Conscious Capitalism

TED Talk

2010-11-13T17:59:00.000+08:00

This Week's TED Fellows Talk | Durreen Shahnaz

Posted by Karim

TED  Fellow 2010 Durreen Shahnaz calls herself a defiant optimist. In this  talk, Durreen details the creation of the very first stock exchange for  social enterprises and how her defiant optimism has gotten her to where  she is today.
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Path to Sustainability – from Fair Trade to Fair Development

2010-10-26T22:35:00.001+08:00

Last week I came back to Dhaka as the key note speaker for the World Fair Trade Organization meetings. And, there I was, face to face with some of the organizations I worked with ten years ago at my first company oneNest. It was a wonderful reunion with old friends and well wishers. It was also another new beginning with them in getting them ready to enter the world of social capital markets. Today I will share with you excerpts of my speech to the group of Fair Trade Organizations (FTO) from all over Asia and beyond who I believe will play a crucial role in the journey of sustainable development in the world.

“Distinguished guests from far and near, heroes of the fair trade movement and friends, Greetings!

I am honored to be with you today, as a Bangladeshi woman, speaking on behalf of my country and countries like mine across the globe which have benefitted from all of your hard work to promote and practice ‘trade not aid’. I would like to express my gratitude to World Fair Trade Organization and all of you here today for coming together to recognize the role and importance FTO in sustainable development of a country.

As a Social Entrepreneur, I have been asked to share with you my thoughts on what role FTO can play in changing and impacting the social and environmental canvass of Asia and the rest of the world. If we are going to talk about the role of FTO in social and environmental sphere, then we need to talk about the sustainability of FTO themselves in its own operations. In other words, before you go and expand your impact in a country or community we need to take a close look at the health of your organization and what you need to make yourself grow and thus expand your impact.

Therefore, what I hope to do this morning is to briefly discuss sustainability of Social Enterprises (SEs) in Asia, to explore the role of Fair Trade organizations in this movement and lastly, lastly what role I can play in assisting FTO/you to expand and extend your work.
Social Enterprises in Asia
As we are seeing every day, Asia is uniquely positioned to suffer the great global challenges of the 21st century. Containing 60% of the world’s population, its dense populations are vulnerable to economic downturns, social upheaval and environmental degradation.

In response, Asia’s SEs (defined as mission driven for-profit or market driven not for profit entities) sector has grown to be as vast and diverse as the individual countries and challenges it spans. Asia has become the incubator of some of the most innovative approaches to these challenges. Asia’s SEs sector has grown to be as vast and diverse as the individual countries and challenges it spans. Existing SEs address food security, housing shortages, environmental degradation, failing health care and educational systems, and poor sanitation – within and beyond respective national boundaries. In increasing numbers, SEs in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors are helping to achieve the region’s socio-economic goals.

However, a large volume of individual activity by itself is not enough. As The Monitor Group states in its recent report: “A great product idea married to a noble mission is rarely enough to make meaningful progress in the face of massive social challenges like improving the lives and livelihoods of billions worldwide living in impoverished conditions.”

This is particularly true in Asia, where there are countless innovative social enterprises making significant impact in their individual communities – but receiving little attention from Asian financial institutions. Investigations in Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and the Philippines – as well as in South Africa, Brazil, Kenya, and other countries – reveal no shortage of market-based approaches that claim to be profitable or financially self-sustaining. On closer inspection, however, many are struggling financially and at most serve a few thousand people – a drop in the ocean given the millions living in extreme poverty. Only a tiny fraction of market-based initiatives reach populations commensurate with the scale of the problems they aim to address.

While media frequently covers the achievements of successful and large SEs such as Grameen Bank or BRAC, these entities are the exception rather than the norm. Over the years, a small handful of very large SEs in Asia (of which Grameen Bank and BRAC are a part) was lucky to receive substantial government and donor support. Not all the SEs in Asia are in the same position. Unfortunately most of the SEs neither have the same unlimited access to capital nor have they attracted the same recognition of their impactful work.
In the universe of Asian SEs, currently there is only a relatively small number of SEs who are able to raise capital in the open market and thus utilize the capital for growth. The remaining SEs need to make improvements in a wide variety of financial, social, sustainability and governance issues before they can raise and utilize capital effectively.
Fair Trade Organizations – the initial SEs
Fair Trade movement has its roots in the 1960s social political movement. This movement is all effect the initial torch bearers of Social Enterprise movement that brought to global attention the need and ability to marry best operational practices with trade activities. Thus, all of you are the SEs that people are talking about now.

As you well know, being a SE yourselves, when market-oriented approaches to social problems were first mooted, there was no capital available for SEs. Entrepreneurs (social or otherwise) either used their own funds or applied for bank loans (requiring collaterals) to start SEs (or in your case FTO). The only other option (one that continues to play a large role) was to receive grants. Grants came from two main sources: foundations and religious organizations. This was not a sustainable source of funding and this funding was limited to not-for-profit organizations..
Even with these limitations, the Fair trade movement flourished and you made it happen. You as a group have creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged producers , transparency and accountability of your work, paid fair price, worked on capacity building of the producers, improved working conditions, took into environmental issues in production practices and forbade child and forced labor.

Through your Faritrade practices, you have made significant contribution to developing second level organizations and increasing opportunity for growth and product diversification. You have also set the standards for such practices as improved food consumption, child mortality and schooling in the production areas. You have also improved social well being through education and skills training.

Fair trade as a movement has also experienced significant sales growth from 2004 to 2009 showing a four fold increase in certified sales to consumers from 832m Euros to 3,400m Euros. This is an average year on year growth of over 30 percent for five years running. All this is fantastic but you could do more, much more if you had the proper support and access to capital.
Rise of Impact Investors
While you were busy saving the world in your own way a silent movement has been taking shape in the investor community. Over the last five years or so, a group of investors globally have come together who are embracing the concept of investing their wealth for more than just financial return. They are interested in triple bottom line return – financial, social and environmental return. The market for this group of investors is estimated to be USD $500 billion. These Impact Investors initially were just focusing on the western market but now they are casting a global net to be involved with the best SEs who are changing the social and environmental landscape of the globe in a sustainable way.
Currently, for Impact Investors interested in Asian SEs, the potential field is vast but daunting. Each investor must carry out his or her own due diligence studies on each potential investee – a lengthy, labor-intensive, and inefficient process. Investors need credible external monitoring, commonly understood standards of quality, access to comparative data and rates of return, and an ability to invest in partnership with others. There does not yet exist a transparent, accountable and efficient transactional platform that reliably facilitates investments that generate real financial and social returns. Further, there is no efficient method by which investors can gauge whether simple injection of their capital will actually ensure sustainability of an enterprise. This need is exacerbated because most SEs have never raised capital from funding sources other than from donor agencies and thus lack the know-how or ability to make their enterprises market ready to raise commercial capital in a structured way from private or public sources.
In a recent round table of Socially Responsible fund managers in the UK, it was noted that SEs are missing out on tens of millions of dollars because they do not have the proper structures in place to receive investment. According to meeting reports, fund managers wanted to put more money into high-impact investments, but were often unable to do so because potential investees lacked corporate governance and legal structures that facilitated investment, and effective mechanisms to measure the value they created. Even though UK social enterprises have gained momentum with the establishment of the UK Third Sector ministry, a ministry dedicated to building the social enterprise sector, these systemic challenges endure. Elsewhere in the world, and especially in Asia, where social enterprises are burgeoning without government support, the need for sector-wide capacity building is even more pronounced.
In order to capitalize on the growing interest and supply of impact investment capital, SEs urgently need to strengthen their operational, managerial, fiscal, and strategic processes – spanning the wide spectrum of internal financial systems, human resources, leadership, governance, social outcomes measurement and accountability, strategic planning, decision-making, and communications. The sector as a whole needs to adapt and apply contemporary private sector and organizational development practices to build up accountability which will enable SEs to access these new funding sources and grow to scale.
My Story

Why am I telling you all this and what makes me an authority in this field of Social Capital Market? Well, allow me to tell you my story --

I was fortunate to have a career that spanned the full spectrum of private to public sector. I began my career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in New York. I was young and excited about being at the heart of the capital markets that made the financial system of this world work. However, when I arrived what struck me was what a small developing world played in influencing and defining the capital markets of the world.

During my time at Morgan Stanley I was not only one of the 30 or so women bankers (out of more than couple thousand employees) but I also the only one from Bangladesh. I was often asked if Bangladesh was an island in the Caribbean next to Barbados or something like that. During my time at Morgan Stanley, the hubris of Wall Street amazed me. People (mostly men) playing with financial market that affected lives of millions around the world and yet they were unaware or perhaps wanted to be unaware of it. The potential impact of their single minded pursuit to just make money baffled me. Yet, like a sponge I observed and diligently learned. Back of my mind I knew I would use this knowledge some to do my part to help the world.

I left Wall Street to go the dirt paths of Bangladesh. I left Morgan Stanley to join Grameen Bank. At Grameen I used my financial skills to assist the bank in the first large financing round for the firm. I also spent a large part of my time Grameen in the field where I was inspired on a daily basis by women entrepreneurs who without any education or social support were making a living for their families. It was a humbling experience and I made a promise to myself to assist these incredible women oneday.

Upon completing my graduate degree, I entered the second most power sector in the world – media (the first being financial institutions). I learned the role of media in shaping and influencing the social landscape. I did my part in promoting social causes to readers who knew nothing more than their little world.

Then the entrepreneurial bug bit me and like many of you I decided to create a company to assist those women I spend hundreds of hours with in the field. I created oneNest, a market place to connect the artisans and ethical products from the developing world to the western market. The company was based in New York City. The journey of oneNest was not an easy one. As a minority women in the US creating a business with social purpose did not go well with the investor community. However, I persevered and managed to gather enough investment to grow the business. Sadly, my investors never understood the mission of the business and monthly board meetings became an ordeal to convince them over and over again that the point was not for me to make the products in a factory in China.

As I was growing the company (and fighting with the board to keep the mission of oneNest alive) I had the good fortune to work with many of you. You helped me make my dream to work with the ethical products and bring them to market. After all these years. I have to thank you for that.

However, all the time I was growing oneNest I also saw the incredible need for capital for the social sector and as well as the companies such as yours who were working directly in the field. I remember using portions of my investment capital to trade finance many of you – something I was suppose to do.

After 5 years of growing and running oneNest, I sold it. I hate to admit it but in some ways it a relief for me as I saw my biggest contribution in not creating a market place for artisanal products but in a bigger scale where I could connect potential and investors to the right SEs.

Creating a Social Stock Exchange

The opportunity for me to do something in a larger scale with more impact came to me when I moved to Asia, started teaching at the National University of Singapore. On the side, I also began writing about the need for a social capital market space. My words stroke a cord with many and I received endorsement and support for my work initially from the Rockefeller Foundation and then the Singapore Government and Asian Development Bank.

