This blog post by Ben Thurman of The Guardian offers an interesting look into how the lives of women in Ethiopia are changing as more opportunities are opened to them. He tells of Memuna, “one of many women in the Bale Eco-region that have benefited from micro loans”. Through these social enterprise ventures, women like Memuna are now being given a sense of independence and the ability to pursue their own business interests.
Startups are known for high failure rates. However, startups can also experience huge success. For example, in Suzanne’s blog post, she wrote about Snapchat’s recent rejection of Facebook’s $3 billion offer to purchase the app. For an app that was only launched in 2011, the success Snapchat has experienced has been tremendous. In fact, according to Suzanne’s post, there may be “a correlation between decline in teen [Facebook] users and an increase in Snapchat users”.
In an article by USA Today, some interesting statistics and insights on a common consequence of unmotivated employees – faking illness on sick days – were discussed along with examples of excuses actual employees have made.
As mentioned in a blog post by The Guardian, the latest in cloud computing is not for everyone and businesses should not be jumping ship so quickly as this may not necessarily lead to benefits.
The main issue observed is that some businesses see the cloud as the IT solution, however, it has to be integrated into the business effectively for maximum benefit to the firm.
Morgan Stanley recently announced the establishment of the “Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing” aiming to work on driving capital towards investments that promote sustainable economic growth. As stated in this press release by CSRwire, the Institute will focus on financial products/solutions, thought leadership, and strategic partnerships with public, private, and non-profit sectors.