The SE-Bar is back after a summer break and we are happy to present Lina Stjern, founder of The Fair Tailor, as our first guest speaker of the season!

Fair Tailor is a clothing company, selling custom-made and fairly maufactured shirts. With business based in Nepal, a main goal for the company is creating opportunities for children living in the streets to go to school, grow up and build their own future.

Lina will tell us about how a concert pianist and an engineer of the vehicle industry came up with the idea of starting up a business of fair tailoring in Nepal. With no experience of neither running a company, nor the clothing industry, they successfully realized their dream and founded The Fair Tailor. We will also hear about the possibilities and pitfalls of social entrepreneurship and about how The Fair Tailor attains profitability, not despite the company’s effort of social responsability, but because of it!

Time and place: Wednesday, September 1st 17.30-19.00 at Restaurang Publik, PUB-building, Hötorget, Stockholm. There is no need to sign up in advance, no entrance fee and you are more than welcome to bring anybody who is interested!

Can’t wait to find out more about The Fair Tailor? Read this guest entry by Sebastian Stjern, co-founder of the company!

For those of you who don’t already know about our organization and activities, SE-Forum is a platform and meeting-point for anyone interested in social entrepreneurship. Here you will find people engaged in, professionally as well as emotionally, with questions regarding social and environmental sustainability and global equity. Join in, network and be inspired!

Summer is here, and so is soon the last SE-Bar of the season. We are very happy to welcome You as participant, as well as Maria Flock Åhlander, business developer at Ekobanken, as our guest speaker.

Ekobanken is a potential financing-venue for social entrepreneurs, that for the past decade has challenged traditional banking through its clear ethical profile. Ekobanken grants loans only to projects and businesses of socially and ethically sustainable, or organic character. It is also the only bank in the country that openly discloses its lending. The idea is to promote sustainable community development, and to assure clients that their money is used in an ethically and environmentally responsible manner.  

When? – Wednesday, June 23^rd

Where? – Restaurang Publik, PUB-building, Hötorget, Stockholm

There is no need to sign up in advance, no entrance fee and you are more than welcome to bring anybody who is interested!

For those of you who don’t already know about our organization and activities, SE-Forum is a platform and meeting-point for anyone interested in social entrepreneurship. Here you will find people engaged in, professionally as well as emotionally, with questions regarding social and environmental sustainability and global equity. Join in, network and be inspired!”

Harry McNeil (co-founder of SE Forum) and Jonas Pinzke (former chairman of SE Forum) started their innovation agency The Good Guys half a year ago. The name itself tells us a little bit about their ambitions and according to Jonas Pinkze is our earth their most important client.

Jonas Pinzke believes it’s possible to do good and to do better business from the challenges facing this world and The Good Guys will take on social, economic and environmental issues and develop business concepts and communications campaigns on the basis of these issues.

They are currently working with projects (most of them secret at the moment) for seven different companies, the biggest one being SCA, Svenska Cellolusa Aktiebolaget.

He tells us that they evaluate the projects and what they are able to achieve through them rather then evaluating the companies offering it. “We don’t want to stop anyone from trying to do the right thing and hardly turn down any offers. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is mostly by minimizing the negative impact on the surroundings, we wanted to develop something beyond by maximizing the positive impact instead” said Pinkze. “Although, he continues, I might have a hard time seeing us working with tobacco companies.”

According to Pinzke the most important thing is to make people understand why they should integrate certain social and environmental issues into their business plans and find what’s in it for them. “Of the 100 biggest economies in the world is 45 corporations, lots of change can be made if we try to do business a little differently” he said.

He mentions Yvon Chouinard as a source of inspiration to The Good Guys and their projects. Chouinard and his company Patagonia are well known for their environmental focus and their campaign “The footprint chronicles” allows you to track the impact of specific Patagonia products from design through delivery.

Pinzke encourages anyone who has an idea on how to fight a certain issue through a project or campaign to contact The Good Guys.

The 26^th of May, SE Bar will be hosted by The Good Guys – an innovation agency that takes on global challenges through the use of creativity. The Agency is working exclusively on developing business concepts and communication campaigns that create value for the world under the motto “Be The Change You Wish to See in the World”.

Jonas Pinzke is a creative manager and co-founder of The Good Guys. He will talk about The Good Guys recipes for solving difficult and complex global issues in an interesting, engaging and entertaining way!

SE Bar is a monthly event for anyone who has a heart for social and environmental development and equity issues, believes that many of our societal problems can be solved through business models and wants to meet other like-minded people. Each month we present a social entrepreneur that talk about his or her business idea and about the way to accomplish it. Stop by and get inspired!

 
Time and place:
Wednesday 26 / 5 at 17:30 to 19:00. The location this time is Centralbadets bistro. You find it most easily by entering through the entrance on Holländargatan 9 or through the entrance from Drottninggatan 88, subway station Hötorget, Stockholm.
 
No registration is required and feel free to invite anyone that would be interested. Find more information on SE Bar here. 
 