So, what exactly did I do? In response to the need to connect the growing number of Impact Investors to support the work of Social Enterprises and assist them in growing their impact, I founded Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), a social stock exchange for SEs in Asia. I was audacious enough to think that we can make investors care about more than just a financial return for their investment. And we did. I have been receiving resounding support from the financial sector and the public in creating this exchange, which will in essence assist SEs to increase their social impact and in effect assist millions of women and disadvantaged across the globe.

So, what exactly is IIX? IIX will be Asia’s first social stock exchange, providing a trading platform and an efficient capital raising mechanism for Asian Social Enterprises (SEs), including both for-profit and not-for-profit entities with a social mission. IIX will connect these SEs with Impact Investors seeking to achieve both a social return and an economic return on their investment while providing capital to fund innovative social businesses.

As I started putting the building blocks of IIX, I quickly realized the need to get SEs ready for the investors. Thus, I created a sister entity of IIX called Impact Investment Shujog. Shujog is a Bengali word for opportunity. Shujog was created to give opportunity to the SEs to join the capital markets to raise capital.

Shujog fosters growth, maturity, innovation and market readiness in the SEs and impact investment sectors in Asia which have the potential to address urgent social needs and environmental problems in the region. Through research, training, workshops, advocacy, strategic consulting and third party technical expertise, Shujog fosters the social enterprise ecosystem and provides SEs with the knowledge and systems required to raise commercial capital in order to magnify their social and environmental impact.

Your role in Social Capital Markets

Now why is all this relevant to you? It is because you each have an important role to play in continuing to bring about this positive social change to Asia and more importantly, it is about time capital markets worked with you, provided you with capital to expand your work. After years of keeping the SE torch blazing through all the pains of operating companies with anemic capital infusion, you deserve to have your work be recognized and rewarded.

Social Entrepreneurs in the audience: you have the power to change the world for the better…each in your own way – as a business owner; as a change maker; as one who influences government policy; as a leader and as an example. Everyone in the audience: we each need to support the entrepreneurs in our society; and, we need to support the entities that support these entrepreneurs…entrepreneurship is the key to the future of our nations.

Fair Trade Heros, thank you for supporting a just society, with opportunities for all –

I am proud to working with all you again –

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to try to bring about sustainable development through fair trade –“

Prof Durreen Shahnaz is the Founder of Impact Investment Exchange and Impact Investment Shujog. She is also Adj Associate Professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore.

Another Radio Interview

2010-09-13T21:06:00.002+08:00

Here is another more personal interview of mine on Singapore radio station --

http://entertainment.xin.msn.com/en/radio/podcast/938live.aspx?cp-documentid=3973402

Interview on Singapore Radio

2010-09-13T19:45:00.001+08:00

Here is a podcast of an interview on IIX -- what it is doing and what it aims to do.

TED Interview

2010-08-02T13:05:00.001+08:00

Here is a TED interview of mine that just came out --

http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/30/fellows-friday-with-durreen-shahnaz/

I always so strange reading about myself on the press -- makes me sound so special which I am not at all...

Asian Case Studies

2010-06-16T12:41:00.002+08:00

When I started teaching it was disheartening to find out how few teaching cases there were on Asian Social Enterprises. Thus, when I received funding for my research work from Rockefeller Foundation, I jumped on the opportunity to write a couple of teaching cases. I do hope these cases are widely read and used. We need to show the world we have just Grameen Bank, BRAC or PDA in Asia....

http://www.lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/Case_Studies.aspx.

Meeting with George Soros

2010-05-08T14:58:00.004+08:00

For those of you who are just had a small heart attack reading the subject heading, yes, Rob and I had a one on one meeting with George Soros today for almost an hour.

The meeting went fabulously. The team prepared us very well with notes, pointers -- everything. (Thank you SJ! Also a big thank you to Natalia, Susie, Natalie and Mona who all pulled together for this meeting with research, powerpoints etc.)

My opening line was from Shijie's notes -- 'IIX is an evolution in capital markets that will help us pursue social justice and public interest more efficiently' -- we had Soros right there.

It was then 45 minutes of great discussion with a brilliant mind. No power points, no paper -- just back and forth -- simulating, exciting discussion.

He liked our approach -- holistic and focused on wrapping stock exchange with social justice. We talked about the various details of IIX and he wants us to talk more with his colleagues.

He is a very kind man with the most intelligent eyes. He is sharp, curious and to the point. I really liked him.

What an amazing experience it was. I can't wait to get him more involved in creating this next revolution with the stock market but this time for social good...

Power to Impact

2010-03-23T22:57:00.002+08:00

This article by Lauren Tan came out on Prestige Magazine, March 2010 issue

FOUNDER OF ASIA’S ONLY SOCIALSTOCK EXCHANGE DURREEN SHAHNAZ SHARES WITH LAUREN TAN THE INSPIRATION BEHIND HER BRAND OF CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM

PRESTIGE 96 MARCH 2010

We expected the usual power suit, but Durreen Shahnaz, the founder and chairperson of what is to be a new stock exchange come 2011, is wearing a vegetable dyed sari instead.

Its material so light and supple, it flutters in the breeze. The image is powerful. The ex-investment banker and high flying media exec turned entrepreneur is, indeed, the face of a kinder and more conscious form of capitalism. Her Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX). Asia’s first social stock exchange will be a capital market for social good. It is a lofty goal, but Shahnaz has never
known how to aim for anything less.

The idea to create IIX didn’t come in an aha-moment. Whenever I talk about IIX, I really have to go back to almost the beginning of my career as I feel that with this, everything has sort of come together,” the 41-year-old explains from behind her desk at the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy, where she wears a second hat as adjunct associate professor and head of the school’s social innovation programme.

Her career began as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in New York. Two years of hundred-hour work weeks later, she traded in Wall Street for the dirt roads of
her native Bangladesh where she went to work for microcredit financier Grameen Bank. It was the first time she put her financial knowledge to use in a social setting. Grameen’s borrowers, most of them women, were the rural poor and illiterate. Many were her age, too she was then 24 but they were a universe apart.

Returning to the United States, she turned to the other industry with far-reaching in!uence $the media. It would allow her a chance to see how one could strike a balance between giving the public what they wanted and what they should want. She rose through the ranks, and by age 30 made VP at Hearst Magazines (then the youngest to do so in the history of the company which counts Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire in its stable of titles). In 1999, she turned in notice and set up oneNest.

Earlier at Grameen, she had seen women default on loans because there were no venues to sell their wares. OneNest, a New York-based cyber marketplace, would connect them as well as the village artisans and co-operatives from around the world to the western market. But oneNest’s mission wasn’t a high placed priority for many of its financiers. “For them it was all about the returns they were going to get by selling the company. That was a major disappointment for me,” she says candidly. In 2004,
she sold the company to Novica, the catalogue division of National Geographic. “By this point, I had very little say in the company. And what stayed with me even after that was that it was so difficult raising capital when it should really be the opposite when you are bringing both financial and social returns,” she says.

Shahnaz took a job running Reader’s Digest’s Asian operations out of Singapore, and on the side, wrote op-ed pieces about creating capital market infrastructure
around social businesses. In 2008, the LKY School offered her a position to teach a class on social innovation. It was an attractive proposition. The students there
would go back to their government positions where they could influence policies that would make or break a social entrepreneur.

About the same time, the Rockefeller Foundation also came knocking. They wanted to help set the wheels in motion for IIX. “For me, the fact that I had this idea,
and I had this amazing partner that actually believed in what I was saying, was a little surreal. And it all came together so quickly,” she shares. “It’s like all the experiences I had, and all the things I’d done, was really about me trying to reach this point. In childhood, in the evolution of my career, and even in graduate school where I did an MBA [at Wharton] and a public policy degree [at Johns Hopkins], I was always sort of straddling [the private and public sectors]. Now, I feel the exchange has pulled these together.”

#e timing was right, too. Not only was there an emerging group of social investors
in the financial market, Singapore was increasingly cast as a hub for social enterprise. Marrying what Singapore was good at, which is financial institutions and financial markets, with social enterprises, seemed a natural fit. “Coincidentally, that can now happen through the exchange!” the self-described optimist pronounces.

IIX plans to operate as a trading platform for social enterprises to raise growth capital. All entities that list on the exchange will undergo third party validation and report regularly on their financial and social results. The investor purchasing shares and bonds will be attracted to transparent disclosure. In essence, an investor will enable social good while seeking to maximise financial returns.

It’s been a fantastic ride, thus far at least (she’s known to say that the romance of starting a company always goes out the window in the %rst week). In December, she
learnt &within a span of an hour . that she had been selected to the 2010 class
of fellows of both the Asia Society and TED in recognition of her work at IIX. A
month later, the exchange received its first grant of US$495,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation. The money would help take IIX from business plan into reality come 2011, and marked only the second time in the foundation’s 97-year history that a grant was awarded to a for-pro%t entity.

Shahnaz was born the fourth daughter of a Muslim family in patriarchal Bangladesh.
While her parents embraced her arrival, humiliation was cast on the family. “I think
I somehow absorbed it. And at the back of mind always felt that I had to prove that I’m worthy of being of this planet,” she shares. “As I always say, some of the things that happen in life, which you don’t have any control over are
the ones that sort of define you.”

Having no desire to play into gender discrimination, her parents channelled their
energy into their daughters’ education. Another focus was in imparting a strong of sense of social service. One memory Shahnaz keeps to this day is handing out rice by the gate of their home to the poor on Fridays, the holy day for Muslims. “My parents always said that whatever you do, you have to give back to society because we are from a poor country, and we are lucky, you are lucky, to be getting all this opportunity,” she recalls.

Her teenage years were spent in the Philippines, where her government official father represented the Indian sub-continent on the Asian Development Bank’s board of governors. When it came time for university, it was expected that she, like her sisters, would study in India. But Shahnaz exhibited her characteristic independent streak. It had go"en into her mind that the US, although she had never been, was
where she could truly be herself.

Her parents consented on condition she enrolled in an all women’s university. #eir pick was Wellesley College, where they knew Madam Chiang Kai-Shek to be an alumna. “I said to them, ‘I’ll only go to Wellesley if you know her actual name, not her husband’s’,” she recalls. Shahnaz ended up, instead, at Smith College, the
bastion of the American feminist movement, which counts activists Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan among its alumnae. Gi(ed and resolute, Shahnaz, was active in social causes throughout college, but le(Smith with the realisation that if she wanted to e!ectively bring about change, she couldn’t veer too far to the le(. “I’m the type
who wants to change the system from within,” she explains.

For love and marriage, she de%ed her parent’s wishes again. While at Morgan Stanley, she had met Robert Kraybill, an investment banker from New Jersey. Kraybill was until recently enjoying early retirement, but has now been roped in as managing director of IIX. #ey have two daughters, an eight-year-old and a four-year-old.

“I’m supremely lucky. I have wonderful little kids. My grandmothers were both married at 11 or 12 and they barely knew how to read and write. And then my mum, she went to college and got a degree, so that was a leap. And with my sisters [a doctor, a teacher and a development worker] and I, it’s been another leap. I always tell
my daughters that they come from generations of women who have done so many things. And it’s nice for me to be able to share that with them,” she says.

PRESTIGE 98 MARCH 2010

Life coming in a full circle..

