Week Thirteen Reflection

Whew. Here is my final reflection post for you guys. We are finally here! The final reflection post for the blog. In week thirteen, the subject was Disciple Leadership. This week consisted of talks from various people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. No, no, don't back out of this. This is a good one, trust me! You are in for a real treat. Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a talk on Becoming Self-Reliant–Spiritually and Physically, Joseph B. Wirthlin gave a talk on The Great Commandment, Neil K. Newell spoke about being Anxious to Bless the Whole Human Race, Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave on a talk titled Come to Zion, and lastly, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk titled, "Are We Not All Beggars?" One key takeaway from all this is how we are given a few simple, important principles. These principles are find answers through the Spirit, appraise our lives and the needs of others, choose between good and evil, think straight, and seek the Lord's guidance. The Great Commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Love comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. Zion is both a place and a people. Zion represents unity, holiness, and caring for the poor.

With that said, what I found really inspiring is the story Newell shared about Dr. Hirsche and his staff traveling the world to treat patients with birth defects. Many of his patients often have club feet, cleft lips and palates, and tumors. He has been blessed with the opportunity to become a doctor then use the skills, knowledge, and experience he has obtained over the years to help these children. I think it is wonderful to have such doctors in our lives. To me, they are practically living angels placed here on Earth to help those who drew the short straw in life. These doctors inspire me to become the best person I can be to help children in my own way someday. I doubt I could reach doctor status, even though many of my friends and family think I could qualify as one with all the medical knowledge I have obtained from my own experience and having roommates in the hospital. However, I think I could still help in other ways, maybe I can do some office work for the children and make sure they get the help they need as soon as possible.

I will apply social innovation in my life by being a volunteer. I have a quiet voice and I really am best at working behind-the-scenes at most organizations, projects, and activities. I can do this by carefully studying ballots and people before I vote. I will donate my time to help watch over the canteen at blood drives. I can also simply spread awareness about topics I am most passionate about through social media. Through it all, I will keep Jesus Christ close to my side by praying always and study the scriptures so I can learn from His example on how to be a better person and how I can better assist the community I reside in.

Week Twelve Reflection

In week twelve, I have learned about Self-Reliance and Microcredit. I had the great opportunity to learn from Yunus in a BYU Commencement Address, read an article titled "Catching the Vision of Self-reliance," viewed a video on How can self-reliance eliminate poverty, watched another video on Bonsai Trees, and one more video on Poverty, Money – and love." One of the key takeaways I have learned from this week is Yunus encourages us to be dreamers and don't give up on dreams. Another takeaway is self-reliance involves education, health, employment, family home production and storage, family finances, and spiritual strength. Three beliefs and responsibilities a self-reliant person should have is provide for oneself and one's family, self-efficacy–or the belief to be able to do hard, new things, and have a long-term perspective.

One of the subjects I absolutely enjoyed going over for this week was Yunus' analogy of the Bonsai Tree. Maybe it is because I love to garden and take care of my own trees in the backyard. I have a few trees that are actually typically not known to belong in pots and yet they are still thriving under my care. I have an apricot tree and fig tree, both of which I grew on my own. A neighbor gave me a few cuttings of their fig and I grew my own tree out of it. As for the apricot, I grew that one by seed. Sure, it won't be just like the parent tree, but that was my goal since the parent tree struggles to make fruit and I believe I could grow an even better apricot tree. I do not want my potted trees to get too large where I cannot maintain it on my own anymore. At the moment, my fig tree is borderline almost too tall, but I hope it stays at the current height at about seven or eight feet tall. Yunus explained the Bonsai Tree only stays as small as its roots are allowed to grow. He said people are the same way. In order to get out of poverty, people need room to grow. They need to get out of the small container others have placed them in. Individuals need to learn to get out of those containers on their own, grow, and prosper through their self-reliance.

