…sure enough, serendipity often is the story. By the end of the ’80s, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had realized, through rigorous analysis, that Microsoft needed to abandon its still-struggling new operation system, Windows, because of a memory flaw. They partnered up with IBM to develop OS/2, and decimated the Windows team. But a serendipitous, seemingly insignificant, meeting at a party on the Redmond campus between two people, David Weise and Murray Sargent (a non-employee stopping over en route to Germany) led to a teasing joke. That joke suggested a solution to Windows’ problem, and within the hour Weise and Sargent were sitting down to solve the flaw and fundamentally alter Microsoft’s future. Roughly nine months into Google’s existence, Sergei Brin and Larry Page realized they needed to choose between their company and their PhD work at Stanford. They decided to pursue their doctorates, and offered their search engine to Yahoo for $1 million. Yahoo declined (as did others). Lucky thing, that. And in 2004 Paolo Pellegrini, a VP at the investment bank Lazard Freres, was fired — then took on a low-level position at a hedge fund after a lucky phone call. The desperate-to-prove-himself banker found a chart that showed how the housing market was overpriced. His boss, John Paulson, bet large and made $15 billion in a year. “I love that chart,” Paulson would keep saying — but has proved unable to find more of them.

Our mind abhors these serendipitous explanations, and searches for convenient patterns instead. Ask for the keys to career success and you’ll get logical explanations, recommendations, pathways and approaches. Then ask someone how he or she became successful and suddenly it becomes a story of serendipitous encounters, unexpected changes in plans, and random consequences. It does not make sense to ignore this basic fact about success any longer.

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On Wednesday afternoon last week, Jeff Leitner paced the halls of Mass General Hospital—a high temple of centralized health care delivery—thinking about a problem at the heart of the health care system: how to make it easier to bring medicine to people who need it as opposed to the status quo, where hospitals and clinics are the norm?

Leitner isn’t a doctor, or hospital administrator, or a medical student: he’s a corporate organizational strategist turned consultant for social good. As the founder of the Chicago-based Insight Labs, it’s his job to collaborate with the “smartest people we can find from around the country” to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. It’s a nearly three-year-old project that turned into a full-time job and an official foundation last summer. In that short time, Leitner and his co-founder Howell J. Malham Jr. have already worked with organizations and companies like NASA, Ashoka, and Starbucks, to tackle problems within education, social investment, and design.

Congratulations to our friend Kari Litzmann on the launch of Rubina Magazine.

Rubina is a new kind of online shop that allows you to buy luxury hand-crafted accessories, while helping women artisans around the world. Rubina directly connects you with the artisans who make your products, allowing you to become active partners in building their businesses as they make positive change in their own communities. 

Despite the growing interest in social innovation among policymakers, foundations, researchers and academic institutions around the world, there is currently no common definition of social innovation, but rather a large number of different definitions in circulation.  Some of these are very specific and exclude many examples of social innovation, while others are so broad that they describe projects and organisations that are not particularly innovative, even if they are in some way social.

This is partly because social innovation is a practice-led field – understandings, definitions and meanings have emerged through people doing things in new ways rather than thinking about them in an academic way. And since the practice of social innovation looks and feels different in different fields, sectors and continents, it is not surprising that meanings and definitions vary.

While this openness and lack of clarity may be one reason that such a broad range of organisations and sectors have felt comfortable adopting the term and engaging in the debate surrounding it, we argue that reaching a common understanding of the term is critical if the field is to mature and develop further.

A major aim of the first stage TEPSIE project research was to develop a working definition of social innovation. We wanted to arrive at a definition that resonates with both practitioners as well as researchers, and so we looked at a wide rage of existing definitions in use.  Based on our research and review of current literature and practice, we have developed the following definition:

Social innovations are new solutions (products, services, models, markets, processes etc.) that simultaneously meet a social need (more effectively than existing solutions) and lead to new or improved capabilities and relationships and better use of assets and resources. In other words, social innovations are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act.

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Photo credit: The Highline and new residential buildings are changing the West Side. (Nancy Borowick)

The Far West Side’s transformation into the city’s 21st century hot spot is on the fast track, and Manhattanites can already see some of the changes.

For nearly 30 years, developers and city leaders pushed to change the once-industrial area into a tourist spot and a place where New Yorkers and businesses could find a home.

“I used to call it the city’s utility closet,” said Ann Weisbrod, president of Hudson Yards Development Corporation. “It provided the city with a lot of opportunities for people to build.”

Here’s a look at the major projects composing the “new” West Side:

Real Estate

Weisbrod said the city has long tried to develop the West Side, especially after the Jacob Javits Center on 11th Avenue opened in 1986. But there were too many hurdles, she said, including financial and zoning issues. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who represents the area, shared the Hudson Yards Development Corporation’s interest in revitalizing the area.

The mayor and City Council OKd two rezonings allowing residential and commercial buildings to replace industrial ones.

“Through much hard work and negotiation, we have been able to create an area of New York City that has embarked on a period of rational and exciting development,” Quinn said.

Gary E. Handel, the president of Handel Architects, which designed the Caledonia at West 17th Street and a residential tower at 505 West 37th Street, said the West Side inspired his team to create new designs that embraced the Hudson River.

