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Project Pyramid founders Nat Robinson, Sharran Srivatsaa and Asif Shah Mohammed talk about the results of the Project Pyramid Case Competition how it will continue to serve businesses helping to alleviate global poverty.
Technorati Tags: Bottom of the Pyramid, Case Competition, Enjuba, MBA, Nashville, Net Impact, Project Pyramid, Project Pyramid Case Competition, Vanderbilt
At Net Impact last weekend, Project Pyramid chose the three winners of its groundbreaking case competition. Here are the clips of the winning teams:
1st place winners - York University
2nd place winners - Georgia Tech
3rd place winners - Chicago GBS
Congratulations to all the teams who participated!
Technorati Tags: Bottom of the Pyramid, Case Competition, Chicago GBS, Georgia Tech, Net Impact, Project Pyramid, York University
Even though we've spent an entire day blogging our hard-working MBA butts off, we still have time for one more scoop.
Reliable sources tell us that the top three teams have been selected in the Project Pyramid Case Competition. Each of these teams will present, tomorrow from 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM in Wilson Hall, room 126.
The teams, in no particular order, are:
Congrats to all of the teams who made it to the final round and we look forward to seeing the top three present tomorrow where the winners will be announced. You won't want to miss it!
Technorati Tags: Bottom of the Pyramid, Case Competition, Georgia Tech, MBA, Owen, Project Pyramid, puppy, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt
MBA Students from UVA talk about their involvement in the Project Pyramid Case Competition.
Technorati Tags: MBA, Owen, Project Pyramid, UVA, Vanderbilt, Vidcast
MBA Students from UNC talk about their involvement in the Project Pyramid Case Competition.
Technorati Tags: Bottom of the Pyramid, Kenan-Flagler, MBA, Project Pyramid, UNC, Vanderbilt, Vidcast
3:45- The next team up is the Poverty Haters from University of Minnesota- definitely make a strong statement with their name. They started with a background discussion of how their skills as MBA's fit into helping develop and grow business. While microfinance is a well known segment of the market, they felt that they could best apply their skills at the next level, when a small microenterprise is ready to get bigger.
3:48- Therefore, they created STEP- Sustainable Tangible Enterprise Progress. The first aspect is to create a local business network, provide technical assistance, and financing.
3:51- After identifying 3 locations for their efforts(Accra, Ghana; Lago, Nigeria; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), they would send the team of 10 MBA students in. After arriving onsite, they would begin evaluating business plans for acceptance into the STEP program. They would also look for individuals to serve a permanent field staff that would provide assistance as an on-the-ground liaison once the team left the country. The time on the ground would end when they had found 20 business plans to help develop and take to the next level.
3:55- After choosing 60 businesses between the three sites, they would seek to impact people by adding jobs through growing business, with an average impact of 5 jobs per business, for 300 jobs. When extrapolated to the number of family members impact, the number conservatively reaches 1200. The plan has a multiplicative effect that keeps on growing.
3:58- After students go on one of these trips, they have ties to the organizations and business that can continue once they are not students any longer. The cycle of choosing businesses, students gaining experience, students then continuing to stay in touch and develop the businesses and networks once they have left school provides a cycle that feeds upon itself.
4:00- When asked by a judge whether the 'chamber of commerce' network idea already existed in their choice of cities, they felt that there were likely such organizations, but that they were geared toward larger business, while smaller microenterprises might be overlooked. STEP would feel the gap between the two.
4:03- The core of their project idea is developing networks, which they feel also have social benefits. But what are the specific tasks that need to be achieved in order to ensure that the network takes hold and is cemented. Their choice of three cities on two continents was questioned, and they responded that they felt they would learn more from expanding the scope of there initial efforts, and that their staff on the ground would be able to provide continuity.
4:06- The choice of the person who is left on the ground is critical to this idea, as so much of the responsibility for translating and bringing people will fall to them. They conceded that it may take the entire first summer to find this appropriate person, but that once they were found it would provide great momentum to their efforts.
