Event: Kat Taylor Shares Leadership Lessons at Berkeley-Haas Main Speakers: Kat Taylor and Ben Mangan Date: Thursday, April 16, 2015
On April 16 Kat Taylor, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Beneficial State Bank, shared her experience and vision as a leader of the social enterprise bank. Beneficial State’s mission is simple – that banking can once again be about people interacting with people for the sake of economic growth and opportunity, in a healthy way. Under her leadership, Beneficial State is trying to move banking back to main street, for the benefit of all. Some highlights from her comments:
Event: Impact Speaker Series – What Can Business Learn From Social Movements? Speakers: Douglas Atkin, Paula Goodman Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Last week, Douglas Atkin (Global Head of Community at Airbnb) and Paula Goodman (Global Head of Impact Investing at Omidyar Network) gave us their insight on how a business might successfully reach out to and establish a loyal, united, active group of consumers by borrowing fundamental principles of social movements. Here are the some of the takeaways from the event: Continue reading →
Event: Social Impact Consulting Career Panel Date: Monday, November 3, 2014 Berkeley-Haas hosted panelists achieving social impact through careers in consulting. They shared their advice and personal experience with using consulting principles and projects on strategy, sustainability, evaluation, change management and others. With Kimberly Wright-Violich as moderator, the panelists provided insight on the challenges of their work as well […]
Event: Impact Speaker Series: Doug Rauch, founder of The Daily Table and former president of Trader Joe’s, co-hosted by The Center for Responsible Business Date: Thursday, February 20th, 2014 Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Between 30-40% of food produced in the US is wasted. Meanwhile, 49 million Americans struggle regularly with hunger. The Daily Table, a new nonprofit opening in Massachusetts this spring, aims to turn these two wrongs into a right. It will sell fresh-cooked, healthy meals at competitive fast food prices, in a neighborhood where such options are scarce. It will use produce donated by grocery stores due to cosmetic defects or slightly passed expiry dates—produce that is still nutritious and edible but is currently being sent to the landfill by the ton.
Doug Rauch, founder of The Daily Table and former president of Trader Joe’s, shared his experiences and advice from the early days of starting a mission-driven business.
After “graduating” from Trader Joe’s 5 years ago, Doug searched for a way to use his knowledge from his career and apply it to something he was passionate about. He became apart of a Harvard Fellowship that asked successful professionals who were nearing the end of their careers, to tackle a significant social ill at scale. After reflecting on which social issue bothered him the most, it finally dawned on him: “how is it possible that 1 out of 6 Americans is hungry” in one of the richest countries that spends billions of dollars on agriculture and food production?
Doug laid out 6 steps to starting a mission-driven business, based on his own journey of starting The Daily Table.
“If you’re going to try to tackle a problem, know the problem,” Doug advised. He realized the problem for hunger in America cannot be solved by filling stomachs because they are already filled – but with cheap junk calories. The real problem is bringing affordable nutrition to 50 million Americans.
Once the problem is understood, you must question why the problem is not being addressed. Doug discovered that there are plenty of food banks, but many people who qualify for food stamps are embarrassed to use these services because it’s a question of dignity.
“You are either innovating or you’re going to die.” It is easy for any organization to become complacent as time goes on; however, in order to be successful, one must keep innovating to stay ahead of the game.
Get your story right. Narratives are crucial because they matter to the people the organization is trying to reach. With the story, it’s necessary to address why people should care and what makes the issue urgent.
Reel in your initial funders (this is mostly applicable to nonprofits): Fundraising is an extremely competitive marketplace in the nonprofit world because the funders get to decide whether the organization has a right to exist. If you’re going to stick to a nonprofit model, “you have to break the nonprofit silos and rise above the competition” to form [strategic] partnerships.”
Have a business plan and execute it well by engaging the right people.
