Slide 1 The Young Foundation 2009

SIX innovators I met in India (and what we could learn from them)

Cynthia ShanmugalingamJune 2010

Slide 2 The Young Foundation 2009

Why a non-Indian makes a 6th trip to India

Slide 3 The Young Foundation 2009

Kicked off a research report into education in Mumbai

Advised 28 social entrepreneurs

Attended 2 national events in philanthropy and social investment

3 field trips (Gujarat, Mumbai, TN)

Wrote on my blog (!)

Lived and worked in Mumbai

What I got up to

Slide 4 The Young Foundation 2009

1. Enormous social problems

2. Corrupt government and no public sector commissioning

3. Questionable legacy of MFI

4. Rapid and messy economic growth (=10%)

5. Fast growing consumerism and little private sector job security

6. Truly amazing social entrepreneurs

The context for social innovation in India

Slide 5 The Young Foundation 2009

•More than social media•Overcoming distribution problems•Well-designed and delivered

Examples:

- Skymet- Comat- UK could be applied to elderly, disabled…

Recommendation 1: Hire more IT nerds

Social innovator 1: The IT nerd

Slide 6 The Young Foundation 2009

•Effective at running an operation without the “hard-to-reach”•Calm, capable, strategic, operators

Examples:

-Source Pilani (rural BPO)-FabIndia

Recommendation 2: Understand commercial realities in sectors where we want to engage better

Social innovator 2: The commercial mind

Slide 7 The Young Foundation 2009

•Moving beyond invention into crafted, tested, solid design•Usually expert

Examples:

- Gyan Shala- Educational Initiatives- Aravind Eyecare

Recommendation 3: Find the designers and help them disseminate

Social innovator 3: The designer

Slide 8 The Young Foundation 2009

• Most funders throw money at under-resourced organisations and hope they will do something good with it•Very few use the money instead to buy great people and loan them out

Examples:

- Monitor Inclusive Markets

Recommendation 4: A new model of social lending?

Social innovator 4: The human banker

Slide 9 The Young Foundation 2009

• Using real social enterprise models as a way of doing traditional activism• Moving entrepreneurship into politics and civic engagement

Examples:

- Shaffi Mather

Recommendation 5: Is there a conversation about this kind of intervention?

Social innovator 5: The entrepreneur-activist

Slide 10 The Young Foundation 2009

• Global conversation on measurement• After MFI sure others will follow on investment, etc

Examples:

- GIIN and IRIS

Recommendation 6: Bring this conversation to the UK

Social innovator 6: The global librarian