The social entrepreneur who inspired the Barefoot MBA, Mechai Viravaidya, is the subject of a new blog post by Bill Gates.
Mechai’s work has had a lasting effect in Thailand and beyond, and we’re pleased to see his name in mainstream U.S. sources. Of course, we don’t need Bill Gates to tell us Mechai is a hero!
Happy new year from the Barefoot MBA! 2017 marked our tenth anniversary, an important milestone to reflect on how far we’ve come in a decade. (See below.)
It gives us great joy to know the Barefoot MBA is now nearly self-sustaining. It gives us almost as much joy to know how it’s being used. Please continue to let us know how you’ve used or hope to use our materials. We welcome your stories, your photos and your feedback.
If you’d like to help, or know someone who might, please e-mail us at info@barefootmba.org. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
This week marks the tenth anniversary of our first Barefoot MBA pilot.
A lot can change in ten years – progress, priorities, partnerships. And a lot can stay the same. In addition we still need help, especially with this site, partnership ideas and adaptation opportunities.
Here’s what’s changed:
Here’s what hasn’t: Principles. We created the Barefoot MBA because we saw a need for freely available basic business education for even the smallest-scale entrepreneurs. We have sustained it because we see what a difference it makes. Ten years later, and in mostly hands-off mode, we still get new requests. And we still find a way to work with any prospective partner who is true to our principles. That has meant turning down offers to monetize our work – and we are OK with that.
And here’s the other thing that hasn’t changed: We are still looking for help. Not with the materials – those, mercifully, are well tested. But we would be grateful for assistance with:
We are grateful to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, particularly its Service Learning Program and Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the dozens of individuals and organizations that launched us a decade ago and continue to support our mission. We look forward to sharing the next ten years with you.
If you’d like to help, or know someone who might, please e-mail us at info@barefootmba.org. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Happy new year! Ten years ago this week the seed for the Barefoot MBA was planted. Though our updates to have been less frequent, our mission continues. As always, we welcome updates on how you’ve used or hope to use our materials.
If you’d like to help, or know someone who might, please e-mail us at info@barefootmba.org. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Nine years! We’ve come a long way since our first curriculum pilot in Thailand in the summer of 2007.
Five years ago this week we piloted the Barefoot MBA with villagers near Lamplaimat, Thailand. The world has seen plenty of progress since then: Five Nobel Peace Prize winners. Two new countries. The birth of the world’s seven billionth baby. The Barefoot MBA has seen plenty of progress since then too: eight published adaptations in five languages. Reaching every inhabited continent. A thriving tool, largely without our direct support. We can’t promise to become the next Nobel Laureates or reach all seven billion people in all 195 countries, but five years of progress in basic business education is a pretty good start.
The Barefoot MBA is a tool we created in 2007 to teach basic business to anyone, anywhere through a collection of modular, adaptable lessons. After a successful pilot that summer, we started spreading the Barefoot MBA. We continue to run it as a labor of love.
In five years, we’ve supported adaptations and implementations in nine countries: Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, Nicaragua, Philippines, Rwanda, Thailand, Uganda and the United States. In addition, we’ve heard about adaptations and implementations in India, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda. Adaptations are underway in at least three other countries. And that’s just what we know about. We regularly hear anecdotes of others spreading the word about, if not also using, our open-source tool. The nature of our work makes an exact number impossible to pinpoint, but we know we have reached several tens of thousands of people around the world.
We’ve presented to leaders in social entrepreneurship. We’ve been covered by local and national media. The founder of the Thai NGO that incubated our pilot even mentioned us in his TED talk (starting around 10:45).
Our social media efforts on Facebook (become a fan!) and Twitter (become a follower!) continue to expand our reach. Our blog-turned-website continues to get hits from every inhabited continent, and we continue to update it with anecdotes and adaptations.
We look forward to more progress in the next five years.
The Barefoot MBA has become part of the community at the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), Thailand’s largest NGO and our original partner. Lauren, a student on a Stanford trip there in late December / early January, shared a brief update. The Barefoot MBA is being used in 148 villages total, including as part of the Village Development Program in 71 villages and in school-based programs in 5 (growing to 13). Teachers at the Bamboo School, PDA’s high-performing school, are trained to implement it as well. Mechai Viravaidya, the founder of PDA and our inspiration, has prioritized education and improving conditions for the very poor. And the Barefoot MBA has become integrated in PDA’s overview presentation, so even those who are interested in PDA for other reasons still get a glimpse of our work.
Many thanks to Lauren for the update and photos.
Happy new year. This January update is our fifth since the Barefoot MBA became an idea to teach basic business to anyone, anywhere. That idea quickly became a curriculum, and that curriculum continues to touch every inhabited continent. Thanks largely to our partner organizations, we’ve reached tens of thousands of participants. And our numbers continue to grow.
