By Mayra Reyes at the Lang Center, Bottom Line.
Launched in 1999, The Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) is an innovative partnership between Columbia Business School, the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, London Business School, Yale School of Management, and the Indian School of Business. The competition aims to foster a new generation of business leaders that values the social as well as the profit potential of business. It achieves this goal by catalyzing and promoting for-profit and not-for-profit ventures that create and measure both social and financial returns.
On Friday, January 26th, over 40 student teams and social entrepreneurs gathered at the Business School for the Eighth Annual Mentor Day, the kickoff to the annual Global Social Venture Competition. Student social entrepreneurs, faculty, and administration partnered to facilitate the event, offering entrants the opportunity to network with potential mentors in the field. Mentor Day begins the process of finalizing the business plan in preparation for the semifinal judging round in March. Entrants are then selected to compete in the GSVC final event in April, where cash prizes will be awarded to the business plans showing the highest, most integrated financial and social returns as well as an award for Social Impact Assessment (SIA). Similar events are held at other partner schools.
Riddhi Doshi '08 facilitated the program and introduced Professor Murray Low, the executive director of the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, who offered welcoming remarks setting the tone for the event.
"Columbia Business School joined GSVC six years ago at a time when the topic of global warming was not at the forefront in the media. Today, the business world's perspective is shifting as companies look for ways to continue growing and make a contribution to the greening of our global environment. Columbia was among the pioneers in this field, looking at entrepreneurship as a developing field, constantly changing and redefining what success looks like to the world. Our purpose here is to identify those uncut diamonds and help turn them into gems."
Invited social entrepreneurs Andrea Miller '05 (from Out2Play) and Wanja Michuki '02 (from Highland Tea) shared their personal experiences as social entrepreneurs and how participating in the GSVC process helped fine-tune their business concept.
Anne Busquet of AMB Advisors, offered her expertise on how to make business plans more attractive to potentials investors.
"The entrepreneur's industry expertise and who is on his/her management team are very important to the success of the venture. For real estate, it is all about location, location, location. For entrepreneurs it is management, management, management."
Adjunct Professor Catherine Clark also presented a workshop on social impact analysis and building SROI (social return on investment). Entrants were given the opportunity to briefly pitch their ventures to the potential mentors in the room, allowing everyone the opportunity to survey all the concepts. Pitches included a venture poised to be the first e-commerce legal expungement internet site in the United States and a concept for organic/biodegradable disposable dinnerware. A reception wrapped up the day where mentors met the student entrepreneurs and suggested further improvements.
This year, the GSVC received 103 executive summary submissions representing eleven countries including Ghana, Switzerland, and India. Of the 103, 27 were submitted to participate at Columbia's GSVC Mentor Day.