Social Entrepreneurs | Why "not" Nepal?

An interaction with a fellow IT social entrepreneur in Nepal, Bjőrn Sőderberg

March 8th, 2010

Bjőrn Sőderberg, 28, is a young social entrepreneur with three successfully running companies, two in Nepal and one in Sweden.

In search of something exciting, challenging and different from that of Sweden, Bjőrn Sőderberg came to Nepal as a volunteer when he was 19 years old and lived in Bal Mandir. During his stay, he saw the potential for exciting new things in the hands of the young people in the country. In contrary to the trend of the youngsters finding their way to the U.S and abroad, Bjőrn started off in Nepal with a paper recycling (Watabaran Pvt. Ltd.) and IT outsourcing venture (Websearch Professionals Pvt. Ltd).

Despite the Swedish Government urging its citizens not to travel to Nepal for security reasons, Mr. Sőderberg was determined and he started approaching for loans in banks for the initial capital of $20,000. But through his struggle in the initial days, what he learnt was exciting!

——> Lesson No: 1, One does not need money to be an entrepreneur, s/he needs customers. You don’t spend money to start a company; you start a company to earn money. And with this learning in mind, he went to Sweden and confirmed two clients by promising them to deliver the same service they were already getting, but in half the price. His first two customers was his market research. In his way of doing things, he believes more in learning by doing rather than trying to focus too much in theory as he says “Most people believe you need to follow a certain process and make business plans to start a company. But the matter of fact is you don’t need websites, business plans or brochures to start your company, just start making money. Once you have your first customer, you have your market research, you have your company.”

Speaking of the struggle people go through to find that one bright idea to start up a venture, he points out that having a good or a great idea is not a guarantee of the success of the business.
—–> Lesson No. 2, Having the drive and the guts is more important than the idea itself.

The passion associated with the work can naturally make any idea a good one. The old formula is if you enjoy your work, you don’t even feel you are working. Adding more on innovation, idea and entrepreneurship, he explains that Entrepreneurship is about getting an idea and working very hard to realize it because it takes time to build up a business. And thus during that time, an entrepreneurs must have two qualities; patience and work hard.

While most people are apprehensive about starting up a business for the fear of failure, he takes a different approach saying,

—–> Lesson No. 3, “Never be afraid to fail. Rather be afraid of never failing. Those who never fail have never tried anything new and never be afraid of creating new things. Because creating new things and translating new ideas to action, even if they are small ones is what entrepreneurs do.”

Some Questions & Answers

What are the problems in starting up a business in Nepal?

Corruption is one of the major discouragements in starting up a business in Nepal. Bureaucrats try to squeeze money out of you here which a different scenario than in Sweden.

Do you think foreign investors are safe enough to invest in Nepal?

Given a few things, a safe environment for foreign investment can be created in Nepal. Some are:
Documents should be in English.
Load shedding should cease.
Hindrances from involuntary Bandhs and strikes should stop.

Have you faced or felt any conflict between the social contribution and economic aspects of a business?

I haven’t faced many clashes as such. I provide scholarships to talented students to study in KU and ask them to work for me for 4 years. Besides, I am always trying to take the middle way in finding profitability and contributing to the society.

In a certain business situation like “If a client asks more and more services and in the end refuses to pay the prices pointing out it was very high, what can one do in such situation”?

To avoid unprofessional situations like these, making everything about the deal clear beforehand is important. Give your client a sample or a prototype of your service and product and ask them to test it. If they like it then mention your prices. But remember some clients are unworkable and sometimes in those cases you have to let them go.

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Previous speakers at “E4N’s Last Thursdays” have been:

Ambica Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts

Ajay Ghimire of Vibor Bank

Ashutosh Tiwari of Himalmedia

Bal Joshi of Thamel.com

Gyanendra Pradhan of HydroSolutions Nepal

Ichhya Raj Tamang of Civil Homes Group of Industries

Jonas Lindblom, a Swedish investor of Isadora Cosmetics on Durbar Marg

Karna Sakya of Kathmandu Guest house

Kiran Bhakta Joshi of Incessant Rain Animation Studios

Mahendra Shakya of Momo King

Min Bahadur Gurung of Bhatbhateni Supermarkets

Tashi Sherpa of Sherpa Adventure Gears

Posted by Ujwal Thapa Filed in Idea, change, entrepreneurship, inspiration, philosophy, social entrepreneurs No Comments »

need for a “patient systemic process”

December 16th, 2009

Acumen Fund describes “patient capital” as not to seek high returns, but rather to jump-start the creation of enterprises that improve the ability of the poor to live with dignity.”

