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September 10, 2008
“I like Lee’s coaching,” said David Stein, founder of the Vanuatu Renewable Energy and Power Association. “I may argue with her when she asks, ‘Why do you think you can do that?” but Lee has a lot of experience to know what works and what doesn’t.”
David is a social entrepreneur and member of the 2008 class of the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) program at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. Lee Ng, business director of New Business Creation in Agilent Laboratories, has volunteered for the program since 2006 as a teacher and mentor. This year she coached Anais Tuepker (left) and David Stein (right) by e-mail and then in person during GSBI's two-week residential boot-camp in August.
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Lee's 2008 mentee Anais Tuepker, director of Preciva Inc, developer of a portable,
low-cost method for cervical screening
and diagnosis. |
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Lee's 2008 mentee David Stein, founder of Vanuatu Renewable Energy and Power Association serving the rural poor in Vanautu and other Pacific Island countries. |
Lee on social entrepreneurship
'I believe passionately that social entrepreneurship is one way to solve social problems," said Lee at the Global Social Benefit Incubator presentations August 28, 2008. "Social entrepreneurship is about building capacity and stimulating commerce, like the old saying, 'Don’t give someone a fish, but teach them how to fish.' People can’t just rely on philanthropic grants alone because when grants run out, the good work can’t continue. Most social entrepreneurs don’t have much business background. And yet there is a lot to learn from successful businesses – from strategic marketing to channel development to alternative business models. When I work as a mentor, I can leverage my skills and knowledge to get a multiplier effect."
Social entrepreneurs recognize a social problem and use business principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measures performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assesses success in terms of the impact on society. (Wikipedia) |
"When I use my experience to coach a social entrepreneur to be more strategic or scale their enterprise, I can make a bigger impact. And every time I do it, I’m humbled by the experience -- by the skills, talents, inspiration and passion of people who have so much less than I do but give so much more."I was a student activist when I was a teenager in Singapore. When I came to the United States to study, I had a single focus on getting my degrees. Then I worked and had children, and there was never enough time for volunteering. Finally it struck me that there will never be enough time. We’re all really busy, and there's always something that needs to be done. You just have to make the decision to start. Don’t wait, because there’s never a good time to volunteer."
“Lee’s work with the Global Social Benefit Incubator is a great example of how
one person can address global problems by sharing her talents and experience
well beyond Agilent,” said Steve Beitler, Agilent's manager of Silicon Valley
Government and Public Affairs. “She is a terrific person for social
entrepreneurs to work with and learn from.” |
More of Lee's students and mentees
2007: Originally from the Netherlands, Lee's mentee Angelique Smit is now based in Cambodia with Ideas at Work, where she is developing a channel to market the Rope-Pump to low-income Cambodian villagers. The water pump is designed to improve the quality of lives of village women by lightening the burden of collecting water. In 2006 Lee served as an instructor and mentor for the 2006 GSBI class.
• One 2006 student, Graham Macmillan is senior director of VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise that reduces poverty and generates economic opportunities through the sale of affordable glasses in the developing world. For tailors, artisans, mechanics and others, the loss of vision with age means inability to work and support a family. VisionSpring has sold nearly 150,000 glasses through 900 active vision entrepreneurs, and Harvard Business Publishing Online published "Vision(ary) Entrepreneur" about VisionSpring in August 2008.
• Another 2006 student, Matt Flannery, is co-founder and CEO of Kiva, the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website that invites anyone to lend to entrepreneurs in the developing world. The loans empower individuals to lift themselves out of poverty. The site's Impact This Week statistics for Sept. 3, 2008, indicate one loan made very 10 seconds, 184 loans repaid in full and 6, 661 entrepreneurs funded
• 2006 student and mentee Tinshu Genesis Gemuh is founder and president of Helps International (HINT), a community development entrepreneurship in Buea, Cameroon. HINT's mission is to improve the social and economic well-being and health of the poor and under privileged through education, skill development and job creation. In March 2008, HINT's IT project, Rural Electrification And Communication Technology (REACT), was selected as one of 145 finalists in the prestigious Stockholm challenge Award 2008 from more than 2,000 applicants from around the world.
• 2006 student and mentee Satyan Mishra is managing director of Drishtee, a network of local entrepreneurs that provides access to critical goods and services in rural India. Through low cost village kiosks, Drishtee has created local employment opportunities, especially for women, and is slowing rural migration to the cities. The Drishtee network includes more than 1,600 entrepreneurs who serve more than 1.5 million people.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
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Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI)
The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) enhances necessary business skills of social benefit entrepreneurs to turn their proof-of-concept technology innovations or adaptations into scaleable, sustainable enterprises that effectively address urgent human needs such as sanitation, clean drinking water, and shelter.The GSBI includes a two-week residential program at Santa Clara University to help technology innovators become financially sustainable in fulfilling their social missions and to scale their endeavors. It combines instruction in finance, marketing, organizational development and business planning with case studies, best practices and carefully matched mentoring support. The invited entrepreneurs have demonstrated proof of concept in applying technology to address urgent human needs in the most adverse of circumstances around the world.GSBI is the signature program of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology, and Society that supports two strategic areas:
• Enrich science and technology practice: Work locally and globally to foster the use of science and technology to create a more just, humane world.
• Support public engagement in issues in science and technology: Bring together a wide range of stakeholders to enhance public understanding, business decisions, and public policy on urgent scientific and technological issues.
About Lee
Lee Ng is a business director in New Business Creation at Agilent Laboratories. Since joining HP and Agilent, she has worked with many business organizations on projects on manufacturing strategy, new product positioning, competitive analysis and strategic alliances with a focus on the economic analysis of emerging technologies.
Before joining HP and Agilent, She consulted to Fortune 500 companies, specializing in the economic analysis of new electronics packaging technologies. She was also involved with Ampersand Ventures to assess the viability of new business ventures, start-ups, and spin-offs and was involved in deal screen, due diligence, technology, and market analysis.
Lee holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering form the University of Texas, Austin; Masters and Ph.D. degrees in materials engineering from M.I.T, with minors in economics, finance and strategy.
Lee has been sharing her business development expertise with Agilent. She taught her first Bootcamp program at Agilent Laboratories in 2000 and most recently in Singapore in 2008.
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