The Sole of Africa

The Sole of Africa is a campaign created by the Mineseeker Foundation. The Foundation works to remove landmines from old battlefields; thus, returning killing fields to agricultural use. The Mineseeker Foundation is also working to end hunger and generate sustainable economic development in 70 areas around the world. Its list of patrons and supporters is impressive. The list includes: Nelson Mandela, Queen Noor, Sir Richard Branson, John Paul DeJoria and many other notables (check its website for a more complete list).

Given the campaign's good work, I was delighted to find that The Sole of Africa campaign has posted the following comment about Nourish the Children (NTC) on its website:

The Sole of Africa is thrilled that the mega food agency, Nourish the Children, together with its worldwide empowered distributor team has joined forces to continue this quest to Make Poverty History. A child dies every 6 seconds from malnutrition, no food and dirty water.

For those of you that do not know Nourish The Children, SOA believes that it is the most complete Social Marketing program working in the world. So do a lot of other people. Since their unique business model was birthed, their growing "Force for Good" under the Chairmanship of legendary Lee Iacoca have now donated over 75,000,000 especially formulated and enriched Vitameals.

75,000,000 in only a few years!!!!!! Donated not by large fund raisers or governments but by people just like you.

Let us hope that we soon see an end to the scourage of both landmines and hunger. If NTC's teams continue to work with entrepreneurial zeal, this goal is definitely within grasp.

Technorati Tags: The Sole of Africa, Nourish the Children, social entrepreneurship, hunger, Sir Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela,Queen Noor, John Paul DeJoria,The Mineseeker Foundation, Lee Iacocca, innovation, entrepreneurship

Enabling Social Innovation

This year's Oxford Skoll Forum will focus on enabling social innovation. It's an interesting problem: we aren't very good at recognising and supporting innovation (at least not in its early stages).

I've been scanning recent best sellers on business innovation, and have found them to be, for the most part, filled with innovation clichés. I'll not list the clichés here, but in the main the advice seems to be: create an environment that encourages "out of the box thinking". (I've come to hate that phrase. Almost everyone I've been introduced to this past week has been described as an "out of the box thinker.")

I'm not convinced that there is a dearth of innovation, but my hunch is that there is a dearth of investors, managers, bureaucrats, politicians and academics who are good at spotting it. Joel Podolny, a very innovative thinker (now dean of the Yale B'School) told me that when Jeff Skoll first showed him the eBay idea (at Stanford), he told Jeff the concept probably wouldn't work.

The Beatles (an innovative musical group some years back:-) were turned down by a number of labels, before EMI/Capitol signed them. In fact, EMI/Capitol had rejected them, but Sir George Martin happened (accidentally) to hear their audition tape, and rushed out to catch Brian Epstein before he left the EMI office.

I am reminded of Gray's lines:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

The creative component that most are now focused on is certainly important, but if we want to stimulate innovation, I think we need to pay some attention to developing an ear or eye for it - a George Martin ear. Our world is rich in innovation, but short on recognition of it. Mark Twain advises us not to worry about having our ideas stolen. He claims that when an innovative idea has merit, most right thinking people will reject it.

The main impediment, I believe, is that our observations are theory laden. We are incapable of unmediated observation. Theory is our vision. We see what we believe. Quid quid recipitur, ad modum recipientis reciptur.

There are, I think, ways around the problem. Sir Karl Popper, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound point to possible solutions, but I'll save that discussion for another day.

If procrastination doesn't catch me, I plan to blog on this topic over the next month, and I hope that many of you will find the time to share your thoughts on the topic.

Technorati Tags: skoll, ntc, social entrepreneurship, nourish the children