[Ashley Mathew]

Hey Friends,

Goa Institute Of Management invites you to Samriddhi 2009.

Samriddhi is an annual National level conference organized by Goa Institute of Management addressing issues touching various spheres of development and striving at finding practical and viable solutions.

In 2008, Samriddhi explored different facets of sustainable green infrastructure, its feasibility and the business sense it makes. After its huge success last year Samriddhi is back with a new theme "Social Entrepreneurship"

In this trying economic scenario we feel that it is important to look at Social Entrepreneurship as a business opportunity which aims at making profits keeping in mind the welfare of the society.

‘Sow a social seed, reap a social benefit’.


Thanks,

Ashley Mathew
PGP 1
Goa Institute Of Management

[rmbt]

Thread move to apt section.

[get2amitesh]

One of the participant organizations for Samriddhi is an international organization, Ashoka

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a social venture capital approach with the goal of elevating the citizen sector to a competitive level equal to the business sector. The organization currently operates in over 60 countries and supports the work of over 2,000 social entrepreneurs, elected as Ashoka Fellows. Ashoka’s initiatives include Changemakers, Youth Venture, and Full Economic Citizenship.
Youth Ventureenables young people to learn early on in life that they can lead social change. Ashoka developed the concept of Youth Venture from understanding a key insight of Ashoka Fellows in the field of youth development that one of the most effective ways to improve the lives of youth is to empower them to realize their own ability to make positive social change. Youth Venture thus inspires and invests in teams of young people to start and lead their own social ventures, and is building a powerful network of young change makers across the world. It is currently operating in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, India, South Africa, Thailand, France, Germany, and Spain.

[Sarvesh.Samant]

Sessions for Samriddhi 09

Session-1: Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship

-->Understanding the basic concept of Social Entrepreneurship and how it is different from running a profit making venture.
-->Getting the right skill set - Social entrepreneurs typically operate with less capital so they must possess the flexibility to shift resources, learn from their mistakes, and even alter entire business plans in a matter of months in order to remain operational.
-->Strategic and Operational challenges - How to get started? How to find the right scale? Issues of organizational governance, network building, partnering, mobilising the urban and village rural community etc.

Session-2: Financing Social Enterprises

The various criteria that investors or funding organisations consider while evaluating a project, the risks associated with such ventures, the profitability/return from social enterprises, past records/success rates etc. considering that social ventures are an answer to the opportunities in times of recession.

Session-3:Role of Youth in Social Entrepreneurship

India’s biggest asset is its youth and youth is what can make a major impact in the social and economic development of India. How can youth be aligned towards the concept of Social Entrepreneurship, how can youth be mobilized for meeting social challenges and what is the role of MBA’s in Social Organizations. Also included would be an insight into how organizations like Ashoka and Mitra provide a platform for youth who are interested in undertaking social ventures.

Apart from this we also intend to promote the culture of having Social Entrepreneurship as an optional subject in the curriculum of B-schools across India, something which is common abroad but very few institutes like CSIM are operating on the same lines in India

Session-4: Sustaining a Social Venture

Every business undergoes a particular life cycle. The challenges that a business faces a couple of years down the line would include the issues of scaling up, of sustaining the business in face of unforeseeable adversities like recession, competitive challenges and other operational issues.

A social venture has to address these issues keeping its purpose of making a social impact alive. Hence a different approach of addressing these issues is required in case of a social venture vis-a-vis any other business venture. The discussion would include views of experts who have mentored social businesses going through these transitional phases and of practising entrepreneurs who have faced/are facing these challenges.

Session5:Enterprising Opport. in Different sectors

Enterprising opportunities existing in sectors like Energy, Banking, Urban and Rural Sanitation, Water Supply, Electrification and new upcoming sectors like Clothing, Social security, E-Waste Management etc and the role of technology and what kind of institutional as well as government support is available for these sectors.