2010-03-23T22:47:00.002+08:00

I was at Global Social Venture Conference last week. It was a great event where one could feel the spirit of social entrepreneurship in the air. I was excited about the potential about seeing 'red shirts' taking over Bangkok but that did not happen (too much of a bangladeshi -- love that political action..). However, what did happen was in a strange way my life came in a full circle --

For those of you who don't know, the birth of IIX is very linked to the birth and sale of OneNest. OneNest was my first baby and I gave my heart and soul to help hundreds of artisan groups, cooperatives, microfianance groups around the globe.

One the entities that we helped was Trade Craft. We really nurtured them and worked with them closely. Well, Friday morning I met Rosalind, the daughter of the founders of the company. She told me how we worked with at a crucial point when they were turning their entity from an association to a for profit entity and how her parents remembers oneNest fondly. And, now she was coming to me to help her get her entity market ready and how she wants Trade Craft to list on IIX . We both were blown away with the gravity of the moment (she said she was getting goose bumps and I just wanted to cry...). At that moment I realized how my life's mission never changed -- it always was and always will be to bring social change/justice and sustainable development to this world. In a very small way perhaps I did do something for this world...I hope I can do much more.

Life indeed comes in a full circle.

Sharon Neo at IIX (a web search guru) found my speech online here it is --

http://www.fringer.org/wp-content/uploads/audio/GSVC-Durreen.WMA , http://fringer.org/?page_id=410.

TED

2010-02-10T15:31:00.002+08:00

At TED. I was skeptical at first but my skepticism when out the window when i heard my fellow TED Fellows talk today. My god -- so much brilliance and innovation from such a small group of people. TED officially began today and basically everyone 'who is who' is showing up. Had a chance to talk to several financiers, TV producers etc.

The line of the day from one of the financiers -- 'Davos is so yesterday....TED is now -- today..where true mover and shakers of the world come to be inspired. If you are a TED Fellow, you really will save the world.'...Hummm, if only it were that easy...

Key Note Speech

2009-12-16T16:42:00.001+08:00

Women’s Role in Social Enterprise

Honorable Minister Kumari Selja, Founder Trustee of WIC and Union Minister for Tourism and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, The Leaders of Sree Shakti, Ladies and Gentlemen –

Assalamulaikum, Namaste and Good Morning!

I am honored to be with you today, as a Bangladeshi woman, speaking on behalf of over 700 million of my South Asian sisters. I would like to express my gratitude to Sree Shakti and all of you here today for coming together to recognize women’s role in nation building.

As a woman Social Entrepreneur, I have been asked to share with you my thoughts on Women’s role in Social Enterprises – entities that are changing and impacting the social and environmental canvass of South Asia and the rest of the world. If we are going to talk about Women’s role in Social Enterprise, we then need to talk about Women’s position in a society and about the role of social enterprises and entrepreneurship in that society.

Therefore, what I hope to do this morning is to briefly discuss the role of women in social enterprise, to touch on the role and importance of women’s entrepreneurship and to put it all in perspective with my own story.

I am in a unique position to be standing in front of you today to discuss today’s topic. I am the youngest of four daughters of a Muslim family. After I was born, my mother had to bear the shame of giving birth to a fourth daughter. My father was encouraged to marry again. My mother eventually recovered from the depression of giving birth to me, and my father did not remarry. Instead, they put their parental energy into our education. Although we had our social boundaries, nevertheless, we four girls became a doctor, a teacher, a development worker, and an entrepreneur.

My entrepreneurial spirit has never been based on a desire to make lots of money but on a desire to fight social injustice. Whatever the source of ones entrepreneurial spirit, it propels a person – especially a woman – to new heights of innovation and opportunity. Thus, I hope you will all go away from the talk today and do your part – whether nurturing your own entrepreneurial spirit or encouraging another woman entrepreneur in your own way – both because they truly hold the key to the success of the next generation and to make each of our countries a better place.

I was fortunate to have a career that spanned the full spectrum of private to public sector. I began my career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in New York. I was young and excited about being at the heart of the capital markets that made the financial system of this world work. However, when I arrived what struck me was what a small role women played in influencing and defining the capital markets of the world. During those days, in the entire staff of Morgan Stanley (which was then several thousand), there were less than 30 women bankers. And I have to say, from my Wall Street experience, I have to agree with the recent observations that some have made that the financial meltdown of the last 12 months could have been avoided if the large financial institutions were run by women.

I left Morgan Stanley to join Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Similar to Morgan Stanley, Grameen offices in both the city and the villages were staffed largely with men. The difference was that almost all of the clients (at that point, around 2 lakh) were women. The women were clients not because anyone was doing them a favor but because they were better clients – they had better repayment rates than their male counterparts and they shared their income with their families. During that time, I was fortunate to meet thousands of these incredible women entrepreneurs who were fueling the engine of the rural economy and at the same time building Grameen into one of the most incredible success stories of social enterprise.

I was humbled and impressed by the women entrepreneurs I met in the villages. Because the system did not work for them, they were forced to innovate to survive in the system. More than 80% of the women I met while at Grameen were illiterate, and yet they were smart enough to figure out complicated concepts such as interest rate arbitrage (where at time some were becoming lenders themselves) and innovative management practices – like the woman who had her husband marry three more times and then hired those other wives into her growing weaving business.

These women neither saw themselves as heroines nor as hand-out cases – but simply as human beings who at last had the opportunity to stand on their own feet. And, every single woman I met, as soon as they saved some money they sent their children to school. And, every single one of these women told me that they did not want their daughters to have the same life as theirs.

Today, microfinance all over the world is one of the sexiest ‘asset classes’ and has become an essential fuel of the economy in many developing countries. I meet investment bankers who talk about the high financial returns of the MFIs and are creating sophisticated financial instruments around the MFIs. Sadly, I have not met a single banker who for a second talks about these millions of women across the globe who are fueling the MFIs and playing their role in nation building.

What are we doing for these women other than giving them small loans? Sadly, the answer is “not much.” And yet, we are creating and fueling fancy financial institutions on their back.

A recent article in the The Economist magazine said, ‘forget China, India and the Internet. Economic growth is driven by women.’ The article goes on to say that an increase in women’s employment, in both the developing and developed world, has been the biggest engine of global growth in recent decades.

And, as I have seen with my own eyes, experts are also pointing to the clear evidence that helping women to develop their skills and join the labor market boosts incomes and the well-being of society as a whole. It is now an established fact that educating girls boosts prosperity. The multiplier effect of that is – more productivity, income generation, healthier and better educated children – thus raising the welfare of the entire family and in turn nation.

Sadly, despite all this evidence, women remain perhaps the world’s most underutilized and under-recognized resource. Equal opportunity in the economic sphere is not a reality, and its absence is a drag on growth, development and poverty alleviation.

Globally, women are most heavily represented in micro and small businesses. That is not a surprise. This is due to legal, social and cultural forces which guide and in some way constrain their business decisions.

What do the women themselves perceive as their biggest obstacle? In Bangladeshi villages when I asked this question, the answer was access to capital, education, culture and support system. When this question was asked in the US, the answers were very similar, and to the list above the American women added trade, affordable health care, taxes, government policies, and media exposure.

Interestingly, if you look at these issues, they are concerns about accessing the capital and markets needed to grow profitable and sustainable business. And, they are about securing essential social protection. These concerns are common to all entrepreneurs in many countries, whether men or women. These are small business issues, not particularly women’s issues. However, because most representation in these small and micro businesses is from women, they become women’s issue. And women’s entrepreneurship needs special recognition because it constitutes an important untapped source of economic growth and societal wellbeing.

One group of entities which is trying to assist, among others, the disadvantaged, women and small businesses are Social Enterprises. Thousands of Social Enterprises (which can be defined as Social mission-oriented for-profit companies OR business-oriented non-profit entities) across the globe are working relentlessly to bring better livelihood, education, healthcare, sanitation and income opportunities to the poor and make this world a more equitable place. However, many of these entities struggle themselves to get sufficient capital and recognition for the work they are doing.

In response to this need, and to support these Social Enterprises and assist them in growing their impact, I founded Impact Investment Exchange, a social stock exchange for social enterprises in Asia. I was audacious enough to think that we can make investors care about more than just a financial return for their investment. And we did. I have been receiving resounding support from the financial sector and the public in creating this exchange, which will in essence assist social enterprises to increase their social impact and in effect assist millions of women and disadvantaged across the globe.

So, what is IIX? IIX will be Asia’s first social stock exchange, providing a trading platform and an efficient capital raising mechanism for Asian Social Enterprises (SEs), including both for-profit and not-for-profit entities with a social mission. IIX will connect these SEs with Impact Investors seeking to achieve both a social return and an economic return on their investment while providing capital to fund innovative social businesses.

In Asia (especially in South Asia) we face the gravest of the world’s challenges covering a whole spectrum of issues, including women’s empowerment, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection. It is SEs like Grameen Bank, BRAC, SEWA, BWDA, and Selco that are playing a leading role in confronting these challenges.

What can we do to assist them? What can we do to help them expand their impact? The answer is simple: to provide access to capital. Just as microcredit has given access to millions of individuals and given them an opportunity to create a new life, IIX will give access to capital to the SEs that assist millions. These SEs will be judged for the social and financial sustainability that they attain and they will help us broaden the definition of a ‘successful enterprise’.

We need many social enterprises, impact investment exchanges, private sector initiatives and public sector support to listen to the voices of women entrepreneurs. Gender specific constraints to entrepreneurship require well-supported specific policy responses.

These responses need to be financial, political and most importantly practical. Women need targeted training in how to start, manage, and grow businesses. Just as they need the entities like social enterprises to give them the structure to grow and sustain their businesses. Women and these social enterprises must lend their voices to efforts to identify and address laws and policies that do not adequately address their needs.

Now why is all this relevant to you? It is because you each have an important role to play in bringing about this positive social change.

As Ghandiji said, "We must be the change we wish to see”. If we want our nations to develop, if we want our children to be educated, if we want our environment to be clean, we will need to leverage the vast capabilities of the women in our society. Women in the audience: you have the power to change the world for the better…each in your own way -- as an entrepreneur, or a social entrepreneur; as a government policy maker, or one who influences government policy; as a leader and as an example. Everyone in the audience: we each need to support the women in our society; and, we need to support the entities that support these women…Women are the key to the future.

There is a saying that women must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, that is not so difficult. Just give us the chance, and we will show you what an incredible force we are.

Thank you for your attention, and thank you for supporting a just society, with opportunities for all men and all women.

Invitation

2009-12-16T16:38:00.003+08:00

International Women's Centre
&
Stree Shakti-The Parallel Force

Invite you to the Luncheon Reception
&
Annual Stree Shakti Awards

Guest of Honour
Prof Durreen Shahnaz
Head, Social Innovation Programme, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore
Founder and Chairman, Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX)

Winner of Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman
Madhavi Mudgal
Eminent Dancer

Winner of Stree Shakti Science Samman
Prof Rupamanjari Ghosh
Eminent Scientist

Book Release II Edition of A Quest for Roots By

Hon’ble Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja

on December 12, 2009

Time: 12 Noon

at

3 Suneheri Bagh Road
New Delhi 110011

streeshaktik@gmail.com

intwomencentre@gmail.com

Recognition of IIX work

2009-12-16T14:54:00.003+08:00

I had quite a surreal evening last night. I found out that I was nominated for 2 prestigious fellow positions:

1. Asia Society Asia 21 Fellow (the next step to young leader recognition I received couple of months ago) where 25 fellows are chosen from Asia and the US as lifelong policy makers for Asia Society.

