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¿What is SEKN?

The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network - SEKN) arose in 2001, with the participation of a group of leading business schools in Latin America, Harvard Business School and the support of the Avina Foundation. This initiative was born with the objective of approaching the need to generate, in the region itself, intellectual capital for social enterprises.

The axis of the project planted by the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network implies the development of new teaching and research activities in the field of social enterprises. The research theme for the 2001-2003 cycle is the collaboration between companies and civic organizations.

Visit SEKN's Web page at www.sekn.org.

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Mission

To advance on the frontiers of knowledge and the practice of social enterprises through the collaboration in research, shared learning, teaching based on case methodologies, and the strengthening of the capacities of institutions of business management to serve their communities.

SEKN's Objectives

Strengthen the interest and institutional capacity of schools of administration in Latin America to carry out research and teaching about social enterprises.
Stimulate and make possible greater involvement and effective practices of current and future leaders of the business world and NGOs, in enterprises with social objectives.
The ultimate goal is that business schools throughout Latin America come to consider education about social enterprises as an integral part of their mission and that professional capacities of graduates are significantly improved in this are.

INCAE-SEKN Objectives

Strengthen INCAE's capacity to serve the social enterprise sector through research, executive courses and education of future leaders in our masters and continuing education programs.
Establish models and facilitate the private sector, government and non-profit institutions in discovering opportunities for cooperation.
Encourage and train young professionals to develop careers in the social enterprise sector. · Support other Latin American institutions interested in developing capacities for research and teaching through the case study method.

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Institutions Participating in SEKN

SEKN's founding institutions are:

Harvard Business School (U.S.A)
Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas -INCAE- (Costa Rica)
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey -EGADE- (México)
Pontificia Universidad Católica (Chile)
Universidad de los Andes (Colombia),
Universidad de Sao Paulo (Brasil)
Programa Desarrollo Social y Sociedad Civil (CEDES, UdeSA y UTDT, Argentina).

Other schools will be incorporated into the Network over the course of time.

Strategic Partner: AVINA Foundation www.avina.net

Courses within the MBA Program

Business and Society Obligatory

course for first-year students. Taught during the week of foundations. Subjects discussed include the social enterprise (non-profit, NGOs, foundations), the social responsibility of the company in Latin American society, civic alliances: among philanthropy and strategy and social entrepreneurs: how do you make your own social enterprise?

Management of Social Enterprises Optional

course for second-year students.

Micro-enterprises Optional

course for second-year students

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Case studies

In the first research cycle of the SEKN's project, INCAE has generated 11 case studies about social enterprises in the Central American countries, Ecuador and Peru.

Posada Amazonas
AMCHAM
Techo para el Sur - Construyendo con Amor
IFDC Emprendedores Juveniles de Costaragua
La Stanza
Construambiente
ACODEP
Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras
Indigo
Banco Solidario
La Equidad (hacer link a su resumen)

AMCHAM - Nicaragua:

Education in Nicaragua suffered from a lack of quality, limited infrastructure and highly capable professionals. The drop-out rate was high and child labor was visible in the cities' streets. The average education level of youth who earned their high school diploma allowed them to offer neither sufficient labor yields nor obtain high productivity levels.

The adverse educational reality motivated the Nicaraguan-North American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), upon the initiative of its education committee, to confront the problem. The committee analyzed the situation and decided the most effective manner to support education in country would be to promote direct company assistance to schools with scarce resources. The mentoring of schools arose from a proposal of the education committee, in which it would act as coordinator and promoter to allow for-profit companies to forge alliances with the most needy education centers.

The mentors could be both AMCHAM and non-ANCHAM members. The committee would coordinate and promote the program in the private sector. To obtain the formal participation of the education centers, it was deemed necessary to reach an agreement with the Education Ministry. In this manner, the ministry could approve the program's implementation, would assure its governing and organizing role in education, and recommend which schools could be mentored.

The Minister selected and recommended the schools to be mentored. The schools were, generally, the last to learn about the program and the intentions of a company to offer assistance. Since they had many deficiencies, they were grateful to receive the opportunity for support. In order for the schools to participate in the program, they had to define their needs and interact directly with the mentors in the formulation of their requirements.

While the motivation for this program was fundamentally philanthropic, the companies were conscience that the support they provided to the schools would produce long-term benefits for themselves and the community, as would allow them to hire the most productive personnel. The mentoring companies' positive public image was an issue of institutional communication to be utilized, although it had never been exploited in an explicit manner.

