When he came to Wharton, Dean Thomas Robertson outlined a vision of business as a tool for advancing society and creating economic opportunity for all people. It’s a wonderful and high-minded ideal and one that I believe to be true.
In many ways, the transformative power of business is encapsulated in microfinance institutions (MFIs) – hybrid organizations that adopt business principles to address poverty by making small loans to impoverished people. Over the last 20 years, microfinance has become a globally popular anti-poverty intervention and a great example of how business acumen can be applied to help address social problems in sustainable ways. It is also an area that has benefited from the ingenuity of Wharton student Charlie Javice (Wharton Undergrad Class of 2014), and her team, who have launched PoverUP to help take the microfinance model in exciting new directions.
To read the original article: More than Profits: Using Business as a Tool for Good in the World | Entrepreneurship Blog