2. TED 2010 Fellow: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ted-announces-recipients-of-next-25-ted-fellowships-79216142.html

This is truly humbling and overwhelming. I hope I can use these opportunities to further expand the work of incredible Social Enterprises and Impact Investment Exchange.

News Clipping on IIX

2009-10-11T14:55:00.001+08:00

Here is first media exposure for Impact Investment Exchange -- first of many hopefully -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi40Ky9IOQw

My Bio

2009-09-22T14:06:00.002+08:00

I have been asked by many about my bio and my website (?). Given that I already have so many communication points, I think having my own website is overkill. So, here is my bio on my blog --

Durreen Shahnaz is Head of the Programme on Social Innovation and Change and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) at the National University of Singapore.

Prof Shahnaz has been a change maker throughout her career which has spanned both the social and private sector. As a successful social entrepreneur, Prof Shahnaz founded, ran and sold oneNest, a New York-based social purpose business which operated a marketplace for products produced by microfinance, micro enterprises and artisan groups from all over the world. Recently Prof Shahnaz founded Impact Investment Exchange Asia, a social stock exchange which will allow Asian social enterprises to raise growth capital.

Prof Shahnaz began her career in the social sector at Grameen Bank (Bangladesh) where she played a critical role in the bank’s first major capital raising exercise. At World Bank (Washington, D.C.) Prof Shahnaz evaluated non performing loan portfolios for the East Africa Department and at International Finance Corporation she assisted in selling Ashanti, the largest gold mine in the world for the Ghanian government.

In the private sector, Prof Shahnaz worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley (New York) before moving to the media sector. As the head of three regional media companies (Asia City Publishing Group, Hearst Magazines International and Reader’s Digest Asia), Prof Shahnaz worked vigorously to incorporate social responsibility in these companies’ work.

Prof Shahnaz holds a BA from Smith College (double major in Economics and Government); and a joint graduate degree -- MBA from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Finance) and MA from School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (International Economics and International Relations). Recently Prof Shahnaz was nominated as one of the Young Leaders of Asia by Asia Society.

Impact Investment Exchange

2009-09-22T14:04:00.001+08:00

Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX) website is up -- www.asiaiix.com

This is the beginning of a movement in social capital markets. This is indeed an exciting moment in history --

Asia Society Young Leader

2009-08-10T14:16:00.000+08:00

Just found out that I got nominated as a 'Asia Society Young Leader'. At the ripe age of 41 to be called 'young' is flattering but really nothing more than that. I am really more curious than anything else about the whole thing. I stayed out the range of the 'world media' all these years and wonder if that helped or hurt me. Case in point, could Yunus have received the global adulation if he was not a constant on the media circuit? Interesting debating point. However, there is an issue of legitimacy. With information coming out from every direction, people need 'filters' or legitmization more than before that is why high profile entities (e.g. Asia Society, Skoll, Ashoka) have become even more important in 'vetting' ideas and people. So, a lot of 'real people' and 'real work' are being ignored -- sad.

Holding the Purse Strings

2009-05-04T22:21:00.001+08:00

Indie is one of my good friends in Singapore with whom I can sit and have those wonderful "Bengali adda" moments. Every few months, over a cup of "deshi cha" we philosophise about life, the world, and -- in true Bengali fashion -- criticise almost everything under the sun.

It was on one of those evenings, after a lazy dinner, while having cha, of course, we were trying to "talk" our way into fixing most of the world problems. All of a sudden, Indie blurted out that she had told her daughter that one profession never to even think about is investment banking -- "those evil bankers."

Having spent a portion of my career as an investment banker, my defenses came into gear. Yes, some bankers are to be blamed for today's problems, but the world does still needs bankers, just as it needs doctors and lawyers. Maybe the world would be a better place today if there were not less bankers but rather more bankers with heart; and even a better place with more women bankers with a heart and a soul. Remember, I was one. I can attest to it.

It was exactly 20 years ago that I was woken up from a late morning sleep by a telephone call from Morgan Stanley. A senior banker called to congratulate me and to offer me a job as a financial analyst in their corporate finance department in New York. I was ecstatic. In those days, getting an offer from Morgan Stanley truly marked one as a "chosen one." Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were two of the most prestigious investment banks in the Street. They interviewed tens of thousands of students from around the globe and selected only 60 to join their Financial Analyst Program (a two year program to get into the management track of the company.) I was one of those 60.

Thus, my career as an investment banker began. I was a 21-year old, armed with an undergraduate degree from a prestigious liberal arts college in New England and a passion to change the world. How would Morgan Stanley help me change the world? I did not know, but what I did know was that as a Bangladeshi woman (the first one in the bank's history I was told), I was getting an incredible opportunity to work with some of the smartest people in the world who were shaping the global financial markets (or making a mess out of them -- whichever you prefer.) Working in a prestigious white-shoe bank, I hoped I would learn the Midas touch of efficient financial markets that I could bring back to my country. Of course in the process, I could also save a little money to go to graduate school -- that was the added bonus.

That summer between graduation and the start of my new job, I was filled with anticipation. Liar's Poker (by a former bond salesman about his experience working on Wall Street) had just come out and was a bestseller. While driving around California with my dear friend Sunita, I read it and everything else I could get my hands on about the new world I would be entering. After all, I had to be prepared -- I would be working with the creme de la creme of the academic institutions. I knew a lot of them would be difficult (jerks, to put it bluntly), but I would survive and thrive. I would be representing my country, my race, and my gender. I had the weight of many people's expectations on my shoulders. Well, if nothing else, I was naïve.

The first day of work was a day-long orientation session. I, of course, overslept. I got up in a

Photo: Amirul Rajiv
panic, could not get a taxi, missed my turn getting in the crowded subways, and eventually walked into the big orientation hall half an hour late, while Dick Fisher, president of Morgan Stanley, was touting the virtues and discipline of banking. Thus, my fist day got started with some rude stares and shaking of heads. The only redeeming factor of the day was that, in the process of being late -- all sweaty and stressed out -- I met my future husband in the elevator, all calm and collected. It was not really love at first sight, but more shared misery at first glance. Anyway, given that this is supposed to be an article about my professional life, I will skip the romance for now.

Looking back on that first day, I don't remember much else except the advice one of the directors gave in his speech. He told us that Morgan Stanley was an intense place, and that a lot will be demanded from us. Consequently, he continued, there will be many moments when we will want to burst into tears. And, when that happens, "go to the toilet, flush it and cry; because frankly nobody wants to deal with a crybaby." I thought the man was insane. Well, sadly, that turned out to be one of the sanest suggestions I took away from that day, as I put it to good use more times than I would like to remember over the course of the next two years.

Despite the tears, in general, my time at Morgan Stanley was intellectually stimulating, and it taught me what I had hoped to learn -- how to be a banker. I learned accounting, finance, and the intricacies of capital markets. I also learned what terrible management styles and awful personal lives most bankers had, and how I never wanted to be one of them when I grew up. It was a badge of honour within the Financial Analyst team to work 100-hour weeks and to count how many all-nighters one pulled. The small handful of women in the bank were told that we had to keep up with the "machismo" of the environment if we wanted to "make it."

It was eye opening to see what the top bankers could get away with if they brought in lucrative deals. I recall one banker who had his phone replaced virtually every week because -- out of rage -- he would regularly throw them against the wall. I also remember brilliant minds like Vikram Pandit (yes, the same one now running Citibank) who could be rude and condescending but who could also solve any problem I might have regarding even the most complicated equity issuance.

I could write volumes about my time at Morgan Stanley, and maybe one day I should. For now, I have to borrow Dickens' words and sum it up as: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity."

Investment banking truly brings out the best and worst in people. One is pushed to the limit of intelligence, creativity, endurance, and at the same time raw competitiveness. Sports metaphors were a part of nearly every conversation. It was basically a testosterone-driven environment where "sink or swim" was practiced and honoured as a law of the jungle. All this was exacerbated because there were so few women around to bring a different sensibility in the picture.

Mcmillan
A recent survey found that nearly two-thirds of women employed in London's financial markets believe their gender makes it harder for them to succeed. The machismo of the environment makes it difficult for women to climb the banking ladder, and even if they do, there is definitely a glass ceiling that they cannot go beyond.

Perhaps if more women would stay in this industry, change the macho politics and bring a different sensibility to it, we would not be in the financial mess we are in today. In recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, there was a pretty broad consensus among the participants that if Wall Street had been run by women they would have saved the world from the corrosive gambling culture that dominated many a trading room.

While I did not stay on in Wall Street and fulfill my duty of making the Street a kinder and gentler place (I will leave that to the next generation of women bankers), I did use my banking skills to the fullest in my subsequent careers. I used my financial modeling skills to create growth models at Grameen Bank, my business forecasting acumen at the publishing companies I ran, and my deep financial know-how in starting my own company.

Now my career is coming full circle as I am putting in place the first Social Stock Exchange of Asia. I am making use of what I have learned in the last 20 years of a career that has spanned the social sector, media, academia, and most importantly, banking to create perhaps one of the most important financial platforms for Asia (or the world, for that matter.)

I could not have done this if I had not started my career on Wall Street. Those tears shed in the toilet stall will now help raise money to build toilets for hundreds and thousands of people without proper sanitation in Asia. As a woman, it feels especially good because I not only survived the Street but I am using it to help me change the world. Hats off to all the women bankers -- the world needs us.

Durreen Shahnaz is the Founder and Chairman of Social Stock Exchange Asia and Head, Program on Social Innovation and Change at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Published in Forum Magazine, May 4, 2009

Creating Social Stock Exchange Asia

2009-04-27T21:43:00.001+08:00

My phone beeps. I forgot to put my mobile phone in silent mode. I am thoroughly embarrassed because I am sitting in the first of hopefully many important meetings with the officials of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. We are discussing the merits of situating a Social Stock Exchange in Singapore. I cannot resist -- I look at my phone under the table and see that the text message is from the company registration board telling me that the registration of Social Stock Exchange Asia (SSXA) has been approved.

I am ecstatic. I have been on pins and needles because the registration took several weeks to process (as opposed to the 24 hours it usually takes to register a company in Singapore). I had worried that this was because the only other exchange in the country is the Singapore Stock Exchange, partly owned by the government. Needless to say, even the mere registration of SSXA had the potential to raise a few eyebrows.

Raised eyebrows aside, the fact remains that on March 20, 2009 SSXA was created to provide a capital market for social good. This indeed is the start of a new era and an apt response to the financial greed that gripped most parts of the developed world for the past several decades. The best part is that SSXA has the potential to be the sensible Asian response to the Western mayhem and bring social consciousness to the forefront of global financial markets.

