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Viewpoint: In Emerging Markets There Are No Copycats, Just Budding Entrepreneurs
While in foreign eyes, we have been building a Mexican Kickstarter, a Middle Eastern Uber, an Indian Amazon or a Colombian Postmates, I argue visionary founders are taking a simple idea that already exists and creating new worlds.
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- Uncategorized
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- startups
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Turning Saris into Stainless Steel: How the Companies of the Future Can Learn from Business Models of the Past
In India in the 1970s, tens of thousands of itinerant street vendors carried stainless steel kitchenware products from door to door, bartering them for saris and other old clothes in a complex, multi-tiered supply chain. According to Prashant Yadav at Harvard Medical School, these vendors’ business model – like others from past decades – holds valuable lessons for modern enterprises working in challenging markets. He shares some of these insights – and encourages others to do likewise – in this fascinating article.
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- Uncategorized
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Viewpoint: Why Social Entrepreneurs Are So Burned Out
Helping those most in need and running a commercially viable business at the same time can create conflicting of goals. Our research, which explores how this conflict manifests itself in the lives of entrepreneurs working within for-profit companies, provides the first robust evidence that it can have serious repercussions for their health and wellbeing.
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- Uncategorized
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NextBillion’s Reader Survey: Results Coming Soon!
As part of our ongoing efforts to better serve our readers, NextBillion put together a brief (15 question) survey. The questions were aimed at helping us determine the topics and types of content that interest our audience the most – while also helping us get to know our readers a bit better. As an incentive, all participants were entered into a raffle for one of three US $50 Amazon, Flipkart or Jumia gift cards. As of Feb. 28, the survey is closed - NextBillion will share the results, and announce the winners of the three gift cards, in the coming days.
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- Uncategorized
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Are the days of the African unicorn numbered?
Hopes of seeing an African unicorn on the horizon have been floated around for years, but increasingly, investors are changing their focus. The emerging consensus is that Africa needs to forget about “mythical” unicorns, and focus on building more successful local companies.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- startups
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NB Quick Takes: Polman’s Out at Unilever – Let the Legacy Debate Begin!
In case you hadn't heard: Paul Polman is retiring as CEO of Unilever at the end of the year. Perhaps no other executive has been as closely associated with corporate social responsibility as Polman, who put social impact at the forefront of his agenda. That's not to say all of his initiatives were successful, nor were they without detractors – his retirement is sparking lots of discussion about his approach and its effectiveness at Unilever, not to mention its influence across the business world. We've gathered some early Twitter reactions in this post.
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- Social Enterprise, Uncategorized
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Pakistan Fights Poverty with A Gig Platform
A website similar to LinkedIn connects offline workers in the South Asian country with potential employers.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- employment
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Press release: Alipay Teams with NUS Enterprise to Launch Social Innovation Challenge
The Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge aims to identify and support the growth of start-ups in Southeast Asia that are using digital technology to build a more inclusive society.
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- Uncategorized
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