Powerful potential in Hyderabad
The two nonstop sounds day and night are hammering and honking: people are building and moving fast in Hyderabad, one of the beacons of India’s massive development. I just returned from giving the first of a two-day social impact analysis workshop here with the entrepreneurs participating in the second cohort of the Social-Impact International program. This two-year old incubation program was started by 3 high net worth individuals from Silicon Valley (Charly Kleissner, Eric Archambeau and Peter Wheeler) with inspiration from the Global Social Benefit Incubator they have advised. SI targets enterprises in the Hyderabad region with “proven traction that have the potential to scale significantly and that would benefit from the mentoring, training, consulting, networking opportunities and access to financing” the program aims to provide. It’s free and they’re accepting referrals and applications for next year’s cycle now.
On Saturday was the Asia Semifinals of the Global Social Venture Competition at the Indian School of Business, known around town just as ISB. This school is fast becoming legendary, given that not only is its campus architecture the stuff of the seven wonders of the world, but despite being only 8 years old it has already seen in-person visits by world leaders including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and is looking forward to a visit this May by Arnold Schwarzenegger with “an entourage of 100″ according to one of the ISB’s entrepreneurship faculty. Excellent choice of a partner for the GSVC! (Although I don’t understand why the new Korean GSVC affiliate chose to send their plans to the semis held at London Business School instead of ISB. Hopefully that will change.) One gets the sense upon talking to ISBers that no door here is not open to them, and as a result everything feels amazingly possible. I’ll report on the winners in another message shortly.
At 9PM on Saturday night after the competition had ended, I took a stroll past a new faculty building whose work crew was in full sway. Elsewhere on campus numerous service crews were busily painting, breaking down (the multitudinous and impressive) GSVC signage, and guarding. I thought what a great, great deal is possible in a place where there’s both so much money flowing, and so many talented people can be put together to work such long hours at such low cost. it seems the future for Indian social entrepreneurship is truly brilliant!
[This posting and related links are also on xigi.]