Practicing entrepreneurs will share their experiences and give insight into which other areas they see the potential for such socially relevant enterprises.
In case of Social Entrepreneurship, innovation is a necessary skill because at times the resources are scarce and the scale of supply is vast. The discussion would be about how varied complex issues can be solved using simple innovative techniques.
Also how can we provide institutional support in scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up grassroots innovations as well as outstanding traditional knowledge and helping their transition to self supporting activities.

To build linkages between excellence in formal scientific systems and informal knowledge systems and create knowledge network to link various stakeholders through application of information technology and other means

[smile07]

hello everyone..
i'm here too..
well you guys have started talking a lot about SAMRIDDHI but atleast let us inform the reader when will it gonna take place..!!!!

Well SAMRIDDHI'09 organised by (one and only ) GOA INSTITUTE of MANAGEMENT will be taking place on 29 and 30 aug'09 at goa itself. So everyone get ready for a perfect weekend @ goa which (apart from giving you a chilled out holiday ) will give a huge oppurtunity to get yourself updated about various aspects of social enterpreneurship. And before you even strat thinking of some charity or non profit organisation, let me remind you over the past decade social entrepreneurship has emerged as a powerful way of meeting global human needs. Social entrepreneurship is a fast growing movement that uses the tools of business to create positive results for society at every level. By developing and using innovative market solutions, social entrepreneurs improve our communities and the world in which we live.

Hence Samriddhi 2009 aims at looking at entrepreneurship as an opportunity in these times of recessionary blues and unleashing the aspect of Social Entrepreneurship which aims at creating not just a pool of wealth for a selected few but also a larger and desired impact on the society.

for more updates..keep visiting...

[Jaksi]

In the next few posts I will try to define what social Entrepreneurship is all about? What do they do? and how does it affect out society?

I whould request all the puys to post their thoughts so that we can have a costructive disscussion on the topic.

So first of all who is a Social Entrepreneur?

"Entrepreneurs are innovative, highly-motivated, and critical thinkers. When these attributes are combined with the drive to solve social problems, a Social Entrepreneur is born."

I leave you with this thought with more to come later.

[Sarvesh.Samant]

Hello Friends...

Need to say tht the buzz about Samriddhi is just getting more nd more as the days go by... and everyones enthusiasm to know more about Social Entrepreneurship can be seen...
Well to mention a few among the numerous organisations that will be a part of it...

PARICHAY

Parichay is a for-profit-social-venture reviving/promoting artforms/crafts that are nearly extinct due to lack of innovation and market-interface. They, supported by XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust, provide a more sustainable, non-migratory livelihood to the rural/tribal artisans. Parichay involves modern-professional designers to produce contemporary high utility products that address customer’s needs and create a regular sale-cycle.
The USP at PARICHAY is the Fusion Art where various art forms are fused together to make a perfect blend and give a high perceived value product. To implement their plans they have established their first Design and Learning Center at Jamshedpur (housing six craft studios, Sales outlet and accommodation) which is first-of-its-kind in Jharkhand. Vikas is the face of Parichay shouldering the responsibility for client dealings and giving a mature direction to Parichay. Apart from employing professional designers to market Parichay’s products, Sharma is involved in getting all sorts of help from the XLRI alumni to market the products.
Within months of inception Team Parichay was judged as the best social venture at IIM Indore's Social Business Plan contest "Kalpavriksha" - a forum for self sustainable business plans with the potential to make a difference to society.

VAATSALYA "Promoting healthcare in rural and semi urban areas"

Vaatsalya is bridging this gap by building and managing hospitals/clinics in semi-urban and rural areas and bringing healthcare services where it is needed most.
Vaatsalya Hospitals provide affordable services in an efficient and friendly environment at Hubli, Gadag, Karwar, Bijapur, Mandya, Raichur and Hassan (Karnataka) with plans to expand to 25 locations over the next three years.
Vaatsalya's goal is to integrate efficient healthcare delivery practices with community based health plans and bring affordable, efficient and standardized medical services to semi-urban and rural India. Vaatsalya will redefine healthcare in India by creating the largest primary and secondary care healthcare network in the country, with special focus on preventive care

Gotta go now... Details of other organisations in my next post... till then cya...

