Student teams vie to reduce poverty, pollution

For a growing number of young entrepreneurs, the best way to make money is by improving society. And for many socially minded students, the best way to promote change is through business.

Those ideas are coming together in a global competition at the University of Washington Business School this week.

The UW's Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition invites teams from around the world to submit business plans aimed at reducing poverty and pollution in the developing world. But the plans must also make sound financial sense.

Eleven teams of students from as far away as Ghana, India, Morocco and Kazakhstan are participating. Their plans include technology to enhance seed growth in China, develop small-scale wind turbines in Kazakhstan, and create an online marketplace for businesses in Ghana.

Unlike other business-plan competitions, the UW's Global Business Center focuses its program on solutions for developing countries. Students come to Seattle for the weeklong competition hoping for guidance, recognition and a grand prize of $5,000 that could help get their business off the ground. The second-place team wins $2,500, and some of the participants also get travel scholarships.

Students are judged on three factors: the impact on quality of life, feasibility of implementation and financial sustainability.

"Just going into business for a profit motive doesn't really excite me," said Manas Mondal, an MBA student from Hyderabad, India, whose plan involves helping farmers in India develop new income sources.

Interest has grown in the past several years in learning about how business can do more social good, mirroring a similar interest in the nonprofit world in borrowing business strategies to be more effective.

Cortilia Lin, 25, worked in several nonprofit organizations in Taiwan before starting her MBA program at UW.

"In nonprofits, we have some theories to change the world, but we don't know how to do it effectively," she said. "Maybe I can adopt business practices to change the system."

For the competition, Lin and her UW team members built a kind of online trade show for small and medium-sized businesses in Ghana.

Increasing access to basic market information could complement microcredit programs in one of Africa's most stable countries, she said.

The event illustrates how business schools are changing their focus to include strategy around corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability, said James Jiambalvo, dean of the UW Business School.

At least a quarter of incoming business students express an interest in learning about those areas, he said. The Business School recently offered a class together with the School of Social Work, attracting students from both disciplines.

"The business students come in thinking companies are all about profit," Jiambalvo said. "Social-work students might think profit is not all that important. What they learned is there is an important middle ground."

Seattle is fertile ground for both. He pointed to examples at Costco and Starbucks.

"Ask yourself why is it that Costco beats Sam's Club in terms of profitability. It has a better benefits package and still outperforms them financially," he said.

"They are addressing needs and demands of the consumer market," he said. "We're also seeing companies like Toyota building hybrid cars, attracting consumers to a product that is profitable, and it's building their brand and saving fossil fuel."

Jane George-Falvy, a UW management lecturer who is faculty director of the competition, said the model for successful social entrepreneurship is microcredit, the system of very small loans pioneered by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

"That is our current glowing example of businesses that return value back to their stakeholders and are doing amazing things to address issues of poverty, " George-Falvy said. "It's no longer the generosity of somebody with their leftover money or part of their PR program."

The weakness in many of the social-entrepreneur projects lies in implementation, she said. That involves questions about how to organize capital, deliver the product and work with government regulators.

The winner of last year's competition, a plan to build hand-cranked radios in Mongolia, is still looking for funding for his project, she said.

Chris Meyer, a former Peace Corps volunteer now studying at Johns Hopkins University, is working on a project to invest in hardwood timber production in Panama. The business offers an economic incentive for the local population not to deforest the land. Meyer said he thinks a profit motive is the most successful means to get people out of poverty.

The five-member team has raised about $20,000 from friends, family and their own pockets, incorporated the company in Panama and arranged appointments at Weyerhaeuser to seek advice. In May, they will start planting trees.

"Ideally, this is my job when I graduate," he said.

Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim@seattletimes.com