In the wake of system-wide underinvestment in the talent gap, IB funders and practitioners are nonetheless innovating solutions

Story highlights

The inclusive business sector requires traditional business skills, a passion for impact, skills unique to IB and a diversity of talent to match the diversity of the markets it serves

In keeping with the entrepreneurial spirit of the IB world, practitioners are innovating ways to address the talent gap from individual company initiatives to scalable, system-wide solutions

For system-wide solutions to take hold, the sector must invest in understanding—and developing best practices—to address these common talent challenges

Our traditional and non-traditional educational systems are taking up the cause to transform their programmes to adequately train the next generation to be thriving IB investors, practitioners, and leaders

As Ross School of Business professor and researcher Ted London shares in his CLUED-iN interview, humility is the first best practice for companies working at the Base of the Pyramid. And yet, “humility training” does not rise to the top of the list of topics covered by mainstream business education and talent development programmes. This disconnect extends beyond humility to the many skills and capabilities that the IB sector needs to grow, scale, and drive impact.

In true IB fashion, practitioners and funders are making do—tackling the talent gap through system-wide and company-wide efforts alike. While a cultural phenomenon might be at play, driving this sector to do more with less, serious attention and investment should be paid to scaling those training and education models that can adequately develop that is so desperately needed.

To help us understand more about the talent gap and how it is affecting businesses at scale, the Skoll Foundation partnered with USAID, Mercy Corps, and The Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University to tackle the topic as part of their Scaling Pathways series. While they will be officially releasing a report of their findings next month, for this issue of the magazine, researchers Erin Worsham (CASE) and Amanda West (Mercy Corps) compiled insights from leading social enterprises into managing talent at scale. Also recognising the system-wide talent challenges that small and growing inclusive businesses faces, the Argidius Foundation and Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) launched a talent challenge in 2016, the learnings from which Caren Holzman shares following over two years of implementation. These insights and learnings will begin to form the foundation of best practices that the IB sector can build on.

Meanwhile, two organizations—the African Management Initiative (AMI) and TheBoardroom Africa—have gotten to work on developing scalable solutions of their own. AMI is focused on disrupting the mainstream “training workshop” paradigm, as CEO and Co-Founder Rebecca Harrison puts it, by developing a new, promising practice-based model of entrepreneurship training in partnership with researchers from MIT. TheBoardroom Africa has set its sights on increasing the amount of exceptional female talent serving on boards across sectors and across Africa, a strategy that in turn will increase diversity on the executive teams of businesses across the continent. Founder Marcia Ashong believes this work is part of a “movement…for women and men to lead side by side.”

Because inclusive business does not currently benefit from traditional recruiting methods—and instead often depends on referrals—two companies have developed their own internal solutions for identifying talent. Essilor, a global vision care company, has increasingly been serving the Base of the Pyramid, leading to many learnings which their Vice President, Anurag Hans, shares with readers. To tackle the talent gap, his team developed the Essilor BoP Fellowship Program, which not only bring the team “fresh ideas and insights” but allows them to identify talent. Similarly, LGT Impact Ventures recognised that their portfolio companies—all purpose-driven—were struggling to identify management talent to support growth. Through the creation of the LGT Impact Fellows Programme, the company has been able to help their portfolio companies get the impact-focused talent they need. While LGT Ventures does not intend to scale this initiative, Associate Director Marc Moser believes that more investors and funders need to offer this kind of support.

Traditional and non-traditional education platforms are also focused on equipping the next generation of changemakers with the skills and capabilities they need to bridge the gap. Amy Ahearn explains how freely accessible, online courses offered by +Acumen have been focused on filling skill gaps in human-centred design and systems thinking, for example—both of which are needed in inclusive business. Traditional education systems, like the MBA, are also responding to the changing needs for different skills and capabilities. Claire Sommer shares the journey of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative, including their Dean’s and Directors Cohort, which is aimed at innovating for global responsibility. One such success story is the Grossman School of Business’s Sustainable Innovation MBA programme at the University of Vermont, which former co-director Stuart Hart explains “chang[es] the horse instead of the saddlebags” thereby transforming traditional business education to solve “systemic, global challenges.”

Dig into this issue of CLUED-iN to get inspired and glean insights and actions for you to bring back to your company or project!

The Forgotten Capital: Human Capital for Scaled Impact | SkollWF 2019:

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Essilor's BOP Fellowship Program

Book: The Base of the Pyramid Promise (Ted London)