4:14- Next up is Team Triage, hailing from Wharton at UPenn. They started with the goal in mind of increasing income from $2-$5 per day. the process to achieve that end must be educational, collaborative, and sustainable. How doe people make more money for the same work(better access to or flow of information)? They may need to be trained in additional skills (vocational), or possibly they have skills but lack funding (microfinance). Team Triage focused on the first two ideas, realizing that microfinance is already a more crowded space.
4:19- They chose to focus on how technology can help bring about change and increase income at poverty level populations. Opening a kiosk in the center of a town or village, with symbols, translation ability, a webcam, and other interactive aspects. Based on historical trends in India, it's not too much to ask for uneducated people to quickly adopt technology.
4:22- The general premise would that of a job board online. Each individual would be provided a smartcard that would have personal history and skills on it. They would then be matched up with jobs that were suitable to them and would provide them with greater earning potential than if they didn't have a job clearinghouse.
4:26- At the end of the day, the kiosk would be converted from a job board to a remote learning tool, integrating the education school at Vanderbilt (Peabody) to help raise the skills of the population. The Law and Medical schools could both also hold remote seminars on rights and health issues. Both children and adults could benefit from these types of education.
4:30- Team Triage tied this effort into the One Laptop Per Child program started by Nicholas Negroponte at MIT by stating that a few laptops located at the center of town could provide the necessary classroom as well as the other functions posed in their solution.
4:32- The revenues from the kiosks would possible be in a percentage of the transaction between job seeker and employer, by providing services to other organizations such as microfinance organizations and banks or fees, or other as yet undetermined methods.
4:34- They addressed some of the challenges and risks in their presentation, but as they were running out of time didn't have a chance to present their final several slides. The first question deals with the integration of technology with illiteracy and their interplay.
4:38- Of the many applications that they envisioned, which was the most critical. They felt that they weren't the information holder, but that they were the people who allowed the information to flow. If one aspect of their program was necessary, then it would be job board to stimulate the economic development in the community.
4:45- That wraps up the team presentations for the Project Pyramid Case Competition. Asif had some closing remarks and thanked the judges for their efforts. The top 3 teams will be notified tonight, and then they will present on Saturday along with some additional Project Pyramid presentations by the Enjuba founders and Cal Turner, former CEO of Dollar General who has experience serving Bottom of the Pyramid markets that were discussed in the presentation today.
4:48- The judges had some comments directed to the entire room of presenters from other schools as well as Project Pyramid members- namely that the issues we're wrestling with important issues that have a real impact on the lives people lead around the world, and though difficult, these issues are worth tackling. Those teams visiting for the weekend were assured that this competition would be the start of a dialogue that would continue once everyone heads home after the weekend. Bart Victor encouraged everyone to steal each others ideas in order to make a difference in the world around them. It was a great competition, and the theme will continue all weekend as the Net Impact kicks off this evening and the Project Pyramid activities resume on Saturday at 1:45pm in 126 Wilson Hall(building closest to opening events tonight under the tent). See you there, and have a very good weekend and safe trip home!
2:29 pm- We've been informed that we're running really long in our posts, so rather than cut back the content, we're going to keep breaking them up into smaller parts. Please be sure to go to the beginning and check out the first two posts. Next up is Puente Partners, from Duke University.
2:33- The first individual to speak from Puente Partners has experience in this type of initiative. He helped found an education NGO in Cambodia, and though they felt things were going well when they founded, they discovered that they had an under-impact compared to what they thought they where going to do. Taking kids out of the fields was lost food on the table. Distance to be covered posed another problem, and though they shipped in bikes to provide the transportation to get to school, many of those were quickly converted to other uses (irrigation pump among them!)
2:36- The main lesson learn from the lesson working with the educational NGO in Cambodia was to listen and understand what the needs of the community are before creating a solution that didn't necessarily fit.
2:39- The idea of the solution is to bring together leaders from rural communities to create Community Action Networks (CANs). These leaders would then receive training from Project Pyramid on seemingly simple aspects such as how to use phones, what resources are available to them, how to handle expenses, etc. These leaders would then provide prioritized needs to groups such as NGO's, governments, and corporations. These organizations then receive much better metrics and feedback on the value their efforts add.
