e+i Network F2F-Event Uettligen 2014 - Social entrepreneurs

 
e+i Network F2F-Event Uettligen 2014 - Social Entrepreneurs

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Clarificati​on of concepts

As this was felt necessary by participants (expressed in the evaluation of the seminar), here is our intent to have a short definition of social entrepreneurship and a long one with examples (full article to download)

Social entrepreneurship: The case for definition

By Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg

The term “social entrepreneurship” is not clearly defined today. In order to understand it, we should start by looking at the characteristics of entrepreneurship. Continue reading →

 

The following posts here below provide you with four examples of social entrepreneursip:
↓ Biohof Schüpenried walks the participants through the farm facilities and explains how the farm diversified its income sources.
↓ Christian Hiss explains his model of Regionalwert AG, a people’s owned stock company that invests into local agricultural value chain.
↓ Madison Ayer talks about his challenges and solutions providing the right tools for higher yields to small farmers in Kenya.
↓ Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya explains his IT platform ekgaon for small farmers in India: A mobile phone service at their fingertips!

Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with nearly 3000 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries putting their transformative ideas on a large scale. Founded in 1981, it has provided start-up financing, professional support services, and connections to a global network across the business and social sectors. It has also been a platform for people dedicated to changing the world.

We had the pleasure of hearing how Stephanie Schmidt at Ashoka in North America sees social entrepreneurship, what she thinks social entrepreneurship is about, as well as find out from her about some of the challenges social entrepreneurs face in the near future.  Continue reading 

Making Markets Work for Small Farmers

VijayPratap

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya, CEO ekgaon

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya presented its social enterprise ekgaon. The enterprise offers small farmers in the Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh region of India an IT platform that provides them with services throughout the agricultural production chain.

An IT solution for farmers who:

  • Live in geographically very remote areas
  • Rely on mono crop agriculture
  • Live of very low incomes
  • Abandon their agricultural activity for the search of better paid jobs
  • Are illiterate (literacy level at 20%)
  • But to a large extent own mobile phones!
  • Own the land they work on

The solution ekgaon proposes is as follows:  Continue reading 

​​Farm Shops in Kenya: Can a Delivery System for Agricultural Inputs to Small Producers Enhance Crops?

Madison Ayer, CEO FarmShop

Madison Ayer, CEO FarmShop

Meet Madison Ayer, who started his career as a venture capitalist  in the United States, where he founded two companies. With this experience, Madison chose to move to Kenya where he now lives, to focus on problems more ”on the ground”. It is there that Madison founded ”Farm Shop”, a social enterprise selling agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, and other agricultural input products) to farmers. Continue reading   

Supporting and Scaling Up Organic Farming – The Story of Christian Hiss

C.Hiss

Christian Hiss, CEO Regionalwert AG

Imagine growing up on an organic farm, and seeing with your own eyes not just the great benefits of organic farming to the preservation and sustainability of our planet’s ecosystems, but also the challenges to organic farming growth, scaling up and profitability. This is exactly what Christian Hiss did. And he chose to address these challenges by creating – in 2006 – his own company, RegionalWert AG. ​Continue reading 


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