For my most up-to-date postings on world-changing business ideas, please see my new blog:

There I’ve collected all the posts from MBA to Change the World? and am adding new sections and posts related to business growth and new ventures. I think you’ll enjoy it!

When you have 35 minutes to be inspired, please watch this “box of slides” with Bill Strickland. As I listened to his presentation, I felt invited to dream bigger and accomplish more than I’ve ever believed possible. The sheer scale and magnitude of impact this man has had – on the people in his school, on his funders, on his business partners, and on his friends in every town – convinces me I can do more with my own life too.

from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

I first came across this stunning technology demonstration this summer while working at Hillcrest Labs. Now, with Microsoft putting a sweet offer on the table to buy Yahoo (and Yahoo’s Flickr site), the consumer possibilities of Photosynth become outrageous. Virtual Earth + Flickr + Photosynth = Stunning.

from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

Chris Jordan presents an evocative series of wall-sized prints that beautifully convey a tragic story. See more of this and other series at http://www.chrisjordan.com/

from www.frogdesign.com posted with vodpod

I live just across town from William McDonough, but this is as close as I’ve seen him. He’s the creator and advocate of Cradle to Cradle design – a design methodology which he describes in application to product design, material selection, and even urban planning in China.

from www.ted.com

I recently read “Eva Luna” by Isabel Allende – a book that has become infinitely more moving after seeing Isabel in this live presentation. She illuminates the great power of storytelling for social change and inspiration. Interestingly, someone pointed out how devoid current political debates or the State of the Union address have been in good storytelling.

from www.ted.com posted with vodpod

When a hotel executive asked me recently what I would do to communicate the hotel’s sustainability initiatives to current and future customers, I proposed that the hotel explicitly abandon trying to advertise and promote its actual green activities to focus more on the emotional goodwill of sustainability through story telling and interactive displays – allowing guests to touch and feel (with hands and heart) the ways the world could be a better place.

The hotel industry is in a bit of a marketing quagmire when it comes to demonstrating their green-ness to customers. Most of its sustainability efforts take place out of view of the customer experience, meaning the hotels are often unable to capitalize on their success in limiting resource consumption through enhanced customer experience and brand perception. While in-room services allow guests to participate in greener efforts by washing linens less frequently, a hotel that devotes staff to purchasing local produce, recycles grey water, and invests in green architecture often has trouble connecting those efforts with the “feel good” goodwill that could come with more visible green efforts.

The hotel executive surprised me with his response. Instead of critiquing the concept, he asked, “What do we do next? Assume that succeeds, what’s next?”

I told him I would want him to stop competing on green alone, because green is not the only color his company wants to preserve. From the emerald hills of Ireland, to the red tulips of Holland, to the Caribbean blues of St. Lucia, there’s a whole world of colors we want to sustain – for the world and for our children.

The value creators in our new economy are providing exceptional experiences by outperforming their niche in an industry network or tying together the nodes of the network and packaging the whole thing in innovative ways.

As part of my recent course at Darden on Innovation and Integration in Services – The New Economy, I made observations on a number of innovations as examples of value creation in this flat, networked world. This is my submission on Miriam’s Kitchen.

THE SERVICE

This organization falls strongest in the “Make Their Day” and “Be There” categories of the Fish! Philosophy. Miriam’s Kitchen, a provider of meals and additional services to homeless people in Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC

HOW IS IT INNOVATIVE? WHY DID IT GRAB YOUR ATTENTION?

Miriam’s Kitchen is noteworthy for a number of characteristics. It has always used hot meals as a way to gather people who could benefit from the area’s social services and introduce those services in a non-threatening manner. In that sense, the dining room aggregates a target audience and makes additional, highly valuable services know. Second, Miriam’s Kitchen attracted a great New York chef to run the soup kitchen. His culinary smarts have helped form food partnerships with local distributors and restaurants who now provide unsold fruits, vegetables, and other delicious but perishable items. The chef then uses these ingredients to enhance otherwise mundane food offering at the kitchen, providing high quality food for the guests at this kitchen.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM OR ISSUE ADDRESSED?

