Gaia: Starship Social Enterprise - Social Enterprise in the Media

Creative Capitalism: Transcript and video of Bill Gates at Davos

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:53:13 GMT

Below is a transcript and video of Bill Gates' speech at Davos wherein he called for Creative Capitalism.

Bill Gates: World Economic Forum 2008

Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation
World Economic Forum 2008
“A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century”
Davos, Switzerland
Jan. 24, 2008

see: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2008/01-24WEFDavos.mspx

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-Mtlx31e8

WIRED: Feeling Lucky

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:10:45 GMT

via http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/brilliant.html

If Larry Brilliant’s life were a film, critics would pan the plot as implausible. Trained as a physician, he was studying in an Indian monastery in 1973 when a guru told him to join the UN smallpox vaccination effort. Brilliant helped eradicate the disease from India and eventually the planet. He returned to the US and founded a charity organization, Seva, that has saved millions of people in developing countries from blindness; cofounded the online community the Well; and served as CEO for four tech companies. Oh, and he also found time to march with Martin Luther King Jr. and moonlight as a physician for Jerry Garcia. Last October, Brilliant received a $100,000 TED Prize to further his idea for building a global early-warning system for disease and disaster. Four months later Google hired him to head its charitable arm, Google.org, with an initial bankroll of 3 million shares – worth about $1.15 billion – and 1 percent of annual profits. Brilliant recently suspended a self-imposed “quiet period” to talk about his plans for Google.org.

Read more...

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar Videos

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:19:06 GMT

via Educators Corner @ Stanford

Video clips of recent speakers from the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar.
	Economics of Free: A New Business Model Janice Roberts, Mayfield Fund 4 min. 34 sec. The latest business model for web-based companies is to provide services to the consumers for free. Roberts talks about the operations of such a model, in which advertising is the only source of revenue. She elaborates on how companies are learning to value the concept of 'nothing'.
	3 Key Lessons for an Entrepreneurial Internet Company Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn 3 min. 26 sec. Hoffman describes 3 key lessons he learned at his first company, SocialNet. 1) Financing strategy should reflect one's financial capabilities. 2) Focusing on distribution is important. 3) Understanding that the entrepreneurial skill set is different from what is required to work for an established big company.
	Releasing Control in a Startup Mark Jung, IGN 2 min. 4 sec. Jung talks about one of the biggest challenges in the growth phase of a startup. Releasing and disseminating control is very essential for scaling companies. He explains this fact in detail and illustrates its importance from his personal experience.

Re: EntrepreneurshipWeek USA at Stanford

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:22:21 GMT

via: http://www.entrepreneurshipweekusa.com/activities/the-pitch.asp
THE PITCH Contest Winner After tallying the results from our panel of judges and collecting the data from the online poll, we are ready to announce the winner of THE PITCH Contest. The winner for the Grand Prize and the Peer Prize is the same! And the winner is: Fusion: Unlimited Possibilities by Rick Rainy Iowa State University

Re: EntrepreneurshipWeek USA at Stanford

http://whaletailschips.gaia.com — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:51:31 GMT

