Now everyone is on sale

Holy Shit. Now we have a Social Media Exchange called Empire Avenue. It means we can all become millionaires by trading our friends and families to earn virtual money and grow our portfolio and find out our net worth on social media and stuff. Which means we're all on sale. Damn.

Now why on earth would I want to trade my friends and families for virtual money and trading them like equity shares? Am sure there are plenty of people who would do that but ewwww... why? Anyways. I have to sign in and check out to find out more, how it works. They've a detailed FAQs which explains how things work. Maybe there is something in this which will transform our future. You'll never know until you've burnt your fingers. And that's exactly what I'm going to do now. You can check out too.

Future.ly - Mapping global innovations

Here is Future.ly. They are mapping global innovations from everywhere. Great initiative. If you're an innovation freak and wanting to find out what cool things happening around the world in sustainability, social causes, CSR, Green projects etc., Future.ly is the place to be in. Good work guys. Cheers.

London Olympics vs ICC World Cup

Just received a spam mail asking me to submit my CV for the London Olympics. So I went to the website to figure out more. The official website of London Olympics 2012 also has a section where they're seeking involvement from people to collaborate and participate in making the 2012 Olympics a grand success. They also have a dedicated section, giving details about tickets sales. Clearly someone is doing the right thinking and going about executing it to perfection. The best part, they're transparent, like it should be.

Now look at us in India. We're holding the ICC World Cup. Go to the website and you see the difference. Bad website. Hardly any information. Poor user experience. Absolutely no buzz. Not much talks about cricket in the cafes or college canteens. BCCI/ ICC didn't bother involving people before the games. No collaboration, no jobs for talented young people for making the games a grand success. Instead cops are beating up people waiting outside the stadiums to buy tickets. I mean, come'on. Even sports is corrupt in India. But why on earth is has to be like this? Why?

You see, success of a game depends as much on the level of involvement the organizing committee can create even before the games start. Thats why FIFA/ Wimbledon/ Olympics are so successful every time. the passion and dedication of the organizing committee to involve people right from the very beginning. Simple lessons for us to learn and then implement those learnings. Sports engage people. Sports brings people together. So why take that extra effort in alienating people and driving them away instead of making them partners? Yes I do feel very sad at the state of affairs in my country.

Mashing up Micro-Credit, Economic Crisis, Social Media and everything in between – Part 2

In my previous post I tried to position micro-finance/ micro-credit as an alternative to traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds. So far the feedback has been very positive from Drew, Charles, Kyle. As I explore the subject, I am becoming more convinced that Green Money, Social Capital and Social Investment will emerge as new frontiers and it will happen faster than everybody thinks. Mirco-finance and social media will join hands to create a greater movement within the finance and banking segment. We don’t need to wait for the economic crisis to recover. There are high chances of smaller P2P Micro-credit services being bought over by bigger banks. Maybe most micro-finance institutions will give up their NGO status to become mainstream and integrated within the banking system. For that matter, banking regulation for micro-finance will become more structured and move away from the flat interest rate, the norm today.

We are already seeing a lot of integration between green economy, green business, fair trade, micro-entrepreneurs, micro-loans, tactical philanthropy etc. taking place. Though bigger banks will still have greater control but smaller and nimbler MFI’s will be in a better position to gather millions of customers in a short time. These customers may not be the most potential banking clients but large numbers do have their own merits. This is where social network and social media will start playing a larger role. Social organization or ventures backed with social capital from social investors will emerge as a new way of doing business. Shareholders will look for better Return on Involvement instead of greater return on investment.

I was not shocked when I read this article today. “If we do no take measures, there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications,” Robert Zoellick said. The World Bank’s warning of human catastrophe in the world’s poorest countries and an extra 53 million people at risk of extreme poverty is a good indicator of days to come. Now, I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer but things are worse. 53 million people in less than a year??

Wonder, what measures they can take unless they are ready to change their attitude and outlook about the fundamental principles of banking. And isn’t that fundamental principle of banking somewhere rooted in to the ‘social-wellness’ of economic prosperity?

Change is difficult, especially when it is from Social-Illness to Social Wellness. In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt mentioned that economists love incentives. Isn’t ‘Social-wellness’ a bigger incentive for bankers given that they almost drove 53 million people to extreme poverty? What better incentive can be other than instilling confidence and gaining loyalty of these very same people? Loyalty can be regained if these very people pushed at the edge of poverty had the opportunity to build something meaningful, with the assistance of other ‘good doers’ and financial support. In this case micro-financial support. The incentive for micro-finance is not to make huge profits but make the world a better place. And maybe its time for the banks to realize the mess they have created and get their acts together before a full blown ‘human catastrophe’ takes place. If the banks don’t get their acts together, people will take up the cause, they have already done it before but this time they will do it with gutso and what a shame for big multinational banks that will be.

Disruption thrives on chaos and we are living at a very chaotic time. People all over the world are getting into this act of doing good. Like I mentioned earlier, only micro-finance institutes along with social media (whatever you want to call it…) has the power to bring 5 billion people together at any given time to change the world of banking. Someone will surely take that leap very soon and disrupt the banking category like never before...

Coming up next week, interview with the two young Directors of Veecus, Mr. Clemént Carjat and Baptiste Fabre who has the potential to disrupt the status quo.