The potential pedagogic value of the case concentrates on three themes: that the student can evaluation the alignment of the mission, strategy and values of partners in a mentoring project to determine if the alliance is advisable. Later, identify the actions a mentoring company or mentored school could take to create a more efficient alliance or revitalize an alliance that has not evolved. Finally, understand AMCHAM's role as intermediary, instead of direct executor of assistance, in assuring the steady progress of the mentoring program.

ConstruAmbiente - El Salvador:

The case deals with the alliance of the following actors: "ConstruAmbiente" (a non-profit non-governmental organization), a municipal government (the city of Santa Tecla) and other public sector institutions. The alliance was created to carry out an environmental clean-up project in the El Piro spring. ConstruAmbiente is comprised of a group of companies from the construction sector. This case illustrates the evolution of an old adversarial relationship: the municipality in question and the construction sector.

The most important teaching objectives of this case are the following:

The student identifies the mechanisms which allow the formation of a public-private partnership and that they can evaluate the efficiency of these mechanisms, in order to be able to apply them in practice.
The student understands how to overcome antagonist relationships to gain confidence among actors with distinct political ideologies.
The student can evaluate the options for extending the model to other municipalities, through a pro and con evaluation.

ACODEP - Nicaragua

The activity, developed by micro-enterprises in Nicaragua, permitted job creation and the realization of economic demands for a large sector of the population with scarce resources. These businesses shared characteristics like their small size, scarce capitalization, limited possibility to present acceptable guarantees for the financial system, and informality, among others. They were generally comprise of nuclear families whose only income generating activities were these business initiatives.

These people's financing needs could not be satisfied by the formal financial system due to the inherent high risk of their activity and the difficulty in complying the bank's formal requirements. The practically obligatory alternative were loans from informal speculators with immediately available resources, but high interest rates.

The Association of Consultants for the Development of the Small and Micro-enterprise (ACODEP) was created to satisfy the needs of this segment of the population, offering them credit designed for their needs, in a quick manner and using specialized credit technology for the operations. The interest rate was higher than the financial system's but lower than the informal speculators. Furthermore, it accepted unconventional guarantees on the part of borrowers. The organization also promoted incentives for clients with the best payment record and activities to create incentives for the development of the micro- and small enterprise.

ACODEP operated without state regulation because financial system norms did not demand micro-credit entities present reports to the regulatory body. The most valuable factor for the clients was the availability and speed at which they obtained credit, despite the presence of interest groups that considered the interest rates charged were too high. These circumstances created diverse pressures on ACODEP, like the setting of maximum interest rates and the recent proposal to place a tax burden on the yield of activities of micro-financing, for example.

ACODEP's motivation to begin developing these activities was to try and support the development of business initiatives originating in poor segments of the population to create incentives for employment, income generation and the reduction of their lacks and needs. The success of micro-businesses would allow an important segment of the population to raise its standard of living.

The potential pedagogic value of this case concentrates on two themes: the student can evaluate the alignment of the mission, strategy and values of the participants in the activity - the organization which distributes micro-credit resources and the borrowers who receive financial and technical support to develop their ideas and generate greater well being for their families. Later, identify the actions that ACODEP and its beneficiaries could take to revitalize their relationship and together confront the external factors which threaten the organization's operations, in addition to jeopardizing its long-term sustainability.

Le Stansa - Guatemala

This case relates the experience of the community of La Estancia La Virgen de San Martín Jilotepeque, which has dedicated over 10 years to the cultivation and commercialization of the French string bean. The community cultivated approximately 40% of national string bean production. With the assistance of AGIL, an NGO founded by USAID, La Estancia farmers began to observe that making small changes in their distribution system led to monthly cost savings of $25,000. This case demonstrates how farmers, without a great deal of training in the areas of administration and organization, but with great desires to advance, can obtain great improvements for their community with small amounts of advise

Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Honduras

This case relates the experience of an NGO which achieves its financial sustainability through the diversification of services. Honduras' Sustainable Development Network was established in 1993 after the Earth Summit, through which the Sustainable Development Network project was created, with the participation of 18 developing countries around the world, including Honduras. In the process of searching for sustainability, the Network has diversified services, among the management of the HN of the country and the administration of projects of reconstruction in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch, the administration of Call Centers in addition to becoming a Portal of Sustainable Development in Honduras. Finally, the NGO has began to work on collaborative relationships between members of the Call Center and private companies. The case also explores to what extent an NGO in search of financial sustainability, works against the fulfillment of its social mission. Finally, it attempts to confirm the existence of an existing paradigm within the Central American region's NGOs, who fear becoming sustainable departs from their natural bent of being non-profit entities.

