In New York City government—much like at Bloomberg LP—three key approaches have helped us get around challenges to drive innovation forward.
Comment [10]
Link to this-
Share
Water.org tries to apply the best thinking from the private sector, the public sector, the financial markets—wherever breakthrough ideas exist—to the problem of providing safe, sustainable water in developing counties.
- Comment [16]
- Link to this
-
Share
Many of the traditional approaches to development simply will not work in conflict-ridden zones.
With a 9 percent annual growth rate, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But corruption remains a serious problem; in 2010, Transparency International ranked the country 87th out of 178 countries in its annual corruption perception index.
- Comment [1]
- Link to this
-
Share
Thomas E. Freston is chairman of the ONE Campaign, an advocacy organization founded by U2 lead singer Bono.
What did it take to fix the problem of fluctuating blood supplies in rural Kenya?
- Comment [2]
- Link to this
-
Share
Many companies that have expanded in Africa have brought with them a commitment to support the communities in which they’re now working.
- Comment [2]
- Link to this
-
Share
Link TV decided to come up with new ways to discover, tell, and share stories of progress from the developing world.
- Comment [2]
- Link to this
-
Share
Skunk Works. Innovation Lab. Incubator. New Ventures Group. These are just some of the names companies have used over the years when they set up teams to generate new ideas or incubate new businesses outside the shackles of the day-to-day demands. When these efforts work, the results can be spectacular.
- Comment [3]
- Link to this
-
Share
I never meant to get into the shoe business, and would have said you were crazy if you told me five years ago that’s what I’d be doing today. The idea to start TOMS came during a trip to Argentina back in 2006.
- Comment [3]
- Link to this
-
Share
Our goal at the nonprofit social enterprise Indego Africa is to put ourselves out of business, literally. We’ve joined forces with noted fashion designer Nicole Miller because we believe she can help us do exactly that.
- Comment [1]
- Link to this
-
Share
While many people subscribe to Milton Friedman’s belief that “the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits,” (RED) was founded on the idea that corporate profitability carries with it a social duty.
Lance Armstrong, perhaps the most famous cancer survivor on earth, was training for his record sixth consecutive Tour de France victory. It was the early spring of 2004 and Armstrong wanted to use this triumph to raise funds to serve fellow cancer survivors.
- Comment [3]
- Link to this
-
Share
We have well-developed tools for tackling social issues based on thoughtful analysis and technological inventiveness, but there has been something missing from the toolbox.
- Comment [14]
- Link to this
-
Share
What do we mean by social innovation—and does it really matter? Is it simply the rebranding of things we’ve been doing forever? And most important, will it last longer than last year’s hemlines? Will it matter to my grandchildren someday?
- Comment [12]
- Link to this
-
Share
There’s no doubt that groundbreaking inventions and discoveries have moved the world forward, but sometimes, a small innovation can be just as powerful.
- Comment [17]
- Link to this
-
Share
While most people know of us for our work on literacy and numeracy, Sesame Workshop tackles topics affecting the whole child—a wide array of issues that families across America and around the world face. Recently, we entered a new area: childhood hunger.
- Comment [1]
- Link to this
-
Share
Historically, some of the most effective and important technological developments and products—from electric lighting to the graphical user interface of the Windows operating system—have been pieced together in just this way, from pre-existing inventions.
- Comment [4]
- Link to this
-
Share
Finding a way to conserve natural resources, biodiversity, and habitats is a universal challenge across the planet. So too is the need to nurture sustainable economic development to improve the lives of the Earth’s poorest rural populations.
- Comment [6]
- Link to this
-
Share
Addressing major social problems, especially in an era of limited resources, is both daunting and enthralling. Our responses to tackling such problems, however, often serve to undermine the development sector’s impact.
- Comment [3]
- Link to this
-
Share
Analysts predict that by 2012, there will be over 6 billion mobile phone connections worldwide, with developing markets driving the growth; by 2015, Africa alone will have 265 million mobile phone subscribers.1 The mobile phone started as a tool for the elite.
- Comment [5]
- Link to this
-
Share
Venture philanthropy can look hideously complex. It may involve private investors, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and community groups—not to mention the recipients of the funding. And each of these groups has a different way of measuring success.
- Comment [1]
- Link to this
-
Share
Around the world, social innovators are starting to use “big data”—datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical software programs to capture, manage, and analyze—to address critical problems.
- Comment [2]
- Link to this
-
Share
Send an e-mail to let us know how we can make our site better.
The Stanford Social Innovation Review is written for and by social change leaders in the nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Sample articles of particular interest to readers of What Matters are available below.
- Revitalizing Struggling Cities
by Ben Hecht. Living Cities is working with five US municipalities to develop an ecosystem for solving urban problems.
- Picking Green Tech's Winners and Losers
by Clayton M. Christensen, Shuman Talukdar, Richard Alton, and Michael B. Horn. Unless clean tech follows well-established rules of innovation and commercialization, the industry’s promise to provide sustainable sources of energy will fail.
- McKinsey Quarterly : Social Innovators are using prizes to spur solutions to difficult societal problems
- Center for American Progress: Can social impact accelerate social innovation?
- Bloomberg BusinessWeek: America’s most promising social entrepreneurs
- The New York Times: Venture philanthropy and the foreign aid revolution.
- Wired magazine: Massive biometric project gives millions of Indians an ID
08 Jan 2012 · 04:50:11 PM GMT
Dr. Parekh, We would be happy to collaborate with you and your organizations to share your stories of progress. I think you will also find other examples of affordable, quality health care programs in ViewChange.—Wendy Hanamura
In response to Telling the world’s stories to promote change
23 Dec 2011 · 03:48:12 AM GMT
Agree. Data Analytics has been left as only a commercial corporate concept for a long time; with Governments only relying on a 5-yearly census to get key statistics.Social data as it is generated from social media is a powerful Risk Management and So...—Mthandeni Mathabela
In response to Harnessing big data to address the world’s problems
21 Dec 2011 · 03:56:38 PM GMT
Gary and Matt, When I was a child in India in the 1950s, there was a question that was continuously being asked by those in government, universities, private industry and public-sector organizations: “How do we feed all our people, when we ...—Ajay Bhatla
In response to Dare to be orthogonal
19 Dec 2011 · 01:44:09 PM GMT
Love your site and especially your name! Thanks for the awesome concept and great articles. I couldn’t find a share button to push it to Facebook or other sites aside from Twitter.—Bryan Thomas
In response to Innovating for a better city
19 Dec 2011 · 06:53:53 AM GMT
I am involved with Engineers without Borders Professional Chapter and I have traveled to a few places in developing countries to work in providing clean, safe water for people in man-communities: Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador. Having said that, ...—Carlos Zhingre
In response to Dare to be orthogonal
18 Dec 2011 · 04:16:14 AM GMT
Innovation is just an euphemism for other stories. Extremely political as a “make believe.”—John Dizon