2:43- Santa Anna, El Salvador is the sample community that they have recommended that Vanderbilt pursue as the location for the first site. Base on the financials, it would be feasible for a second CAN be set up after year 3. In terms of outcomes, this plan seems to hold immense promise because it is the communities themselves that determine demand in a prioritized manner.
2:47- The team then tied into the three pillars of Project Pyramid, and tied their project back to the sustainability of the venture due to the revenue stream of the finder's fees from organizing the CANs and the fact that the communities themselves know more than anyone else what is wrong in their community and how it can be fixed in a manner than works.
2:51- The first question was a pointed one that was geared toward the fact that the funds can from the NGOs and was essentially a fee taken out of charitable donation. There was less economic development in the presentation than there was smarter more efficient and reallocation of funds that already exist. Project Pyramid would be set up as an matchmaker and facilitator. The team posits that information brokers are the best way to help alleviate poverty at this point in time.
2:56- The model was originally developed by Care International, but because of the lack of a revenue generating source, it collapsed after two years, even though they were able to raise just under $2 million in those two years. The addition of a revenue stream helps to ensure that there will be more continuity, as well as the individual working on the ground in the community year-round so that there isn't a disjointed effort on the part of Project Pyramid.
3:14- We're back after a break of 15 minutes for our next team, Team Catalyst from York University in Toronto, Canada. They jumped right to the point- that their solution would have to make the maximum amount of benefit and adhere to the triple-bottom-line. The strengths of Project Pyramid as they saw it were the business acumen and partnerships we had, while understanding that a weakness was a lack of on-site knowledge.
3:18- After looking at all types of Bottom of the Pyramid enterprises, they eliminated one after another for various reasons until they were left with Social Venture Capital. Their solution would fill the gap between commercial banks and microcredit, ensuring that small businesses had services that met their needs.
3:21- The first phase of the project leverages Divinity students to help narrow possible companies to work with. In the next phase (Co-learning), up to 10 companies work with Owen students guide the companies for 4 weeks so that they are able to hone their business model and allow the Owen students to contribute to and learn from the local business practitioners. In the third phase, the the companies are evaluated and eventually one or two are chosen based on their overall potential as ranked by a set of standard criteria.
3:24- In the next phase, Project Pyramid would invest in one or two companies, in which it would continue to work and collaborate for a period of 3-5 years. After that time, a successful stake in the company could be sold to the local business owner or other existing stakeholders. If it is not successful, they would potential steer the business in a different direction or sell or divest the Project Pyramid stake.
3:28- It was decided to raise an endowment of $1.6 million in order to provide steady funding for the investment portion. This would be obtained through church groups, and individual donors.
3:31- Ghana was chosen as the pilot site of this enterprise, for political reasons as well as demographic and economic. There is little to no private investment in Ghana, while it is more politically stable with a larger portion of the Bottom of the Pyramid population.
3:32- They assess some of the risks, and addressed each of them in turn. The social outreach would also use church groups in Ghana in order to mitigate the risk that our lack of local knowledge poses. Other risks were also addressed.
3:34- They highlighted two specific energy companies in Ghana that would be similar to ones that their solution social venture enterprise would seek to partner with. Within 10 years, it is estimated that up to 500 people would be employed, a significant impact. It also ensures that people have better health by using cleaner fuels.
3:37- One of the questions is geared toward the regulatory aspects of investing in foreign countries and enterprises as a US university. It was acknowledged that there are such regulations, but that they would create two separate, and largely autonomous organizations that would work together but necessarily funnel money back and forth, with an advisory board in each location that interacted continually. One of the best questions was around the question of the environmental aspects of their plan, and whether they were limiting the growth potential of a developing country by imposing upon them the restrictions that we have started to develop in the first world. Their response was that those are often linked, and while they are not trying to restrict the options available to a growing economics, they feel that clearner fuels can be mutually beneficial to the citizens as well as to the economies.
3:42- The next team up is the Poverty Haters from University of Minnesota.