Update on Stanford Entrepreneurship Program.
Thursday night, on the grounds of Stanford University, a “gathering” of Global Entrepreneurs assembled to address students enrolled in Professor Thomas Kosnik's Management Science and Engineering course on GEM (Global Entrepreneurial Marketing). “Sponsors” as Thomas Kosnik described these entrepreneurs “are invited to meet students and give a two minute pitch about their company.” Tom Kosnik is a Consulting Professor who teaches Global Entrepreneurial Marketing at Stanford School of Engineering. Professor Kosnik has worked with over 100 startup companies since 1975, and has consulted to leading Information Technology product and services companies including American Management Systems, Apple Computer, Applied Materials, Ernst & Young, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Oracle.
The companies attending Thursday night were as diverse as the student body at Stanford. In attendance were representatives of such recognizable companies as Google and Mozilla to lesser known entrepreneurs like Genepharm Inc, marketing a new line of skin care products, and Whale Tails Tortilla Chips, an environmental entrepreneurship, that just might help save the whales one bag at a time.
Each of the CEOs or Co Founders of the companies were limited, by Professor Kosnik, to a two minute “pitch” to try and enlist his students as active participants in helping with the development for their companies. These areas of development are called “projects” and the students are allowed to select which company's project is of interest to them. Immediately following the two minute “pitch” was a “breakout session”where the students were allowed to ask questions and present resumes to representatives of the companies. Christopher Beard , representing Mozilla, drew the biggest crowd during this break out session with students. Twelve companies attended. In addition to, Mozilla, Genepharm, Whale Tails Tortilla Chips, representatives from Beyondcore, Gumball Capital, Roundtable Group, Standford Energy Crossroads, Experience Project, Toloop, ThreeAll, Big Tent, and Open Floodgate all participated. Once students select the company and it's project, the company is given the chance to review the student's resume and then agree to work together over the semester
“Participation in these projects will help the students will learn the marketing skills needed to market new products to new customers, using new technology.” said Jaleh Rezaei , GEM teaching Assistant. And these companies also benefit. Take for example the start up company in attendance, Whale Tails Tortilla Chips. This company was founded no more than a year ago is already on the shelves of Whole Foods Markets and is looking for expansion funding and increased market share. One of the co founders, Ric Kraszewski, described his unique salty snack as the “corn chip with a conscience” . Ric said “ I was excited to be invited to tonight's event because of the growth our company is experiencing. Our goal is to provide sustainable funding for ocean conservation through the sale of our organic tortilla chip and the global market is where we need to be to accomplish that goal. I am very impressed with the students I spoke to tonight” Kelly Thong of Genepharm pitched her unique line of what she calls “cosmoceuticals” a blend of skin care that is much more than a cosmetic and almost a pharmaceutical in the benefits it creates for the user. Ms Thong spoke with students regarding her expansion to the Asian markets and here at home.
After observing the enthusiastic exchanges between students and companies at Thursday's event I will definitely be using "Mozilla" to "Google" "Whale Tails Tortilla Chips" and find out happens next to this new group of entrepreneurs..

EntrepreneurshipWeek USA at Stanford

http://team.gaia.com — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:10:54 GMT

(via Guy Kawasaki: How To Change The World )

The Kauffman Foundation is launching EntrepreneurshipWeek USA from February 23rd to March 3rd. The theme is “What’s Your Big Idea? Take it On!” There will be educational programs around the country. Stanford is embracing this program in a big way starting with the kickoff event on Saturday. The schedule for the week is packed with interesting sessions:

Read more...

Educator's Corner for Entrepreneurship @ Stanford

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:55:11 GMT

One thing I love about Zaadz is that I discover a lot of meaningful stuff while surfing around my friends list blogs.

Case in point: I discovered this awesome educational resource from Heather:

"The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Educators Corner is a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. The mission of the project is to support and encourage faculty around the world who teach entrepreneurship to future scientists and engineers, as well as those in management and other disciplines."

I highly recommend this site. The videos and podcasts are worth it! No registration required. But show your love and appreciation by registering.

SIConversations: Hero for the Planet

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:34:51 GMT

Check out this awesome interview with Amory Lovins via Social Innovation Conversations. A must-hear :)

Hero for the Planet

Amory Lovins - Rocky Mountain Institute

Amory Lovins is one of the globe’s most visionary thinkers. His focus is an issue of global proportions – the enormous potential of energy efficiency and renewable energy resources. As CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, he has already been credited with having done more than any other single individual to redefine the thinking around energy policy and to link it with environment, development and security issues. Lovins and his the team of researchers delight in challenging conventional wisdom by demonstrating advanced resource productivity that avoids depletion and pollution, and still shows a profit.

It’s not all thought and no action for Lovins. He has worked aggressively to move his ideas into widespread practice, chiefly via the private sector, spinning off several for-profit companies from the nonprofit he runs, RMI. Not surprisingly, he was chosen several years ago by the editors of The Wall Street Journal as one of the people most likely to change the face of world industry.

Listen up yo!

Related Book Readings via zBooks:Lists:Starship Social Enterprise:

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution

(download here for FREE)

Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security

(download here for FREE)

BONUS VIDEO: Here's a link to a video of Amory Lovins presenting the Oil Endgame on MITWorld (found via Treehugger)

SIConversations: The Next Generation of Global Health Workers

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:25:01 GMT

(via Social Innovation Conversations)

check out this awesome and touching interview with Oliver Foot over at SIConversations.