In 2011, we reported progress on existing partnerships in Rwanda and Rhode Island. Behind the scenes we continue to explore additional partnerships (and welcome your ideas). As 2012 begins we look forward to sharing updates from two trips run by the Stanford program that first supported us, one teaching Barefoot MBA lessons in Kenya and the other visiting the Thai social entrepreneur who inspired our work.
As always, we welcome updates on how others are using the Barefoot MBA.
We also reiterate our plea to you, our readers, for two things:
If you’d like to help, or know someone who might, please comment on this post or e-mail us at info@barefootmba.org.
And if you haven’t already, feel free to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Four years ago this month we first piloted the Barefoot MBA. Since then we’ve expanded from 1 country to 12 (that we know of), 2 creators to countless partners and volunteers. We’ve reached people on every inhabited continent, including thousands of participants. Some of their stories are below; many don’t reach us. And we’re still serious about our lofty-sounding goal to reach anyone, anywhere.
So we begin our fifth year not with another recap of how far we’ve come but with a plea to you, our readers, for two things:
If you’d like to help, or know someone who might, please comment on this post or e-mail us at info@barefootmba.org.
And if you haven’t already, feel free to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
We look forward to another productive year ahead!
Four years ago this week we conceived of the Barefoot MBA idea, determined to create a workable curriculum for the Thai social enterprise that inspired our work and wondering aloud what our creation would look like in Africa, where we saw indisputable need but no opportunity to make it there.
In 2010, we made it – to no fewer than seven African countries. In Kenya and Rwanda this summer, Katherine ran workshops with two partner organizations, Maker Faire Africa and Gardens for Health International. (The latter loosely translated Barefoot MBA into the local language as rwiyemeza mikimo w’ikirenga utagira n’inkweto, which literally means a master good entrepreneur with no shoes on.) Other organizations adapted the Barefoot MBA in Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda, and at least two more are working with it in southern Africa.
We also made it to Nicaragua, where volunteers ran a four-week workshop, and to another site in India.
The lion’s share of these new partnerships sought us out, not the other way around.
In addition, we continue to hear encouraging reports from existing partners. For example, a Philippine partner rolled out the Barefoot MBA to up to 21,590 clients by August, a year after our train-the-trainers workshop and pilot. That’s a staggering number, especially in the wake of the country’s devastating typhoons.
Oh, and the Thai social entrepreneur who inspired the Barefoot MBA four years ago this week? He mentions us in his TED talk (starting around 10:45).
Our social media efforts on Facebook (become a fan!) and Twitter continue to expand our reach. Our blog-turned-website continues to get hits from every inhabited continent, and we continue to update it with anecdotes and adaptations. We continue to hear of others using the Barefoot MBA around the world and look forward to more stories and success in 2011.
Happy new year!
Mechai Viravaidya, the social entrepreneur who inspired the Barefoot MBA, mentioned it during a recent TED talk. The entire video is nearly 14 minutes; the relevant portion starts around 10:45.
This month marks the third anniversary of our first pilot — and an opportunity to summarize and share our progress in the last year:
As always, that’s just what we know. Our social media efforts on Facebook (become a fan!) and Twitter have expanded our reach to new people and places. Our blog-turned-website continues to get hits from every inhabited continent, and we continue to hear second- and third-hand of others adapting the Barefoot MBA to their needs.
We look forward to another year of progress ahead — and, as always, to your continued support and feedback.
Three years ago this week, the Barefoot MBA began as but an idea. Since then we’ve come a long way.
2009 in review:
And in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, some for the Barefoot MBA:
Happy new year!
As we mark the second anniversary this month of our Thai pilot, we’re excited to announce a return trip to Southeast Asia with the Barefoot MBA, this time to a train-the-trainers workshop in the Philippines next month. Thanks to support from the Global Initiative to adVance Entrepreneurship (GIVE) and the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF), we’ll work with representatives from microfinance institutions in the Philippines and Cambodia to adapt and implement the Barefoot MBA. Stay tuned for more details as we finalize them.
Confirmation of our Philippines workshop caps off a year of progress for the Barefoot MBA — and represents how far we’ve come. Since our first anniversary, we’ve continued to broaden and deepen our partnerships with micro-lenders and other organizations with access to entrepreneurs hungry for basic business education. For example:
As always, that’s just what we know. Our blog-turned-website continues to get hits from every inhabited continent, and we continue to hear second- and third-hand of others adapting the Barefoot MBA to their needs.
We look forward to another year of progress ahead — and, as always, to continued support and feedback from you. In the meantime, we invite you to join our fledgling social networking efforts by becoming a fan on Facebook and/or following us on Twitter.
Another update from Anita at PDA, this time on training the trainers, which will enable exponential expansion of the Barefoot MBA in Thailand:
On May 23-24, PDA ran a Train-the-trainer session of the Barefoot MBA. Fourteen PDA operations staff from three PDA centers were taken through the Barefoot MBA Phase I curriculum, both as participants and then as trainers to critique the lesson content and discuss training delivery. We will soon be ready to roll out training to villagers from around these three centers!
