Wokai - Latest Comments

Re: Wokai Beijing - January 2010 “Drinks for a Better World” Recap

Steven — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:30:00 -0000

how could I know the schedule and location for the gethering of DFBW n advance?

Re: Should China redraw its poverty line?

ed whymandesign — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:03:33 -0000

Keep up the great work:)

Have you seen the AKVO work? I was talking to their team and would love to introduce your teams:)

Your network sounds great and I was hoping it would be possible to
enhance it using my creative skills. For example.... by implementing the
http://www.Traidmark.org business structure which gains the taxation benefits fo
being a Not For Profit while creating institutional innovation:)

I would like to propose a way
to create an additional USP that will benefit* your company by creating
the cumulative mass needed to make your business a success by donating
100% of your companies Net profit to innovative charitable work.

*Increased goodwill with the financial benefits that lead to rapid
growth which causes a rapid increase in profit which leads to an
increase in performance related pay for all involved.

This would create a USP that your competitors will not be able to
compete against allowing you to grow rapidly taking market share as you
gain consumer goodwill. This will allow hard work to be rewarded with
performance related pay.

The open source community will still be able to develop your software
which will dramatically increase the speed of the softwares development.

This business structure will enable your organisation to evolve and work
within a more philanthropic structure while gaining goodwill from
customers/workers/suppliers by clearly explaining their NET donation
percentages.

Q&A

How will I make my millions if I implement this structure?
Hard work and innovation by founders and employees will be rewarded with
performance pay relating to the growth of the company so hard work is
still rewarded. This could be expanded to reward members of the open
source community too.

How will the company survive hard times?
The Net profit can be invested and then donated up to a couple of years
after it has been generated in order secure the companies financial
stability.

How will the company pay for R&D?
The net profit is profit after the company has spent on R&D so still
allows progressive business development.

What other effects will there be?
Workers will be more careful about how they spend the money knowing that
it is being taken away from the end good cause rather than from a
shareholders dividend, which will make the organisation more efficient.
Many benefits will be created from customers / suppliers / partners /
stakeholders / workers that will silently boost the business.

This would...

1 create funds for charity
2 make charity more 'efficient'
3 boost your companies success rate with added goodwill
4 enable people who created your project to get rewarded financially
though performance pay while creating an organisation that is able to
provide a platform for goodwill collaboration where everyone is rewarded
for their hard/clever work knowing that all benefits go towards 'good
causes':)

I would be happy to explain any more details as and when needed.

Ed http://www.whymandesign.com
http://www.twitter.com/whymand...

http://www.Traidmark.org

Re: Wokai co-founder’s road to China in Post Magazine

marryjohn — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:11:09 -0000

Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!
_____________________________

Finance Dissertation

Re: Wokai co-founder Casey Wilson appears on Bloomberg

Wokai Fan — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:15:53 -0000

Great Work Casey !

Re: Wokai co-founder Casey Wilson appears on Bloomberg

kapookababy — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:18:11 -0000

Ah, apologies to those within China - they might have trouble viewing this as it's hosted on YouTube.

Re: Wokai co-founder Casey Wilson appears on Bloomberg

Jason — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:04:34 -0000

I am not sure if others are having this problem, but the video is set to private and I am unable to view.

Re: Wokai Beijing - November “Drinks For A Better World” Recap

Beijing Tour — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:18:02 -0000

Interesting post. I have made a twitter post about this. Others no doubt will like it like I did.

Re: Acumen Fund’s “even better” holiday message

kapookababy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:28:48 -0000

Apologies! That's been rectified now :)

Re: Give a Wokai Gift Certificate this Holiday Season : A Holiday Gift that Helps the Poor in Rural China Lift Themselves out of Poverty

Sam L — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:57:15 -0000

correction - redeem URL should be http://www.wokai.org/redeem.ph...

Re: “Investing” and Philanthropy: Is it possible to invest in Wokai?

Healthcare — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:31:14 -0000

May be i think it would be silly to call our fund raising campaign
(which is 80% of the way to our end-of-year goal!) an IPO.

Re: Acumen Fund’s “even better” holiday message

David Platzer — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:42:55 -0000

Hi!

