|
Fonk for Thoughts: Jacqueline Novogratz
Seth Godin recommended Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, a global non-profit venture fund serving the four billion people living on less than $4 a day. Godin kicked off in Novogratz's Fonks for Thoughts...
Jacqueline Novogratz: "If you do it, you can." Godin: What's the best way to heal the world? Novogratz: Entrepreneurial solutions to solve global poverty: we need to build companies that know how to deliver things people need at prices they can afford. We also need to start from a place of our interconnectedness - never before have people, disease, terrorism, pollution, capital, information flowed so seamlessly across international borders - and then use the skills and networks of those with privilege build systems that work - and matter - for those without. Godin: What should a wealthy entrepreneur looking to give back know about what you do? Novogratz: Acumen Fund uses the discipline and rigor of business to build companies that will survive and grow. We focus on delivering essentials like clean water, healthcare, housing to people who make less than $4 a day (and that includes two of every three of us on earth). We take charitable dollars and leverage them to bring about real, sustainable change that can impact hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. We measure the returns to our investment in financial terms but also in social terms - how many lives did we impact and at what cost? It is the only way to get things done in a way that matters to poor people now and in the long-term. What all of us ultimately want is to make our own decisions and solve our own problems. Acumen Fund builds companies and institutions that make this possible for the poor. Godin: Tell me the story of the baskets! Novogratz: It is a story of two women in Rwanda, poor women who work hard every day and make almost nothing. It is a story that shows just how complex it is to use business principles sometimes. Mostly it is a story of how important it is to listen. At the end of the day, the right kind of listening is the only way any of this work of change will be successful. 
I was working in Rwanda, helping women start and run their tiny businesses. There was one particular market where I would go to seek entrepreneurs, see what kind of assistance they might need . On a late afternoon, I came across two women selling identical. Not a stitch was different. So I asked the first woman what her price was and she said $3. "OK," I said, and turned to the women sitting not three feet away from her. She gave me the same price. $3. I tried explaining that if one of them would lower their price, I would buy from her. If neither would, I would find someone else somewhere in the market because you could be sure someone had a better price. "Uh uh, no way," they said. "The price is $3." There would be no negotiating. It didn't make sense to me. They were both going to lose, both going to get nothing. I changed tactics. I forgot about the baskets altogether and asked them about their lives - where they lived, how many baskets they made, the number of children, where else they sold. Finally, I asked them how they priced their baskets. One of the women cocked her head to the side and after a few moments explained what I couldn't understand before. The day was ending and she'd not sold a single thing. She needed busfare to get back to where she lived hours away. It had been an unlucky day and if she didn't get the money, she couldn't get home. So that was how she priced the basket. At the end of the day, most people tell you the truth if you could only learn to listen for it. 
BlogFonk: Who is Jacqueline Novogratz? And where are you from? Novogratz: I am CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture firm for the poor. We focus on building sustainable, scalable enterprises that deliver affordable, critical goods and services - clean water, healthcare, housing - to the poor. We work in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt and measure our returns in both financial and social terms. I am from New York City. By supporting entrepreneurial efforts that are sustainable and scalable, we hope to create a blueprint for change. BlogFonk: Do you love your work? Why (not)? Novogratz: I LOVE MY WORK. I believe in giving people the opportunity to make their own decisions. I believe in the power of markets and also recognize their limitations. There is a role for smart philanthropic capital and I am focused on learning how best to use it to make enterprises that work for the poor. This work challenges all parts of me for it is a mix of economics, business, anthropology, politics and psychology. It necessitates transcending boundaries, being open to what the world offers and holding on to hopefulness while being almost ruthlessly pragmatic. I love my work because I get to work with some of the smartest, most committed and most alive people on earth. I love it because it uses all parts of who I am. BlogFonk: Is there difference in mentality of creative professionals in the countries you've worked? Novogratz: I don't understand that question really. What we find is that people the world over hold values of innovation, know how to build things at a scale that impacts hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and focus on making the world work for the poor. These are the people for whom we search and then support. 
BlogFonk: What are the latest important developments you've noticed in your work? Novogratz: We're helping to produce and then distribute a long-lasting malarial bednet that can save millions of lives. We are supporting the building of a distribution network to bring drip irrigation to farmers who make less than $2 a day - in one season, from purchasing a $30 system that brings water to arid fields, the farmers can increase their incomes 2 to 4 times. That is when change starts. BlogFonk: Which project are you most proud of? Novogratz: Malaria bednets, most definitely. This technology is now manufactured for the first time in Africa. The factory has created 105 new, good jobs, mostly for women. Hundreds of thousands of nets already have been produced and distributed. We could change the name of the game if we do this right. Same with the guarantee program for low-income housing that we're doing in Pakistan. Our $1.25 million guarantee is leveraging 30-40 times that in capital that will be lent for the first time ever to people making less than $4 a day. We're talking about people who work and work hard - including in government offices (you have to remember that 80% of Pakistanis make less than $3); again, we have a chance to influence the banking system in Pakistan. That's a big deal. It is why we talk about creating a blueprint for change. 
BlogFonk: If you'd be given the chance to do something over again, what would that be? Novogratz: I would only invest loans or equity except in rare cases where grants are needed to help an organization get to a place where it can use a loan. Loans and equity create a financial discipline and a conversation that builds stronger partnerships than grants, though there are always exceptions to this rule. BlogFonk: Finally, what is your motto, your "Fonk for Thoughts" (inspiration to be creative)? Novogratz: "If you do it, you can." We have the technology, the skills, the contacts to solve all of the worlds problems. And there is no time like today. If now us, who? |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
posted by BlogFonk: Friday, January 14, 2005 [#] Erms Suripatty