As I have mentioned in a couple of my previous Reflections, I was born with a few health issues. I am not the average individual who can get up and head to a nine to five kind of job. I still do my best to live a normal life though. Yes, I do live with my mom and she helps me with a lot of things around the house. In fact, she helps me with even more things since I received my kidney transplant this past December after I have waited six years on dialysis. However, I still do a couple of things on my own in terms of self-reliance. I can make myself a bowl of cereal, bake, and cook a little with my mom acting as sous chef. I can organize my laundry so it can be taken to the laundromat. I can handle my college education on my own. I can handle my own finances and budget wisely. I have all my medicine and medical paperwork organized. I am sure once my body adjusts to the new kidney, I will be a little more self-reliant. For now, I am okay with where I am at with life.

Week Eleven Reflection

In week eleven, I learned about Impact Investing. The study materials consisted of Impact Investing is Hot Right Now. Here's Why. by Tracy Mayor, A Closer Look at Impact Investing by Vivek Pandit and Toshan Tamhane, Impact Investing. Just A Trend or The Best Strategy To Help Save Our World? by JP Dallmann, a video titled "Three Things: What is Impact Investing?", and Impact Investing: Your Money Doing Good in the World – and Your Wallet by Kevin Peterson. One key takeaway from this week's topic is impact investing directs capital to enterprises that generate social or environmental benefits. A couple examples would be putting money towards affordable housing, sustainable timberland, and eye-care clinics. The three things about impact investing is it emerged as a result of failure of philanthropists to address social problems, the money goes towards local entrepreneurs who have a better idea of where to directly place the money such as food supply, access to clean water, and education. The second thing about impact investing is not every socially inclined investment is impact investing. Impact Investors make it the core of their business rather than just a side piece. Third, expecting financial return is important for many reasons. Investing into something means one expects some kind of financial return over time. When one invests, but does not expect any money in return should really be considered a donor instead.

What I found really confusing about this week's topic is just how investors enter and exit out of businesses, seeding, growing, and scaling social enterprises. All of it is really confusing and frustrating to me. I have tried to read the assigned articles and watch the videos a few times, but my mind still has a hard time comprehending the content for this week. What I have shared in the above paragraph is just about the limit of what I was able to understand and that was pretty much it. I do not think Impact Investing will ever be one of my things in this life and I am perfectly fine with that.

Now, Muhammad Yunus wants poverty to only exist in museums. I do not think that could ever be possible. There will always be people with more money than others, just as there will always be people with less money than others. It is not possible to make things absolutely equal throughout the world. Some work harder than others, some jobs have more value than others, and so on. It wouldn't be fair for an ice cream server to earn the same wage as a cardiologist. Some may argue poverty could also mean living below the minimum amount of money required to live with the bare essentials such as food, health, and shelter. If that is the case, it is still not feasible to see poverty only exist in museums because there will always be individuals that need to live in a specific area to access the kind of healthcare or education they may need to get further in life or to just survive.

Week Ten Reflection

In week ten, I learned about Hybrids and Social Business. This week's readings and video were very enlightening in my opinion. I went through In Search of the Hybrid Idea, Introducing Yunus Social Business, Chapter One: Why Social Business? in the book titled Building Social Business by Muhammed Yunus, 22 Awesome Social Enterprise Ideas and Examples, and Peter Singer: The Why and How of Effective Altruism. One of the key takeaways is a hybrid business can be very successful. The Hot Bread Kitchen was used as an example in several of the resources for this week's study. As low-income immigrant women bake bread, they learn job skills which could lead them onto more successful paths in the future. Selling the baked bread funds the social mission, reduces dependence on donations, grants, and subsidies, and even increase the size of the organization over time.

I absolutely love the story about the bakery. Maybe it is because I am a foodie at heart and enjoy nearly all kinds of food throughout the world. The fact someone was able to create a hybrid business to help uplift the community and also have part of it be a social business by making the bread affordable so anyone could purchase some is a beautiful move. I wish there were more businesses like that, especially in the United States. I would gladly pay patronage to such places, especially if the products are affordable and within my monthly budget.

