Is International Trade Good or Bad for Communities?

The human instinct for trade has deep historical roots, but its economic, social and political importance has risen in recent times due to industrialisation, technological advance and globalisation. In fact, there is evidence that our Cro-Magnon ancestors

Can People Be Trained To Be Compassionate?

Compassion, often reckoned to be the “highest personal virtue,” is held to embody the very essence of humanity. It is widely attributed to play a fundamental role in pro-social behavior, cooperation and human morality. But there is

Customizing Wellness with Financial Finesse

Since 1999, Financial Finesse’s mission has been “to help people from all walks of life become financially secure and independent.” To achieve this goal, Financial Finesse works with employers to develop highly customized financial wellness programs aimed

Celebrating one who uses business to help minorities

Len Greenhalgh is a senior management professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. He is also faculty director of Tuck’s extensive programs for minorities, entrepreneurial women and Native Americans. Dartmouth College

Disabilities and Personal Finance

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in every thirty-three children is born with a birth defect.  Birth defects are not the only cause of disabilities. Accidents can cause disabilities, as can military

Dreaming of Downton

Maternal mortality rates rising in US, stunting global maternal health progress

The overall global maternal mortality rate (MMR) may be dropping, but the decline is slowed in part by a surprising rise in rates in the developed world. In the United States, the rate of mothers dying from

The Private Sector: India’s Next Challenge

The private sector of the economy is an important component in helping individuals climb out of poverty. In the last forty years, we have seen dramatic examples of the power of the private sector. China’s recent emergence

The Power of Being a Follower

From the time we are young, we are lectured to become leaders in school and extracurricular activities. Parents, teachers, advisors, coaches and other adults encourage us to seek leadership experience, to learn to become leaders.

Colleges and universities

How could mobile financial services help people in poverty?

According to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, three out of four adults in the developing world don’t have access to banks or any other financial institutions. Moreover, only 10 percent of the 2.5 billion people who

Employee Ownership and Employee Health and Wellness

John Raines and Donna Day-Lower write in Modern Work and Human Meaning that “Work is not first of all what we do to “make” a living. Work is human living – human being and human becoming.” Purposeful,

Progress Through Business – A Story of Addressing Poverty Through Enterprise

After over three years of writing these weekly columns, I thought it would be useful to tell the story of the group that appears in the byline of each of these pieces.  It all started in 2006