Training

Contributed by Acumen Fund summer associate Aden Van Noppen

When Acumen Fund decided to plan our inaugural Student Leaders Workshop, we didn’t know what to expect. Our hunch was that we would have a lot to share with young leaders committed to tackling global poverty and that they would have a lot to share with us. But we could not have predicted the level of energy, inspiration and collaboration that filled our conference room for three days at the end of May!

The second video features our friend Seth Godin, best-selling author and Acumen Advisor. Seth kicked off the workshop by telling the students that leading means deciding to create something with no formula and learning from the inevitable cycles of failure along the way. Seth’s talk set the tone for a weekend of questioning assumptions and deciding to lead. Watch him here:

The student leaders continue to demonstrate the energy in these videos as they work together to support Acumen Fund’s mission—stay tuned for more news of their progress!

As (social) venture capitalists, a question we ask ourselves a lot here at Acumen is how we can go about nurturing and mentoring our investees. One of the challenges we face as a socially driven venture capitalist is how to act as an incubator for our investees that are usually in their early ‘survivor’ stages. Most of our investees are in this stage - usually because they are pioneering products and services that no one has had the audacity to explore before.

A few weeks ago, Acumen Fund Pakistan held an Investee Workshop on Leadership and Talent Building in Early Stage Social Enterprises in an effort to share ideas and creative solutions on one of the most common problems our investees - and indeed most resource constrained enterprises in their survival stages - face: attracting talent. The CEOs of our investee companies attended, along with some of their HR personnel.

The workshop kicked off with self-reflective note from our CEOs.  Many of the activities and group exercises in the early part of the workshop were very insightful in exemplifying the role the participants play as leaders and team players. For example, in one exercise, participants made repeated mistakes.  Their desire to avoid looking foolish led them to mimic those who went before, even though the first participants had not necessarily made the right choice. Realizing that mimicry is common in social and group settings, leaders become cognizant of the rule of ‘leading by example’. Living by your philosophy is the only way to see that culture permeates throughout your organization.

In another activity – this time a timed game of strategy – many of the participants admitted afterwards that they had a hard time relinquishing control. It was apparent how the (sometimes unconscious) reluctance to empower a team undermined the team’s authority, effectiveness, and efficiency and ultimately impeded team motivation and goal achievement.  Ramiz Allawala, our highly talented facilitator, also helped us recognize that there is an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ view to our companies and it is important to have a team member be able to step back and act as a ‘bird’s eye view’ when we are all too busy getting our hands dirty in order to assess the bigger picture.

Another common concern echoed by the CEOs was talent acquisition. Resource constrained social enterprises cannot compete with the compensation packages of larger for-profits, and attracting the right talent is largely a matter of finding creative ways in which to appeal to the social conscience of the talent pool while balancing their needs of professional growth. One of our CEOs added that the problem of talent acquisition is only likely to exacerbate once the economy turns around. Certainly many of us have wondered how instrumental the recession has been in helping social organizations (including Acumen) attract talent.

The ensuing discussion provided valuable insights into thinking how to creatively position the opportunities in an organization. Through shared stories, it became obvious that not only does one have to think of alternative, unorthodox channels to find the right talent, but also creative ways in which to appeal to the talent pool.

For example, Jawad Aslam (2008 Acumen Fellow and current CEO of Ansaar Management Company, a low-income housing development in Lahore) learned the necessity of networking and alternative channel hunting to find candidates that were suitably matched to his organization when he stumbled across a website called www.muppies.org for Muslim Urban Professionals living abroad. Here he had a pool of qualified individuals, who had a vested interest in giving back to their country. In order to appeal to not only their social conscience, but their self interest as well, he devised the position as a 2-year engagement with a high degree of responsibility during which they would be involved in the start-up of his company. In this way he ensured their professional interests were met, and kept it as a short term engagement to attract anyone who might be temporarily out of work due to the recession. In return, AMC will benefit from much needed expertise in its early, most crucial stage.

As the other CEOs chimed in with their experiences, we heaved a collective A-Ha! moment – one of the reasons why our investees have had trouble attracting talent is that the social entrepreneurship space in Pakistan has not found a place in the people’s consciousness yet. There is still ambiguity around it and the community here needs to understand the alternative between the NGO, traditional aid and CSR models of social development (Acumen Fund Pakistan hopes to be instrumental in perpetuating this paradigm shift).

Even as the day wound down, energies were high. We received an overwhelming positive response from the investees regarding their interaction with one another. As one of our CEO’s remarked, there is something great to be gained in hearing your concerns as a social entrepreneur echoed amongst a group of like minded people.

It is worth mentioning that the success of our workshop was largely due to the excellence of our facilitator, Ramiz Allawala of Gulfstone Training, himself an entrepreneur in his past career. Through his experience and background, he was able to relate to the discussion and offer insightful experiences and examples to draw from. A definite takeaway for us was that entrepreneurs appreciate communicating and consulting with other entrepreneurs as they have all experienced similar growing pains, and we should keep this in mind when thinking of the management assistance or mentoring we try to provide for our investees.

TechnoServe VP for Development Simon Winter speaks at ANDE training. (Photo by Brian Murray)

Last week, along with 40-plus other participants, the Acumen Fund summer associates participated in an energetic and informational training session run by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).  ANDE is a member-driven organization whose goal is to dramatically increase the effectiveness of capital and technical assistance for entrepreneurs in developing countries.  This training was a definitive step towards that goal.