I think the thing about hybrids that make them so successful is the money flow. The money goes back into the business itself and helps build it up from within. Meanwhile, the employees gain experience from the bottom up. I am going to use the bakery as an example here again. The bakers gain experience and could eventually obtain higher-ranking job titles such as manager. There can be a high turnover rate of employees as time goes on. As employees gain enough experience to obtain a better job in another place, more people get hired and easily take over the old positions to keep the hybrid business going.

No time to loaf around, let's get baking, and build up that community with the Hybrid Business!

Photo cred: taken from Google Images

Week Nine Reflection

In week nine, I have learned about Nonprofits and Non-Governmental Organizations–or NGO's. It felt like there weren't as many resources to go through this week, but I still think it was jam-packed with great facts. I've read The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle written by Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard, Fundamentals, Not Fads by Kim Jonker and William F. Meehan III, Building Movements, Not Organizations by Hildy Gottlieb, and a TED Talk given by Dan Pallotta titled, "The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong." One key point I would like to mention from this week's studies is the vicious starvation cycle. The funders get unrealistic expectations about how much it costs to run a nonprofit, nonprofits then feel pressure to conform to funders' unrealistic expectations, nonprofits respond to this pressure in two ways: spend too little on overhead or they underreport their expenditures on tax forms and in fundraising materials, and as time goes on, the funders expect granters to do more and more with less and less. This vicious cycle eventually starves nonprofits.

One thing I found rather fascinating in this week's reading is what Dan Pallotta has mentioned in his TED Talk. He mentioned five areas of discrimination businesses hold over nonprofit organizations. First, is the compensation, the large businesses get more money for doing things than a nonprofit organization does. Second, advertising and marketing, for-profit companies spend their money on advertisements while nonprofits do their best to put most of their money towards those who actually need it instead of advertisements. Third, the taking of risk in pursuit of new ideas for generating revenue, when a big company such as Disney creates a movie but it fails, nobody is going to call them out on it. However, if a nonprofit does the same thing, leaders of the nonprofit may get questioned in being good individuals. Fourth, is the time, people seem to just have more patience with for-profit companies than they do for nonprofit organizations. Fifth, the profit itself. it is easy for for-profit companies to attract people to their business with money. However, nonprofits cannot do that with their profits.

As a nonprofit donor, I could use this lesson to remember not to just focus on overhead costs. I should focus more on the scale of their dreams and how they measure their progress towards those dreams and what resources they need to make those dreams come true. The harder a nonprofit works towards making their group more of a movement than just a nonprofit organization, the better chances it gets in succeeding to create a healthier and more humane world.

Week Eight Reflection

In the eighth week, my class went over Corporate Social Responsibility–or CSR. I've studied Nadia Reckmann's article titled "What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?", watched a video on Business Case for Sustainability, viewed another video on Triple Bottom Line and Sustainability: The Science of Good Business, read an article on Driving Corporate Growth Through Social Impact, read The Broken "Buy-One, Give-One" Model: Three Ways To Save Toms Shoes, What are B Corps?, Why B Corps Matter, The B Corp Declaration, and of course, a TED Talk given by Paul Tudor Jones II titled Why We Need to Rethink Capitalism. There are a few key takeaways for this week. First of all, CSR encourages companies to improve their communities, the economy, or the environment. There are five ways they could do this and that is by promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace, treating employees with respect, giving back to the community, ensuring business decisions are ethical, and by being environmentally friendly and eco-conscious. There are four kinds of efforts in upholding CSR and that is by doing environmental initiatives, charity work, ethical labor practices, and volunteer projects. Some things to avoid with a CSR model are to not choose unrelated initiatives, don't use CSR as a marketing scheme, and don't wait for the industry to catch up. Lastly, CSR is for all businesses.