Creating a Social Stock Exchange is indeed a lofty goal, but I cannot aim at anything less lofty. Exactly ten years ago, I created my first social purpose company, oneNest. It was an idea that germinated from my time at Grameen Bank when I saw many micro-entrepreneurs struggling due to a lack of market access for their products. These entrepreneurs needed more than access to credit, they needed help managing the supply chain. Grameen Bank ultimately recognised this and eventually responded by creating Grameen Check and Grameen Shamogri.

A few years later when the twists and turns of life gave me the opportunity to start a company, I reached back to my Grameen days and created a marketplace where I brought together, on the one hand, thousands of microcredit borrowers and cooperatives creating beautiful handmade personal and household products with, on the other hand, luxury catalogue companies, boutiques and department stores in the Western market. I ran and grew oneNest and eventually sold it (granted I had a very little control of the company by the end -- but that is another story). However the thought always nagged me that I could not do enough for the disadvantaged millions of the world. I had to do more. Now is my second chance.

What will SSXA do? Simply put, it will increase access to capital for enterprises with a social mission. On a bigger scale, it will help social enterprises further develop the professionalism of their operations and create a whole ecosystem around them to support social enterprises -- some of which are already in the works. SSXA will be the Asia's first social stock exchange, providing a trading platform and an efficient capital raising mechanism for Asian Social Enterprises (SEs), including both for-profit and not-for-profit entities with a social mission. SSXA will connect these SEs with impact investors seeking to achieve both a social return and an economic return on their investment while providing capital to fund innovative social businesses. This platform will also enable philanthropic donations.

Such an exchange will bring all the relevant players in the ecosystem together, speaking the same language and assisting one another in creating greater social good. It will encourage the governments, civil societies, academics, investment banks, research companies, auditing bodies and social enterprises to agree on a framework to measure social value, common terminology, transparency, and social and financial goals.

Social enterprises seeking to list shares or bonds on the exchange will go through proper social and financial auditing (third party validation) and report regularly to investors on both their social and financial results. Investors purchasing shares and bonds on the exchange will be attracted by the transparent disclosure of social returns and will evaluate companies based on both their social and financial returns. They will understand that a social enterprise may not maximise its earnings due to the cost associated with fulfilling its social mission. And they will be willing to accept a limited financial return in order to support this mission. Of course, given the current dismal state of the market for profit-maximising businesses, any economic return topped with a social return may feel like a windfall to an investor.

Social investors are an emerging group of investors in the financial market. In Europe, and especially in the UK, they are a rapidly growing group, which initially focused on Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) but now includes many investors focused on investing in social enterprises and social purpose businesses. These investors comprise of private investors, high net worth individuals, family offices, investment funds and charitable foundations with the common thread being that they seek double bottom-line returns (i.e. social and financial returns) from their investments. Given the current financial climate, more and more charities are leaning towards 'mission-related investment' as well. In the UK alone, there are now over 25 billion pounds dedicated to socially responsible investment.

In Asia the social investor pool is smaller, but growing. Bodies such as UNPRI (United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing) and ASRIA (Association for Socially Responsible Investing in Asia) are actively promoting the notion of socially responsible investing. A number of family offices and wealthy individuals in Asia are also focused on social investment. Much of the interest so far has been focused on microfinance institutions. In addition, Islamic banking has been very active in Southeast Asia in promoting its unique brand of responsible investing. SSXA will push the envelope on the existing socially responsible investing, bring forward social enterprises and social purposes companies (in addition to microfinance) in energy, water/sanitation, media, fair-trade, health, education, and cottage industry and bring to the attention of these investors a whole new set of enterprises that would not have been noticed otherwise.

Such a platform or exchange cannot be created overnight. It will take years before SSXA is a robust trading platform. However, with the proper assistance and support from other members of the social investing ecosystem, it can become the cornerstone of a potentially very large social enterprise economy. Given the current economic climate, I have to say, organisations and government bodies are ready to pause and listen. I thank them for that. As more players embrace the idea of SSXA, each will become a crucial part of a peaceful revolution in the making.

The author is founder of Social Stock Exchange Asia and head of Programme on Social Innovation and Change at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

THis article was published in Daily Star, April 22, 2009

Social Stock Exchange Asia

2009-03-29T14:34:00.002+08:00

Social Stock Exchange Asia just got registerd as a company in Asia. I have started my second social enterprise exactly ten years after the first one. The mission is to create capital markets for social good. Let us see where this leads to. With the financial meltdown, the timing cannot be more perfect...

Witnessing a Movement

2009-01-23T17:41:00.001+08:00

Like many Bangladeshis living overseas, I was energised by the US election, which produced a remarkable president and, as importantly, mobilised the young and old like no other political event in recent history.

Was it possible for such an election to occur in Bangladesh? I was sceptical. But, I flew to Bangladesh with hopes of being a part of history in the making. Thankfully, my scepticism was proven wrong. What I experienced was far beyond my fondest imagination.

On returning home and embarking on election work, I not only witnessed a remarkably orderly election process, but also had the feeling that it was just the most recent manifestation of a movement that is gripping the nation. I witnessed that the citizens cared about the election and wanted to make a difference through their votes.

Like my fellow citizens, I got swept into the wave of optimism and felt that anything was possible. Only when I stepped out of this wave did I realise that what I had experienced was a movement, a powerful movement that none of our political parties could have imagined gripping the nation after years of political, social and economic abuse of the people.

While I was basking in the warm glow from the excitement of the election process, I had another reason to feel good as I saw that the new cabinet would contain four women ministers. For the first time, our politicians realised that we needed women more than just as figureheads of the political parties.

Dr. Dipu Moni, whom I had the chance to meet a few weeks ago on the campaign trail, is the new foreign minister. My “chance meeting” with Dr. Moni took place in Chandpur at a Mukho Mukhi program organised by Shujon (Shushashoner Jonnyo Nagorik). This and many other Shujon programs gave me opportunities to meet the candidates.

As a proud participant in Shujon's democratic process, I sent Dr. Moni a congratulatory text message. Just think about thisI, an ordinary citizen, had the chance to actually speak with a potentially powerful candidate and then text her. If this is not a sign of a powerful new movement, I don't know what is.

There were a number of organisations that can take credit for bringing this new voice to the people. The social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations played their role in uplifting and empowering Bangladeshis over the past several decades. In this election, however, this empowerment was put to practice by entities like Shujon. Shujon collected information on all 1500+ candidates and organised over 80 Mukho Mukhi programs.

As a witness to the process, I can definitely say that Shujon's process of disseminating information and publicising its message of electing the “clean and right candidates” influenced many thousands of voters. My congratulations and gratitude to the more than a hundred thousand volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this process possible.

While the Americans celebrate the beginning of a successful grassroots movement initiated by a charismatic leader, we need to celebrate Bangladesh's successful grassroots movement initiated by its citizens. There was no one leader or party that mobilised the citizens. It was the people themselves.

Platforms like Mukho Mukhi allowed the people to speak up. In gatherings of several thousand people, women got up and asked the candidates what they would do for women, young people asked about job opportunities, and young/old all asked how clean the candidates would be. They were making clear to the candidates that they must serve the people.

This fire of citizen movement that has been ignited needs to be nurtured and developed. If not dealt with carefully, such a fire can become uncontrollable or die. The winning party not only has to live up to its election mandates but also has to listen to the millions of voices across the nation. In the US, President Obama's team is keeping the fire of his movement burning by creating “Organizing America.” We need to do the same.

Shujon, along with similar organisations, will continue to push along the democratic system by promoting: accountalibility of the elected officials; decentralised governance; grassroot participation in democracy; women's, children's and minority rights; youth involvement; and self reliance. However, all political parties need to become a part of this process.

The new government needs to work with community leaders to empower the citizens and mobilise them for good governance, social justice, clean politics and correct policies. It should with start communicating with the people.

Perhaps our leaders can take a page from the Obama book and keep the line of communication open with the people. Dr. Moni, I am looking forward to your response to my text to you!

Durreen Shahnaz is the Head of the Social Innovation Program and Adj Assoc Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

This article was published on The Daily Star on January 23, 2009

Media's Role in Social Change

2008-11-25T16:41:00.002+08:00

I have been quite nostalgic lately. My nostalgia stems from my recent 'temporary' retirement from the media world to focus more fully on promoting socially responsible businesses. As I look back at my career and try to give myself an honest 'report card' on how well I lived up to my goal of making a positive impact on society through my media work, I can't help but to also question and explore the media industry's role in the broader context of social change. Like me, do media companies take their responsibility toward society seriously? How much impact can media really have in advancing social change? Bringing it close to home, what does it all mean for the media scene in Bangladesh?

When I first joined the publishing industry in New York, my boss gave me a piece of paper which he felt held the key to success in publishing -- “The purpose of publishing is not to make money".

"The purpose of publishing is to be of remarkable, outstanding, extraordinary, superior, notable, exciting, wonderful, sensational, marvelous, unheard of, exceptional, unprecedented, astonishing, awesome, indescribable, fabulous, fantastic, incredible, prodigious, unspeakable, phenomenal and stupendous USE, BENEFIT and SERVICE to the reader. Then it will follow, as night the day, you cannot help but make money…”

Since then, I have tried to create exceptional publications, programmes and internet outlets that provided a distinct benefit to society. However, I always struggled with the definition of 'benefit'. Was I really benefiting the society?

Economic benefit is quantifiable, but how does one really measure the social benefit created by media? Do media outlets really change people's lives? (Well, Oprah certainly does and I did work on the 'O the Oprah Magazine' deal) Do readers/viewers really know what is good for them? Should I decide what is good for them? How will this also benefit the advertisers who are actually paying the bills? When I moved to Asia, I added a few more questions to the list: do I really want to help the government get its message across to my readers? Can I pass on this information, which is a benefit to the society but will cost me my publishing license? Should I really publish this even if it means I will lose some advertisers?

The answers to many of the questions were clear-cut for me, and sticking to my guns on these issues and the ethical dilemmas surrounding them was part of the contribution I made to social change and social benefit -- at least that is what I think.

As with a lot of my colleagues in the media industry, I joined the industry because of an idealistic desire to act as an agent of social change. Throughout my media career -- at the glamorous fashion magazines in New York (yes, I had the pleasure of managing editors like the one in The Devil Wears Prada), where I had to fight tooth and nail to get minority representation on the covers; or in the restricted media world of many Asian countries, where I had to explain to the higher authorities why a 'lifestyle' magazine needed to write about human rights -- I always told myself that, albeit in a small way, I am making my own social change. The question still gnaws at me though -- how much more could I or should I have done in my positions in media?

Fast forward to the present day in Bangladesh a month from now a history-making election will take place. Instead of a media change maker, I am now a media observer. As an observer, I am at the receiving end of whatever information my media colleagues are publishing and broadcasting. I am reading a lot about the preparations for the elections, the usual squabbles between the two begums, and the caretaker government's reassurance that it will be a 'fair and clean election'. However, I am still missing the most important information -- I know next to nothing about the candidates.

