6.0 Propositions and conclusion: Enterprise solutions to poverty
6.0 Propositions and conclusion: Enterprise solutions to poverty
enterprise, particularly SMEs, is critical to economic
and poverty reduction. This is hardly a new or
revolutionary argument. It has been advanced by
many others starting probably with Adam Smith.
Indeed, a great deal of government policies and
IDC interventions over the years have focused on
creating the enabling environment for the
expansion of the private sector in poor countries.
But given the proven importance of enterprise
development in poverty reduction, direct
intervention to promote enterprise and especially
SME development has not been as high on the
spending agenda of the IDC in recent years as it
perhaps it should have been. And a lot of what
was done to promote SMEs in particular has not
been particularly effective.
The central role that enterprise development could
play in the fight against poverty is also not getting
a lot of ‘airtime’ in the context of the current ‘Make
Poverty History’ campaign. Nor does it feature
very prominently in the many recommendations
being made to the IDC by commentators and
experts about what it should be doing now.
The IDC and poverty campaigners are not alone
in the way they address the role of enterprise in
tackling poverty. MNCs, whose very existence is
enterprise-based, historically devoted only a small
fraction of their CSR spend to pro-poor enterprise
creation in developing countries. In more recent
times, their focus has shifted more in this
direction. But there is still a very long way to go
before tackling poverty through enterprise creation
becomes a top ‘business issue’ or public
engagement priority for the senior management of
a majority of big companies.
The above analysis leads us to our first set of
conclusions. There are obviously many other
poverty priorities that need to be addressed but the
IDC and the international business community
need also to give more effective attention to
catalysing enterprise in the poorest countries. And
their exploration of this issue might perhaps be
structured around the following questions:
First, how to increase the scale and effectiveness of
pro-poor enterprise interventions?
Second, how to make the objective of pro-poor
enterprise growth an integral part of povertyreduction
strategies advanced by the IDC and
pursued by developing countries?
Third, how to more effectively engage the private
sector but especially big business in IDC efforts to
tackle poverty through enterprise both directly and
as a source of insight, advice and skills transfer?
In Sections 2 and 3, we drew on the Shell
Foundation experience and approach to explore
two routes to answering these questions. These are
the application of business thinking to pro-poor
enterprise interventions; and how deploying
value-creating assets belonging to international
businesses can greatly enhance the impact of
enterprise interventions.
The Shell Foundation’s experience to date is still
far too limited to generalise. But there are others
operating in the same space as we are, and all are
seeking to harness the power of business thinking
and finance to the challenge of overcoming
poverty.
Taken together, this accumulated experience
suggests a number of more specific propositions for
wider debate and consideration by the IDC and
international business community around the
specific challenge of catalysing pro-poor enterprise
development.
60 Propositions and conclusion Enterprise solutions to poverty - To learn more about this author, visit Shell Foundation's Website.
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We have argued throughout that the expansion of
enterprise, particularly SMEs, is critical to economic
and poverty reduction. This is hardly a new or
revolutionary argument. It has been advanced by
many others starting probably with Adam Smith.
Indeed, a great deal of government policies and
IDC interventions over the years have focused on
creating the enabling environment for the
expansion of the private sector in poor countries.
But given the proven importance of enterprise
development in poverty reduction, direct
intervention to promote enterprise and especially
SME development has not been as high on the
spending agenda of the IDC in recent years as it
perhaps it should have been. And a lot of what
was done to promote SMEs in particular has not
been particularly effective.
The central role that enterprise development could
play in the fight against poverty is also not getting
a lot of ‘airtime’ in the context of the current ‘Make
Poverty History’ campaign. Nor does it feature
very prominently in the many recommendations
being made to the IDC by commentators and
experts about what it should be doing now.
The IDC and poverty campaigners are not alone
in the way they address the role of enterprise in
tackling poverty. MNCs, whose very existence is
enterprise-based, historically devoted only a small
fraction of their CSR spend to pro-poor enterprise
creation in developing countries. In more recent
times, their focus has shifted more in this
direction. But there is still a very long way to go
before tackling poverty through enterprise creation
becomes a top ‘business issue’ or public
engagement priority for the senior management of
a majority of big companies.
The above analysis leads us to our first set of
conclusions. There are obviously many other
poverty priorities that need to be addressed but the
IDC and the international business community
need also to give more effective attention to
catalysing enterprise in the poorest countries. And
their exploration of this issue might perhaps be
structured around the following questions:
First, how to increase the scale and effectiveness of
pro-poor enterprise interventions?
Second, how to make the objective of pro-poor
enterprise growth an integral part of povertyreduction
strategies advanced by the IDC and
pursued by developing countries?
Third, how to more effectively engage the private
sector but especially big business in IDC efforts to
tackle poverty through enterprise both directly and
as a source of insight, advice and skills transfer?
In Sections 2 and 3, we drew on the Shell
Foundation experience and approach to explore
two routes to answering these questions. These are
the application of business thinking to pro-poor
enterprise interventions; and how deploying
value-creating assets belonging to international
businesses can greatly enhance the impact of
enterprise interventions.
The Shell Foundation’s experience to date is still
far too limited to generalise. But there are others
operating in the same space as we are, and all are
seeking to harness the power of business thinking
and finance to the challenge of overcoming
poverty.
Taken together, this accumulated experience
suggests a number of more specific propositions for
wider debate and consideration by the IDC and
international business community around the
specific challenge of catalysing pro-poor enterprise
development.
60 Propositions and conclusion Enterprise solutions to poverty - To learn more about this author, visit Shell Foundation's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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