Serving food to homeless people can become a thankless job if you do not see progress in the guests’ lives. Miriam’s Kitchen infuses meals for homeless folk with caring and genuine support, attracting more volunteer and staff workers to the kitchen and more candidates for additional services to the dining room.

IS THERE A CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT, OR TREND THAT CREATED THE OPPORTUNITY? OR, IS IT JUST NEW THINKING?

The idea that homeless people deserve gourmet food preparation might be seen as impossible on limited budgets by some and socially or politically repugnant by others. Miriam’s Kitchen serves its guests with the dignity and respect of human equals, in a way that demonstrates the sincere desire to assist the guests without being demeaning.

WHAT ARE TRANSFERABLE QUALITIES TO OTHER CATEGORIES?

It takes just a simple creative step to turn ordinary into extraordinary. At Miriam’s Kitchen, that means transforming ordinary pancakes into extraordinary mixed berry pancakes bursting with fresh fruit. But people recognize extraordinary and they appreciate it so much.

DOES THIS SUPPLANT A PREVIOUS SOLUTION? WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IS THIS DISPLACING?

For Miriam’s, the problem is how to connect beneficial social services with the clients who will benefit from them. By making a special breakfast each morning, the people of Miriam’s are already demonstrating they care about the people they are serving. This creates the opportunities to “market” additional services that can truly transform someone’s life, be it through addiction recovery, job training and placement, or referrals to health care or other needs.

ANY OTHER POINTS WORTH MAKING:

Social services is not often considered glamorous, and food at homeless kitchens is often forced to be economical before nutritious or pleasing. Miriam’s Kitchen has used some creative, passionate people to transform the purpose and execution of the soup kitchen.

The global economy continues to undergo seismic shifts. Previous vertically integrated industries became segmented by horizontal service providers, then disjointed as loosely connected networks of service providers. The value creators in the new economy are providing exceptional experiences by outperforming their niche in the network or tying together the nodes of the network and packaging the whole thing in innovative ways.

As part of my recent course at Darden on Innovation and Integration in Services – The New Economy, I made observations on a number of innovations as examples of value creation in this flat, networked world. This is my submission on Zillow.com and the “web 2.0-ing” of real estate.

THE SERVICE

Zillow.com: online, satellite imagery-enabled web site for real estate listings, guides, and discussion.

HOW IS IT INNOVATIVE? WHY DID IT GRAB YOUR ATTENTION?

Zillow.com combined the mass of information on residential real estate, including public appraisals, tax records, and sales records, to provide the most innovative website for real estate listings since Realtor.com. Users can search by various purchase criteria (price, square footage, home features, zip code, specific street, etc.) and find a zoomable satellite map with currently listed properties highlighted, a pricing chart for local real estate prices over time, recent sales data, and user-generated “Make Me Move” prices for homes that aren’t even for sale – but could be for the right price!

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM OR ISSUE ADDRESSED?

Residential real estate is notorious for its maligned gatekeepers: the Realtors. Since so much of the information surrounding residential real estate is publicly accessible and now coming online, Zillow.com aggregates this information to provide a powerful research base for real estate buyers and sellers. Zillow.com represents a triumph of three “flatteners” in particular: The Age of Connectivity, Uploading, and Informing.

IS THERE A CHANGE, DEVELOPMENT, OR TREND THAT CREATED THE OPPORTUNITY? OR, IS IT JUST NEW THINKING?

The confluence of Internet-accessible public records relating to real estate, geo-spatial satellite imagery, and popularity of crowd-sourcing has made Zillow.com one of the top 400 websites in the US. Its national reach reveals its ambitions to bring top local marketplace information to every local marketplace in the country – and perhaps the world.

WHAT ARE TRANSFERABLE QUALITIES TO OTHER CATEGORIES?