Thanks for creating a link to our holiday video. Thank you for spreading the word. Quick clarification though with regards to your comments. Acumen Fund is *not* in fact a micro-credit institution. While we are focused on alleviating the conditions associated with poverty through market-based solutions, Acumen invests in medium to larger businesses. In any case, to learn more about what Acumen does, check out http://www.acumenfund.org/abou...

Thanks!

Re: The Fungus Business: Microfinanced Mushrooms

Sam L — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:34:16 -0000

Thanks for the informative story! I just found her profile on wokai main website too:

http://www.wokai.org/f/c/b.php...

Re: “Investing” and Philanthropy: Is it possible to invest in Wokai?

simonwilson — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:42:43 -0000

Social Impact Exchange... a market for philanthropy?

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/20...

Re: “Investing” and Philanthropy: Is it possible to invest in Wokai?

simonwilson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:47:07 -0000

I think you raise an important issue and there is no harm and, on the contrary, a significant advantage to viewing the issue from another point-of-view than the microcosm of a “tainted” and tunnel-vision “Wall Street” financial view; especially where you are expanding the boundaries of finance in developing your own business model in Wokai.

My take on this issue, “investment”, and its corollary, “return” is explored in the following:
Firstly, I think we need to be more open-minded about what the term “investment” means to us, and to those around us, rather than a strict focus on “the placement of money” coupled with its (capital rate of) “return”.
Secondly, and intimately coupled with the first, is how we view the “return” on this investment. For this I consider that it is a given that the human beast seeks to obtain a positive net return to whatever “investment” he/she makes. The issue is: over what time horizon? In answering a question about a “return” on an investment it is always critical to determine what the investor’s time horizon is for measurement of this return. There are financial instrument market traders who invest and expect a return in milliseconds. There are those, like Warren Buffett, who invest with a time horizon of decades and there are many entities and enterprises that fall in between. Our global society is currently challenged with the issue of climate change where what we do (“invest in”) now will not have measureable returns in ours or conceivably in our children’s lifetimes. It is therefore, in my view, critical for an entity seeking funds to match the structure of what return it is offering to the “return” expectations of the investor and over what time horizon he/she wishes to measure those returns on investment. An “investor” in this sense can be a capital investor or a philanthropist or anywhere in between.

Turning to how investors behave here are some examples of how “investments” and “returns” may be viewed differently by different entities:

President Obama’s visit to China demonstrates that a financial investment, by China in this case purchasing or “investing” in US Treasury Bonds, may not produce, and has not produced, a net positive real financial return for China to date. However, in becoming a debtor nation to China the United States has lost significant influence and power in global politics to China. I am certain that China views this leverage, and whatever more bargaining power it might utilise, as a “return” on its investment albeit that a financial measurement cannot be placed on it!

When companies like Toyota Motor Corporation ventured out of their home markets some decades ago business analysts commented on their year-over-year financial losses and viewed them as unsustainable. Later, when markets had been opened and profits started to be returned, this process was termed an “investment in losses”. If asked, the Japanese car manufacturers would have said that those were the investments required to establish markets and thus ensure profits. They were able to do this because they and their own investors had the same expectations of the capacity required and time horizon over which returns for such investments would be made.

In management we know that morale in a work force is a significant motivational force for productivity. If management spends time, maybe in excess of that strictly measured as remunerative, in enhancing the morale of a team, a department or a work force then it is doing so in expectation of a “return” on its “investment” in time and other benefits. These, intangible, “returns” are difficult to measure as are the plethora of day-to-day quid-pro-quo’s and implicit contractual exchanges that take place in society and organisations. The human beast would not continue to engage in these transactions unless they thought that there would be a good chance of a net positive return for them whether in enhanced morale or other intangible benefits.

If I, as an individual, expend my income on a subscription to a fitness club this may well look like expenditure to a financial analyst but to me it is an “investment”. It is an investment because it is likely, to my view, to produce a short term “return” in wellbeing and a potentially longer term return in leading a longer productive life (something I probably will never measure!).

Finally, “returns on risk investments” are difficult, if not impossible, to predict whether over a long term or a short term horizon and more especially in markets where boundaries and conditions are being explored, challenged and changing and where the risk content has to be taken into account. Would stock market investors with a medium term horizon have invested in markets that have shown no positive nominal return if they had perceived those returns to be negative in the last three years? For these types of returns we rely on our risk taking nature and capacity, a gamble in short!