In the past the “trend was to build away from the water; now it’s the other way,” he said.

Hudson Yards

The largest project for the area is the development of the Hudson rail yards on 34th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues. The 50-million-square-foot development will include 20,000 housing units, retail space, a hotel and 25 million square feet of office space. Demand for the real estate is already hot, Weisbrod said.

“There is a whole set of groups that are looking here. It’ll be a microcosm of a larger city as a whole,” she said.

Hudson Yards will also have 15 acres of green space that’s slated to open in 2014.

No. 7 Train

Extension

For years, the city and the MTA have been working to bring more transit to the West Side. By 2014, the goal is expected to be accomplished with the opening of a new No. 7 train stop at 11th Avenue and 34th Street. The MTA said construction of the $2.4 billion extension from Times Square is 74% complete and slated to be done by the end of next year.

Weisbrod said the train’s expansion is essential because all the amenities and great properties in the area are moot without efficient public transportation.

The exit for the 34th Street station will lead into Hudson Yard’s park and have a modern-designed stairway filled with artwork.

Highline

Of course, the West Side’s other big railroad project is already a popular attraction. There have been 10 million visitors to the Highline since its first section opened near Gansevoort Street in 2009, according to the mayor.

The elevated park sports great views of the Hudson and features special programs during the warmer months.

When it opens in 2014, the final part of the former railroad’s track near 34th Street will wrap around the Hudson Yards building to give visitors an elevated view of the brand new neighborhood.

“The rail yard’s section will extend and expand on the Highline’s distinct design,” the mayor said during the groundbreaking.

Weisbrod said the neighborhood’s revitalization could not have happened at a better time, since the city is experiencing a new boom of commercial, residential and lifestyle evolution.

“Nothing is as great as an idea whose time has finally come,” she said.

And let’s not forget about the Centre for Social Innovation. (ok this part was not part of the article but we are definitely excited to play a part in the West Side transformation)

Article Courtesy of am New York.

(Source: amny.com)

THE solution to rioting? Start an enterprise. Be creative, disruptive and ground-breaking. That’s what Boris Johnson, the mayor of London told the BBC on the anniversary of the London riots in early August.

For The Small Business Consultancy (TSBC), a social enterprise based in London, the riots did not come as a surprise. It has been working with delinquents and marginalised youth for several years, helping them weave themselves back into society. TSBC’s cure for disruptive behaviour? Entrepreneurship.

Amar Lodhia, the firm’s chief executive and founder, believes that young people of difficult backgrounds can turn into “income-generating assets” for the economy. But to do so, they need a lot of mentoring, at least in the beginning.

TSBC’s approach is four-pronged: provide a stable environment for entrepreneurs; grant them mentoring in their area of interest; reward them for work so that they leave their wayward ways behind; and build on their own aspirations.

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Image Source: The Economist

CSI was proud to be one of the sponsors at yesterday’s pitch competition at Columbia University’s Social Enterprise Conference.

By uniting industry experts, thought leaders and practitioners, the 2012 Social Enterprise Conference delved deeper into the ways leaders and managers can use strategy as a tool to maximize social change. There was a great sharing of success stories and challenges across a wide range of sectors and causes.

The newest version of the classic city building game is introducing complex models about things like energy, health care, and transportation. But you can also still destroy your city with an asteroid.

SimCity, a city-building simulation series that was first released in 1989, has always been a virtual sandbox for aspiring urban planners, with a seemingly endless array of options—you could lay down roads; zone houses, industrial complexes, and commercial real estate; put up nuclear power plants; adjust taxation; and more. In the end, you could destroy your whole empire with a UFO or a well-placed asteroid strike. The newest version of SimCity, set to be released in February 2013, retains most of the game’s previous elements (including its addictive quality) while bringing a whole new level of complexity to the tilt-shift inspired world. You might not even notice how Maxis is subtly teaching you about the pros and cons of renewable energy, preserving natural resources, and cooperating with neighboring cities. But it is.

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Today, a remarkable shift is underway. Brown and dozens of other universities across the country are part of a growing movement in higher education to make the social impact of their graduates a central institutional priority. One of the main organizations pushing this trend is Ashoka U, which has created the Changemaker Campus Consortium to recognize and support universities at the leading edge of this change.

Clearly, this is not just good news for the social sector but also for the business world. Businesses will increasingly have access to newly minted trained graduates – as well as re-tooled mid-career professionals – who have real-world experience as innovators, leaders, and managers and who focus on the social and environmental impact of their work.

And of course, it’s particularly good news for the next generation of social innovators, who can now graduate to a school of slightly softer knocks.

Read the full article.

Proud to be the grand prize sponsor at the Code for Change competition taking place amongst students at NYU…the competition kicked off today.

About the #codeforchange competition - NYU student software developers and designers will compete for $10,000 in prizes by creating apps and tech solutions to the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations and government agencies in New York and across the USA.   

The students will break into teams and have two-weeks to collaborate and build a functional product which addresses real world challenges pitched and faced by these 14 organizations.

The teams will unveil their products during Code for Change expo on October 12.