11:33- Next up, representing Georgia Tech, is Team Graduates Against Poverty (G.A.P.). Team GAP has started off with the mile-high view, addressing the fact that real changes will have to come from a system-wide standpoint. Their proposal is to have the consulting team work with a variety of clients (generating positive cash flow), working with governments and NGOs(roughly cash neutral), with the funding assisting ventures with entrepreneurs receiving pro bono services.
11:42- This team has the most highly developed powerpoint by far, a really professional looking presentation. Their idea for the $75,000 budget is to choose 3 projects, one in each of the three segments listed above. They evaluated their choices of on geography first.
11:47- They have developed a scoring metric to help decide where to . South Africa scored a 33, while New Orleans scored a 28. They also have a dashboard that hey key metrics detailing Human Development Indexes, GDP per capita, and other relevant factors.
11:49- They developed similar metrics to chose a company to partner with, including factors such as ROI, matching of goals, network, exposure, and academic benefit. In this example, Coca-Cola won out over Frito-Lay. So now there's a Coke project in South Africa. The example of the project working with the government would be working with schools in South Africa is working in the townships, traditionally black areas often resembling huge shantytowns.
11:53- And example of an entrepreneurial activities would be working with a cookie company founded several years ago by an NYU business school graduate. They proposed to help her scale her business to make a larger impact and provide more jobs in communities like her.
11:56- The nest steps they covered at the end include applying a Project Pyramid engagement strategy, selling clients on the model and generating partnerships, and then building project teams in order to carry out projects.
12:00pm- One of the main questions was how you find sites that don't necessarily fit into their framework of choosing sites, with their answer being that not all of their criteria must be met to do work in a country, though all aspects should be considered. Another question that was posed to them was throw to accommodate fit of MBA student interests into any Project Pyramid solution. Their answer was a good one- their project allows for individuals looking to get involved in corporate work, the governmental space, or working directly on the front lines with entrepreneurs all to explore their individuals interests while also working within the Project Pyramid goals of alleviating poverty.
12:05- We're going to be taking a short break for lunch. We'll resume the blogging and when the Project Pyramid Case Competition returns at 1:30pm (CST). In the meantime, think about the question posed on the Project Pyramid Case Competition banner- "4 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Can your idea help alleviate poverty? Make a fortune. Make a difference."
1:30 pm- Team Enterprise, another entry from UC Davis, is the first post-lunch presentation. Right off the bat, they've started discussing potential hurdles for a 3 month project, showing that they've done a lot of thinking about the confines of the case question.
1:33- Because of the hurdles and desire to ensure the project succeeds in the long run, they have chosen to partner with an existing organization that knows the local community and has a year-round presence to continue any efforts started during a summer effort.
1:36- Fair Trade is the centerpiece of Team Enterprise's solution, providing the MBA students with experience and learning while the students bolster the efforts of the organization. Amextra (The Mexican Association for Rural and Urban Transformation) is their choice of a partner organization. The team outlined pre-project activities including team building and working to understand the local community.
1:40- A second group would be focusing on art, education, and health, first by researching opportunities in the US and on the ground in Mexico, and then by presenting their ideas to Amextra for approval. After the project, both groups would have continuing responsibilities throughout the year in order to sustain their projects.
1:42- One of the cores of their project would be to work to develop fair trade products, including paper and greeting cards. Based on their financial analysis, the business would break even in it's third year. It also addressing the three pillars of Project Pyramid- Education would be addressed not only through the trip, but also through community efforts to spread the word and involved others in the US.
1:44- Collaboration would be addressed between Amextra and Vanderbilt's Project Pyramid group, and would also involve other Vanderbilt constituents. Action is addressed through the sustainability of the business model. Other ideas include expanding to other organizations, other fair trade products, and even an exchange program between business schools in Mexico and the US.
1:49- One of the questions dealt with the artwork on the greeting cards and whether or not the people in Mexico producing that artwork would have a financial stake in the profits from the business. While the team didn't stake out one of the other position, they acknowledged that in an ideal situation, they would be able to tie back some of the financial rewards to the artists and not necessarily profit at the expense of anyone.
