以下摘录了哈佛校报报道的哈佛校友Carol Chyau 和 Marie So做为社会企业家在云南省创业的的成功案例：
For China Venture, an Unlikely Hero
KSG students champion poverty eradication via yak ‘yashmere’ and cheese
Published On Wednesday, May 03, 2006 4:39 AM
By CHELSEA Y LEI
Contributing Writer
Move over, billy goat—yak is the new black for cashmere-style sweaters.
While their Kennedy School classmates head off to jobs at the United Nations and on Capitol Hill, Carol Chyau and Marie So will launch an enterprise that will bring “Yashmere” from rural China to Western wardrobes.
Chyau and So are hatching plans to convert the soft, cashmere-like yak down fiber from the Yunnan Province into high-quality yarn sold on the international knitters’ market.
The two students say they want to use innovative business solutions to tackle development challenges. To improve living standards in rural communities in western China, they have launched a non-governmental organization, Ventures in Development, with two for-profit subsidiaries designed to leverage one of the region’s most abundant local resources—13 million Tibetan yaks.
So writes in an e-mail that several fashion houses—such as Donna Karan and Jhane Barnes—“are highly excited and think this yashmere will hit the fashion market big.”
Chyau and So also plan to launch their own line of yak yarn products.
In addition to the “Yashmere” operation, Chyau and So will start a second enterprise called “Cheese for Change.” The venture will bring artisan cheese made from yak milk to gourmet consumers in the United States.
Yak milk, a highly nutritious yet under-utilized resource among Yunnan farmers who do not include it in their diets, is well-suited for producing high-quality cheese.
According to Michael Walton, a lecturer in international development at the Kennedy School and an adviser for Chyau and So’s projects, social entrepreneurs like these two students can have an immediate impact on individuals in developing countries.
“Going into public and private organizations, while undoubtedly a valid career path, can lead to work that is several steps removed from the real action,” Walton writes in an e-mail. “The model Carol and Marie are exploring has the potential for making a tangible difference in ways that make use of some of the tools of public policy and business development.”
BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
After studying the role of business in international development, Chyau, a native of Taiwan, and So, a native of Hong Kong, began thinking about starting a social enterprise last March.
Chyau and So say they were inspired by Indian economist C.K. Prahalad’s 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which suggested that doing business with the world’s poorest 4 billion people can be profitable to the firms and beneficial to the poor.
“A lot of the case studies we learned are from India,” says Chyau. “But we know that China and India share many problems. There’s no reason that there shouldn’t be case studies from China.”
For China Venture, an Unlikely Hero
KSG students champion poverty eradication via yak ‘yashmere’ and cheese
Published On Wednesday, May 03, 2006 4:39 AM
By CHELSEA Y LEI
Contributing Writer
Move over, billy goat—yak is the new black for cashmere-style sweaters.
While their Kennedy School classmates head off to jobs at the United Nations and on Capitol Hill, Carol Chyau and Marie So will launch an enterprise that will bring “Yashmere” from rural China to Western wardrobes.
Chyau and So are hatching plans to convert the soft, cashmere-like yak down fiber from the Yunnan Province into high-quality yarn sold on the international knitters’ market.
The two students say they want to use innovative business solutions to tackle development challenges. To improve living standards in rural communities in western China, they have launched a non-governmental organization, Ventures in Development, with two for-profit subsidiaries designed to leverage one of the region’s most abundant local resources—13 million Tibetan yaks.
So writes in an e-mail that several fashion houses—such as Donna Karan and Jhane Barnes—“are highly excited and think this yashmere will hit the fashion market big.”
Chyau and So also plan to launch their own line of yak yarn products.
In addition to the “Yashmere” operation, Chyau and So will start a second enterprise called “Cheese for Change.” The venture will bring artisan cheese made from yak milk to gourmet consumers in the United States.
Yak milk, a highly nutritious yet under-utilized resource among Yunnan farmers who do not include it in their diets, is well-suited for producing high-quality cheese.
According to Michael Walton, a lecturer in international development at the Kennedy School and an adviser for Chyau and So’s projects, social entrepreneurs like these two students can have an immediate impact on individuals in developing countries.
“Going into public and private organizations, while undoubtedly a valid career path, can lead to work that is several steps removed from the real action,” Walton writes in an e-mail. “The model Carol and Marie are exploring has the potential for making a tangible difference in ways that make use of some of the tools of public policy and business development.”
BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
After studying the role of business in international development, Chyau, a native of Taiwan, and So, a native of Hong Kong, began thinking about starting a social enterprise last March.
Chyau and So say they were inspired by Indian economist C.K. Prahalad’s 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which suggested that doing business with the world’s poorest 4 billion people can be profitable to the firms and beneficial to the poor.
“A lot of the case studies we learned are from India,” says Chyau. “But we know that China and India share many problems. There’s no reason that there shouldn’t be case studies from China.”
