Professor Kash Rangan | Harvard Business School | Teaching on social entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship Program

Hand in Hand is committed to sharing our knowledge. We also believe in learning from others. That’s why we host the annual Hand in Hand Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP), a five-day course showcasing the role of social entrepreneurs – those who use business as a means for achieving positive social ends – in reducing poverty.

Taught by Harvard Business School Professor Kasturi Rangan, the course combines lectures with field visits and expert Q&As to explore how social entrepreneurs can empower people to work their way out of poverty, create jobs and drive economic growth.

Previous programs have been held in South Africa (2013), Kenya (2012) and India (2011). Contact us (below) for details of the next program.

Socient Managing Partner Sohel Karim | Teaching social entrepreneurship

Socient Managing Partner Sohel Karim | Teaching social entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship Program leader Professor V. Kasturi Rangan specializes in non-profit management, marketing and microfinance at Harvard Business School (HBS). He is founding co-chair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, and co-chair of the HBS-ACCION program on Strategic Leadership.

The Social Entrepreneurship Program was designed by Socient Associates, a Boston-based consultancy, in partnership with Hand in Hand. Socient Managing Partner Sohel Karim has more than 20 years’ consulting experience, and has worked closely with senior management in both for- and non-profit organizations. His background includes doctoral work at Harvard Business School and publications in leading management journals including the Harvard Business Review.

The formal teaching is complemented by expert Q&A sessions with inspiring social entrepreneurs. Previous speakers have included:
  • Erik Hermsan, award-winning founder of global crowd-mapping service Ushahidi and iHub Nairobi’s innovation hub.
  • Ben Lyon, co-founder of Kopo Kopo, a Kenyan merchant platform for mobile money services such as M-PESA.
  • Christie Peacock, chairman of Sidai Africa, a smallholder farming social enterprise owned by NGO Farm Africa.
  • Brian Richardsson, founding director of Wizzit Bank, a pioneer in mobile banking providing basic financial services for the poor.
iHub Nairobi office|  Coyright poptech.org

iHub office | Nairobi, Kenya | Coyright poptech.org

Outdoor seminar| Social entrepreneurship program | Nairobi outskirts, Kenya

Outdoor seminar| Social entrepreneurship program | Nairobi outskirts, Kenya

Field visits help illuminate the role of social entrepreneurs in sustainable development. Previous program participants have visited:
  • Hand in Hand India’s women entrepreneurs in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
  • Jamii Bora (in Swahili: ‘Good Families’), Kenya’s fastest-growing microfinance organisation, based in Nairobi.
  • An SOS Children’s Villages program providing business training to families taking care of orphans.

Graduates of the Social Entrepreneurship Program include academics, philanthropists, government officials, social investors and NGO executives.
We’ve hosted representatives of donor agencies such as:

  • FMO (the Dutch development bank)
  • IFC (International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank group)
  • Sida (Sweden’s foreign aid agency)
  • UNDP (United Nations Development Program)

Corporate social responsibility executives from businesses including:

Faculty members from institutions including:

Microfinance experts from India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Social entrepreneurs with initiatives spanning conservation, smallholder farming, mental and family health, tourism and information technology.

Graduate testimonials

"Kash Rangan is an outstanding lecturer and is brilliant at leading classroom discussions of fascinating and practical case studies. Be careful if you take the Hand in Hand Social Entrepreneurship Program, it just might change your life!" Christie Peacock | Founder and Chairman | Sidai Africa
"What better place than the Hand in Hand social entrepreneurship program to discuss how we can change the tired old ways of this world and make the impossible possible." Pelle Lutken | Policy Analyst | UNDP

Contact us

Head of Marketing and Communications

Jen Glyn Head of Marketing and Communications

Jen is responsible for our public profile in the media and at events. If you would like to interview someone or if you would like us to speak at an event then she would be delighted to hear from you.

jglyn@hihinternational.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7514 5091
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