1:54- Team Merwet, University of North Carolina's second team, is up next. Team Merwet built their case solution directly off of the story provided to them in the question- the first team to build on the narrative story. The result of the story was the highlight the need to focus. The need, according to their team, was for a specialization on alleviating poverty and branding Vanderbilt as an expert.
2:02- Microcredit is the vehicle for the project, and they propose accepting 2-3 projects so that there would be a team of 3-4 people and 1 faculty member per project. Similar to other team, they suggest a ramp-up phase in which students prepare for the project. The first proposed project would be in Nashville. After the project, students would have specific to-do's: using PR to get the word out to others, selecting projects and students for the next years' projects.
2:08- The next presenter focused on the importance of building strong teams, something unique to their presentation. Definitely more of the soft-skills than some other presentations. The local organization is Citizen's Bank, a minority owned bank in Nashville, and a an international component working with a microcredit organization in Madagascar.
2:12- The team highlighted metrics of success in each of the next four years in clients supported, people benefits, students, engaged, among others. They certainly tried to ground their presentation in realistic scalable assumptions and metrics.
2:15- The financials of the projects they are discussing seem to be rather low. Some of the airfare costs for the students are borne by frequent flyer miles or a one-day's-wage program at Vanderbilt, something that I could see piqued Bart Victor's interest. They also talked about using fundraising to create a Project pyramid endowment with $2 million in order to provide future funds for the consulting arm to be sustainable in the long-term.
2:19- They wrapped up the presentation by continuing to weave in the narrative, and their last slide pulled together all the pillars of Project Pyramid. "To arm students through education and interdisciplinary collaboration with the business tools to produce sustainable solutions that alleviate poverty."
2:23- Questions that they received surrounded the feasibility of some aspects of their plan such as the $2 million endowment, how they would navigate the differences of microcredit in the international and domestic markets (because of the vast differences, it can;t quite work the same here as it would in Bangladesh). Merwet, as an FYI- means 'love' and comes from the builders of the pyramids in Egypt.
8:40 am- We're here at the Project Pyramid Case Competition at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. We'll be here all day covering the case competition focused on alleviating poverty through for-profit business. There's a buzz in the room as most of the teams have arrived and are busy finding their way to their places. One of the best things I've heard this morning is a bit of surprise that all of the presentation are open to other teams. It makes sense, if your objective is to change the world and spread the ideals of Project Pyramid, that you'd want as many people as possible to go home with new and fresh ideas about how to make a difference.
8:50- Dean of Students Jon Lehman just stepped to the mic and called the session to order. When asked who had been to Owen before, no one but the current Owen student helping run the competition raised their hands. It seems like it'll be a great opportunity to introduce others to Owen, particularly with the Net Impact conference this weekend.
8:55- Asif Shah Mohammed, the Owen student leading the organization of the case competition,is explaining some of the rules to the students. Each team will have 15-20 minutes to present their case to the judges, and there will be 5 minutes for questions at the end of each presentation. Today's presentation are the final round and all judging will be done at this time. The top 3 teams will be asked to present their cases at the Net Impact conference on Friday.
9:00am- Team Pathways, one of two teams from UC Davis, is the first team to present. Their solution pairs a new MBA Consulting course and summer internships with the existing Project Pyramid course, Speaker Series, and international trips. The course would be . developed own pyramid, with the base being the local community, building up to an intermediate regional level and the international component being the peak of the pyramid. It seems that their case solution is firmly grounded in helping Vanderbilt's Project Pyramid grow.
9:06- At the local level, they propose to address poverty through developing programs to assist women who have been victims of domestic violence, who often end up caught in a cycle of poverty. The local YWCA's offering could be expanded to career and other services geared at helping women become more independent and capable of supporting their families on their own. Another manner in which they propose that Project Pyramid act on a local level is to partner with organizations working with foster children.
9:11- It seems that they are giving ideas about how to get involved, but not necessarily developing businesses that would make a difference. Their ideas for the international aspect of their pyramid are to do more of what is already being done- partner with organization that have a presence in other countries to leverage their knowledge and our willingness to help.
