Chris Crosby

About a month ago, I wrote a post on the book “A Billion Bootstraps” and briefly discussed the concept of Microcredit. Since reading the book earlier this year, Amy and I have been actively researching Microcredit and sizing up the best angle and mechanisms for us to get involved. Coincidentally about two weeks ago, we saw a special on the Chicago channel about Microfinance and Kiva.Org. This program anchored our attention towards what I believe is the future of philanthropy; and I think once you check it out you’ll agree.

Kiva is a non-profit organization that connects microloan lenders directly to Microfinance institutions via the internet. The Microfinance field partner works in the local community to identify and manage the individual loans. (A field partner is essentially a mini-bank without the commercialized aspects that we’re accustomed to). They post the individuals seeking loans with descriptions of who the money will go to and what they’ll be using it for. Individual loan needs range from $200 up to about $1,200.

Would-be loaners can then browse Kiva’s web site and select which individuals they’d like to help. They can contribute anywhere from $25 to the full amount of the loan with literally the click of a mouse. When the loaner decides which loan they’d like to fund and for how much, they are taken to PayPal to process the transaction (PayPal is not charging any processing fees).

Once the transaction is complete, Kiva provides a basic portfolio management tool that allows you to track your loans and the repayment process. They also have some nice community building features such as online journals from the loan recipients.  

Beyond the idea of Microloans, what I am amazed at is how simple and effective the Kiva concept is. Kiva has almost no overhead, operates from donations only and doesn’t take an administration fee out of your loan (thus negating those frustrating annual reports from large charities breaking down how much of your contribution goes to “overhead and administration costs”).

The ability to cost effectively connect individual philanthropists directly with those in need on a global scale is truly revolutionary.   

I believe this model is ingenious. The technology and concepts could be applied to many vertical charitable initiatives. I can envision a similar charity helping America’s homeless population. Someone could take the basic idea of Microloans and extend it to allow people to contribute or fund other services like mental health and chemical dependency counseling, or temporary living to help people get back on their feet, or…

When people can see the individuals they are helping and visualize where their contributions are going, I believe they will be much more likely to get involved (and especially from the comfort of their home PC).

Kiva.Org has gained a great deal of media attention lately and from the looks of it, they’re about to be featured on Oprah.  They also offer Gift Certificates starting from $25, what a great gift for the holidays…

Here is an example loan from their web site: Miguel Mazzini (picture in the banner below). He needs $550 to expand his seafood selling business. Miguel will be repaying the loan over eight months.

Miguel has 7 years’ experience in selling seafood, which he learned from his father who took him to work with him from a very young age. Miguel learned and mastered the trade as he gained more experience. He decided to work on his own since he was married and needed to be able to cover the expenses for his household. He works from 4 am to 11 am every day with his wife and a relative who helps them remove the meat from crabs so that later it can be put into tubs and sold.

Miguel wants a loan to be able to invest in different types of seafood. This is his second loan with our program. He hopes that he can give his brother work with the income generated. Miguel is married, 23 years old, and has a daughter six months old. He hopes to be able to earn enough to have his own home, since he now lives with his parents.

Go ahead and say it, “This is awesome….”

	Make a loan Change a life
Name: Kossi A. Location: Togo	Loan Needed: $1,000 33 % funded

I want to pass along information on a webinar that AC2 Solutions, Latigent’s preferred Workforce Management Partner, is doing later this week. If you have never seen AC2 Solutions products you are truly missing out on the future of workforce management. These guys have a killer solution and a clear vision on where contact centers are going and how you’ll need to forecast and staff for them. 

Dr. Aykin is extremely knowledgeable and regardless of which WFM product you use you won’t want to miss their free events.  

You can register for the webinar here.  Please see below for the description of the event.

Each month, Dr. Turgut Aykin discusses relevant topics in the workforce optimization arena via free web seminars.  Every workforce manager can benefit extensively from Dr. Aykin’s knowledge and experience.
On Thursday September 6, forecasting, probably the most vital step in the workforce management process, will be the topic of discussion. Without a solid forecast in place, the best workforce management systems will falter. While forecasting methodologies range from simple gut feel to intricate mathematical algorithms, there are several that every workforce manager should be aware of to effectively forecast the center’s workload.

