Introduction
Ashoka is the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, supporting men and women globally whose ideas aim at solving complex social problems. Since the organization coined the term “social entrepreneur” and launched the field of social entrepreneurship in 1980, the network has grown to include more than 3,800 social entrepreneurs from more than 92 countries. Ashoka also seeks to shift mindsets broadly and to inspire the public-at-large to solve social problems for the good of all.
The Oliver Wyman team in the Nordics is doing a fantastic contribution to our cross-sector integration effort – Hello Nordics, initiated by Ashoka and supported by several private companies. Everything Oliver Wyman has produced for the project so far (such as design for an innovation fund, handbook for other European offices to set up similar projects, and collaboration frameworks for social entrepreneurs) has been extremely useful and suits our reality as a small yet powerful actor from the civil sector. They successfully delivered not an abstract strategy, but rather a solid framework to work with, based on reflective analysis and researchEmma Lindgren, Country Director Sweden, Ashoka
Scope
Oliver Wyman was invited to join as a core project group member when Ashoka launched an acceleration program for social entrepreneurship in the Nordics. Following a model already successfully deployed in Germany, the accelerator (“Hello Nordics”) targeted social entrepreneurs working for improved financial inclusion of immigrants in the Nordic countries. Through the accelerator, 10 social entrepreneurs with proven initiatives received support to continue scaling their ventures across the Nordic region. In the project’s first phase, Oliver Wyman was tasked with designing the innovation fund that would provide entrepreneurs with the financial means required to scale. As the collaboration between Ashoka and Oliver Wyman deepened around the “Hello Nordics” accelerator, the team also created a framework to encourage collaboration between the entrepreneurs in the accelerator and the wider Ashoka networks, as well as to codify the successful implementation of the accelerator in the Nordics to facilitate future expansion of the concept.
Ashoka is a world-class organization striving to facilitate systematic change. When our social impact team recommended we focus our efforts on Ashoka for 2018, it was an easy decision to explore with Ashoka how we could influence the Hello Nordics program. Our working relationship with the Nordic team of Ashoka was so natural that Oliver Wyman has decided to become a formal corporate sponsor. Our deeper involvement will allow Oliver Wyman to create greater impact as we bring our diverse skills to Ashoka as they carry out their mission to achieve system changeSean Cory, Partner