In addition to Doug Rauch, both of the founders of Feeding Forward, a UC Berkeley-born organization formed to help solve the issue of local hunger, were also present at the event to share how they are approaching the same social issue. The organization uses technology to connect those with excess food to those who need it through the use of a mobile application, thus “streamlining the process of food recovery and donation”. Thus far, the venture has successfully recovered 420,000 pounds of excess edible food donations, which has generated enough meals to feed over 355,000 individuals.
Doug Rauch speaks to the idea of sustainability in the nonprofit world due to the extreme competitiveness in the nonprofit market:
Event: Case Studies in Impact Investing: How to Think Like an Investor Date: Thursday, January 30, 2014 Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
This Impact Speaker Series event was co-sponsored with the Haas Impact Investing Network (HIIN), and highlighted a variety of approaches to impact investing. Guest speakers represented impact investors striving to balance both financial and social returns, foundations making program related investments and emerging market investors. Guests immersed themselves in an interactive session and put themselves in the investors’ shoes by reviewing real case studies.
Six guest speakers from the following companies joined us:
New Island Capital Management, Inc. is a San Francisco-based investment advisor. New Island’s mandate and resources place it among a handful of institutional-scale, 100% mission-focused investment advisors.
Unitus was started with the strategy of leveraging business principles and market mechanisms in order to have a long-term, sustainable and widespread impact on reducing global poverty.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s approach to business and community participation guides the Packard Foundation’s philanthropy: They invest in leaders and institutions, collaborate with them to identify the most effective solutions, and give them freedom and support to best reach their goals.
Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance (GSF) group drives Morgan Stanley’s sustainability strategy. GSF supports investors and clients in the development of long-term sustainable business models and investment products capable of achieving financial, social and environmental returns.
Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm. Omidiyar creates opportunity for people to improve their lives by investing in market-based efforts that catalyze economics and social change.
Event: Social Impact Consulting Career Panel Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
A hundred MBA students gathered in the Wells Fargo Room to listen to six panelists, several of them – Haas Alumni, share their experience in nonprofit consulting at the Social Impact Consulting Career Panel. The panelists spoke about what it is like to apply one’s analytical skills, passion and education to have a positive social impact. They provided varying perspectives on what a career in nonprofit, public, or social enterprise consulting looks like, how to get started and what steps you can take to be successful. Each of them went ahead to share the most interesting projects they’ve worked on and described their typical clients and work on a daily basis and how they see that translate to social impact.
Panelists included:
Dr. Nora Silver, Director of the Center for Nonprofit for Public Leadership (Moderator)
Event: Farooq Kathwari: Global Leadership For Social Impact Date: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Mr. Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen, spoke about the need for global leaders to identify their personal passion and engage with social issues. His experience as a humanitarian and social advocate informs his discussion of the need for emerging cross-sector leaders to be active, conscious global citizens as well as “executives”. Successful global leaders must address the ways in which their efforts affect local peoples and incorporate social efforts to have a positive impact in the world. “I’ve seen conflict, and I’ve been a refuge. This is a reason why I choose to focus on advocacy,” said Mr. Kathwari.
Mr. Kathwari has been active in public service, often supporting initiatives that strive to improve the lives of people affected by war and other turmoil. He is a director and former chair of Refugees International, an independent organization that advocates on behalf of displaced people, and a director of the International Rescue Committee, which responds to humanitarian crises around the world. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and on the advisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan global security think tank in Washington DC. In 1996, Kathwari founded, and continues to chair, the Kashmir Study Group, which after extensive interaction with regional leadership, issued recommendations for easing tensions in the area. He is also a member of President Obama’s Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Here are a couple of clips from Mr. Kathwari’s presentation:
This year’s Social Capital Markets Conference in San Francisco proves to be one of the best yet. SOCAP13 speakers are doing everything from educating India’s social entrepreneurs, bringing information access to Africa’s farmers, funding the world’s leading solutions and much more. This year’s themes: Health, Oceans, Communities, Meaning, Investing, Faith Art Register today.