Of course I know about the comings and goings of the big party honchos, but I want to know about the potential parliamentarians from every corner of the country. I want to know (as do my fellow citizens and readers/viewers) everything about them their views on economic and social policies, their personal stance on important issues, and their character. These men and women will be shaping the future of the country, and the citizens have a right to unbiased information about them. However, such information is nowhere to be found.

Gathering and disseminating information about candidates may be tedious, boring and may not make business sense to publish. (Advertisers may not be interested in advertising next to such material). However, this information needs to get to the public, and in Bangladesh, newspaper and television are the best media to get this information out.

I have been thinking about what is the most cost-effective way to get this important but monetarily non-lucrative message across and came up with an interesting solution. I would like to propose a 'win-win' solution for all the parties involved: as part of fulfilling their corporate social responsibility (CSR) duties, Bangladeshi media companies should donate their remnant space (their unused advertising space) to an unbiased third party (such as Shujon) which is dedicated to getting information out to the public about the potential member of parliament candidates. This remnant space donation should qualify for a tax rebate as the current government has already promised for CSR activities for the private sector. In a system where there is no public financing for election campaigns, I feel an initiative such as this one will be a step towards a campaign finance/information dissemination system of some kind where the media companies can play a significant role in stimulating positive social change.

In my experience, Bangladesh media are one of the relatively freer ones in Asia (albeit with potential of danger on individual level). The media companies need to use that freedom and make more of an effort to embrace their responsibility to create social benefit and change. Some outlets are already embracing this, but more needs to be done. Perhaps my media colleagues in Bangladesh are asking the same questions I asked myself before -- do the readers/viewers know what is good for them? Should I decide what is good for them? It is indeed a slippery slope. However, the election information dissemination is a no-brainer. People need this information and you, the media company can give it them while enjoying tax benefit, a clear win-win situation one does not always get.

The writer is an adjunct associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and a former media executive.

Published on November 25, 2008 in Daily Star, Bangladesh

Social Innovation

2008-10-29T16:16:00.001+08:00

I wanted to share some writing I recently did on Social Innovation. While I was writing it, I was thinking of the enormous power social entpreneurs have now for social change -- we need to encourage and nuture them all over the world --

"Governments, corporations and civil society each have their own defined approach to governance which at times leaves a gap in effective governance in a society. There are an increasing number of instances where this gap is being filled by social enterprises both in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Individuals who are leading the effort are known as Social Entrepreneurs. These enterprises and entrepreneurs are tackling issues ranging from the environment to social equality to the economy. Social innovations such as micro-credit, alternative technology, fair trade, eco-tourism, rural education, health care reform are examples of areas where much inroad has already been made. Additional areas where social enterprises can provide innovative solutions are emerging as a response to global crises such as the affects of climate change, political conflicts or economic crisis."

Time for an Asian social stock exchange

2008-10-23T00:00:00.003+08:00

As I write this article, the storm in the financial markets continues -- stock markets in Asia, Europe and the US all are going through roller coaster rides, people fear bank runs and governments are pulling together trillion dollars worth of rescue packages. In this sadly crazy historic moment, when every current option is looking bleak and governments are busy cleaning up the private sector mess, perhaps it is a good time to look some distance into the future toward a gleam of hope for a kinder and gentler form of capitalism. My suggestion for that is to put together effective regional 'social stock exchanges' in each continent that can spearhead social good through capital markets. I believe Asia is ripe to take the lead in meeting this challenge.

What is a social stock exchange? It is a stock market where investors who care about social and economic returns buy stocks and bonds of companies that have strong economic and social returns. Interestingly, in a social stock exchange both not-for-profit and for-profit companies can participate. For-profit entities can either issue shares representing ownership in their companies or issue bonds. Meanwhile not-for-profit companies can utilise the stock exchange to issue bonds an action in itself that can bring operational accountability to the not-for-profit sector (as opposed to carte blanch donations from foundations).

Although Professor Muhammad Yunus discusses the idea of a social stock exchange in his latest book, Creating a World Without Poverty, and has been promoting it in lecture circles, the concept is not a new one. There are already several Social Stock Exchanges in operation or in the works, albeit each uniquely different from one another.

BOVESPA in Brazil was the first social stock exchange in the world. It was launched in 2003 with the objective of bringing together non-profit organisations and the social investors who are willing to support their programmes and projects. For BOVESPA investors, the return is solely in 'social profit,' where the investment brings about a more just society with opportunities for the poor and neglected. By providing capital for the non-profit organisations that list on this exchange and the providing social value for the investors who participate in this exchange, BOVESPA aims to change the labeling of non-profit organisations to 'Social Profit Organisations'. So far about 43 Social Profit Organisations have raised capital through this exchange. However, trading of stock in this exchange is still a distant goal.

Europe's answer to social investing is the FTSE4Good. Set up by FT Stock Exchange in London, FTSE4Good is an index for socially responsible investment. The definition of 'socially responsible' for this index is very broad and covers topics such as: working towards environmental sustainability, developing positive relationships with stakeholders, and upholding and supporting universal human rights. There are about 25 companies in this index. Given FTSE financial requirements, these companies are large for-profit entities which in many cases have very tangential effects on positive social change. Their 'social mission' often springs from the defensive posture of CSR rather than from a genuine effort to make positive social impact.

In North America, Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX) is attempting to become the Social Stock Exchange for that continent (and Europe). This Canada-based social stock exchange is aiming to launch by end of the year to trade shares in social businesses. GREENSX's definition of social business is a business that makes a profit but benefits society as well delivering a triple bottom line return (economic, social and environmental return). GREENSX's goal is to provide small green issuers access to public equity capital efficiently while ensuring liquidity for the investors. The success of GREENSX remains to be seen.

There is obviously a budding global interest in the notion of social stock exchange. Recently, Rockefeller Foundation donated $500,000 to the UK government to pay for a feasibility study for a social stock exchange. The Foundation picked UK as the site for the feasibility study because of the UK government's support for social enterprises. Existing UK government initiatives include legal reforms for separate incorporation for social businesses and plans for a social investment bank funded with unclaimed assets held by financial institutions.

All this is encouraging in a global perspective; now, how about Asia and, in particular, Bangladesh? Bangladesh is a country that continues to produce remarkable social enterprises, and given the state of the country and the world, it can be expected to keep the pipeline of social innovation flowing. The limiting factor is, of course, capital. Let us move a few degrees east in longitude, and there is a country, which -- though a small dot on the map -- is wealthy, is a player in the financial markets and is itching to make a mark in social business. This country is, of course, Singapore. Singapore is ready, able and perfectly positioned to be the home of Asia's first Social Stock Exchange. Bangladesh is ready, able and perfectly positioned to pepper that exchange with very effective social businesses. This is a match made in financial heaven.

Now, what's the next step? It is very simply for the Bangladesh government to have the vision and desire to initiate a ground-breaking discussion with the Singapore government. Bangladesh is well positioned to make its mark in the next economic revolution of conscious capitalism. It can take its rock star social entrepreneurs Yunus and Abed -- and get them to perform the ground-breaking concert for the social stock exchange for its potential partner Singapore.

Thus, my request to the Bangladesh finance ministry use this opportune moment -- initiate the courtship and get Bangladesh on the global financial map. We are all waiting.

The writer is the regional managing director of Asia City Publishing Group and adjunct associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on Oct 23, 2008

Beyond the buzz of CSR

2008-08-21T00:00:00.002+08:00

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is currently the 'buzz' of Dhaka's business sector. Thus, it was no surprise during my recent trip to Dhaka to hear various interesting uses (and abuses) of the term. It was also interesting to hear that the government is taking an active interest in CSR, embracing the concept by considering a tax exemption for corporate spending on CSR. The fact that Bangladeshi business and government are even talking about doing things to assist the society is a good thing. However, the question I found myself asking each time CSR was mentioned, is whether the initiatives being discussed can really be considered CSR, or if what is passing as CSR is just a public relations gimmick that will ultimately tarnish the whole concept of CSR in Bangladesh.

The subject of CSR is still a nascent one. As a concept, CSR is being defined and debated in business and academic circles around the globe. One definition that seems to be gaining credence is that CSR is the practice of a corporation internalising the externalities it creates through its business practices. In layman terms, CSR means corporations taking responsibilities for their actions and doing something about improving them.

With that in mind, it is important to differentiate CSR from corporate philanthropy or charitable work that is unrelated to the corporation's business. CSR is not the same as the work done by a corporation's foundation arm. CSR involves a conscious effort by the corporation to essentially operate differently to change its practices to improve their impact on society, or to actively seek to ameliorate any negative impacts they may have.

In Bangladesh I noticed that the philanthropic work of corporations was being labeled as CSR. Mislabeling philanthropic work as CSR does little to improve unsavoury business practices of a corporation. As a matter of fact, such mislabeling may give corporations a green light to behave as they wish without regard to their impact on society and then try to whitewash their bad behaviour by merely making a donation to an unrelated cause.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against corporate philanthropy; the more the better! What I am asking for is clear labeling; which leads to clear thinking. While corporate philanthropy is not CSR, it is still a good thing. Philanthropy can be (and is) used as a form of public relations or advertising. As Michael Porter and Mark Kramer argue in their Harvard Business Review article, a company can and should think of philanthropic acts in a strategic way. Such acts can improve the corporation's image and thus their standing in the competitive landscape. The key here is transparency.

Companies can make best use of their philanthropic contributions if they come out clear about what they are doing and how they are doing it and make clear that these contributions have nothing to do with their business practices.

Two examples from Bangladesh may help to illustrate the difference between corporate philanthropy and true CSR. British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) has an extensive “CSR” programme; however, its CSR efforts seem to be out of sync with its business practices. British American Tobacco Bangladesh's website highlights its responsible business practices, which include supporting IT education and afforestation programs. While these may be laudable charitable programs, they have little to do with BATB's business. Sadly, nowhere on its website does BATB mention the ill effects (social, economic and health-related) of smoking or what BATB is doing about them.

By contrast, recently a Danish TV documentary showed that child workers were employed by a subcontractor for Grameenphone (another company touting its CSR programs in Bangladesh) and were handling dangerous heavy metals and chemicals with practically no protection. Following this disclosure, Grameenphone took steps to rectify the problems (related to this case). This is an example of modifying the corporation's business practices to improve its impact on society (albeit in a reactive manner).

It is a shame that Grameenphone took action to change its business practice only in response to pressure from the foreign media. How much better it would have been if Grameenphone had taken the initiative based on its own ethical principals; or even if the pressure had come from within Bangladesh. In the west, CSR is being driven by demands from consumers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders for better business practices. Why shouldn't Bangladeshi consumers and citizens stand up and press our corporations to live up to standards that we dictate?

Rather than giving tax breaks to corporations for practicing CSR in Bangladesh, the government should set policies in place or empower entities to monitor and publish CSR practices of corporations. If a corporation embraces true CSR practices, if there is true transparency in the system, and if consumers have a say in the matter, then the corporation will be rewarded by the market system. These corporations then should have no qualms about publicising their good deeds and reaping the rewards of greater market share.