In today’s complex multi-skill, multi-site, multimedia contact centers, forecasting contact volumes and average handling times accurately can be an extraordinary challenge.  During this web seminar Dr. Aykin will review several techniques used for forecasting and discuss advantages and risks of each.
Participants will learn about the following:

• Why accuracy in workforce planning matters?
• Time series models
• Exponential smoothing
• Time series decomposition
• Box-Jenkins ARIMA Models
• Dynamic regression
• Curve fitting
• Expert systems for contact center forecasting
• Agent requirements forecasting
• Forecast accuracy tracking
• Overview of upcoming seminar:  Optimal Scheduling (September 21, 3pm ET)

To register, please go to http://www.ac2solutions.com/index.php/about/seminar-registration/

Be sure to join Dr. Aykin on future web seminars as well.

• Advanced Forecasting (Sept. 6, 3pm ET)
• Optimal Scheduling (Sept. 21, 3pm ET)
• Revenue Optimal Staffing & Scheduling (Oct. 4, 3pm ET)
• Safety Staffing (Oct. 18, 3pm ET)
• Multi-criteria schedule Bidding & Vacation Planning (Nov. 1, 3pm ET)

Dr. Turgut Aykin is the president of ac2 Solutions. He has published numerous scientific articles in refereed professional journals on contact center efficiencies, and he has routinely been invited to contribute at national conferences. He has served as an Area Editor and member of the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), and is a member of the International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management. He has worked with many Fortune 500 companies including Bank of America, Caterpillar, Celestica, Charter Communications, Convergys, Delta Air Lines, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Phillips, and Siemens (Munich, Germany) in improving their processes and performance.  Dr. Aykin holds BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

 

For those of you not local to Chicago or the Lake Michigan area, there was a recent upheaval around Indiana’s state regulators granting BP a permit allowing it to dump 50 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more suspended solids into Lake Michigan. Ammonia feeds oxygen-sucking algae blooms that kill fish, and the suspended solids in treated wastewater include mercury, lead, nickel and vanadium.

Personally, I was absolutely mesmerized that such a valuable and massive natural resource for literally millions of people could be so significantly impacted by such careless, and most likely oil-money tainted,  politicians (not to mention by a state that only borders a very small percentage of the overall Lake shoreline).

When this was announced, legislators from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois immediately engaged the state of Indiana, the EPA and BP directly. Most notably were Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois and Representative Rahm Emanuel from IL-05.

I commend Rahm Emanuel and Dick Durbin for their letter to BP’s CEO, their appeal to the EPA and the Emanuel-Ehlers Resolution. They also launched www.ProtectOurLake.com and radio ads targeted at BP. These gentlemen helped stop what could have been a true natural catastrophe.

I found the entire process rather interesting and took particular note to the Emanuel-Ehlers Resolution, which was essentially a Congressional smack on the hand to BP:

Congress expresses its disapproval of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s issuance of a permit allowing BP to increase their daily dumping of ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan

I will admit, that I initially had my doubts as to how effective “Congress expressing their disapproval” would be. To me, this seemed more like a public spanking than anything. I also couldn’t help but wonder where the other 19 legislators in IL were during all this… However, these efforts and that of the local citizens paid off and BP has agreed to not increase their waste output into Lake Michigan. 

We have participated in an open and transparent permitting process with the State of Indiana and obtained a valid permit that meets all regulatory standards and is protective of water quality and human health.  Even so, ongoing regional opposition to any increase in discharge permit limits for Lake Michigan creates an unacceptable level of business risk for this $3.8 billion investment,” said BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone.

 

As much as I applaud Durbin and Emanuel for their efforts in protecting our environment, my concern is that this is only a Band-Aid fix. What we need is tougher and more proactive legislation to prevent this scenario from unfolding again. Next time, when perhaps the “business risk” isn’t so great, the results may not be so favorable for us…