Ashu (Ashutosh Tiwari) and I are both fans of Acumen Fund. And we believe what we are doing in our group, “Entrepreneurs for Nepal”, complements their efforts by setting up a “patient systemic process” that helps in the effective implementations of “patient capital”. In our frequent brainstormings, we found ourselves always coming back to this central theme, “being patient, being persistent, and building organizations with this combination of patience and persistence.”

A “patient systemic process” involves spending time patiently but persistently building systems in place in your organizations, into your career or into your businesses. In the context of Nepal, we have got to invest more time and energy into learning how to make resilient systems with processes built by patience but persistence. This means building system of processes in almost every end goal in your business/organization, whether it is dividends, team-building, organizational growths, profits or career growths.

Once you have processes in place, the system will be resilient.

Please post your comments in whynepal.com and continue the discussion in our facebook group, “Entrepreneurs for Nepal”

Posted by Ujwal Thapa Filed in Links, change, food for thought, philosophy, social entrepreneurs No Comments »

A manifesto for a youth movement to revolutionize Nepal through “common sense”.

April 30th, 2009

Here is my call for a youth movement to revolutionize Nepal through “common sense”.

Nepali Youth leaders with charisma, passion, leadership and vision and entrepreneurial in spirit, come together to set up a new youth movement. Young leaders (hopefully “youths”) from walks of life, from major parties, students, passionate intellectuals, doctors, engineers, scientists, and radicals, young entrepreneurs and economists rush to join this new movement based on the philosophy of “common sense“. We are tired of the antics in Nepal’s leadership (all of them). All we ever wanted was a leadership to lead us with “common sense”. We haven’t found this in the current leadership or the elder generation as a whole. Therefore We will be the new “common sense” leaders.
This team would be able to set a new path and direction for the whole country through a series of policies based on “common sense”. Grand principles of the past are illusions which needs to be dismantled to address the unique scenario of Nepal with its hundreds of tribes, thousands of problems, lakhs of independent spirited youths and tens of millions of hungry people for change.

I say, how best to achieve this other than through a a leadership that works passionately with “common sense”, youth motivation and high emotional intelligence.

Here is the Basic Rights we believe in:

Prosperity: is a basic human requirement that fulfills a lot of other human rights. A prosperous woman is a woman with dignity and resources to keep her family out of poverty. A prosperous woman demands and gets her rights without abusing or trampling on another. A prosperous woman has the resources to educate her family to moral beings. And we are a movement that will get her this way of life for her. We encourage prosperity by mobilizing social entrepreneurs on the forefront of this fight.

Equality: “We celebrate diversity as long as it does not trample on our other basic human rights to food, education and love.” Federalism or other concepts of politics should be based on this common sense. “It is my right to live free, hunger free and in peace in my country.” Disruptive tactics to peaceful negotiation for one’s rights are a violation of one’s rights to prosperity just as much as denial of work to a Dalit based on prejudices is a violation of one’s right to prosperity. The new youth movement of Nepal will make sure that youths are the rulers of Nepal where they are the primary stakeholders and the gateway to the future generation’s peace and tranquility. Enough of the elder generation who calculate their contribution by the days they spent in prison. Our responsibility begins, not ends. When we gain power, our governance model is making communities prosperous by the method of “self-sustainability and self-reliance.”

Our governance: This movement believes the central government’s primary role is only to be a vanguard of maintaining peace, law and order in the country. It will leave the nation building process to special teams of bright young team of individuals called “social entrepreneurs” who work directly with local communities to work towards creating a prosperous Nepal. It will be the guardian of Nepali people so that no greater injustice is done while we are on the nation building process. It will leave the nation building process to “social entrepreneurs” while making sure it remains the watchdog so that given rights and special powers to the “social entrepreneurs” are not abused. A government is a facilitator when it comes to handling the economy. It is no better than private institutions when it comes to providing services like health, education and food. It cannot and will not work alone to provide this. It will work with young, independent teams of bright young strategists to help bring these basic human rights of people in an efficient and sustainable manner. it will take some time to accomplish this but it will remain steadfast in fulfilling these rights before concentrating on other human rights.