We as consumers in Bangladesh need to exercise more of a voice and we need to take responsibility in encouraging companies to embrace CSR and ethical practices. We have to demand that businesses 'embed' CSR in the core of their operations, making it part of their corporate DNA so that it influences decisions across the corporation.

We want our companies to succeed and do good deeds at the same time, and why shouldn't we? After all, we possess the ultimate purchasing power to make the company a success. It is about time we Bangladeshi consumers exercised our rights.

The writer is the regional managing director of Asia City Publishing Group and adjunct associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on Aug 21, 2008

Reaching out to the missing middle

2008-07-10T00:00:00.000+08:00

Deshantori, a heart-wrenching documentary which follows a group of young Bangladeshis through a harrowing journey in search of employment opportunities outside the country, has sparked soul searching questions for Bangladeshis wherever it has been shown. For me, the most poignant moment of the documentary was when one of the survivors of the journey sadly relates that nobody would lend him money to start a business, but they lent him money to pay for a dangerous and illegal passage overseas. Why are we unwilling to support our young people? Why is entrepreneurship such a bad word in our culture?

In our country, the term for an entrepreneur is a 'businessman,' which carries with it a set of negative connotations. The assumption is that one goes into business if one cannot be a banker, doctor, engineer, lawyer, professor or a corporate worker. In movies, businessmen are portrayed as crude, immoral people. In day-to-day life, a businessman is only considered successful if he can achieve conspicuous display of wealth. The toxicity of the business sector has recently been magnified with the recent anti-corruption crack down which has put a high profile portion of the business community behind bars.

Despite our negative views of 'business', the private sector has a crucial role to play in growing the economy and providing employment opportunities. The private sector is the engine of innovation in all sectors of the economy. Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh currently thrives in two sectors of the economy -- among the poorest of the poor (14 million households) and among the well-off (about 2.5 million households). The reason for this is that both of these sectors have access to institutional financing.

Grameen Bank, BRAC, Proshika, Asa and others have created millions of micro-entrepreneurs among the poor through their microcredit programmes. At the other end of the spectrum, the government has encouraged entrepreneurship for the 'well-off' or 'well connected' by extending financing through institutions such as Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Shangstha, Bangladesh Shilpa Bank and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh. Most of our leading industrial entrepreneurs ('industrialists') are indebted (morally, if not still monetarily) to these financial entities.

Now, let us look at the missing middle -- the middle class. It is from this group, constituting over 12 million families, from which our young people are leaving the country in droves. These people are neither poor enough to qualify for micro-credit nor are they well connected or wealthy enough to access bank loans. Many of these young people receive a decent enough education but emerge from school to find zero employment opportunity in the public and private sector. If they then seek to establish a business for self-employment, they find the existing institutions of the financial sector have no mechanism to extend them credit.

While people will still leave the country to fill the need for unskilled labor overseas, we need to find ways to keep our skilled and educated youth in the country. As a first step toward this goal, we need to make 'business' into an acceptable word in our culture. The next step is to make businessmen out of these young people.

How can it be done? The government needs to recognise and promote the benefits of entrepreneurship, create programmes to encourage it and, most importantly, create the right incentives for the financial institutions to embrace this missing middle.

Maybe now is the time to get the microcredit NGOs or government banks to look into providing this 'more than micro' credit for the middle class youth. Just as microcredit organisations had to create new methods to mitigate the risk of lending to the poorest of the poor, so new standards will be needed for these loans.

These may include, for example, a minimum education level for the borrower and a requirement for a proven, easily replicable business plan. And, taking a page from the microcredit organisations, the loans would likely be capped. These institutions can even look into 'franchising' ready made business opportunites while extending credit as Mr Muzammel Hoque, former GM of Grameen Bank, is doing with his new business venture (a holistic and green business based on 4 cows and financed with a loan of Tk 160,000).

In order to provide incentives to the financial institutions, and mitigate any additional risk, the government, foundations or mulitnational banks such as World Bank or Asian Development Bank could provide credit support or subsidise interest rates for loans which meet certain criteria.

I can think of hundreds of reasons why what I am proposing will not work. (I am sure I will get many emails from readers debunking my ideas.) I can also think of one good reason why it may work we are giving our youth a chance a chance they would not be given otherwise.

According to management guru Peter Drucker, an entrepreneur is 'one who always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity'. Can anyone be an entrepreneur? The answer is no. But with access to capital, can many of our intelligent, energetic youth be turned into a decent business people if not passionate entrepreneurs? The answer is yes. It is no news that what the country needs now is more decent business people and fewer passionate critiques.

The writer is an associate professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at National University of Singapore and managing director of a regional media company.

This article was published in Daily Star on July 10, 2008

The Land of Creative Capitalism

2008-06-26T00:00:00.003+08:00

I wrote a piece for this newspaper several months ago, the general theme of which was that we as a nation need a tag line or a 'mantra' around which we can unite the country. Given that in the last few months I have not heard any compelling suggestions, I will be presumptuous enough to give our country a tag line/vision/theme, which is, 'In five years time, Bangladesh will be the world leader of creative capitalism'.

By 'Creative Capitalism' I do not mean that we have to be creative about our capitalistic ways (which, unfortunately, we have been with our rampant corrupt practices).

The term refers to a self-sustainable business, which has a social mission or a market-based solution to a social problem. Creative Capitalism was widely discussed at the Davos Economic Forum, which took place at the beginning of this year. Bill Gates coined the term in his speech and called for new 'creative capitalism' to help the poor.

The buzz now is about creating a system with twin missions, namely, making profits, and at the same time, improve the lives of those who do not fully benefit from the market forces. Gates is aiming to persuade companies to embrace his idea of socially beneficial ventures that make money.

Similar to Gates, our own Professor Yunus has also been talking about this in his speeches as he travels the world. His term for it is 'social business.' In his book, Creating a World Without Poverty, Professor Yunus goes into details about his ideas of social business. The essence of Professor Yunus's book is that 'for-purpose' organisations need to distinguish themselves from 'for-profit' and 'non-profit' enterprises.

Creative capitalism or social Business or socially conscious business or sustainable social enterprise - whatever the label one uses, the reality is that we have a few shining examples in Bangladesh. Aarong, Grameen Phone, Cell Bazaar, Drik, Prabartana are examples of such successful sustainable Bangladeshi businesses with strong social missions.

However, the number of these self-sufficient social businesses in our country is currently limited. The reason being, we are a nation of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). With over 20,000 registered NGOs, we have come to believe that every answer to social change will come from a NGO.

The truth of the matter is that the NGOs have played a big role in the growth and development of the nation. However, the world is changing fast and for us to effectively keep up with change and give our citizens the rights they deserve. We need to embrace capitalist practices, enhanced with a social mission.

Bangladesh needs the high returns of pure profit-driven businesses, tempered with good labor and operational practices. However, the business sector and the government are recognising the world over, that alongside businesses pursuing pure profit, it is desirable to encourage some businesses to focus on social returns as well. This means that Social Enterprises and Free enterprises (private sector good or bad) can complement one another and need not be mutually exclusive.

For us to encourage sustainable social enterprises in Bangladesh, we not only need the spirit for it, but we also need the capital to back it and of course the correct government regulations to encourage it. This is where the money that is pouring into the country can make a difference.

I have recently seen a lot written about the various funds (some by non-resident Bangladeshis) talking about great investment opportunities in Bangladesh. In much of this, I have seen Bangladesh being referred to as the 'next Vietnam'. With Vietnam's soaring inflation rates and the economy near collapse, perhaps, it is not a good comparison right now.

However, Bangladesh can become better than India, China or Vietnam, if the investors, business sector and the government, full-heartedly embrace the need and value of an economy supported by sustainable social enterprises. I would put my money on it.

So my request to the potential investors and entrepreneurs is that, while we are building this country, let us try to build it in our own unique way.

While you look to invest in the next garment factory, why not invest in a garment factory that treats its labour fairly and uses environment friendly dyes? Or, while we look to improve tourism, why not use the revenue generated by tourism to save our mangrove forests or preserve the cultures of our indigenous peoples?

I am in the process of pulling together a fund to do just that. I will play my part in making Bangladesh, in five years time, 'the world leader of creative capitalism'. Will you?

The writer is an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the managing director of a regional media company.

This article was published in Daily Star on June 26, 2008

City of Hope

2007-09-12T00:00:00.002+08:00

One of the perks of my job is that I get to attend fancy dinner parties in various cities in Asia. At one such recent "who's who" event in Singapore, I ran into a friend who happens to be a prominent corporate lawyer in Asia. Upon seeing me, the first thing my friend said to me was: "I just came back from your city of gloom." The city of gloom he was referring to was none other than my birthplace, Dhaka.

My friend went on to relate how the curfew last week had made his and his colleagues' lives miserable while he was in Dhaka for a "due diligence" trip (to evaluate a company on behalf of a foreign investor who was interested in making an investment). Over the course of the evening, several other lawyers and bankers at the gathering informed me that, given the current situation, they know potential investors are now thinking about holding back from investing in Bangladesh.

After hearing one negative point after another, the final insult was the comparison with Calcutta (a number of them had recently returned from business trips in Calcutta). "You both are Bengalis, why is that Calcutta is booming and filled with prospects while Dhaka is so gloomy and morbid …what is happening, when will you guys get your act together?"

Sitting miles from Bangladesh, I try to distance myself from the country's internal politics. I rationalise it by saying: I don't live there so I can't comment on the situation. However, this hands-off attitude does not work well given the profession I am in and the fact that I am seen in many situations as a "representative" of my country. So, whether I like it or not, I am forced to look at the situation and judge the merits of it.

In this case, when I was asked what was happening, sadly, I had no answer.

We had hope
I have had the chance to visit Bangladesh several times since the beginning of the year. The sense of euphoria that was in the country in January now seems like a distance past. In the past 8 months I have witnessed the country go from the peaks of excitement and expectation to the valleys of despair, in a cycle that has been repeated every time a new regime has come to power in Bangladesh.

This feeling did not contain itself in the country alone. The rest of the world has been waiting to see if the current government will be able to validate Goldman Sachs's prediction that Bangladesh will be in the next group of economic tigers. Everybody was ready to cheer from the sidelines, but unfortunately, the parade never got started -- at least not yet.

In the name of corruption
This government was going to root out corruption, and we all were ecstatic about it. (Trust me, it is no joy to hear over and over again that Bangladesh has had the misfortune of getting the top position in Transparency International's list of most corrupt governments several times).

However, we all knew that rooting out a disease which has become a part of our system would not be easy. In the last few months, it seems as though the fight against corruption has taken over everything.

The time we are supposed to spend in building back the country became a time to pull each other down. All I heard from people and read in the paper was who was corrupt, who should be arrested, who is having a hearing, which building will be torn down, etc etc.

I did not hear my countrymen, women, or leaders say: We will fight corruption but we will also build the nation. We will make every Bangladeshi, here and overseas, play a role in building the nation.

When I watched on television the Rangs building being torn down piece by piece, all I could think about was that they could have taken the windows out, the air conditioners out, all the fixtures out first, and sold them and used the money to rebuild some schools.

Instead, the whole scene was one of raw passion and raw anger taken out on people and infrastructure. I thought we learned from history that such raw anger needs to be directed to more positive endeavours.