What I found rather eye opening and surprising from this week's studies is the impact Toms Shoes has made in third world countries. I thought giving away free shoes to villages and small towns would make things better. According to an article written by Cheryl Davenport titled, "The Broken 'Buy-One, Give-One' Model: Three Ways to Save Toms Shoes" the charitable company has done more harm than good to the communities in other countries. In fact, Cheryl has stated Toms wasn't really created to help bring people out of poverty. Instead, it was just another feel-good company western consumers participate in. Cheryl suggested Toms Shoes should better understand the problem, create a solution and not just a band-aid, and lastly, Toms Shoes should innovate business models, not marketing campaigns. I agree with Cheryl on the fact that Toms Shoes should source shoes from developing countries, small businesses and burgeoning entrepreneurs. I also agree on the fact Toms Shoes should not only give the gift of shoes, but to also help provide improved infrastructures and health facilities to reduce the risk of hook worms and other diseases.

Photo taken from Google Images

I think the reason why CSR has become more popular in recent years because society, as a whole, has become more environmentally-conscious. There are also more people standing up for their rights to a safer, cleaner work environment. CSR helps ensure companies fall in line with the new protocols and regulations to be more fair to everyone and provide a positive impact in the local communities. Being more environmentally-conscious and making workspaces a better, safer area for employees can save businesses money in the long run when done right.

Week Seven Reflection

In week seven, the subject was New Business Model and Lean Start-Up. I had the opportunity to read about The Lean Start-Up Methodology, Why The Lean Start-Up Changes Everything written by Steve Blank, A Better Way to Think About Your Business Model by Alexander Osterwalder, review A Better Way to Think About Your Business Model, and a TED Talk on Five Keys to Success for Social Entrepreneurs given by Llusi Pareras. One of the key takeaways I have gotten from this week's study is lean is about putting a process, a methodology around the development of a product.  There are five principles to remember such as entrepreneurs are everywhere, entrepreneurship is management, validated learning, innovation accounting, and build-measure-learn. There are five keys to success for social entrepreneur. The keys are they look at both the social impact and money at the same time, they are paranoid, they shout their existence to the world, they hate, and they know the real value of an idea. 

The thing that intrigued me most from this week's studies was the business model canvas. Sure, it confused me at first. In fact, it was a little overwhelming trying to take in all the details at once. But after I have taken a closer look and really deciphered each space, things began to click. There is this rectangle and it is filled with nine smaller rectangles and each one has a topic. These topics are Key Partners, Key Activities, Value Propositions, Customer Relationships, Customer Segments, Key Resources, Channels, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams. Key Partners has us consider who are our key partners, who are our key suppliers, which key resources are we acquiring from our partners, and which key activities do partners perform? Key activities has us ask what key activities do our value propositions require, what are our distribution channels, customer relationships, and revenue streams? Value Propositions has us consider what value do we deliver to the customer, which one of our customers' problems are we helping to solve, what bundles of products and services are we offering to each segment, which customer needs are we satisfying, and what is minimum viable product? Customer Relationships has us consider how do we get, keep, and grow customers, which customer relationships have we established, how are they integrated with the rest of our business model, and how costly are they? Customer Segments has us ask for whom are we creating value, who are our most important customers, and what are the customer archetypes? Key Resources has us consider what key resources do our value propositions require, our distribution channels, customer relationships, and revenue streams? Channels has us consider through which channels do our customer segments want to be reached, how do other companies reach them now, which ones work best, which ones are most cost-efficient, and how are we integrating them with customer routines? Cost structure has us ask what are the most important costs inherent to our business model, which key resources are most expensive, and which key activities are most expensive? Revenue streams has us consider for what value are our customers really willing to pay, for what do they currently pay, what is the revenue model, and what are the pricing tactics?

Sharpening my business skills can help me help others by allowing me to understand the financial side of things. Nothing is for free in this world, ever. Even if I may not have to pay for it, I still have to consider someone else must have paid for it and I should use the resources wisely and with gratitude. The skills I consider most important would have to be patience, staying organized, fulfill tasks in a timely manner, and a charismatic personality.