Best in Class

Found this amusing article, "Best in Class", in the most recent issue of The New Yorker illustrating just how cut-throat competitive it is nowadays to become a high school valedictorian (article link here). Having been one myself, I can relate to many if not all of the issues discussed including whether it is fair or desirable to reward those who "game" the grade point system. However, in my case, because I and the other four "in contention" for the top award were all fairly close friends, having been in the same classes since primary or middle school, there was always a feeling of camaraderie present that trumped any need or desire to one-up each other. And it helped that our school district maintained a twelve-point GPA system (instead of the customary four-points) making ties less of an issue. Anyhow it seemed as if it was all for naught as the luster of being a valedictorian was soon wiped away; during the first day of freshman orientation at Berkeley's College of Engineering, the Dean asked for a show of hands asking how many had graduated at the top of their high school class. More than two-thirds raised their hands. Two-thirds! I still cringe at the thought. It was like a bucket of cold, wet reality thrown smack at our faces. In the span of a single summer break, we all went from being in the top one-tenth of one percent of our peer group to being simply "average". That was my first lesson as a wide-eyed freshman at Berkeley. Not a lesson in math, science, or engineering, but rather a lesson in life, of the value of being grounded and never taking yourself too seriously. That alone was worth one year of tuition.

Social Entrepreneurship

For three months, I and about twenty fellow MBAs participated in an experimental seminar offered by the business school in conjunction with Silicon Valley's Tech Museum of Innovation (link). We were enlisted to apply our business knowledge for a select group of "social benefit enterprises", all of whom were chosen for the Tech's annual laureate award. "Social benefit enterprises" are a new breed of nonprofits, often aimed at the developing world, that rely on innovation and employ modern business techniques to achieve (1) self-sustainability through some profit-making activity and ultimately, (2) scalability to reach the most number of people with a nominal level of resources. It is revolutionary because of the importance placed on innovation both technological and process-based and on profits for the long-term mission of the organization. The field of social benefit enterprises or "social entrepreneurship" is cutting edge and is just now gaining traction. The b-school at Stanford is a pioneer in the field (link), as are a number of its alums including Jeff Skoll, one of the founders of eBay and now an active contributor to social benefit enterprises through his foundation (link). There is a very strong link between the Valley and the small community that is developing around the field. One reason is that they are oftentimes one and the same group. The more enlightened members of the generation that came into the Valley during the tech boom and became instantly wealthy are now searching for ways to use their money and their knowledge to make a difference in the world. But rather than revert to old-school "contributions", this new generation of donors is demanding results and greater accountability and have transferred their culture of venture capitalism and startups to the stodgy world of nonprofits introducing their standard toolkit of business plans, metrics, return on investment, strategic partnerships, and exit strategies. Our instructor for the course, Eric Carlson, is a prime example of this nexus. Besides being the longtime mayor of Los Gatos, a wealthy enclave in the Valley, he is very well-connected in the Valley having managed and led several established tech firms including a long stint at IBM Research; he, like a number of his peers, is now employing his expertise for the good of society through social entrepreneurship. One of his friends, Walt Jones, dropped by during the final week and advised us on fundraising. In his previous career, Dr. Jones helped found and lead GE's medical devices division for a number of years and was one of the highest ranking executives at GE by the time he retired. As a volunteer, he now heads fundraising for CityTeam Ministries (link), an organization that cares for the poor and homeless in major cities in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Commendable and inspirational. It was a real pleasure getting to know both Dr. Carlson and for a brief moment, Dr. Jones. They helped me focus on the task at hand. My particular contribution to the seminar was to evaluate the business plan and funding proposal for Gram Vikas based in Orissa, India (link). For the past decade, Gram Vikas has been providing housing, clean water, and sanitation for hundreds of thousands of rural villagers in one of India's poorest regions. They are now launching a second initiative that seeks to reach a quarter of a million by 2009. Hope they get something out of my forty page report and presentation. I revamped their business plan and recommended some concrete steps they could take as an organization to ramp up their funding. During the course of the seminar, we learned quite a bit about some other notable social benefit enterprises including Ecosystems based in Kathmandu, Nepal (link) and Freeplay based in London and Capetown, South Africa (link). The former constructs wire bridges for peasants traveling between remote villages in the Himalayan mountains, and the latter distributes hand-crank powered radios to the poor children of southern Africa for receiving broadcasts of vital education and health-based programming. It would have been ideal to have included two organizations of personal interest, Unitus (link) and Greenstar (link), both based in Seattle. Unitus is involved in a promising subfield of social entrepreneurship called microfinance, essentially lending to the underserved in developing countries to promote private enterprise and self-empowerment. The high repayment and low default rates are quite amazing when you consider how poor and impoverished the loan recipients are in the urban slums or rural villages of the third world. Many get by on what is the equivalent of a few dollars a month. But the dignity that microlending instills in them produces the desire to make something of the loan and motivates them to stick to the repayment schedule. Amazing. Anyhow, I just heard that PBS will be airing later this month a special four-part series, The New Heroes, hosted by Robert Redford which introduces the field of social entrepreneurship to a larger audience by profiling the work of fourteen influential social innovators (link). Very sweet. And what timing. I'm looking forward to watching all four segments.

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Paris, je t'aime

Oui. Paris is and will always be our favorite city in Europe. One reason we chose it for our honeymoon destination. Grand, incredibly vibrant, always relevant, and genuinely foreign. The language, culture, architecture, food, all combine to imbue a "local color" that is truly unique and endearing. Anyone who sits in a streetside cafe along the Seine river on a clear day in Autumn, explores the crooked alleyways of historic Montmartre as the bells of the grand Basilica de Sacra Coeur ring in the distance, or dines for the requisite four hours within earshot of native Parisians arguing politics or literature, will no doubt agree. Don't get me wrong, London is great. But London, like much of the Commonwealth, is just a tad bit "familiar" to most English-speaking Americans, especially amongst Anglophiles like myself who have been raised on the BBC for more than twenty five years via PBS. It doesn't help matters that Brits love and embrace American culture and commerce; it's apparent on any random walk through central London where you can pass the same billboards and storefronts as you would find in New York or San Francisco. By contrast, Paris shuns such cultural and commercial dependencies. One of the reasons it holds a special place in most travelers' hearts. Rightfully so. And soon, there will be a cinematic tribute to this love of the City of Lights. A film project entitled Paris, je t'aime (link) is underway involving twenty well-regarded directors each assigned to one of the twenty districts (or arrondisements) of central Paris. Each director will be creating a five minute vignette that captures the essence of their respective arrondisement. The final product should be spectacular given the vastly different styles of the directors (e.g., Jean-Luc Godard, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant) and the respectable lineup of actors and actresses (e.g., Juliette Binoche, Natalie Portman, Willem Dafoe, Orlando Bloom) that have signed onto the project.