Yesterday had me thinking about transformation, transition and taking chances. This will likely be a several part series, but let’s start first with Yesterday and the Yale Education Leadership Conference.
The students in the School of Management there did a fantastic job. I was impressed not only by what must have been lots of late nights putting together really nice material and hundreds of cold-calls to secure the thought framework and the speakers for the conference, but also their enthusiasm and real interest in the movement to reform, and the grassroots swell that is building in social entrepreneurship.
A person who stands out is Michelle Moy, who is graduating this year. While admitting her haziness on education reform, we had a fantastic discussion about social entrepreneurs and the web of thought and communication that is the centerpiece to how people build companies, get business done and improve people’s lives. It was really refreshing to listen to her thoughts, which I think are hallmarks of Yale thinking.
I hope she doesn’t mind me taking a few bullet points from our discussion, but I am doing this because I think they are absolutely part of the framework for education reform and social entrepreneurs driving change in business:
1. People in Asia connect and talk all the time using tech devices, so it’s a natural part of doing business. If you want to have a good business that directly impacts society in a positive way, you better have good relationships and you should add oil to those relationships all the time. Tech helps that to happen.
2. There’s been a strong undercurrent of the steps beyond globalization happening in business for a long time — there’s a greater sense that nationalism is not a mindframe for business. Instead, global reach but on a micro level. Michelle says she was really inspired by Yunnis’ Nobel Peace Prize for microlending and women-helping-women networks to move from straight up consulting to something that was more socially driven.
3. Michelle and I probably will agree on a lot of points along the following axis — that you cannot run a business these days unless there is a high social component; that information is an asset and communication of information is what brings value to an asset, or portfolio; and in fact, the communication itself is an asset.
4. The conservative mindset in business will always be there and should be, because you must always temper risk, but there is a strong liberal bent to business now (and this could be because we are social entrepreneur focused). Cosmopolitan values — that dialogue and difference enhances and accentuates our offerings; that being challenged heightens the risk:reward ratio; that being wrong can lead to an opportunity to change and reform something into something positive not just for side A, but for sides A and B in the business equation.
5. Opportunity is there in greater numbers for young entrepreneurs because while it’s a key facet of an upstart to ask questions, the platforms for finding those answers are there immediately. And people are equally not afraid to provide solutions, even if it doesn’t completely benefit them.
See Part II for my thinking on how Michelle’s conversation with me fits into my growing philosophy on education reform as a business.
