Country: Canada

Organization: MBAs Without Borders

Year the initiative began: 2004

Project Website: Website

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Lack of local input
• Main insight addressed: Develop community assets

Youtube upload:

What is the goal of your innovation?
MWB empowers entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia and Latin America by matching them with experienced MBAs and together building market?based solutions.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
Business can and must play an important role in alleviating poverty in developing countries and MBAs Without Borders (MWB) believes in a world where every local entrepreneur has the means to succeed and bring their own community out of poverty. From that vision, MBAs Without Borders was formed as an international NGO bringing innovative solutions to developing countries by bringing experienced business volunteers from around the world (i.e. MBAs) byworking with local businesses and charities in the developing world to unleash a big secret...Business Can do Amazing Things! MWB embodies geotourism byt bringing MBA volunteers to support projects in Agriculture, Health, Handicrafts and Environment/Energy and to date has worked in: Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine and Vietnam. While our name might sound like we are a supply driven organization, we in fact our demand driven. We exist only because small businesses and charities in these countries see the true economic value in what we can provide by engaging our MBAs in geotourism. As well, sustainability is so very key to our work and as such we do not focus on short term vacations if you will- we focus on manageable work that can be accomplished and have sustained results that last on average 4-6 months.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
There are many unique ways that MWB provides an innovative and sustainable model: - We focus our efforts with small business entrepreneurs in developing countries. We believe that small businesses are a critical piece to create sustainability particularly in under-served markets - All of our project requirements come directly from our field partners. This ensures that we address the needs as identified by local experts - Our field partners contribute 20-30% of the cost of MBAs. This helps establish ownership which is a key ingredient to the project success - We recruit top MBAs globally to volunteer in the field and they are our geotourist if you will, often with extensive professional experience in the international context - MWB has embraced the power of technology and all MBAs (both in the field and the MWB online community) are encouraged to participate and engage with other MBAs online and with entrepreneurs in the field on MWB's online business network, "business 2 development" - MWB also realizes its important to continue to support and create awareness with MBA students and graduates and we have recently launched a magazine titled, Managing & Developing

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
1. Partnerships with key MBA Programs via their social impact club, networks and alumni to share the amazing impact one can have by becoming a geotourist 2. Partnerships and Discussion with Social Entrepreneurs that are engaged in the developing world and could be in need of business assistance for MWB's volunteers 3. Partnerships with key Corporations that are interested in supporting economic development by sending and financially supporting their staff to the field, via MWB to support our field partners 4. Financial Partnerships with High-Net Worth Individuals, Corporations with strong CSR initiatives and Foundations interested in economic development in Africa, Asia or Latin America.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Create new income for over 100,000 people while supporting over 100 organizations by sending 200+ MBAs to volunteer by 2012.

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
MWB minimizes negative impact but fully embodying the idea of partnership. All of our project requirements come directly from our field partners. This ensures that we address the needs as identified by local experts. In addition, our field partners contribute 20-30% of the cost of each MBA volunteer. This helps establish ownership which is a key ingredient to the project success. These two factors are key in us ensuring that there is a need for our volunteers. Some MBAs Without Borders tangible results to date: 1. Working with fair trade coffee producer, Sidama, MWB helped them certify 31 local co-ops with fair trade certification, making them the largest fair trade producer in Ethiopia - bringing extra income (.11/kg) to thousands of local farmers. 2. Increased women micro-credit customers from 150 to 3,000 for local MFI in Kenya 3. With MBA’s “toolkit binder”, a local agri-business NGO launched into its second district of operations, which in less than six months already stands at 14 new employees serving 1,000 clients 4. Trained 2 staff members in supply chain management and helped increase local workforce from 8 to 170 people by partnering with local co-ops to support a local Handicraft group in Mali

