I’d like to share a blog my friend Jake recently passed along, in particular, two posts relevant to IDG and the entire multiple bottom-line sector. Like true professors, it’s a thorough conversation, longer than most internet reading but correspondingly it offers more substance.
The first post I read was on Bill Gate’s recent “creative capitalism” speech on the blog. It’s been creating quite a stir especially since William Easterly wrote his op-ed “Why Bill Gates hates my book” in the Wall Street Journal responding to Gate’s recent speech.
The second post “On Corporate Altruism” contained perhaps the wisest sentence I read and perhaps the most self evident one too. While considering the need for creative capitalism, whether it’s practical, possible or perhaps even a bad idea, Becker writes,
“The real test is how viable such motives are in a competitive market environment where the competition also includes companies motivated only by profits.”
In a nutshell, this is IDG’s operating philosophy towards the social impact and multiple bottom-line businesses. Social and environmental impacts are terrifically important and should be defined by both entrepreneurs and investors. Using IDG to communicate impacts , both desired and offered, will drive this growing market for competitive social enterprise in India.