It’s hard to let this story pass by. A “Green Group” of activist organizations invited in to pass on the largest buyout in history - a $45 billion purchase of TXU Corporation, a Texas energy firm by Kohlberg, Kravitz, Roberts and Company (KKK) and Texas Pacific Group. As NY Times business writer Andrew Sorkin put […]

World Changing has more on ways to unlock social value through new kinds of currency. I also talked to an old business associate, James Fierro, of Recipco, a major barter exchange, about the same topic on Friday. They are looking to to use barter as a way to deliver but unused but needed capacity (unsold […]

The challenges we face in our economies and societies in our divided unsustainable world are perhaps greater than at any other time. These challenges have arisen because of how we have been trained to think, plan and act as individuals and how we have applied this training to the way we organise and govern ourselves. […]

Berkshire-Hathaway owns a piece of Chinese oil company PetroChina, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned oil company, CNPC. It in turn has a 40 percent stake in a Sudanese oil venture…about $16 Billion USD. I find the attached discussion of Berkshire’s rationale for not divesting, and counter argument, quite interesting. It gives a deep insight […]

I’ve got an interesting gig coming up; I’m going to have a one on one with Craig Barrett, Intel’s CEO to talk about venture capital investing in the developing world. It’s got me thinking.

One thing I know; syndication and co-investing in the developing world means working with multiple forms of capital. For example, I think […]

Here’s an Aspen Institute report on new structures for hybrid enterprises…check it out.

“In late 2006, the Aspen Institute gathered more than 40 attorneys, investors, finance and tax consultants, and social entrepreneurs to address the challenges social entrepreneurs face in structuring and financing their “hybridized” work. Most of the group embraced the idea of creating a […]

This study basically puts forward that the delicate balance between two major groups of microfinance lenders is faltering. “For many years, the roles played by government donor agencies—or International Financial Institutions (IFIs)—and private lenders complemented each other in the microfinance sector: IFIs supported newer, riskier microfinance institutions (MFIs) until they grew stable enough for […]

I got a lesson from my friend Dwight Wilson last night over a beer. He was telling me about the results from the early months of OneRoof’s telecenter franchise businesses in India. Besides internet access and a space for ngo’s to meet, they have discovered a lucrative opportunity in training people on computer skills to […]

Lucy Bernholz, an influential consultant author and blogger on new philanthropy, has built one of the richest and most interconnected maps I’ve seen in a while. So I’m awarding her the first blog of the week award. Prizes to be named later. It’s really gratifying when someone who’s such a central node in the […]

My buddies Bart Houlahan and Jay Coen Gilbert are on time with the beta of their B Corporation effort and I think it rocks. I am so glad somebody is doing what they are doing, and doing it in such a rapid, rush to market, entrepreneurial way.

What are they doing? Two things. The first is […]