Podcasts at Impact Failure
More families having electricity at their homes. Fewer women and children suffering ill health from cooking due to open fires. People at the bottom of the economic pyramid getting access to micro-finance as well as lifting themselves out of poverty. Such are the measure of success in the social impact sector, which has delivered a multitude of inspiring case studies.
But along the route, scratch the surface of success and you are likely to find a series of failures, big and small. In a series of conversations with the participants from the Impact Failure Conclave, some of the best known social entrepreneurs speak frankly about identifying the source of failure, taking difficult decisions, and what it takes to get back on your feet or indeed admit defeat and move on.
Each podcast offers numerous insights on the roles that different actors play in social impact — from entrepreneurs and technical experts to policy makers, funders and financial institutions. Collectively, they add up to generate a rich resource of the lessons learned and the new ways that lie ahead.
SELCO Foundation wishes to thank the DOEN Foundation for supporting this podcast series, hosted by Marilyn Smith of The Energy Action Project (EnAct).
Harish Hande and Thomas Pullenkav
Dive into the crisis that arose when SELCO Foundation had achieved enough success to attract large donors. Learn what happened when people unfamiliar with the local context — and the company’s most important assets — began to set strategies for scaling up and branching out, within India and abroad. An important discussion about who should define success, and on what grounds.
Vijay Mahajan and MS Sriram
They had set out to bring microfinance to India, specifically to support livelihoods. BASIX, the program they launched, offered access to capital as well as technical and business training. Within a short time, BASIX had millions of customers faithfully repaying loans: now imagine the shock of learning that many of them were no better off than before. And then the tsunami hit: as lending to the poor became profitable, competition grew stiff and then a policy change- ending the viability of the BASIX model. Complete failure? Or some success amid the rubble? Listen in to decide for yourself.
Anshu Gupta and Bezwada Wilson
From a community belonging to an Indian society that has failed for centuries: these speakers being part of the Conclave says loads about their success. A frank discussion highlights the many barriers that have undermined their efforts to lift entire castes out of extreme poverty. Anshu launched GOONJ as a means of turning donated goods into currency that enables the poor to solve their own problems. Bezwada is fighting to end the
practice of ‘manual scavenging’ — a phrase that masks the awful work of cleaning toilets, outhouses and sewers.
Rohini Nilekani
Coming Soon
Brings the perspectives of having been both a serial social entrepreneur and a major donor to the discussion of failure. A self-proclaimed risk-taker, she’s learned to recognise signs that a venture is failing and taken the difficult decision to pull the plug. Now, having signed with her husband onto The Giving Pledge, she faces a new challenge of dedicating substantial
resources they acquired by founding InfoSys to social initiatives. A key part of their strategy, through is to create a Societal Platform that boosts the likelihood of many more projects succeeding. Rohini shares key insights into Indian philosophies associated with the concept of development — important listening for Western philanthropists.
Priya Karve and Veena Joshi
Takes us through the story of a chronic failure: decades of effort by thousands of people to get clean cookstoves into the homes of billions of poor women. Both physicists by training, they admit that the focus on technically efficient stoves misses the point. Until we understand what, why and how women cook, and what traits they would value in a cleaner option, the risk shall remain that high-quality stoves would one day wind up as planters or trash bins.
Philip Varnum & Jeffrey Prins
Can funders fail? Philip Varnum of The Lemelson Foundation and Jeffrey Prins of the IKEA Foundation took to heart some valid criticisms that Conclave participants raised regarding the role of funders. Perhaps most important was the question of what measures of success they ask grantees to apply and why? And are they making it impossible for social entrepreneurs to move from setbacks to success? Will the Conclave change their role?