Zillow.com is a prime example of a localized service using a globally-connected network and massively distributed information. By providing real value-added insight into local market conditions, Zillow.com has situated itself as a must-stop destination for home shoppers – if only for local real estate comparables. Traders of other local assets with difficult market appraisals but vast information – such as local produce, automobiles, small businesses, dinner reservations, gasoline, haircuts, etc – could borrow this map-driven interface loaded with telling information that generates a basic spot price for the goods in question.

DOES THIS SUPPLANT A PREVIOUS SOLUTION? WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IS THIS DISPLACING? (Think about The Innovators’ Dilemma)

For many, this solution displaces nights at the county records office or desperate conversations with unscrupulous realty agents. Zillow.com provides much of the publicly-available real estate market information to any Internet-connected computer, informing the consumer with the most up-to-date analysis of real estate market conditions. It certainly ups the ante for the real estate professional.

ANY OTHER POINTS WORTH MAKING:

Zillow markets its services in true Web 2.0 fashion – by giving it away for free. Its advertising-supported business model requires it to produce the most consumer-demanded information in order to drive traffic, then to create a marketplace for real estate services within its site. Startup firm Redfin.com has taken the Zillow model a step further – by adding full, online realty agent services to buy and sell properties. Other prominent industry websites, including Yahoo! Real Estate, are now providing embedded versions of Zillow’s valuations and other data.

Innovation and Integration in Services – The New Economy is a second-year MBA course taught by George Barbee, a Batten Fellow and lecturer at the Darden Graduate School of Business.

Originally published May 30, 2007 at dolechester.mbablogs.businessweek.com.

Microfinance, venture philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship have been generating good buzz for several years now, and I’ve learned a fair amount about the topics in the halls of Darden. But it wasn’t until last week that I actually heard eyewitness accounts of the successes of a microlending organization and connected real stories and pictures with small business loans, business training, and community development efforts in foreign countries.

I attended a reception at the home of Phillip Merrick, an important Washington area businessman, to hear his account of a trip he made with his wife to Africa. The Merricks traveled explicitly to meet clients of Five Talents International, a microlending and business training organization with some roots in the Anglican church and office in Vienna, VA. While Philip’s heart is certainly big, the purpose of his trip was to assess the bottom line of loans made to Five Talents’ clients in Africa.

A Kenyan newspaper – what Philip called the domestic equivalent of a Wall Street Journal – captured his attention as soon as he arrived at the airport. “3.5 Million Lifted From Poverty” read a headline, touting the effects of small business investments made in the country. I got to hear stories of several of the special individuals who have been part of the rising tide.

One woman began a brick-making operation, taking out a loan of roughly $150 to buy brick molds and hire a few laborers. Her business is booming and she is now supplying bricks for her burgeoning town – which counts the bricks an improvement from previous building materials used widely.

A man took out a $150 loan (or thereabouts) to purchase two pigs, which went on to have piglets. He was able to sell several and raise the others, profiting from both decisions. He took out additional loans for a tilapia farm, cows, and goats, building “an integrated, diversified agricultural business” in Philip’s admiring words. Applying loans totaling less than $600, this man has built a sustaining, profitable business that is providing for himself and his family – including his 12 children which all are able to attend private school and gain greater hope for their own futures.

One of the statistics offered by Five Talents was that, for every individual they lend to, six people are provided for – providing real measurement of changed lives and impact of borrowed dollars on a bottom line of profound meaning.

Folks from Five Talents also described the opportunities they create to connect successful businesspeople from America with “business missions” in their lending markets – sending eager folks like you and me to provide training programs in marketing, entrepreneurship, management and administration to the clients of Five Talents.

If you’re excited about the prospects of microlending, I definitely recommend contacting the folks at Five Talents to find out how to become personally involved – whether through lending or by contributing your own time to train small business owners in good business practices. If you’re a business school student, you might invite them to speak at your school for a Net Impact, social entrepreneurship, microfinance, or angel investment group; I hope to have them speak at Darden this coming fall.