Do let me know what you think. Please do share your thoughts. I know I am everywhere but thats what I mentioned in the first place - 'and everything in between.'

Mashing up Micro-Credit, Economic Crisis, Social Media and everything in between – Part 1

In the last 15 days I’ve been working on a project about micro-credit. A client approached our agency and I’ve been entitled to handle the pitch. The subject is actually heavy and tiring and given it’s printemps out here and the weather is beautiful and I have to work late everyday while others are enjoying the sun, the cafés and the skimpy cladded Parisien women, concentration on subject matters like micro-credit becomes little difficult. Not that I don’t like the banking and financial category, it’s too complex for a non-economist poor planner like me. Obviously being as ignorant as I can be, I tried to read as much possible on micro-finance, micro-credit, the impact of economic crisis, world poverty, social media, social investment, civic banking, ethical economy, triple bottom line, corporate philanthropy, Grameen Bank, SKS Microfinance, Mohammed Yunus, Jonathan Morduch, Microplace etc. phew. Honestly too much information for my half-wit brain to process in such a short span of time.

I ended having lots of unanswered questions. So, I thought its better to put everything up here for discussion and someone among you might be able to enlighten me in the process.

The objective of micro-finance is to provide financial access to all people living on the edge of poverty and eventually eradicating poverty from the face of earth. Micro-credit (under micro-finance) helps build micro-entrepreneurs, generate employment for the poor and make them self-sustainable to handle difficult times of their lives. So, microcredit is a tool for socio-economic development.

However marco-banks (read Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, UBS, AIG, Citi) have proved us how they can push the middle-class on the verge of poverty instead of eradicating it. The global financial crisis is slowly manifesting itself across the globe and the impact is becoming clearer by sweeping away firms, mines, jobs, revenues, and livelihoods. What an irony. The microfinance sector is trying to eradicate poverty while global banking segment is making us the people poorer. The recent economic crisis will leave more than 20 million jobless by the end of 2009 according to ILO. In a world inhabited by 9 billion, more than 1.4 billion people are already living under extreme poverty on the sidelines of the global economic crisis. By end of the year more gets added to that number.

Anyways. My concern at the moment is whether the banking segment re-invents itself? If yes, how? Is there a place for ethical economy in the world of finance and banking plagued with growth, gross product and greed? The more we invest in Micro-lending, the more individuals will be working toward bettering our economy as a whole. Will larger banks and corporations start looking at micro-finance seriously?

Forbes magazine said that "microfinance has become a buzzword of the decade, raising the provocative notion that even philanthropy aimed at alleviating poverty can be profitable to institutional and individual investors." There signs of things happening. Members Project from AmEx par exemple. So my first reaction is micro-finance is one very important segment that will indeed see growth and integration within the larger system.

Microfinance institutes benefits from these close ties with their local communities, from knowing their borrowers well, from having an ownership structure that includes shareholders with a strong interest in their well-being, from conforming to local financial regulations and from making good use of local savings. In India, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) finances more than 500 banks that on-lend funds to self-help groups (SHGs). Nearly 1.4 million SHGs comprising approximately 20 million women now borrow from banks, which make the Indian SHG-Bank Linkage model the largest microfinance program in the world. Microfinancing also helps in the development of an economy by giving everyday people the chance to establish a sustainable means of income. Eventual increases in disposable income will lead to economic development and growth.

It’s a kind of offline version of Social Networking. And since big banks didn’t show much interest or help MFI, P2P based institutes like Kiva, Babyloan, Veecus, Microplace etc. gained prominence and started growing. Individual investors and common people understood the importance while banks kept showing their reluctance. Suddenly the whole world of banking got affected by so called Web 2.0, Social Networking, and Digital Media. The internet is now giving birth to new concepts like social investing, social finance, and social budgeting tool. Social Picks, Bull Poo, Green Sherpa, Geezeo. List is endless. Bankers better take noice.

Companies like Virgin Money, Globe Funders are changing the way banking is seen. Will the growing apathy of people towards our banking system force them to re-look at Ethical Economy seriously? I mean people are buying only ethical coffee so why not start focusing on ethical economy sooner. Will traditional banks adapt to these new changes? Yes, I am aware of the fact that this economic crisis will have a major impact of P2P lending platforms like Kiva, Babyloan etc. but I also have a feeling that individual investors driven by their passion of ‘doing good’ to society will keep recycling their money they have already put. And the numbers will grow by the end of this year. That’s because they will find micro-investment a less volatile investment option rather than just sitting on the money or taking up other high risk investment decisions. Micro entrepreneurs participate in micro economies, which are in part fueled by micro loans. This is one system that benefits all. Though it’s a lengthy process of return on investment but it is indeed a right step in the right direction.

I wanted to put these questions out there for discussion. Will small investors start looking at microcredit and micro-lending as a serious alternative to mutual funds, bonds and stocks? Who will social media influence people in social investments or social companies with micro entrepreneurs from poor regions of the world? How innovative do you think bankers will become and what new products can they launch? Will the banks drive these innovations through their social media platforms? Where do you think is the convergence point of social media and micro-credit? Do you think Social Banking is the new frontier?

Do write back with your comments and feedback. Maybe there is merit in what I am thinking, maybe its utter cow crap. Whatever. Would love to hear it from you.