Guest Blogger's blog

Yves Salama, CEO of CharityMatrix

Who could have anticipated that Starbucks would open 50+ stores in France, home of the original cafè crème, but not in Italy, home of the original latte? While Starbucks adopted the Italian model (coffee as a social event) to the U.S. and 43 other countries, they could not improve the experience for Italians.  Streamlining the business process to make it portable and adaptable to other areas requires that evaluation include the context: the region or culture. 

Yves Salama, CEO of Charity Matrix

It's hard to imagine an inaugural conference spurring more thought, discussion and contacts than spurred by the Social Impact Exchange Conference on bringing nonprofit innovation to scale. That all participants are eager for the follow-up next year is undeniable. The question is where will the conversation pick up? Will it take off from where it ended on June 18, or leapfrog to encompass ideas generated during the next 12 months?

By Yves Salama, CEO of Charity Matrix

At the Social Impact Exchange Conference: Taking Innovation to Scale, the panel discussion on Impact Investing (investing for both a financial and a social return) brought to light two interesting problems:

Gayle A. Brandel, President/CEO, Professionals for NonProfits

As I listened to the impressive speakers at the Social Impact Exchange Conference: Taking Successful Innovation to Scale, I was excited by what I heard. In particular, I was awed by the outstanding nonprofits that successfully serve various communities in the most amazing ways and are now planning to expand their services and mission to larger communities.

by Judith E. Katz, On Target Strategies

As a new board member with a young charter organization, I was eager to attend the Youth and Education Knowledge Session at the Social Impact Exchange Conference on Scaling. I wanted to understand what the government and three key education-reform investors would look for as we scaled our program.

By Judith E. Katz, On Target Strategies

If you weren’t at the 2010 Inaugural Social Impact Exchange Conference on Scaling this week, you might think those of us who attended were planning our first trek to Everest as we spoke about the need for flexibility, capacity building, adequate staffing and thinking exponentially. And that might be because the same passion, focus, absolute command of the basics and program details along with commitment to data based analytics is absolutely necessary for the successful replication of social programs as it is for a mountain trek. This is not a rubber stamp activity. 

The world has finally realized that the way creative people think is a process that can be applied to problems throughout an organization, not just in the design department.

By Michael Davidson

How best to utilize an incredible source of board leaders – young entrepreneurs – was brought to my attention by a Governance Matters panel on New Energy: Intergenerational Boards That Work.

By Michael Davidson, October 05, 2009 

• Conflicts of Interest
• Whistle Blower Protection
• Document Retention and Destruction
• Executive Compensation
• Accounting Procedures

By Howard Levy 

People often say that they wish they knew “how to network.” There’s no doubt that networking is an essential component of success. What surprises me, however, is the extent to which many people think of networking as some sort of exotic art (it’s not) or something that’s only taught in business school (it isn’t).