My aim has been to demonstrate that “investment” defined in this way (as you rightly say too; time, money, expertise) can take other forms than financial money investment or expenditure and that “returns” too can be viewed in significantly different ways, other than the matching of the time horizon over which they are viewed; especially where these returns are intangible or there are no markets for pricing them.
Marissa Mayer, VP of Search at Google used the term “ecosystem” recently in an interview on how Google views they can investigate where and how returns can be made for the business decisions it seeks to make. To my mind this is a powerful concept because it does not confine or bound the vision of where potential returns may arise. I think this is particularly true in the domains in which you in Wokai operate, and you allude to this in saying “by measuring the changes generated throughout the communities in which we work”. The key will be how you manage to capture the “returns”, in whatever form they may take and, in turn, how you distribute those “returns”, tangible or intangible, to the various “contributors”, or "investors" to your scheme, whoever they may be, their motives and however constituted.

Maybe it is up to you to develop a view and educate your “contributors” or seek to match your expectations to those of your target contributors or vice versa? Who knows, a market in smiles might already exist; we just haven’t determined how to measure it ☺?

Re: What’s the best way to CONNECT contributors and entrepreneurs????

Tamiko Blake — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:47:15 -0000

Quarterly updates would be nice. I'd like to know what was purchased and how my loan improved the borrower's life. I am also curious about business skill building. Once the loan is provided, is there any business support for the entrepreneur? Social impact metrics are important, but I know that can be difficult when dealing with borrowers who are located in remote areas. A simple survey that could be plugged into standardized metrics would be nice. Keep it simple. Great work Wokai!

Re: Yogathon Beijing 2009

Kraken — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:29:17 -0000

This is great! I will be there!

Re: Wokai SF Bay Area Seeking New President

euwyn — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:22:58 -0000

Where are you based? Drop a note to jason.phan@wokai.org - Jason's handling Wokai's marketing in China. We do have chapters in Beijing and HK, and one forming in Shanghai.

Re: Wokai SF Bay Area Seeking New President

BullishChina — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:57:03 -0000

really want to meet you brilliant guys there, but... .. I d like to do something for WOKAI in China.

Re: A Glimpse at Generation Z: More conscious, more global?

Leslie Forman — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:00:38 -0000

Casey, this is awesome! My brother actually went to Menlo. I went to Menlo-Atherton which is right down the street. A few years ago the private schools in the area all offered Japanese, but not Chinese. I think they switched to Chinese in the past 4 years or so, reflecting the shifting power dynamics in Asia. I think it's really amazing that 75% had heard of microfinance. Keep up the good work! I am so impressed with Wokai's $100K benchmark and huge turnouts for events all over. Hope to see you soon here in Beijing :)

Re: Drinks for a Better World - NYC Declared a Success!

Casey_W — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:25:45 -0000

Congrats Wokai NYC! The event sounds amazing!

Re: Drinks for a Better World - NYC Declared a Success!

Sandy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:18:46 -0000

yay NY Wokai! thanks to all who came out!

Re: Drinks for a Better World - NYC Declared a Success!

jphan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:41:15 -0000

Great job NYC Chapter. Keep up the good work!!

Re: China’s 60th Anniversary Celebrations - “A Farewell to Poverty”?

周易 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:34:58 -0000

作为一名中国人，相对评论我更多的是感叹！天下如此纷扰，穷人的眼神，富人的眼神对比更有震撼的力度。作为一名普通的中国人，最需要的不是感叹，而是行动！行动的力量就是将感叹的核桃壳敲开，抓住内核。吃掉还是丢弃，抓到内核了再做决定！行动的宗旨是什么？行动需要指导思想和价值观作为动力去实施。作为一名想尽力帮助穷人的普通中国人，我只想用自己的行动来实施这项有意义的事，可显然金钱对于现阶段的我来说这种方式并不太适合，那么，我可以做点什么呢？

Re: Help ARDY – Vote in the One Foundation Philanthropy Awards!

zycbob — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:51:02 -0000

so cool
thanks wokai~

Re: Bay Area Chapter’s Moon Festival Event Increased Wokai’s Contributor Base by 20%

Name — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:45:49 -0000

we chinese farmers thank you all !!