion homes without access to electricity in the world, he shared his dream of lighting a billion homes.

This was followed by the Skoll Award distribution to 9 awardees. The audience was inspired and were on their feet applauding the significant impact each of these awardees had on their communities. More than $5 million was given as grants to these people.  The evening concluded with a few more songs by KT and a reception at the Examination Schools at High Street.

In all, an enthralling evening, great fellowship, bright ideas, uncommon heroes and common good!!!

The final day was marked by panel discussions in the morning before the closing plenary. I wrote accounts of it for Social Edge and Next Billion as follows:

Where’s the power in the new development paradigm ?

Tomorrow’s NEWS: Models for an everyone-is-media world