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
MWB recruits MBAs from around the world via a number of methods including a job board on the MWB website, by posting each position at over 350 business school website across the globe and by partnering with key organizations to cross promote MWB oppurtunities. In addition to promote the work of our MBAs, each MBA has an online blog where they can interact with the online community while in the field and also post a final report/case study once their project is complete. This helps excite and engage our MBAs with our network and fellow MWB alumni.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
To reiterate some remarks in question #3, all of our project requirements come directly from our field partners. This ensures that we address the needs as identified by them. In addition, our field partners contribute 20-30% of the cost of each MBA volunteer. This helps establish ownership which is a key ingredient to the project success. To date, we have received lots of positive feedback from our partners. So much so, that our partners now are referring us to other organizations and companies that can meet the partnerships expectations we have as an organization.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
MWB is fortunate to receive between 50-100 MBAs applying for each volunteer placement. However, we select MBAs not just for their business acumen but just as equally for how much they are able to embrace the local culture(s) and heritage within the community which they will volunteer. To further that, MWB recently has launched its own magazine (Managing & Developing) and its online social network (b2d) to engage young business professionals from around the world about the wealth of knowledge, challenges and opportunities that exists when a MBA brings their business knowledge to those in developing countries.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Right now, no. We rely on ~ 55% of our funding from corporations, foundations and individuals. While we have a unique model that allows for 30% of our budget to come from our field partners and 10% from government, in order to support 50-100 MBA volunteers per year, we need to fund raise between $300-$750k per year. There is a huge demand from small businesses and NGOs and MBAs but the key to our future success will be partnering with corporations and 2-3 high-net worth individuals that can provide $50-$100k per year for the next 3 years.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
Revenue Streams 30% from local field partners 10% from government 5% from Miscellenous and Income-Generation Programs like Magazine 55% from Corporations, Foundations and Individuals 2007 Budget: Revenue - $325,000 Staff - 1.75 Volunteers in the Field - 23 Volunteers @ Home - 20 2006 Budget Revenue - $110,000 Staff - 1 Volunteers in Field - 8 Volunteers @ Home 5 2005 Budget Revenue - $25,000 Staff - 0 Volunteers in Field - 1 Volunteers at Home - 2

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
As MWB continues, there is an enormous need and potential for support for local business in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To date, MWB has supported 25+ organizations with MBAs but there is far greater demand. We hope to support over 200 organizations by 2010 bringing new income to over 50,000 locals in the communities where we work. By 2012/13 we hope to expand even farther and support over 500 organizations supporting over 100,000 people. In 2009 and 2010 we hope to register in the UK & Australia.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
There are three big challenges for MBAs Without Borders (in order): 1. Funding - it's cliché but true. We rely on 60% of our funds from donors and have yet to really secure any large funding or year-over-year funding agreements. When we can secure some good funding we will be able to grow even faster as we have all the structure already in place to manage growth. 2. Human Capacity - We have too few people doing too many jobs. While we don't need to have an army of people managing MBAs Without Borders, we do need a solid 4-5 full-time paid staff to manage the organization. Right now we have 1.25-2.0 in any given month. However, this is issue could be managed when #1 is achieved. 3. Finding strong field partners - While we have more requests than we ever expected from small business and NGOs in the developing world, their quality doesn't always meet our standards. As such finding proper metrics and ways to identify more sustainable and strong field partners is something we are continuing to investigate; being able to identify and work with strong partners is the backbone of MWB.

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
Finishing my MBA in 2005 was a personal challenge. It wasn't the exams or the work, but what my MBA was suppose to lead me to. MBA programs around the world typically groom one to climb the corporate ladder, but I was more interested in using my MBA to support small businesses in the developing world. So I began to search for what options existed for someone with that interest - and there was nothing really but I knew if I was interested, there had to be others. The reason I was interested in small business is because I saw first hand what a small business can do for a financially-challenged family. When we immgrated to Canada my parents struggled financially but eventually they started and built a successful small furniture business just outside Toronto, Canada. I guess it was because I witnessed how a small business changed our lives and the people the company employed and then combining that with my MBA and international experiences, it just made sense that supporting small business and economic development in the developing world was what I needed to do - hence, MBAs Without Borders was crated.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Tal Dehtiar is based in Canada. Co-founding MBAs Without Borders in 2004, Tal received his MBA from DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and has a BA from the University of Western Ontario. He speaks English, Russian, Hebrew and Spanish. Tal is a recipient of the 2004 Ontario Global Trader Award, 2005 Arch Award, was nominated for the 2005 YMCA Peace Award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2005 and 2006. Just recently Tal was named one of the Youth Action Fellows for 2007 and selected as a Semi-Finalist for the 2008 Echoing Green Fellows program.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
MBAs Without Borders (MWB) is an international organization that empowers local entrepreneurs and matches them with experienced MBAs, from around the world, to bring innovative market-based solutions to developing countries. We believe that businesses can do amazing things and when channeled in the appropriate way, it can have an incredible lasting impact in communities in developing countries. - We focus our efforts with grass roots entrepreneurs in developing countries. We believe that small businesses are a critical piece to create sustainability particularly in under-served market - All of our project requirements come directly from our field partners. This ensures that we address the needs as identified by local experts - Our field partners contribute 20-30% of the cost of MBAs. This helps establish ownership which is a key ingredient to the project success - We recruit top MBAs globally, often with extensive professional experience in the international context MWB’s Sector Focus: Agriculture, Health, Handicrafts, Micro-Finance and Environment/Energy MWB’s Countries: Bolivia, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Ukraine.

Contact Information
Mr. Tal Dehtiar
Co-Founder
MBAs Without Borders
302-50 Old Mill Road, Oakville, Ontario
tal.dehtiar@mbaswithoutborders.org