I full heartedly agree that the fight against corruption is extremely important, and the government should be applauded for its courage in this battle. I hope the government will prove its cases against the worst offenders with clear evidence in an open process that will leave no doubt that justice was done. But, while cutting out the disease of corruption, the government must also look forward to building a prosperous, hopeful society.

Running a country is tough but ...
Running a country is tough, and I do not envy anyone who has to do it. However, I cannot help myself from drawing some over-arching parallels between running a country and running a company. In my humble opinion (albeit biased by years of running companies), to run either (company or country) one needs to: keep the customer (the citizens) happy, make money (promote economic growth), and keep the employees (the business community and citizens) motivated.

Keeping this three-pronged approach in mind, one can and needs to move forward. Now what is the plan?

Keeping customers (citizens) happy:
Remember, the customer is king, which means the citizen is king (we Bengalis of course know this well). This means you have to listen to the customer. She may have issues, concerns, and passionate views about your product (policies) -- which you may or may not agree with, but you have to listen to her. Make her feel important and make her opinion count (give the citizen a voice, let her vote, encourage a free and independent media).

Make money (economic growth):
You have to put the right sales strategies (economic policies) in place to make money. Have a sales culture (promote entrepreneurship). Let your sales people have a say in the company (bring the business community into decision making -- not in the way of the past where politicians granted favours in return for bribes, but by listening to legitimate concerns of businessmen) and make them the most important part of your company's organizational structure.

Keep employees (business community and citizens) motivated:
This means encouraging your employees (citizens/business people) to take risks for the company (country) and not be reprimanded for it. You may not like some things they do, but that does not mean you take away their office desk (stop nationwide mobile phone operations) or stop their salary (impose curfews). Difficult and annoying as it may be, talk to them. Get them to see your way, the company's (country's) way. Give them a sense of ownership.

City of Hope
The key is communication. We need to listen to each other, we need to believe in each other, we need to trust each other and we need to tell the international community the great things we have to offer to the world and back that up with actions.

So, let us stop burning buses and cars, stop shooting at each other, stop mid night arrests, stop curfews and stop the interrogations. Let us start building up businesses, schools, creating job opportunities, encourage community building and celebrate our achievements.

Over the last several decades even after being beaten up, crushed and taken advantage of, we Bangladeshis have not given up hope. So, let us now turn this hope into action. Let us say: "We will think big, we will build this country and we will all do it together."

I do hope, for my country's sake, in next few months our City of Gloom turns into the City of Hope, and we measure up to any of our neighbouring cities. Whatever they can do, we can do it better -- I know we can. We now need our leaders to believe in us and guide us to that success.

End Note: I wrote this piece last week. In the intervening days, I was delighted to hear Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed address many of these issues in his speech on September 9. I applaud this as a move in the right direction for the country and a first step in putting citizens' concerns at ease. We need to see more such communication as well as tangible action towards rebuilding a strong, prosperous, democratic nation.

Durreen Shahnaz is managing director of a regional media company based in Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on Sep 12, 2007

Wanted: A good leader

2007-05-06T00:00:00.002+08:00

Current Status: the Begums are gone (at least we hope so; but then again, some of us are missing them). The caretaker government has its hands full with inflation, unpaid wages, and a power crisis; our leaders in khaki are pacing back and forth; we pushed away a Nobel laureate -- now what do we do? I propose a solution -- we advertise for a leader. We need a leader who will fulfill all our specifications and fearlessly run in the elections and win.

Read the requirements below, perhaps you or a friend or relative may qualify (remember, as Tagore eloquently put it: "Aamra shobai raja amaderi rajar rojjott").

Job Title: Democratically elected leader of a promising nation.

Job Requirements
Integrity/Honesty

Must be "clean."

Only work with "clean" people.

Must promise not to hire any unqualified relatives.

Will not be influenced by the existing evils of dirty politics.

Will not be influenced by the temptations of ill sourced wealth.

Creativity

Can mobilize others to work.

Overcome gender, race and religion barriers.

Able to make us Bengalis optimistic (this will be the most difficult task).

Show us a government and society without corruption.

Courage

To stand up to the evils of our society.

To stand up to our other so-called political leaders.

If need be, to make some unpopular decisions for the ultimate good of the country.

To change Bangladesh's image in the global community (this one should be easy: the image currently is so low that it can only go upward).

To bring the Foreign-Direct-Investment that the country needs without being labeled a "foreign/MNC dalal."

To withstand a deluge of criticism (criticizing, is after all, our favorite past time).

Vision

Dare to make every citizen dream.

Rid our country out of chronic poverty and the curse of illiteracy.

Provide basic health care and economic opportunity.

Bring unprecedented economic growth.

Encourage entrepreneurship.

Upgrade infrastructure.

Create public-private partnerships.

Establish a place for Bangladesh in the international community.

Communication

Distill the message/goals of the country for all the citizens.

Inspire people to think beyond bi-partisan politics.

Communicate in ways other than hartals, strikes or name calling.

Preferably a "non-screamer."

Convince every citizen (here and aboard) to do their share in rebuilding the nation.

Effectively communicate Bangladesh's position in the international arena.

Establish fruitful dialogue with other foreign leaders (without being labeled a foreign agent).

Motivator

Get the young, the old, the disenchanted and the pessimistic to follow you.

Surround yourself with good leaders.

Make your immediate team better than yourself.

Motivate your underlings with the pride of serving the nation but pay them well enough so there will be no excuse for corruption.

Rally the international community to assist Bangladesh in the meeting the challenges of global warming.

Charisma

Either you have it or you don't.

If you don't have it, then make up for it with passion.

Good Health

To withstand the physical and mental rigors before, during and after the election.

Education

At least a university degree with good, coherent communication skills in both Bengali and English.

Relevant Past Experience

Led a large public or private "civilian" organization with representation all over Bangladesh.

Daughter or wife (or for that matter, son, husband, mother, father, second cousin, or any other relative) of a past leader does not count towards relevant experience.

Reference

At least 17,000 citizens who will write in and ask you to "run for election."

Vote of confidence from international community is a plus not a minus

Compensation

Upon winning the election, salary of a prime minister (sorry, no other financial "bonus").

Government housing, car and security.

The priceless pride, joy and agony of turning a nation around.

If you are still reading this, that means you know of someone who will fit the role. If you do, please do get the person to come forward. I cannot guarantee that some of our countrymen will not tear him/her apart. However, I can guarantee that if the person fits the rigorous requirements above, enough of us will support his/her candidacy. We will throw all in and support the person through victory in the election, through five years of clean, effective government, all the way until he/she hands over a new thriving country to his/her legitimate, elected successor.

Durreen Shahnaz is the Managing Director of a regional media company based in Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on May 06, 2007

In 10 years Bangladesh will be where ____ is today...

2007-04-29T00:00:00.005+08:00

It is time for us Bangaldeshis to have a common goal -- a goal every citizen can relate to, every citizen can remember, and every citizen can boast to the international community about. In simple marketing words, we need a tag line, and we need it now.

In the last few months, the country has gone through a lot of spring cleaning and drama. Now, it's time to step back and focus on the next step -- rebuilding the country. Number one task on hand in rebuilding the nation is finding a common achievable goal (or two). This goal will be an idea/concept/reality that every citizen can aspire to and the leaders of the country can work towards.
Hokey as this may sound, it worked for a country like Singapore, and I ask: why can't it work for us? Singapore is a good example of how a solid goal and good tag line can unify the people and give purpose to everything a government does. It brings back national pride, and right now Bangladesh can do with some unified national pride. Let us not shed any more tears for the Begums or wait for the caretaker government or Prof. Muhammad Yunus to tell us what to do. Let us for a change tell them where we want the country to be in 10 years, what their task is in reaching this goal and what we as citizens can do to bring it there.

For the past three years I have been living in the island city state of Singapore. This city on the surface seems like the grown-up version of Disneyland. There is no garbage on the street, subways (MRT as it is known here) are clean and arrive on time, everyone looks healthy and happy and of course we cannot buy chewing gum (actually a little secret -- one can buy it in the pharmacy section of the drug store after giving all your personal information -- including passport number and stating in writing that you are trying to quit smoking!). Despite all the fun poked at this country, I often marvel at the fact that this country was basically a swamp land in the 1960s and it is today wealthier than its former colonizer -- the United Kingdom.

Forty years ago when Singapore separated from Malaysia, it was a country that Lee Kwan Yew (founder and first prime minister of Singapore) said would be built on meritocracy and a "clean" government. It managed to do both and more. The government built the nation on its strategic location as a trading post, it focused on making itself the "hub" for several vital industries (e.g. aviation, financial institutions, bio technology) -- list of which evolved over the years. This "hub" concept was the main economic "goal" for the country.

My fascination with Singapore's success goes back to my university days. In the 1980s as an economics student, I remember studying about the "Asian Tigers" -- Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea over and over again. These economies were the darlings of IMF, and all the economics experts and institutions used them as the examples of what every emerging economy should emulate. We studied the exponential growth of these economies from many different angles -- economic development, prudent fiscal policies, free trade, and the list goes. I of course have forgotten almost everything I learned back then.

However, I do remember one observation a professor of mine made when he visited Singapore in the early 1980s. He said he was astonished that every person he asked how the country was doing gave him the same answer: "By the turn of the century we will be where Switzerland is today." He said it was rather eerie (yes, to get the "unified" message across, the media here does a bit of brain-washing) that everyone gave him the same answer. Well, eerie as it may be, it worked. Two decades on, Singapore is where Switzerland is -- with a thriving private banking business and on its way to becoming one of the world's leading financial hubs.

I say we can and need to do this for Bangladesh. We need to give every citizen of this country the option of playing a part in nation building. Every citizen should "buy into" the goal and help promote it. And we don't need to wait for a figurehead to give us that. I embrace Prof. Yunus bestowing some "Grameen magic" on the rest of Bangladesh (and I hope we let him do it), but till that happens, let's all do our part and chip in.

So, for my part, here is what I believe Bangladesh will be in 10 years:

Asia's new Economic Tiger.

A country with 100% literacy rate.

A country with double digit growth.

The country with the highest number of new businesses every year.

The IT hub for Asia.

The most successful turn around story of this century.

An exemplary democratic state.

The list will go on ... and feel free to add to it. I would expect our chosen leader to sift through it and pick one or two goals, and make them happen.
You will say: "Easier said than done" (our usual famous Bengali immediate negative reaction). I will say: we have to start somewhere and we need to have a goal to strive for. Now, it is the job of a charismatic leader to lead us through the treacherous path to get to the goal. As we have already seen, it will not be easy, but let us tell our future leader what we want and then give that person the support to make it happen. Let us be selfish and dream that we can make this country more than just the nation of strikes, political feuds and crises.

Thus, my request to our chosen, charismatic, action oriented, future leader: Stand up and lead us ... we are anxiously waiting ... because we want to begin the journey with you to take "Bangladesh where Singapore is today ..."

Durreen Shahnaz is a Managing Director for a regional media company based in Singapore.

This article was published in Daily Star on April 29, 2007