Microenterprise is an incredible subject to study, especially if you believe in the power of business.

What is microenterprise? Of the world’s 3 billion poor who live on less than $2.50 per day, many run their own micro-business to earn money. And the business’s prosperity becomes the family’s. This is true for women in particular; for every $1 a woman earns, she invests 90 cents in her family’s health, education, and well-being. Unfortunately, a lack of business literacy can often hold a microentrepreneur back.

Meet Maria
Maria is a microentrepreneur. She runs a small store out of her home in the highlands of Guatemala. For her, some additional help in marketing and selling her textiles could mean the difference between sending her daughter to school or not. Speak with Maria and you will hear a strong desire for the tools of business. She knows business literacy is an obstacle.

When we think of microentrepreneurs like this, something changes. We begin to view the poor not as passive charity recipients, but as consumers and producers. If we can get rid of the obstacles and constraints in their way, we can give them the opportunity to effect change in their own lives.

The universality of business and entrepreneurship
What are some of these obstacles? Let’s talk about entrepreneurship itself. Entrepreneurs need two things: money and know-how. For microentrepreneurs, the money piece is called microfinance, and it’s a proven, scalable model that has spread around the world. Microfinance is still at around 10-20% of its full potential, but the model is there.

But business literacy has been a tougher nut to crack. No surprise there: money is a lot easier to spread around than knowledge. There are lots of smart people working on this issue – USAID spends $250 million a year on microenterprise development – but a microfinance-style scalable model has been elusive.

(Of course, microenterprise development comprises many more interventions than just microfinance and business literacy. Other elements include improving access to new markets, disseminating technology, and simplifying both business formation and bankruptcy. But for my money, business literacy is the most interesting.)

My experience is in business consulting. The central thesis of strategy consulting is that, at their core, all business problems have some pretty common causes. Poor understanding of one’s customers. Unnecessary costs. Lack of a clear, differentiated strategy. It’s a stem-cell theory of business – no matter what industry you’re looking at, the business challenges can be grouped into some common categories. These commonalities make a generalist MBA education not only possible, but incredibly valuable. Which is what makes business literacy such a compelling issue for MBAs like myself. We know that business is actually pretty straightforward. So how can we spread business literacy?

EXCO104: Microenterprise Development Lab
To share what I’ve learned, I have turned my business literacy questions into a class. As part of Emory’s Experimental College, I am teaching “Microenterprise Development Lab” each Thursday evening at Goizueta. If you’re in Atlanta, you’re welcome to attend.

We’ve had two classes so far. This past Thursday, each student role-played one of nine organizations – such as Aflatoun, Samasource, and Agora Partnerships – pitching USAID for funding. (Aflatoun won.) During the rest of the semester, we’ll talk about the broad challenges of micro-businesses, what microenterprise curricula look like, and how a bunch of university students might make a difference. More info is at andrewkstein.com/microenterprise.

So far, it’s a lot of fun. I came into Goizueta thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if there were an elective about microenterprise development?” Now there is. My hope is that, one day, a microenterprise class will be as standard at business schools as beer-powered networking.

–
Andrew K. Stein
Goizueta Business School
MBA Class of 2011

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