Indigo - El Salvador

The case deals with the initiative of Salvadoran businessman, Roberto Murray, who reactivated the cultivation of the natural dye, indigo, as an export product. The reintroduction of indigo in El Salvador, is not for a select few, but rather for everyone, as it represents an opportunity to resolve unemployment problems, revitalize agriculture and end the country's dependence on coffee as an export product. Benefits can also be obtained by using indigo in handicrafts, thus generating greater employment. In 1999 Murray established contact with agricultural cooperatives and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and since then, various farmers have followed his initiative of cultivating and exporting indigo. Currently, this institute is trying to help some, but not all farmers, share information among themselves. To be sure, the initiative's success requires alliances between private companies, farmers' cooperatives, the government, etc., but existing obstacles still need to be resolved to establish these types of associations.

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INCAE Faculty Who Participate in the SEKN Network

Project Leader: Professor Enrique Ogliastri
Project Coordinator: Ms. Andrea Prado

Faculty

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List of Seminars Presented

Resource Foundation - Leadership
Finances for Non-Financiers
¿How to evaluate the impact on Development Projects?
Management of Social Organizations
Training for National Representatives of Habitat for Humanity
Seminar for Social Leaders

The "Leadership in Social Enterprises" seminar was held on September 18 and 19, 2001 on INCAE's Walter Kissling campus in Costa Rica. The seminar's academic director was Professor Germán Retana.

The processes of transformation to organizational cultures which promote high productivity, internal integration and external competitiveness require very special skills and attitudes in those who hold positions of management in non-profit organizations. Leadership is a key factor in such processes and may be developed by people disposed to assume responsibility for improving their way of accomplishing things in the organization.

This activity developed in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network and the Resource Foundation (http://www.resourcefnd.org/). Twenty-eight people participated.

The "Financing for Non-Financiers" seminar was held on March 11-13, 2002 on INCAE's Francisco de Sola campus in Nicaragua. The academic director was Professor Marco Fernández.

This event was designed with the goal of benefiting all professionals, who given the characteristics of their academic formation, have not had contact with concepts and financial tools, but who require knowledge about them for their work. This seminar was undoubtedly advantageous for executives of non-financial companies, whose daily work is affected by decisions in this field.

This activity developed in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, with the support of the AVINA Foundation. Twenty-four people participated in the seminar.

The "¿How to Evaluate the Impact of Development Projects?" seminar was held August 22-24, 2002 on INCAE´s Francisco de Sola campus in Nicaragua. The academic director was Professor Luis Noel Alfaro.

The seminar's objective was to improve the evaluation methods in situations such as: the problems associated with the lack of core information, the lack of appropriate project design, the lack of knowledge of appropriate design technologies for the compilation and processing of information, the inappropriate use of statistical inference, the inappropriate use of the evaluation results to make decisions and take corrective measures to improve the performance of the project or future projects, etc.

This activity developed in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, with the support of the AVINA Foundation. Thirty-two people participated in the seminar.

The "Management for Social Organizations" seminar was held October 28 to November 1, 2002 on the El Zamorano campus in Honduras. The academic director was Professor Francisco Leguizamón.

This activity developed in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, with the support of the AVINA Foundation. Thirty-two people participated in the seminar.

The "Training for National Representatives of Habitat for Humanity" seminar will be held on June 15 to July 5, on INCAE's Walter Kissling campus in Costa Rica. The academic director will be Professor Enrique Ogliastri.

This activity will develop in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, with the support of the AVINA Foundation.

The "Social Leaders" seminar will be held July 21 to August 1, on INCAE's Walter Kissling campus in Costa Rica. The academic director will be Professor Enrique Ogliastri.

The Kellogg Foundation will finance the seminar, held jointly with LASPAU, which will give a week of classes in Cambridge, Massachusetts, following the classes in Costa Rica.

This activity will be developed in the framework of SEKN-INCAE Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, with the support of the AVINA Foundation. Fifteen executives of rural civic organizations will attend.

Contact Us

andrea.prado@incae.edu
juliano.flores@incae.edu

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Social Enterprise Knowledge Network - SEKN

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