London (CNN Business). Updated 1012 GMT (1812 HKT) October 8, 2018
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| Add captioMore than 600 students took part in the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training competition last year.n |
Students at Columbia Business School in New York are among those leading the way. They founded Microlumbia, an impact investment fund, which measures its success in terms of social benefit, not just financial return.
"We were young, ambitious and idealistic," says Katie Leonberger, of her decision 10 years ago to co-found Microlumbia with David Del Ser Bartolome when they were MBA students at Columbia. We knew we "wanted to do well by doing good," Leonberger explains.
A decade on, Leonberger is president and chief executive of a nonprofit consulting firm and chair of Microlumbia's board. She says that Microlumbia focused on investing in microfinance organizations at first, but over the years it has extended its investment scope.
Jesús Salas, a 28-year-old second-year MBA student at Columbia, is this year's co-president at Microlumbia.
He says that Microlumbia's typical investments are $20,000 to $25,000 with an interest rate of 5% to 15%. Current investments include microfinance organizations in Uganda and Zimbabwe.
"For some people, myself included, they came to business school with impact investing as a target career," Salas says. In the future he wants to work somewhere that is "very intentional in how they invest."
Leonberger sees Microlumbia as "the most rewarding thing" she did at Columbia. "You are in this cauldron of learning at business school, and to have the chance to apply that learning in real time is such an amazing experience," she says.
Changing the world through business
Others are also trying to give business students real-world impact investing experience.
Six years ago, the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, part of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, joined forces with Bridges Fund Management to launch a contest for business students.
"The first year, students from just three schools — Wharton, Harvard and Stanford — took part," says Nick Ashburn, senior director of impact investing at the Wharton Social Impact Initiative.
Last year, more than 600 students from 26 schools, including a number outside the United States, took part in the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training competition.
Participating students take online modules about impact investing. They also choose a company to invest in, run the numbers, carry out due diligence, and finally, pitch to a team of seasoned impact investment experts.
"For the students that win, there are real investment dollars at the end of the process," explains Ashburn.
The 2018 winners were students from Yale, who secured a $50,000 investment for their chosen company, StormSensor, a Seattle-based start-up that has created a storm water monitoring system.
According to Alex Nicholls, professor of social entrepreneurship at Oxford University's Said Business School, the number of impact investing courses "has grown over the years as young people and senior managers have recognized the impact and finance opportunities of this new market."
Oxford has offered an elective impact investing course within its MBA since 2006, and also runs three executive education programs on impact investing.
Ashburn says that the growing number of impact investing courses on offer across international business schools is a reflection of student demand. "This generation of students wants to change the world through business," he says. "They want to invest in line with their values, and they want jobs that facilitate that."
With the increase of powers of big companies, with even some getting richer and more powerful that some states, it’s a good idea to want to change the world through business.
ReplyDeleteBusiness can nowadays almost decide and influence our direct environment, sometimes beyond sates power, for example if a business is ecologically responsive with a sustainable business plan or just pursue profits without looking at the environmental potential consequences, or how they treat their employee and where they decided to implement or not, a business going to a particular location can create a huge economic impact and development.
It is also logical looking at the evolution of our society and with millennial phenomena, it’s not a surprise that business students want to help changing the world as well and invest and work in business that correspond to their values, because they are not just motivated by money they can choose the company according to their values.