We believe that simply depending on the central government for your basic rights is evil and backwards. This kind of thoughts make the government the ruler of Nepalis rather than be a guardian. Our strategy is to make each village, town self sustainable and able to rule itself wisely. A model of self governance at micro level is a social experiment we will push for and crave for. We don’t want you to rely on us. We want you to rely on yourself. We will be your aid in your quest for self reliance.

Accountability: Our leadership is directly accountable to our practical goals and the amount of rewards and punishments a leader takes is directly proportional to the higher degree of responsibilities we take. Culture of accountability will erase the culture of impunity. This movement understands the transparent and globalised world we live in. We are fusing every part of decision making with the youths in focus right down to the high school. We are open sourcing our government. We are open sourcing our ideals, our goals and our strategies so that you can advice us while we fine tune our universal health care or our universal practical education system.Foreign policy: Nepal’s relationship the rest of the world is based on equality and brotherly love. We will follow policies of deep respect to the two neighbors and we will tie our economies closely, openly and ’strongly’ with both our neighbors. This will be the basis on all agreements. This ensures political games remain secondary to the economic brotherhood that we will cultivate. A healthy and mutually beneficial economy will deter any haphazard political games to be played by our neighbors. Nepal is a “neutral” on all affairs associated with China and India. Its relationship with China and India supersedes all other relationships in the world.

Evolution: As times change, and with it, we shall evolve. We believe in the evolution of our basic principles of “common sense”. As times change, we will evolve and even mutate. If we stick to principles which have stopped making sense, we become obsolete. The world is changing fast. Look where we have reached in 100 years, from primitive non flying humans to evolved man who can communicate thousand of miles away instantly. Basing our primary interest in making each Nepali family rich, prosperous and independent while being able to live in peace, we will evolve to absorb any principles that work in this goal. The goal is to have your family live in prosperity and peace. You decide the moral,ethical, religious rule inside your house. We have no right over your private morals, thinking and ideologies and we will not dictate our ideals upon your “private” lives.

Summary: We will work to make our own jobs obsolete. i.e make you self-sustaining. This will be enshrined as one of the founding principles of our ideologies. We celebrate Diversity is a gift, we want to use it wisely, but diversity at the cost of unity is a dead end, an uncontrollable chaos, a deep abyss. And we will stop this at any cost. Until most of Nepalis have a sound education and are covered by a universal health policy, the central government will take an active role in creating this health and education system with partnership with local bodies and social entrepreneurs but after this has been reasonably achieved, this too will be handed over solely to the realms of local social entrepreneurs and local governments. In the end, the central government is a lean body which maintains the rule of law and integrity in Nepal.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

warmth,

Ujw

(This document is a work in progress and i welcome any addition to improve it, challenge it or trash it).

Posted by Ujwal Thapa Filed in Government, change, food for thought, social entrepreneurs 1 Comment »

Waste managment and more: an opportunity for social entrepreneurs.

April 21st, 2009

As we grow up, we look for ways and patterns in which we can make a ‘deep emotional’ impact on our surroundings besides feeding our desire to be self sufficient.

In Kathmandu, i have lately been meeting young entrepreneurs who not only want to make it big, but make a ‘positive social impact’ while doing so.And lots of opportunity is here during this transition period in Nepal, to rise out from the crowd of normal entrepreneurs. I see a big opportunity for entrepreneurs with social conscience’ to stand out and be recognized and preferred by clients, customers and be profitable socially and economically.

here are some small ideas where i see social entrepreneurs in Nepal can make a difference:

a) Angel investing in startups (for other young entrepreneurs who have non existant collatorals, and who have ability to create jobs)

b) Waste into “recyclable energy” . You can be the darling of Kathmandites who are tired of seeing waste littered around day after day while earning from tons of organic waste that falls in the streets each day here.

c) Drinking Water problem: Tapping rain water to replinish households during the dry winter and early spring ( people will thank you while giving you profits from your actions)

d) Incorporate social responsible ethics into any business. here is an example. I just opened a website about responsible way to travel in Nepal site inside the travel nepal portal exoticbuddha.com . Check the tips out here.

e) add your social entrepreneurship ideas and opinions… below!!!

Posted by Ujwal Thapa Filed in Nepal's economy, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs No Comments »

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