For the second year in a row, ANDE has organized this training along with Acumen Fund, Root Capital, Grassroots Business Fund, Endeavor and many other members of ANDE.  With the exploding interest in supporting Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) as a means of alleviating poverty, the importance of coordinating and connecting those entering the field has never been more critical.  Not only was the training immensely important to developing relationships across organizations; it also provided a forum to share best practices and to promote innovative thinking.

The two-day seminar was packed with a discussion of different business models, presentations on social metrics and hands-on case studies.  As if any of the graduate-level interns needed more motivation heading into the sector, the opportunity to hear from amazing speakers such as Christine Eibs Singer from E+Co, Brian Midler and Namrita Kapur from Root Capital, Susie Lee from IGNIA, Raj Kundra, Sasha Dichter and Ann MacDougall from Acumen Fund, Simon Winter and Jennifer Golden from TechnoServe, Ben Powell and Ricardo Teran from Agora Partnerships was inspirational.

I was uplifted to meet our peers who are now heading into the field to countries such as Pakistan, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Nicaragua and Guatemala. In particular, I was humbled and inspired by their backgrounds, skill sets and demonstrated passion for the work we will be undertaking.   I hope that this foundation of collaboration is something we all push to continue beyond the training amongst ourselves and by including more people interested in the sector.

My personal highlights were:

• Sasha Dichter’s non-profit Venn Diagram
• Learning more about the Global Impact Investing Network and its mission to educate and drive more investors into the sector
• Quote to inspire by Ben Powell of Agora Partnerships:
  Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success

  ~ Sir Ernest Shackleton’s trans-Antarctic expedition recruitment advertisement

Although not exactly applicable to those of us heading out into the field (safe return = certain), it is a reminder that we all need support, encouragement and community to help us through the hard times when things don’t seem possible and barriers appear impassable.  I’m confident coming out of this training that this community is stronger than ever and I look forward to contributing.

For those of you who were at the training, please feel free to share your highlights in the comments section!

As part of our training curriculum for the Acumen Fund Fellowship, we were required to spend a day on the streets to better understand the poor.  As soon as we arrived in the office one beautiful fall Friday, we were required to empty our pockets of our wallet, cell phone, keys, etc.  We were given a $6 metro card and $5.  The following is an article I wrote about my day with the homeless…

I have often wondered what is the most appropriate response when faced with a beggar in the street.  Too often, I have balanced the choices of giving or not giving in favor of the latter, without truly understanding the person behind the request.  Through spending a day on the streets of New York City, I was able to explore the lives of the very individuals that I have passed without even a smile or a kind word.  Much to my surprise, my stereotypes of the urban poor were thrust back into my face. 

Rose passed by carrying a small, black suitcase and a clear plastic bag full of cans and bottles.  She eagerly accepted my offer to help her on her quest.  Her slight smile, gentle eyes, and grandmother charm immediately made me feel comfortable.  Rose taught me which cans were acceptable and which grocery stores accepted our booty. Every day of the week, she started work at 7:00am sifting through trashcans to collect the five-cent rewards that were hidden along her treasure route.  On the day that I worked with her, Rose only managed to raise just over $3.00 after four hours of work; that is less than $1/hour.  What struck me most about Rose was that she didn’t appear homeless at all.  She was quite intelligent, very articulate, and knew more about literature then I could ever know.  As I said goodbye to my new friend Rose, she asked, “Can I have a hug?”  “Of course,” I replied.  “I don’t get many hugs,” she responded. 

Shirley caught my eye as I entered Penn Station.  She was a small black woman, sitting in a motorized wheel chair with a sign that indicated that she was a veteran and in need of help.  I struck up a conversation with her and was immediately taken with her jovial laugh and joyful demeanor.  She told me how she often comes to Penn Station to raise money to live on.  I asked her if people were being generous and she said, “Well, you came by and it is a blessing to talk to you.”

Peter sat on the gum stained sidewalk, cowering next to a hand written sign and cup full of change.  I sat down next to him and noticed the sadness radiating from him.  I learned that he was from a part of Hungary that I had visited in May of this year.  He had come to the U.S. in 1999 at the age of twelve with his two parents.  Since then, both of them have past away from AIDS.  Peter lives in a cardboard box on the street.  He told me how he has regulars who give him money, but he remarked that no one stops to really ask how he is.  When asked what he likes to do for fun, Peter remarked, “I don’t really have fun.” 

The homeless don’t have feelings.  They are a group of nobodies with no life worth living and no real value to society.  That is how you and I treat these human beings when we speedily walk past to escape their disheveled appearance and jingling cups.  Oh, we may give a few coins or even several tattered bills, but contributing to their plight doesn’t lessen the dehumanizing behavior that we engage in.

Each of the 35,000 homeless in New York City has a story.  Many are just as happy as you or I, if not more so.  Certainly, some have mental illness and others are drug or alcohol addicts, but that does not give us the right to treat them as if they are not human.  During my day on the streets, I met eight individuals who marveled me with their resourcefulness, touched me with their affection, tickled me with their laughs, and rebuked me with their humanness.  No longer shall I walk by without acknowledging their humanity.  To give money to their cause is a matter of personal choice, but to give a smile or kind word requires nothing but a little courage.  The next time, you pass a beggar in the street, remember that he or she had a mother and a father.  He or she has intellect and emotion, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, just like you and I.  

Joel Montgomery