An entrepreneur who has confidence and personality begins with his own ideas, then develops his business activities which always adhere to the values of honesty and self-discipline. As we know that life is a struggle. Because of the meaning of honesty in life, we must struggle with full confidence to advance in entrepreneurship. A good medicine to carry out the struggle in life is a belief in yourself. In practice, only a small number of business man and woman can enjoy the results of development. This error still exists in people who think of ignorance and do not use the opportunities that are as well as possible. Most people do not realize that the value of honesty and human thought power is the main key to achieving progress in trying. Business progress can be achieved when accompanied by a definitive desire and purpose in life. Perseverance in entrepreneurship by fighting for a strong desire will eliminate all obstacles, little by little. Finally, with diligence of hard work, followed by honesty will be able to create progress in entrepreneurship.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of life is full of problems with various difficulties and obstacles. Without hardships and obstacles, humans may not develop to progress. Every result achieved by an entrepreneur is the result of struggle and sacrifice. Here the meaning of honesty in the life of entrepreneurship must be seen as a teacher and a gift to encourage optimism to get progress in trying. Honest in entrepreneurship means willing and able to say something as it is. When trading, good goods must be said to be good and damaged goods must be damaged. Honesty can be compared to "trust". Trust is when given trust in entrepreneurship is not treacherous, if it says always right and if it promises in business it does not go wrong. The honest meaning in life includes the nature of an entrepreneur, because this trait will bring the trust of the consumer community. With the willingness to act honestly, it means that every act done by entrepreneurs means that it can please others and themselves.
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DeleteEntrepreneurs must be able to take advantage of time and view time as an organization, power, value for money and a measure of the effort carried out. An entrepreneur must also be able to commit to all that he has done, prioritizing the quality of products produced with one goal of a satisfied consumer society. High commitment must be instilled in self-entrepreneurs so that they can control themselves with steadfast, resilient, disciplined, and able to work together with others. Honest in entrepreneurship means that you are willing and able to say something as it is, how to be good and true entrepreneurship, not lie to customers, consumers, business partners, and so on. From my perspective, I've seen how evil and cunning people can be regarding business opportunities, so my point is, it's a dilemma between a concern for morality and gaining what was wanted by unconventional & wrong methods.
DeleteAs a student, we definitely want to reach our best in everything and achieve our goals. By attending a degree like the master degree or MBA, we definitely want to reach the purpose of having a good career. The big universities like the Harvard University, Oxford University, or other top university in the world tend to lead their MBA students to a path to high paying jobs and powerful networks. Meanwhile, students nowadays are more than that. Students nowadays are a better thinker, better personality, and just a better person than old students. Because, they are now more open to the world, they are open to world’s changes, and care about the world they live in. So, instead of just having a good career (high paying jobs) and powerful networks, MBA students want to learn how to change the world through business. And in my opinion, well educated persons, will be the one that is able to give contribution to a better world’s changes
ReplyDeleteSustainable development is one of the main challenges faced by our society. Therefore, businesses need to focus, not only on the economic profits, but also on the social and environmental aspects. I think that our generation is very concerned by these issues as, by being exposed to social networks but also by travelling, we can realize that there are a lot of inequalities across the world and that we need to take care of the environment. I think that’s the reason why students want their work to have an impact on the rest of the world. There is a really interesting book, called “80 men to change the world”, that talks about this phenomenon and shares the experiences of people who created companies that have a real social or environmental impact. In my opinion, more and more people should take initiatives like this to help the development of some countries and reduce inequalities within their population.
ReplyDeleteThis semester, I choose to join the course Entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, I was really surprise on our first class when I discover that the course will discuss about Social Entrepreneurship. I have learned so far that a social Entrepreneurship is about recognising social problems and achieving a social change by employing entrepreneurial principles, processes and operations. In addition, a social entrepreneur aims to implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. During the semester we are working together with a social enterprise in order to optimise its processes and business plan. Taking care of a real business and working one to one with real social entrepreneurs have helped me to learned more above just from the theory. I would like to invite you all students following the EWS course to take this class. As we can read in the article “This generation of students wants to change the world through business”, therefore, student should take advantage of what the university has to offer.