Due to that the auditor’s report were not completed at the time of the annual meeting, SE Forum will hold an extraordinary Annual General Meeting directly after the SE Bar to present the association’s audit report. The meeting is open to all, but only members may vote.

Arne Forstenberg is the Executive Director of GlobalFOCUS. He came to tell us his story last Wednesday at the monthly SE Bar. The non-profit organization which started in the minds of four students only three years ago, has already been involved in 40 different climate projects. Their projects involve everything from energy competitions for students to analyzing energy policies in the European Union.

The only thing Forstenberg knew for sure when he went to a lecture held by the World Wild Fund for nature (WWF) a couple of years ago was that he wanted to somehow make a difference. He was studying political science at the time and didn’t know how he would achieve his goal. After listening to a very inspiring speech given by climate expert Dennis Pamlin he introduced himself to Pamlin and he later received an opportunity to present an idea with some friends to WWF. This is how GlobalFOCUS, a global project platform for climate entrepreneurs, was founded.

One of their first assignments was to review the climate platforms of the different political parties in Sweden. “I bought my first suit and we presented some well thought through and concrete ideas on what they could improve. Our ideas were very much appreciated and we were asked to pursue further collaboration. This was an incredible self-esteem boost for us, we were still students and yet we were able to influence politicians,” said Forstenberg.

He is careful to point out that not all of their projects or ideas during these four years have been successful though. “Lots of our projects have been completely useless and haven’t reduced green house gas emissions one bit. But that is what entrepreneurship is all about, if you never fail, you’re not an entrepreneur,” he said.

Another thing the founders of GlobalFOCUS have learned the last couple of years is to ask for help. “In the beginning, we tried to do too many things by ourselves, now we’ve learned that the key to a successful business is a combination of entrepreneurs and experienced advisors/partners.” He then reveals the name of one of their latest partners; Huang Ming. He is the chairman of Himin Solar Energy Group, the largest producers of solar heaters in the world. It was decided after Huang Ming’s visit to Sweden that GlobalFOCUS will establish an Innovation Centre in Solar Valley. Solar Valley is a national centre in China for manufacturing, research and development, education and tourism around solar energy technologies.

According to their web page, GlobalFOCUS supports any manner of innovation. They work with four categories of actors: Academia, Business, Civil Society, and Politics. Forstenberg ends his very inspiring speech by emphasizing the importance of bringing everybody along for the journey. “Clean tech innovations is one very important part of fighting climate change, but it is only one part of the solution. Work such as arranging theatrical plays to bring awareness on climate change is also going to be important”

Jennie Krook

Once a month we are inspired by social entrepreneurs in various fields. A big thanks to all SE BAR speakers of 2009. Check out these amazing change makers:

PeePoople, Camilla Wirseen

Cradle to Cradle, Mattias Ohlsson and Magnus Hedenmark

Wiminvest, Anna Edwall

Social Initiative

Mikrofinanshuset Andreas Ullsten

Solvatten Petra Wadström and Claire Wigg

Swedish sustainability foundation Aapo Säsk

Mikrofinanshuset Andreas Ullsten

Ideas for change Daniel Daboczy

MEST (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) Ylva Strander

Telge Kjell Hasslert

Gästtalare är Sara Wallén, grundare och VD för Mjuka flytten som arbetar med och för utlandssvenska barn, d v s barn som under en viss tid flyttar utomlands på grund av sin mamma eller pappas jobb. Så här säger Sara:

”Mjuka flytten baseras på ett behov som jag själv upplevt. Som utlandssvensk har jag vuxit upp mellan olika länder, kulturer och sammanhang – med resultatet att jag “känner mig hemma” överallt och… ingenstans. Då jag var sjutton, efter åtta år utomlands, insåg jag att ingen vuxen någonsin pratat med mig om detta. Och upptäckte ett tomrum som resultat. För att möta detta behov startade jag Mjuka flytten2008 – för att hjälpa och stötta blivande och nuvarande utlandssvenska barn. Mjuka flytten arrangerar förberedelse- och hemkomstkurser för barn där de får träffa andra som ska flytta eller har flyttat utomlands. Visionen är att detta tillvägagångssätt skall spridas till andra målgrupper snart (t ex flyktingbarn)!”

Tid: Onsdag 24 februari, 17.30-19.00

Plats: Restaurang/Bar Publik, högst upp i PUB-huset, Hötorget, Stockholm

SE Forum has since 2006 arranged monthly ‘SE Bars‘ in Stockholm where invited speakers that are active in the field of social entrepreneurship, or fields closely linked to this, talk about their experiences and give example of how to create a better world. The aim of the SE Bars is not only to highlight different success stories from the specific field of social entrepreneurship, but also to actively bring people together. We believe that in order to draw attention to the concept of social entrepreneurhship and enable the collaboration between people, the common debate is extremely important.   

