I'm a social entrepreneur and writer, particularly interested in giving outsiders - from young entrepreneurs to prisoners - a voice and the opportunities they may have missed in the birth lottery.
I grew up in Botswana and now live in London, where I spend most of my most of my time helping develop OneLeap, the company I co-founded, which connects pioneering entrepreneurs to the world's leading corporations. In my spare time, I'm often in a maximum security prison in South Africa, working on my second book about an amazing group of inmates who adopted AIDS orphans. I'm also lucky enough to advise Mothers for All and the Access to Medicine Index.
I recently spoke - along with 21 amazing social entrepreneurs from around the world - at the Unreasonable Institute "Climax". It was thrilling to share some of the remarkable connection stories between entrepreneurs and decision-makers which show why we must not settle for a world of six degrees of separation.
OneLeap is the only UK organisation to reach the finals of the prestigious US Unreasonable Institute, which backs social enterprises that can reach more than 1 million people. Now we are racing to raise the funds to attend the Institute. Only the first 25 to reach $10,000 will get through. You help choose! Please support us - with a few dollars, a few kind words - and help us change the world.
I was recently asked to write a manifesto, as part of the wonderful Hub Westminster's 1,000 Changemakers Manifestos Exhibition. I felt embarrassed writing it. I still feel embarrassed reading it. It's inescapably cheesy. But it is what I believe - and it does underpin much of the vision behind OneLeap, Mothers for All and my books.
10 years ago, the mere fact of having a corporate social responsibility (CSR) division was a licence to be smug. Today the CSR department is a sign of backwardness. CSR, the management consultancy mantra goes, should not be siloed, but integrated across the business. Meanwhile, CSR itself is teetering on the brink of extinction. The contemptuous expressions, when someone raised CSR at a recent gathering of social entrepreneurs, were those of teenagers asked if they still had black and white TVs. Corporate social leadership – doing more than simply the responsible – is gaining favour, but this too must eventually wane. Positive social impact powers business growth and is increasingly recognised as doing so*. Social entrepreneur, though lagging CSR, likewise has an expiry date. The DNA of the corporate social responsibility dinosaur may yet, however, see a revival. The very generation that scorned and outgrew CSR will, I think, find itself the subject of CSR’s descendant, personal social responsibility. Not PSR in the fluffy sense in which it is often written about. But a clear score and profile – the product of measurement – which people can, will and must be held accountable for, by the angry and urgent next generation. Three trends in particular will drive PSR.