The Next Generation of Global Health Workers

Oliver Foot, President and CEO, Orbis

According the World Health Organization, 37 million people worldwide are blind and an additional 127 million have vision so poor that normal life is impossible. A staggering 90 percent of the world’s blind live in developing countries and for 28 million of them, their blindness could have been prevented, or their eyesight restored, if only they had access to proper eye care.

In the mid-1970’s, a Houston-based ophthalmologist, Oliver Foot, decided to do something about it. And with the help of some of Corporate America’s most legendary titans--a past-its-prime DC-8, and a handful of volunteering medical professionals--he created Orbis International, a nonprofit on a mission to eliminate avoidable blindness and restore sight in the developing world.

The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital is literally a hospital with wings that took flight after extensive modification to the passenger area and cargo bay of a DC-10 jet aircraft. This unique mobile teaching facility brings together dedicated eye care professionals and aviators to transport the gift of sight around the world.

On board, local doctors, nurses and technicians work alongside ORBIS’s international medical team in the operating, laser treatment, and recovery rooms to exchange knowledge and improve their ability to preserve and restore sight.

Since its launch in 1982, Orbis has provided training programs to more than 124,000 doctors, nurses, and other essential healthcare workers in 85 countries; performed more than 135,000 eye surgeries; and directly treated more than 3 million individuals. In addition, it’s been estimated that as many as 27.5 million children and adults have benefited from Orbis International’s medical training programs worldwide.

Listen to the podcast...

Entrepreneurial Idealism and the Integral Model. Part 2.

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:45:35 GMT

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)

Part 1 is cool. But this Part 2 is just perfect of the Labor Day holiday…

(via zPod:Integral Institute)

Entrepreneurial Idealism and the Integral Model. Part 2. Right Bucks. Right Business. Right View.

”Brian Johnson is the co-Founder and Philosopher/CEO of social networking phenomenon Zaadz.com, a website which is one of Integral Institute’s esteemed “Integral Friends.”* A 32-year-old font of idealism-in-action, Brian is a rather extraordinary example of the passion, creativity, and drive of an emerging wave of integrally-oriented twenty- and thirty-somethings worldwide.

“Brian beings the conversation by mentioning his passion for “conscious capitalism,” and how the Zaadz “plan” as described on the site actually leads with capitalism, and then mentions the spiritual emphasis. He comments, “I deliberately do that… I’m trying to create a compelling ‘yes-and’ story here.” In other words, he’s trying to take a more integral perspective and show how capitalism and spirituality can not only coexist, but actually support each other. However, he continues, not everyone is so excited to see these two things come together, and certain camps have been particularly vocal in denouncing his entire approach, following a general “capitalist pig” theme.

As Ken comments, there are several different things going on here. To begin, even more fundamental than how one might feel about capitalism—or any of the economic systems available—is how one feels about money in general. Generally speaking, a strong negative view of money can be attributed to either 1. exclusively ascending types of spirituality or 2. the green altitude of development (types and altitude/levels being two of the five elements in the AQAL Approach, the others being quadrants, lines, and states).”

Read more and listen…

NOTE: Integral Naked is a premium site. FIRST MONTH is FREE. Eavesdrop on the conversations you can hear nowhere else.

Forget the World Bank, Try Wal-Mart (by Michael Strong)

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:02:15 GMT

(via zPod:FLOW)

Forget the World Bank, Try Wal-Mart

Between 1990 and 2002 more than 174 million people escaped poverty in China, about 1.2 million per month.[1] With an estimated $23 billion in Chinese exports in 2005 (out of a total of $713 billion in manufacturing exports),[2] Wal-Mart might well be single-handedly responsible for bringing about 38,000 people out of poverty in China each month, about 460,000 per year.

There are estimates that 70 percent of Wal-Mart's products are made in China.[3] One writer vividly suggests that "One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market." [4] Even without considering the $263 billion in consumer savings that Wal-Mart provides for low-income Americans, or the millions lifted out of poverty by Wal-Mart in other developing nations, it is unlikely that there is any single organization on the planet that alleviates poverty so effectively for so many people.[5] Moreover, insofar as China's rapid manufacturing growth has been associated with a decline in its status as a global arms dealer, Wal-Mart has also done more than its share in contributing to global peace.[6]

Read more...

Continue with the discussions on zPod:FLOW....