Mr. Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen, will speak about the need for global leaders to identify their personal passion and engage with social issues. His experience as a humanitarian and social advocate informs his discussion of the need for emerging cross-sector leaders to be active, conscious global citizens as well as “executives”. Successful global leaders must address the ways in which their efforts affect local peoples and incorporate social efforts to have a positive impact in the world. Register Today!
Learn from 100+ sessions across 11 tracks – from Tech for Good to International Development – designed to take your inspiration, innovation, and impact to the next level. Engage with 350+ inspiring speakers from across sectors breaking new ground in social and environmental change, and discover how you can use your career for good.
Social Impact Consulting Career Panel
November 13th, 2013
4:00-6:00 pm
Haas School of Business
Ever wonder what it is like to apply your analytical skills, passion and education to have a positive social impact? What does a career in nonprofit, public, or social enterprise consulting look like? How do you get started and what are the steps you need to take to be successful? These and other questions will be answered at the Social Impact Consulting Panel. Panelists and Registration TBA
Alumni Spotlight: Ted Kuh, Haas BS 82; Wharton MBA 87
Lecturer and Advisor-in-Residence, Haas School of Business
Advisory Board Member, Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership
“I left banking to pursue new passions such as teaching and getting involved in the start-up community. I am a firm believer in lifelong learning and am certainly learning a lot from my students, I hope to continue learning from different people and different cultures.”
Lifelong Learning: A Structured and Unstructured Path
There are times when the defined and well-lit path is worth following. My 24 year investment banking career offered excitement, world travel, exposure to new cultures, and the challenge of developing a new business. I was entrepreneurial with the support and resources within a large organization. My best professional decision was to work abroad to lead Citi’s Global Retail investment banking effort, first from London then from Hong Kong. All told I spent 10 years abroad and had an extraordinarily rich professional and personal experience.
In 2009, I relocated back to the Bay Area, where one of my goals was to re-engage with Haas and my community, as well as to Continue reading →
Event: Anshu Gupta: Creating a Parallel Economy with Reused Material Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Anshu Gupta, an Ashoka and Schwab Foundation Fellow shared his experiences creating a cultural change – from thoughtless dumping to conscious giving. He is the founder of GOONJ.org, a social enterprise that has created social innovations to address critical gaps in the developing world. Making clothing a matter of concern in the development sector emerged as his life’s calling with GOONJ.
Considered one of the leading social enterprises in India, GOONJ, brings to light under-resourced areas in development work; whether it’s clothing for the poor, cloth sanitary pads for women, or school materials for children. The organization addresses the growing gap between prospering cities and rural villages by moving resources from the former, who discard it as waste, to the later, for whom it is precious.
Anshu’s efforts have brought wider attention to the most ignored basic human need – clothing – and has led other organizations to replicate GOONJ’s initiatives and methods. Today people call it the genesis of a parallel economy where, instead of money, clothing works as currency received for work performed. Clothing, in Anshu’s words, “is not just a basic need but a symbol of dignity for all of us.”
View a video of his presentation:
See and download Anshu’s slides:
Accolades for Anshu Gupta and GOONJ:
A former journalist, Anshu left the corporate world to found GOONJ in 1998 and is now popularly known as the “Clothing Man”. Listed in Forbes as one of the India’s most powerful entrepreneurs, Anshu’s organization, GOONJ has won many prestigious awards including the Innovation for India award, Lien i3 challenge, CNN-IBN Real Hero’s Award, India NGO of the Year Award, Changemakers Innovation Awards and Development Market Place Award from the World Bank. GOONJ has also been chosen as a ‘Game Changing Innovation’ by NASA & US State dept. in a worldwide search & selection. Anshu was named “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Schwab Foundation. Learn more: www.ashoka.org/node/2523
Event: Kat Taylor Shares Leadership Lessons at Berkeley-Haas
CAP13 
Global Leadership for Social Impact with Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen
Net Impact Conference 2013
Social Impact Consulting Career Panel
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