Bloom’s Guideline’s in Action: Spotlight on Heinz Alumnae

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at how to construct a viable idea in terms of social innovation. An idea in social innovation should respond to a pressing need, should solve a problem in a better way than previously done, and should have a framework for sustainability. While ideas are the start of any good initiative, it is important to recognize the complexity and challenges of going on to the next phase: creating and designing an actual venture.

The material in this class had a special place in PPIA’s latest alumni panel featuring three professionals working in international development. Alumnae Ermine Teves, Lingling Zhu, and Jenna Knapp, spoke about their experiences at their respective organizations, Tech Bridge World, Idea Foundry, and Thread International.  Their experiences showed how businesses could be designed and modeled in a way that “do good” for society. Tech Bridge World looks towards solving unique problems facing individuals with disabilities in the developing world through robotics and technology.  The Idea Foundry provides investment, training, and guidance to new businesses. Finally, Thread International provides job opportunities for people in Haiti and Honduras by collecting trash in order to produce textiles.

All these businesses and organizations provide unique examples to put Paul Bloom’s guidelines in “How to Take a Social Venture to Sale” into perspective. Bloom’s points were present in Teve’s, Zhu’s, and Knapp’s stories and experiences. 

Bloom’s points about staffing for example, resonate with Thread International’s journey: “It is hard to take a venture to the next level without knowing how to recruit, train, and retain talented people.” Knapp, as one of the founding members of the company, emphasized that when starting a business, you need “staff and money”, two scarce resources at the infant stages of a business. The Idea Foundry connected Thread with experts, which allowed Thread to make use of this service even though they did not have staff with specific experience.

The Idea Foundry, Thread, and Tech Bridge World all embody Bloom’s point about replication. As a research organization, Tech Bridge World continues to look at ways to use technology to serve the needs of individuals with disabilities. They research with the hopes of replicating these solutions around the world. Providing the necessary resources for businesses to grow, the Idea Foundry must be able to adapt its services with each case and must be able to replicate its results.

Bloom’s guidelines about stimulating market forces also resonated with the speakers’ insight about how to create sustainable change. Knapp and Zhu talked about how social awareness is now shaping the way individuals consume products. Form eating locally to buying fair trade, these consumer movements shape the demands of certain products. Thinking back to one of the core questions of this course—how do we create sustainable change?—Bloom’s article and the alumnae’s experiences imply that influencing the market, rather than work against it, could create positive, long-term results.