Podcast: Investing In Worldwide Social Change

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:42:14 GMT

(via Social Innovation Conversations)

Cheryl Dorsey

President of Echoing Green

Investing in Worldwide Social Change

When emerging social entrepreneurs meet with Cheryl Dorsey, the president of Echoing Green, they not only get the benefits of talking to an accomplished physician with a masters in public policy from Harvard, a former White House Fellow, and a former business executive but they get an empathetic ear. In the early 1990’s she got a fellowship from Echoing Green to launch the Family Van, a community-based mobile health unit that provides basic medical and outreach services to at-risk residents of inner-city Boston neighborhoods and, in 2002, Dorsey became the first Echoing Green Fellow selected to lead the organization in its nearly 20-year history.

Her daunting challenge—to continue to build on the impressive track record of one of the world’s leading investors and supporters of worldwide social change. Since 1987, Echoing Green has invested nearly $25 million in seed and start-up grants to more than 400 social entrepreneurs who have launched organizations in 30 countries on five continents to address issues related to education, youth development, health care, housing, the environment, and the arts, just to name a few. By providing a unique combination of funding and direct support for emerging social entrepreneurs, Dorsey and her team continue to seed the world with visionaries intent on fundamentally making the world a better place.

Listen....

Blog: Exceptional Lives

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:04:20 GMT

Follow this blogger on her adventure of going around the world interviewing people who are "changing the world." :)

Exceptional Lives
A Journey to Discover the People Who Change Our World

This is just the beginning...

Have you ever dreamed of 'changing the world', but did not know where to begin?

Ever wondered about the stories of the real, everyday heroes of this world, who are really making a difference, and wondered how they got to do what they do?

Have you ever wanted to know about their life stories, their challenges, their choices?

Well, maybe I can help you.

On the 25th of May 2006, I am about to embark on a ten month journey around the world, interviewing 'the people who change our world', or social entrepreneurs, about their life stories.

I set out on my journey full of questions. I want to know who are these people pushing for social change? What is their vision? Why do they do it? How did they get to where they are? What inspires them, what frustrates, what challenges? I want to understand how these people come to do what they do, and in doing so, I want to share their stories with others who may be considering their own future life paths.

Read more...

Social Enterprise Meta Tags!

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:55:38 GMT

i've started collecting links about Social Enterprise using a social bookmarking service called ma.gnolia.

http://ma.gnolia.com/people/coolmel/tags/social+enterprise

http://ma.gnolia.com/tags/social+enterprise

http://ma.gnolia.com/people/coolmel/tags/social+entrepreneurs

http://ma.gnolia.com/tags/social+entrepreneurs

i've also started a Ma.gnolia Group: Social Enterprise. if you have a ma.gnolia account, you are more than welcome to add your links!

i'm also tagging my blogs with Social Enterprise.

http://coolmel.zaadz.com/blog/tags/social+enterprise

http://www.zaadz.com/blog/tags/social+enterprise

and don't forget to tag yours! then add your meta tags!

Social Innovation Conversations

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:35:14 GMT

Stanford Graduate School of Business Launches Social Innovation Podcasting Channel on The Conversations Network

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — The Stanford Graduate School of Business has launched a podcasting channel, Social Innovation Conversations (www.siconversations.org), offering free audio programs addressing some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Spearheaded by the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Social Innovation Conversations is made possible with the collaboration of the Pittsburgh Social Enterprise Accelerator and The Conversations Network.

The channel is designed as a collaborative online platform for experts, community leaders, and scholars to share their knowledge across differing sectors for multidisciplinary learning. Programs on tap include conferences, faculty lectures, speaker events, and expert interviews. In addition, leading professional and academic institutions will be invited to contribute content to the channel.

Ashoka's Bill Drayton Speaks at Google

http://coolmel.gaia.com — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:02:16 GMT

(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
"As community grows, change accelerates."
Continuing with my Social Enterprise theme... Check out this hour-long video of Ashoka's Founder Bill Drayton speaking at Google. Learn stories of people who went out there and change the existing status quo for the better.

Video blurb: "Bill Drayton, Chairman and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and lifelong entrepreneur, helped build the field of social entrepreneurship 25 years ago and remains committed to shaping a dynamic, global citizen sector. He was recently selected as one of America's Best Leaders by US News & World Report and Harvard's Center for Public Leadership."

Being the change is one thing, changing the world is another. Let's do them at the same time and see what gives :)