9:16- Team Pathways has obviously finished with their overview and is now ready to present a specific project that they think Project Pyramid should partner with. New Schools for New Orleans is an organization that develops better schools in New Orleans that will produce higher caliber students who return to the area and will help break the cycle of failed education leading to situations in which poverty prevails.
9:20- Team Pathways has done a great job of integrating the various schools at Vanderbilt and how they are involved with the development of a new school. Med students would look into health and nutritional aspects, law students could work on the charter, and business students would have the opportunity to develop a number of aspects of the project. Definitely a strong point of their presentation!
9:25- One of the judges, Prof. Bart Victor, has asked what success means from a teaching perspective for their proposal of a new consulting class. Sharran Srivatsaa, the current Owen Student Government Association(OSGA) President, has asked about how their project is sustainable for an internal perspective as business school classes turn over on a regular basis. Their answers are a little vague, and there was not much development around the financial aspects of the case solutions.
9:27- Team Pathways wrapped up their case, and got a big hand from the audience, mainly comprised of the other teams and student from Owen that are involved in Project Pyramid. Next up is Team teach a Man to Fish from UVA.
9:33- The team from UVA immediately grabs the attention of the room as they start of by trying to "paint a picture" of Vanderbilt a year from now rather than . There's a quick trade-off in speakers and they introduce the Global Pyramid Market, a fair trade store and live classroom that will be run by students working with Project Pyramid. Definitely a different, intriguing idea.
9:38- The stakeholder would range from domestic and international artisans involved in fair trade to the MBA students who run the store. Teach a Man to Fish has tied in the three pillars of Project Pyramid- Education, Collaboration, and Action. The Education component focuses on the store as a live classroom, in which student have the opportunity to develop and run a business from the ground up.
9:42-They've developed a mock-up of a website for the store- very impressive for the time constraints of the case. The second pillar, Collaboration, focuses on the global reach of working with artisans around the world and working with Vanderbilt to leverage their community contacts to make a fair trade store feasible on a budget of only $75,000. The third pillar, Action, is addressed through a focus on the fair trade market and developing the actual business.
9:47- They're proposed a Store Naming Contest as one way to get the community involved with the creation of such a store. And they've done the groundwork of actually calling the Vanderbilt Student Life Center and Sarratt Center to see if obtaining retail space was a feasible idea. They walked us through the budget and how it fits into the $75,000 limit laid out by the case. One international trip per year would be budgeted for several students to find products and continue developing the inventory of the store.
9:51- One of the better ideas include reaching out to students at Vanderbilt from countries around the world to get them involved in providing input on products from their country and would be viable for the fair trade store. They presented a timeline covering the next year, with quite detailed breakdowns of activities that would need to be undertaken to make the store a reality. In closing they recapped that they used the intellectual capital of Project Pyramid, integrated the pillars, and developed a feasible business plan.
9:56- Bart Victor has asked them a pointed question about whether social enterprises should compete, given the fact that a 10,000 Villages store is located up the street. Another judge has asked whether they considered partnering with an existing 10,000 Villages rather than building a stand-alone store. These questions get at the heart of the debate between business and social enterprise when you utilize business principles to address social issues. Definitely one the most intriguing questions that can be bandied about during the Project Pyramid Case Competition. Teach a Man to Fish has wrapped up their case solution, and it was definitely impressive, addressing all of the aspects of the question.
10:05- The next steam to present is The Pyramid Builders, hailing from University of Michigan. The presentation started off with a recap of of the pillars of Project Pyramid. Their solution is a consulting team doing both private and public sector work. They've jumped right into challenges that are seen at the Bottom of the Pyramid and how their solution addresses them. For the first year, they are proposing a project to e based in Tanzania. Obviously, the Pyramid Builders are headed in an international rather than starting local. They've also targeted two host organizations within the country with which to partner.
10:12- The Center of Sustainable Development Initiatives (CSDI) provides business services to the local community, with objectives aligned with the poverty alleviation goals of Project Pyramid. Arusha NGO Network (ANGONET) is a consortium of NGOs that have health missions and child services, among others. Both of these could use business development, organizational management, and other services that could be provided by business school students. The proposed plan covers 8 weeks of work on the front and back-end sandwiching a 12-week internship.