ReplyDeleteI like honesty, it makes people and their surroundings a place that we can trust to help with our daily life works with ease. And wouldn’t it make any better than those who want to do their jobs honestly, if this ladies and gentlemen want to make the world a better place because of their jobs, let them do it. People need more of this in the world than you know it. Maybe businessmen these days aren’t much of a good one rather than being popular with the wealth to make them look good. But this new student still came from New York, which it is already one of the wealthy cities in the US. I hope it will also happen in one of the undeveloped countries as well such as Indonesia. Although it is hard to expect that much here in Indonesia where I live, but if those people have started, it’s not too late for us.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this article, it reminded me of a tagline of a beauty product company called The Body Shop, enrich not exploit. They are conducting fair trade not free trade by buying the ingredient higher than market price and they also building the farmer’s community that providing ingredients to their company.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism and free trade are associated with earning profit as high as possible by spending less money and selling high. Problem like underpaid worker and unsafe working environment are mainly attributed to capitalism. In the early stage of industrialization, the use of child labour and forced labour was frequent, but because the government intervention on regulating ethical business has decreased the poor condition of work.
I think investor should prioritize the impact of their business to the community rather than focus on profit. Having a profitable company is good but to have a company that improve the standard of living of many people is a greater accomplishment than earning huge profit.
In the 21st century it is important for us to pay attention to both economic and social matters. The way people think and perceive becomes so much developed in our era that, businesses now cannot get away with malpractices regarding business and its effects. And the motive right now to impact society positively through business is something that is generally supported. This statement can be proven by the numerous "impact investment funds" which are available. The faculty of economics and business of Gadjah Mada University is an example of business school that put emphasis on social responsibility. One of the pillars that build up Gadjah Mada University's purpose is social responsibility. This is proven through various programs including KKN as well as social entrepreneurship programs that are taught and applied in the Faculty of Economics and Business. This is important because not all of us are privileged enough to pursue higher education.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, young generations seems to be paying an extra attention to socials. Many of them started a campaign to do anything they could so that the world will be a little bit better. Like using reusable straws, using a tote bag to shop instead of plastics, and taking an extra care for sea animals. This is such a good progress for us because we finally realized that money is not everything you need to have in this world. Instead of being remembered as being rich, we want to be remembered as someone who gave a big positive impact for the world. I am deeply interested in making the world a nice place to live, though sometimes I still make a mistakes. But, I think in the future people will realize that we have to take care of the world or else this planet will be a mess. In the future, I hope that this planet will be a better place for us to live.
ReplyDeleteBusiness is one of my goal for the future. I don't pretty know why, but i like the idea of making business. It is not all about making profit though, for me, the most interesting one is how you sustain the business so it can live longer lasting. But yes, profit is also one of the biggest factor why i want to make a business in the future. Making your own profit means that you don't have to depend on people about your income. You can make your own. I have a goal. The goal is, when i'm already 35 years old, my target is passive income. Well it's kinda difficult to achieve but i i believe i can. I really don't want to spend my whole life on working for people. I want to get my freedom to work. That's why i have to make my own business. But risk in making a business is also have to be considered. You have to consider thw risk of failing, and think how to get back. Making a business is not easy. Not easy doesn't mean you can't. If you already make one, there is still a possibiluty for it to bankrupt. So, you have to be careful. As the development of technology these days, i believe that making a business will get easier. Once, i thougt with the technology, making business have to be ablut technology. But, the reality is not that. You don't have to make it all about technology. The moat important is how do you use that technology as a tool that can assist you in making a business
ReplyDeleteStudents nowadays are different from students back then. The era is changing, and so does the students. In fact, students aren’t the only one that are changing but every aspect in this world are changing constantly. Everyone with access to education in this world certainly want to achieve good education and have a purpose in this world. When people decided to take a higher degree like masters or PhD, they have a rational reason for that. Usually back in the old days, people that took their masters or PhD wanted to earn higher paying jobs, powerful networks, and simply a good career which means a happy life. However, students that take masters and PhDs nowadays are more than that. Students nowadays are a better thinker, have ethical principles, and most importantly, they care about the world’s environment. So, when they decide to take higher education, they will care about the world more and will find ways to learn how to better this world and have a role in improving this world.
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