Womentrepreneurship
Goldman Sachs created the 10,000 Women Initiative to help women entrepreneurs in emerging economies grow their SMEs. Professors Marquis and Rangan (Harvard) guide their readers through the initiative.
The 10,000 Women Initiative (see case reference below) grew out of a number of events that unfolded during and after 2005. Goldman Sachs had been active in civic engagement, notably through the Goldman Sachs Foundation, created in 1998 with a $200 million endowment. In 2005, internal discussions began to focus on the fact that many people around the word were not enjoying the benefits of globalization. From the company’s desire to consolidate its philanthropic efforts, a big idea gradually emerged.
Internal research had been indicating that incremental aid dollars had the greatest impact when they were invested in education and women. A 2007 Goldman report entitled “Women Hold Up Half the Sky,” drawing upon the research of the Nobel Economics Prize winner Amartya Sen, showed how investment in the education of girls and women could add 0.2% to GDP growth rates in the BRICs countries and 11 other emerging economies, known as the N-11. This finding converged with other research pointing to the very high return of investment in women’s education.
The next step was to see where Goldman Sachs could intervene in the women’s education chain. A first possibility was MBA scholarships for women but given the expense of most MBA programs, the return on investment was considered insufficient.
Development experts (such as Geeta Rupta Gao, president of the International Center for Research on Women who is cited in the case) pointed to entrepreneurial training for SME enterprises as a new frontier. In developing countries, microenterprises were receiving increased attention (thanks in part to Muhammad Yunus’ path breaking efforts) and the bigger companies could find the assistance they needed themselves, but the SME sector was considered to be the missing middle. The idea of helping women in emerging economies grow SMEs took hold and the initiative’s guidelines were set up.
Finding partners
A first hurdle was to build a partner base. This meant finding local institutions that had the appropriate know-how to assist women entrepreneurs and it also meant helping these institutions build capacity to provide educational assistance to all the women enrolled. The Initiative’s solution took the form of partnerships between business schools based in the emerging countries and committed business schools in developed countries.
To build these institutional partnerships, Goldman Sachs worked with the Global Business School Network (GBSN) and with the deans of various business schools from which it recruited students. As an example, the case cites the partnership established between the Wharton School (Pennsylvania) and the American University of Cairo.
Another example of a partner is Pan-African University in Nigeria. The schools enterprise development services arm (EDS) had created a simplified program called the Certificate in Enterprise Management. After having verified the impact of the program (number of employees and volume of revenue multiplied by up to six in the companies of the program’s graduates), the Initiative signed on EDS as a partner.
To build up capacity, Goldman Sachs funded in-country faculty exchanges, case-method faculty training initiatives and case-writing initiatives. The goal was to build a lasting legacy of trained faculty and locally-relevant, SME-level case studies. As an example, Indian professors were funded to come to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend case teaching sessions at Harvard.
While schools were held to a core curriculum (in 150 credit hours) and to the case method, there was latitude in designing the program to fit local conditions. This translated into diversity among the programs, for example with regard to the scheduling of classes (evening or weekend, an introductory period of extensive classwork or not…).
The 10,000 Women Initiative was officially inaugurated in 2008, with a $100 million commitment over 5 years. Dina Habib Powell, a former US Deputy Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs, headed the program which fell under her purview as Managing Director of Corporate Engagement at Goldman Sachs.
The first program got underway in Nigeria in May 2008 with the first cohort of 23 women taking in 30 days of schooling spread over three months and graduating in September 2008.
Employee contributions
One of the goals was to involve Goldman Sachs employees. That there was considerable internal interest was made abundantly clear when some 700 people showed up for an initial company meeting on the Initiative. Employees can participate in a number of ways.
They can serve as members of the various applicant selection committees set up at the local partner schools. As input to the selection process, Goldman Sachs partners developed memos on entrepreneur selection criteria as well as an entrepreneurship exam that might be used to test entrepreneurial ability.
Employees could also serve as mentors, through an online platform called iMentor, over the telephone or, more rarely, through in face meetings. The case goes into the example of the Chief Operating Officer for Goldman’s Securities Division Europe who mentored a Nigerian entrepreneur, Temituokpe Esisi ,the creator of a fashion design business, Tuopsy’s Enterprises. Goldman Sachs associates were offered the opportunity to guest lecture in the programs while partners could serve on the committees selecting the academic partners.
Results measurement
Measuring results is part of Goldman Sachs mindset and in the case of the 10,000 Women Initative the company has partnered with Bridgespan, a nonprofit strategy consulting firm that works with philanathropic leaders to accelerate social change. With Bridgespan, the Intitiative has developed a measurement framework.
The academic partners are required to report periodically on inputs and outputs of the program as well as on job creation and revenue growth of graduates’ businesses. The idea of using a randomized control trial (RCT) is also being considered. Here, applicants not selected for the programs would serve as a control group, with the ultimate aim of separating the causal effects of the program from extraneous, incidental effects.
While the initiative is still too young for any strong measurement conclusions to have been drawn, its appeal is clearly great. The number of applicants to the various local programs is often so high that only about 10% of applicants can be accommodated. As of May 2009, 34 academic partners were already actively engaged in the programs. Leading European business schools such as HEC Paris, INSEAD, and Oxford’s Said Business School had joined the initiative in partnerships with Tsinghua SEM; Zhejiang and Fundação Dom Cabral respectively. Over 300 organizations had contacted the Initiative expressing their interest in collaboration. One of the discussions questions posed at the end of the case is that of which organizations to integrate as partners and in what way.
Another discussion question is that of geographical extension. The case offers the example of the situation in Liberia. The Liberian Enterprise fund, a $30 million fund designed to assist Liberian women, had not been able to find many sufficiently qualified women. As a result, the Initiative had been asked to set up a Liberian partnership with the aim of creating a pool of qualified women entrepreneurs.
Finally there is the question of year 6, when Goldman Sachs’ five-year commitment will have technically expired. Will what started out as a limited initiative become an ongoing movement? Can 10,000 be multiplied by factors of 10? The 10,000 Women Initiative looks like a highly successful startup. How can one go from incubating an initiative to managing a movement?
Reference:
Harvard 9-509-042
“Goldman Sachs: The 10,000 Women Initiative”
Professors Christopher Marquis and V. Kasturi Rangan, Catherine Ross
Harvard Business School
Published June 2010