10:17- Gantt charts galore! Each phase (Pre-, On-, and Post-Assignment) has a whole slide addressed to timelines and implementation activities- they've obviously spent a great deal of time developing the action plan associated with their solution. However, I worry that the font used is almost to small to read. Next up are the metrics for success- definitely something that they learned in business school, and an area the first two teams didn't really address.
10:23- The Pyramid Builders have developed a budget, much of which is dedicated to the travel expenses incurred by sending MBA students abroad and the rest of which goes toward an investment fund. They've conducted a sensitivity analysis by factoring out housing costs if the group were to find local families to stay with, resulting in a larger investment fund.
10:29- The judges are asking them questions, and it seems like they're trying to dig for a little bit more information about why they've chosen to set themselves up as a consulting team, and how they would differentiate themselves from other groups that may already provide the same services. On the whole a thorough case solution, but one that may not have pushed the creative capacity of the team as much as it could have.
10:38- Team Esperanza, one of two teams from University of North Carolina, started their project off with eloquent language aimed at asking how far we would have to send students to find the kinds of challenges and often associated with Third World, developing countries. The answer is New Orleans, making Esperanza the second team to address the needs of a city still reeling from Hurricane Katrina.
10:44- The main prongs of their approach include the creation of a farmer's market, development of childcare centers, and various "green" initiatives. These would be done in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, a local elementary school, and local figures such a Brad Pitt, Winton Marsalis, and Harry Connick Jr. The team involved would include 5 MBA students, 2 Law students, and 1 Student from Peabody (Education and Organizational Studies).
10:48- Their budget is the first to come in significantly under budget, with $16K dedicated to a contingency fund. They have also chosen to defray costs by housing students with local families, though they have provided stipends of $700 per student per month, a first among the project proposals. The measures of success are the number of people impacted, estimated to be 1,500.
10:52- The member of the presentation team took over again, and it's obvious he takes after an old-time Southern courtroom lawyer or preacher with his flowery language and down-home turns of phrase. When asked to distinguish their efforts from others made in the aftermath of Katrina, one of the main differences is that the proposed team would be there to learn as much from the local community as they would be there to have the community learn from them.
10:56- Bart gave Brian, the presenter, an 'Amen', and the group wrapped up their presentation by asking a few questions about their solution.
11:03- Team Thinkers and Movers, from the University of Chicago, is up next and started off introducing themselves and their background. it seems that all of them have backgrounds in poverty alleviation and social efforts, primarily in India.
11:09- Their project focuses on bridging the gap between the typical economic model of producing and distributing products and the rural markets present in India. Their idea for the Project Pyramid team is to bridge that gap, while providing social programs for those . They feel that the limiting factor in these markets is the supply, not the demand.
11:13- In terms of collaboration, their solution includes getting other universities involved with their solution, the first team to propose integrating programs at multiple schools. The action plan includes addressing corporate partners, including specific companies that have shown an interest in the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' market but have not yet been able to penetrate that market. The sales force would number 17 at the end of year one, with 340 at the end of year 5. The salespeople will pick up product from company regional stockists and then sell in 3 villages each and then provide the funds to the regional office (21 projected at the end of year 5).
11:21- Thinkers and Movers is the only team to date that looks at the scaling of their business model. They are also the only one that look at when their project will break even and start to become profitable(year 3, by the way). From a start in Bankura, India, they would be targeting operations throughout Inida by 2020.
11:25- They have concluded their presentation, a very well researched effort with concrete ideas about partners, financials, and scaling. Bart asked about the social enterprise aspect of their business model, as their plan seems more geared toward assisting large business become players in the BOP market, rather than developing the BOP in a social and business sense. Their answer lay in the education of the BOP consumers about the benefits of the products being distributed and sold.
11:30- Next up, representing Georgia Tech, is Graduates Against Poverty (G.A.P.)
Asif and Prof. Victor discussing the presentations
During a break between presentations
UVA team during a post-presentation interview
Mid-presentation
Asif addressing the crowd
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