Innovation for Humanity
GLOBAL MBA
INNOVATION FOR HUMANITY PROJECT
January 3-22, 2011
In the January intersession of your first year, you will take part in an international experiential learning experience, the Innovation for Humanity Project. This two-credit program is designed to develop agile and creative business leaders who understand how to build sustainable, impactful businesses within developing communities around the world. You will spend three weeks abroad with your teammates engaging with entrepreneurs, public officials, faculty and NGOs, exploring critical development issues. By connecting you with humanitarian and business leaders on-site, the Innovation for Humanity Project will provide you with an understanding of the complex systems that prevail in developing countries, help you identify communities’ needs and challenges, and enable you to assess sustainable business opportunities to address those needs.
Program Learning Goals
As your first charge during the fall semester, you will work in teams to prepare for the international experience by researching relevant socio-economic conditions, conducting industry analysis, critiquing case studies, hearing from experts, and presenting the country analysis to your classmates. This work prepares you to make the most productive use of your time while in-country. During the international residency, the teams will further explore the community’s needs within the local context, assess of the roots causes of current conditions, and examine the specific roles played by partner organizations in addressing the problem at specific sites. Finally, using the analysis and data gathered during preparation and your time abroad, you will identify sustainable business opportunities, innovative approaches, and effective partnerships that would improve the impact of existing efforts to meet the community’s needs.
Program Components
These learning goals will be meet through the following components of the Innovation for Humanity Program:
- Country Assessment: Develop an overview assessment of the chosen country and its political economy and socio-cultural context.
- Problem Assessment: Understand the genesis of a specific development related problem and assess the contextual importance and impact as well as the imperatives for solution.
- Site Assessment: Meet with relevant public officials, business managers, entrepreneurs, and NGO’s to develop a first-hand understanding of the local context in delivering a specific program or intervention targeted at meeting a development need.
- Business Opportunity Assessment: Identify and develop an entrepreneurial business opportunity designed to serve the community’s needs and identify its role in fostering sustainable community development.
Countries and Projects:
The final destinations and projects for Innovation for Humanity project will be finalized in August 2010. Below you will see examples of the projects in the specific countries that are being considered, to provide a meaningful experience for the Global MBA students.
Rwanda. Despite its tragic history, Rwanda is emerging as one of the most hopeful countries in Sub-Saharan Arica. As Rwanda moves forward on fulfilling its mandates for Vision 2020, many reforms in government, business, education, and communications are opening many opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Project 1: Health clinic - Business expansion.
The leadership of a small health clinic, providing general healthcare services to local population, aspires to expand operations, engaging more full time doctors and broadening the line of services offered in the clinic. An MBA team will help to explore opportunities to leverage current resources to finance expansion in the most sustainable and impactful manner.
Project 2: Solar energy products - Distribution Strategy.
A Kigali-based enterprise distributes small, low-cost renewable energy devices designed to meet the needs of the rural population. Considering the terrain and developing infrastructure in Rwanda, the company needs to develop a cost-effective distribution systems. Students will analyze different models to distribute the products to remote parts of the country effectively.
Kenya. Kenya position and its port Mombasa, connecting the African interior to the Indian Ocean, allowed the country to become the trading and financial seat of East Africa. However, despite its geographic fortune and economic importance, rampant corruption has deterred consistent foreign investment and eroded the country’s potential to lift itself from poverty. Kenya represents an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to tackle East Africa’s economic, social, and environmental challenges.
Project 3: Environmental Sanitation.
In low-income, crowded urban slums, proper sanitation represents a particularly challenging health concern. A local social enterprise addresses this challenge by developing a private/public partnership with Kenyan municipalities that provides affordable sanitation services to the public. MBA students will help develop a pricing model with the company trying to adopt an earned income business model to fund its ongoing operations and properly price its services.
Project 4: Social return on investment.
Impoverished children in Kenya risk malnutrition that will affect their physical growth, mental development, and productivity. The Company’s mission is to break this cycle by providing affordable, nutritious meals to low-income Kenyans. Students will work on developing process to indentify and quantify its social returns, including improved health, increased productivity, and advance the company’s communication efficacy.
Peru. Many developing economies are relatively resource rich, but face distribution challenges. Peru has an abundant water supply but lacks the infrastructure to deliver safe water to its poor. In the early 1990s, over 25 percent of urban residences and over 90 percent of rural residences lacked basic potable water and sewerage. Thus, the population has been inevitably exposed to a wide variety of waterborne diseases. Health concerns in Peru revolve around a lack of basic health education among the majority of the rural population, as well as general issues regarding physical and financial access to medical care.
Project 5: Sustainability of the Medical Center.
The Medical Center is located in the Mariscal Caceres settlement, with 77% of population living below poverty line and 54% of them in extreme poverty. MBA student will work on a project to identify and develop actions to ensure that the Medical Center will be self-sustainable.
Project 6: Evaluation of new healthcare services.
The Medical facility is located in the Pamplona Alta, where 60% of homes categorized in the low socioeconomic level. The problem of health center is that it has insufficient health services and should refer patients when they require services. MBA team will help identify and evaluate new services that can be offered in the Medical center and develop a self-sustainable business model.