[smile07]

The field of social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and attracting increased attention from many sectors. The term itself shows up frequently in the media, is referenced by public officials, has become common on university campuses, and informs the strategy of several prominent social sector organizations. But along with its increasing popularity has come less certainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does. As a result all sort of activities are now being called social entrepreneurship. We can say that Social entrepreneurship combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society. It is a process of recognizing a problem bearing social relevance and using entrepreneurial skills to organize, create and manage a venture to bring about a Social Change. Over the past decade social entrepreneurship has emerged as a powerful way of meeting global human needs. Social entrepreneurship is a fast growing movement that uses the tools of business to create positive results for society at every level. By developing and using innovative market solutions, social entrepreneurs improve our communities and the world in which we live.

[smile07]

talking about few more organisaion ...
DesiCrew is a unique BPO service provider whose philosophy envisions a win-win situation between urban clients and the rural workforce of India. 26-year old Saloni Malhotra is the Founder and CEO of DesiCrew. She was also named one of Asia’s 25 Youngest Entrepreneurs by Business Theyek in 2007. She started with a dream and a single PC, and 2 years later her efforts spun off DesiCrew that now employs 70 people across 6 offices in Tamil Nadu.
DesiCrew is a socially motivated rural BPO, incubated with the help of the Rural Technology & Business Incubator at IIT Madras. A graduate of Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering in Pune, near Mumbai, Malhotra launched her company in February 2007.

DesiCrew is a unique Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) initiative that provides high-volume back office services from rural areas across India. It aims to create a central operations hub in the city with several 10-seater satellite work centres’ spread across rural areas, each employing up to 20 people for high-volume data related jobs at affordable costs. The central team acts as a one point contact for the client and takes responsibility for assuring quality and delivery within the timeline. While the model provides cost cutting alternatives and access to an untapped workforce to urban clients, it provides new sources of income and employment to the villagers while adding additional skills DesiCrew aims to target the domestic BPO industry, Government and PSUs digitization efforts.
DesiCrew sets up back offices in small towns and rural areas. Each DesiCrew Delivery Center employs educated young people from the local area on various processes related to Insurance, Value Added Services (VAS) for Mobile Phone and Global Information Systems (GIS). Ms Saloni malhotra is trying to build an outsourcing business by leveraging low-cost workers. She describes DesiCrew as “a non-urban, socially motivated” BPO. India has plenty of so-called BPOs, but DesiCrew is different as it focuses on tapping the workforce in India’s small towns and rural areas.

[Abhishek.]

SKS Microfinance is one of the fastest growing microfinance organisations in India. It has provided loans to 4,427,451 women in rural India to help them earn their livelihoods and live a life of dignity. The borrowers use the loan amount for various income generating activities such as agriculture, livestock, vegetable vending, basket making etc. The organisation also provides insurance to its members. SKS currently has microfinance branches in 18 states across India. It aims to reach 15 million members by 2012. In the last year alone, SKS Microfinance has achieved nearly 170 % growth, with 99% on-time repayment rate.

SKS Microfinance is a bright example of how Social Entrepreneurship can make a difference to the lifes of hundreds of thousand of people. The organisation always keeps its customers' interest in mind first. It ensures quality goods for the customer along with helping a huge number of families to live a live of dignity and happiness.

Considering the relevance of the domain of Social Entrepreneurship in today's world GOA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT presents a national seminar SAMRIDDHI 09 dealing with the same topic. The seminar will spread over two days ( 29th and 30th AUGUST) and host eminent speakers like:

Trilochan Sastry - Prof & Dean IIMB
Vikas Sharma - Founder Parichay (social org - markets goods manufactured by rural artisans ) - Jharkhand
Vipin Thekelathi - Associate director - Ashoka Youth venture
Sonali Malhotra -Desi Crew ( Rural BPO - Bangalore )
Ashwin Naik of Vaatsalya Healthcare
Arbind Singh of NIDAN

Interested delegates can contact the office of the institute for registration and any further details.
You will be updated with further details on this thread as and when they come up.