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Welcome to the inaugural newsletter from the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies! It has been a very busy six months since last November when we launched the Institute, informally known as SEED. We have been traveling, listening, learning and experimenting with programs that will enable us to maximize our impact.
Since November, we have hosted our first research forum, speakers such as Tony Blair and James Wolfensohn, and student classes including Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability and SEEDing Change. We are engaged with entrepreneurs and managers in developing economies to understand their needs, designing innovation centers, structuring education and mentoring programs, identifying entrepreneurial considerations in policy making, creating knowledge for investors that support growing businesses, and building partnerships abroad. For the most up to date information, please be sure to visit our website.
We are continually humbled by the generosity of Bob and Dottie King for providing Stanford with the opportunity to bring considerable resources to bear to change the lives of people around the world. As a new institute, we will continue to learn and experiment, and we look forward to working with many of you in the future.
Sincerely,
Garth Saloner
Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Does Management Matter? Evidence from India (PDF)
A long-standing question is whether differences in management practices across firms can explain differences in productivity, especially in developing countries where these spreads appear particularly large. To investigate this, Nicholas Bloom, Benn Eifery, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie and John Roberts ran a management field experiment on large Indian textile firms.
Can Management Consulting Help Small Firms Grow?
Should we assume that small enterprises in developing countries are lacking in business skills—and that guidance and training will improve their business? In the Summer 2012 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Annie Duflo and Dean Karlan ask if mere advice can really help these enterprises run better, earn more money and create more jobs—and, if so, why?
Improved Stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models (PDF)
Many previous efforts to disseminate improved biomass cooking stoves in developing economies—primarily by governments and NGOs—have not been successful. Based on interviews with 12 organizations selling improved biomass stoves, Gireesh Shrimali, Xander Slaski, Mark C. Thurber and Hisham Zerriffi assess the results to date and future prospects of commercial stove operations in India. Specifically, they consider how the ability of these businesses to achieve scale and become self-sustaining has been influenced by six elements of their respective business models: design, customers targeted, financing, marketing, channel strategy, and organizational characteristics.
The Forbes Dec 19, 2011 issue featured Acumen Fund CEO and founder Jacqueline Novogratz, MBA 1991.
Novogratz describes how Acumen Fund uses philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments—loans or equity, not grants—that yield both financial and social returns.
» Can Venture Capital Save the World?
In a guest blog published in The New York Times, Jake Harriman, MBA 2008, CEO of Nuru International and a former Platoon Commander in both the Infantry and a special operations unit of the U.S. Marines, describes that extreme poverty is a contributing factor to the causes of 21st century terrorism and insurgency, and that a reduction in extreme poverty will impede the proliferation of terrorism and insurgency.
» Linking Extreme Poverty and Global Terrorism
Team EZ*PZ, an Extreme 2011 alumni team and XSEED lab member, was awarded an NCIIA Advanced E-team grant for $19,000 to continue their prototype work with IDE Cambodia. EZ*PZ promotes changing unsanitary practices into safe ones, by providing products that help farmers harvest clean fertilizer from their waste.
The RiceRunner team, formed in Stanford's 2011 Extreme course and a member of the XSEED Stanford lab for the past year, turned over their final product to their partner organization, IDE Cambodia, this month. The Rice Runner technology saves hours of tedious manual labor when applying IDE's Deep Placement Fertilizer.
Spring Break with Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability
As part of the two-quarter course Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, multidisciplinary teams of Stanford students work with an NGO partner abroad to design products and services to improve livelihoods and health for communities at the base of the pyramid. This year, 32 students traveled to five countries to get local users’ feedback on their projects ranging from low cost treatment for clubfoot in Brazil to locally made irrigation pumps in Ghana.
Harnessing Mobile Tech and Students to Promote Development in Kenya
Stanford students and faculty partner with Kenyan organizations to test ways to reduce urban poverty through novel applications of mobile phone technology.
SEEDING Change: One Class at a Time
SEEDing Change: Approaches and Innovations in Poverty Alleviation is a new course at the Stanford Graduate School of Business during which students researched a variety of topics ranging from the landscape of private equity to common business challenges faced by the course's partner organizations Samasource and d.light.
A New Approach for a New Africa
On May 17th, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed a sold out audience of Stanford students, alumni, and community members. He said that much-needed economic development in Sub-Saharan African cannot go forward without improvements in governance.
During SEED's inaugural Research Forum, held in March, researchers shared results and ideas for tackling extreme poverty through innovations in institutions, management, and technology.
James Wolfensohn, CEO of Wolfensohn and Company and former President of the World Bank, kicked off the SEED inaugural research forum with an opening keynote address on the importance of entrepreneurship in developing economies.
» Download select presentations
» Watch James Wolfensohn's keynote
» Download select presentations
A Thoughtful, Systemic Approach
Can research and teaching—not just in business, but across disciplines—support efforts to help the poor help themselves in some of the most economically challenged areas of the world?
On April 19th, SEED hosted its first PhD Student Group meeting, bringing together 30 students from anthropology, business, education, economics, engineering, and sociology.
"Integrated Mobile Sanitation Solutions in Urban Settings," an innovative pilot study led by Environmental Engineering doctoral candidates and XSEED lab members Kory Russel and Sebastien Tilmans—under the direction of Professor Jenna Davis— explores household toilets in urban slums.
Mariel Lanas, an undergraduate product design student, shares a laugh with women in Mozambique. Mariel's Design for Extreme Affordability team is working with TechnoServe on new methods to help rural Mozambique families process maize into flour.
The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) was launched in November 2011, with a $150 million gift from Founding Donors Bob, MBA 1960, and Dorothy King.
The idea for the gift came out of home stays that the Kings have offered to international students at Stanford for more than four decades. They witnessed first-hand the impact that education and entrepreneurship can have at both an individual level and a larger scale.