A Few Thoughts From the Global Social Venture Competition

Held in the early Spring each year at the London Business School, and sponsored by the Apax Foundation, this competition showcases the best of the world’s social ventures in which MBAs are involved. The session this year was a marked and positive departure from previous years in several ways which I believe are relevant to this blog.

First, the presentations were a step change from prior years. In particular, the quality on average was far higher. Gone are the hopeless but well intentioned duds or the social enterprises which, even after a 20 minute pitch, left you with no idea what they actually do. The average quality was very high and the standard deviation was smaller–all of the social businesses presenting had some merit.

Second, the presentations were well done. Whereas in the past the emphasis was on the written presentations, and these remained at a high standard, the slides used and the presentational skills deployed were far superior to previous years. Students clearly have got the critical importance in presenting ideas clearly and succinctly. They were each allowed only five minutes much like our ClearlySo Speed Dating events) and none ran over – very impressive and vital if they seek to secure funding.

Third, the social ventures have assembled strong management teams, and in a few cases outstanding boards. Although with one or two exceptions I saw nothing that was remarkably innovative, there has been a clear focus on getting the basics right. This is often neglected in some of the social enterprises we meet, but these international social entrepreneurs ‘got it’. They seem to understand the importance of execution and the key role people play in this.

Finally, this was the year of Africa. Of the 110 plans received, 40 were from Africa, an unprecedently high percentage. This is very encouraging for a continent where economic development had historically been dependent on aid flows. The news that social entrepreneurs are emerging to take control of their own destiny is an uplifting development. In fact, one African business got through to the finals, which will take place in California in the second quarter of 2011.

I would love to say whom, and as it was publicly announced, I am assuming it is OK for me to reveal it in this blog–it was Beti Halali, from Chad!