In November 2009 Kjell Hasslert, winner of Veckans Affärer’s “Social Capitalist Award” 2009 and CEO for Telge-koncernen, was the invited guest speaker at SE Bar. In connection with this, we were also visited by Björn Paulsson that is involved with the start up of Open Entrepreneurship - a YouTube-channel website containing videos of  interesting events and people. The aim of the initiative is to inspire young people to become entrepreneurs by offering them inspiring examples of other entrepreneurs. Thanks to Björn and Kjell we are happy to give all of you readers a real example of what a SE Bar could look like. Moreover, we hope to see many of you at the next SE Bar, all voices are welcome to contribute to the discussion. And remember – the last Wednesday of every month!     

This month’s SE Bar will take place on November 25 at 17.30-19.00, Restaurant Publik (PUB-huset in Hötorget).

Kom och insup inspiration från vinnaren av Veckans Affärers “Social Capitalist Award” 2009! Nästa SE Bar gästas av Kjell Hasslert, VD för Telge-koncernen. Under Kjells ledning har Telge gjort en fascinerande resa från att vara ett litet kommunal energibolag, i form av Telge Energi, till att bli en av Sveriges mest innovativa och utmanande koncerner. Telge drar sig inte för okonventionella metoder för att lösa några av Södertäljes utmaningar. När man konstaterade att kommunen behövde fler bostäder etablerade man ett ovanligt samarbete med Peab för att starta ett nytt byggbolag där de anställda skulle vara nyanlända flyktingar. På liknande sätt har man etablerat ett samarbete med Manpower för att få ut fler i arbete. Samtidigt sticker Telge Energi ut hakan med att bara leverera förnyelsebar energi och provocera storbolagen för deras bristande miljöansvar. Och så finns Telge Hovsjö, bostadsbolaget som arbetar med så mycket mer än bostäder, arbetet går ut på att utveckla en hel stadsdel. Allt detta tillsammans var säkerligen bidragande orsaker till att Telge vann Veckans Affärers “Social Capitalist Award” 2009. Varmt välkommen, ingen anmälan behövs och du får gärna ta med dig andra intresserade!

Why couldn’t the next software giant emerge from Africa?

Our answer is that it can, and probably will. At our last SE Bar 28 October, key speaker Ylva Strander from MEST (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology), came to prove this.

Ylva shared the story of a MEST student who created a 3D soccer game with African players only. The student has now started a TV game business, and developed several games in line with the above. When playing the game “Iwars” you are to protect your village from being attacked from outside. This young entrepreneur is now negotiating with a big telecom business in Africa.

It’s about giving new people a chance, Ylva states when asked to describe the core of MEST.

There are a lot of people with a huge potential within that lack resources to reach out. It’s about finding these people and to give them a push in the right direction, to enable them to build a platform themselves, she continues.

A couple of years ago, Jorn Lyseggen (CEO, Meltwater group), decided to start a school for IT-entrepreneurs in Africa. Why? He wanted make a greater, more sustaining impact with Meltwaters CSR-initiatives. And Africa is yet not on the same level as the western world when it comes to IT-businesses.

However, as a profit driven business as Meltwater, this might be seen as controversial. People don’t believe in companies that work for other than profit, and this for sure is a new way of running development work, Ylva explained.

Meltwater decided to go to Africa to explore the need. Due to its entrepreneurial spirit and great potential, the initiative was decided to start off in Ghana – where the need and support also proved to be enormous. About a 100 people was interviewed, and the concept was developed on the spot.

With the overall vision in mind, and the wish to push more young African IT-entrepreneurs forward, a concept consisting of three steps was created.

The 1^st step – The educational program

A 2-year fully sponsored trainee program where the students learn and practise computer programming, software development and entrepreneurship for the western market. Why the western market? In order to prove that all people have the same ability you need to compete on the same arena, Ylva explained. The main focus lies on web- and cell phone applications – because it is easy to distribute, and there’s a high amount of cell phone users in Ghana.

To attend the program the students most show that they are ready to become role models for their community and support the development of Ghana. Further on, they must have a strong drive, previous experience of entrepreneurial initiatives, a university exam, and last but not least: stamina!

The educational program started in 2007, and the first team of 30 students is about to graduate this winter.

The 2^nd step – The incubator

An incubator will open up in February ’10. The purpose with the incubator is to support the businesses ideas developed throughout the program. The incubator takes over where the program ends: it functions as a supervising unit and gives economical support to get the businesses running.  Money is given for a small share of the businesses, and as the revenue increases the shareholders profit will be re-invested in new initiatives in the incubator.

The 3^rd step – The mentors

A mentor program will be introduced in close connection to the educational program and incubator. The mentors will support the young entrepreneurs, as they are about to take over the world. Got any suggestions for mentors? Contact Ylva Strander at MEST!

What does the future of MEST look like? MEST will not scale up. About 20-30 students/year will attend the program, and the plan is to have 3-4 businesses/year in the incubator (approx. 15-20 students).

As being a relatively small company, Meltwaters approach on social responsibility is unique. Read more at: http://meltwater.org/