It’s a treat to hear from Anita, our Thai translator, steward of the Barefoot MBA at PDA, and general goodwill ambassador for the program. Anita and Laura, the PDA intern from Michigan State, have made great progress deepening and broadening the Barefoot MBA’s reach at PDA. We’ll post photos when they arrive. Meanwhile, Anita writes:
We have been busy working to dramatically increase the number of our Village Development Partnership (VDP) projects and engaging the private sector. … We are looking at incorporating the Barefoot MBA into our VDP model. As we give villagers access to credit to start/expand their businesses through the Village Development Bank, we also offer them skills to help them succeed in their businesses through the Barefoot MBA.
Laura and I just spent 3 ½ weeks in the PDA Lamplaimat center this March, where you were based last time. We went through the remaining 13 modules of the curriculum, along with Khun Prahat, the head of the VDP program (he was previously also the center director). Of these, we decided to discard 3 as they were already covered by other training run by PDA. Working with Somthin (who helped us last time), we adapted and translated the remaining 10 modules, grouping them into 4 learning sessions. Of these, we tested out 2 in pilot sessions, including as many people as we could from the first two pilot sessions. They were also a success, despite a massive storm preventing many of the participants attending the second session!
We are calling the sessions based on your curriculum “Barefoot MBA Stage 1: Introduction to Business” and this will be offered to all villagers who are interested in setting up/expanding a business, and to members of the Village Development Bank committee. We are incorporating two PDA training sessions, which teach how to write a business plan and how to create a budget over 1-2 days. These are very in-depth classes which are designed to give participants the actual tools they need to start a business, so we are only offering them to villagers who are very serious about setting up a business. We are calling these classes “Barefoot MBA Stage 2: Advanced Training.”
We won’t stop here. We will continue to work on expanding the Barefoot MBA at PDA to include “Study Abroad,” “Internship” and “Networking” stages.
As you can see, your work with us almost two years ago has been invaluable in helping us to get started on offering villagers what they desperately need: business knowledge and skills!
Progress independent of our day-to-day effort continues, this time back in Thailand with PDA.
We’ve been in touch with Laura, an intern from Michigan State who’s expanding the Barefoot MBA’s reach in Lamplaimat, where we piloted the first lessons. During her seven-week internship, Laura has been adapting and implementing several lessons with PDA.
She writes:
The first three weeks of the internship I was working out of the PDA Bangkok office, and just getting acquainted with the organization. I made a couple site visits up here to Issan to check out some VDP villages. For the second half of the internship though, Anita and I have been making the trek to Lamplaimat for the past couple of weeks, and working on adapting/translating 8 more modules. In most cases we’ve combined at least two modules together, creating a session that covers two related topics. Because you guys have already created the lesson outlines, the hardest part has just been coming up with activities that will keep the villagers involved and hold their attention. For one of the lessons I wrote a skit about loans and interests, and we’ve made up an activity about selling fruit in the market to teach about specialization. I’m still working on writing examples for the Planning and Records lesson. We’ve created some basic charts to show the villagers, and we want to be able to walk them through how to keep their records using them.
Laura is keeping a blog complete with photos and stories that harken back to our time in Thailand. We look forward to her regular updates — and, ultimately, to her final report.
BANGKOK, August 3 – Our final meeting with Khun Mechai went well. In the lounge of the restaurant whose profits PDA uses to support programs for villagers like the ones we met, and using the bar’s television as a projector screen, we recapped our progress and takeaways for Khun Mechai and two of the PDA staff members with whom we worked closely.
We agreed that the pilot in Lamplaimat was a success and talked eagerly of ways to build upon the work we’ve done: teach more lessons, require the entire curriculum as a prerequisite to securing a micro-loan from PDA, collaborate with other organizations to strengthen existing efforts and expand to additional villages worldwide. If we didn’t have other commitments waiting for us at home, we’d tackle that list and more. With limited resources, we agreed to adapt our already written stories with market examples relevant to the villagers we met and to brainstorm ideas for additional activities that reinforce our stories’ lessons by engaging and involving students.
And so, like all good things, our time here must end. We are leaving Thailand but not the Barefoot MBA, PDA but not the mission it espouses. Our work here has been challenging and rewarding, eye-opening and inspiring. It’s been remarkable to watch this project evolve over the last seven months from an informal conversation on the beach to the most formal education a roomful of Thai villagers had seen in years. Despite not understanding more than a word or two from our students, the looks on their faces tell us we’ve created something worthwhile – and have a long way to go. We’ve learned from the villagers while they’ve learned from our curriculum and look forward to following their continued success. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions, as well.
This ends the regular blog updates (for now). Thanks for reading!
Barefoot MBA 
