Social Horses

Corporate Social Responsibility Professor Joaquin Garralda talks about Social Entrepreneurship taking his daughter´s equine therapy startup as an example.

For some years now Corporate Social Responsibility Professor Joaquin Garralda and myself have shared a mutual joke. Whenever it rains, we know it’s the signal to call each other to go for a nice after-work drink. You might think we’re always having drinks because it rains so often, but don’t forget that in Spain the rain stays mainly on the plain – and it seems it never rains enough!!!

It was on one of those rainy evenings that Prof. Garralda told me his daughter Lola had set up an equine therapy firm, Equisana. He explained that horses were an excellent means to promote emotional growth for troubled youth who are otherwise therapy resistant.

Equine therapy has been shown to have many positive benefits when done properly by certified therapists. Such benefits include self-acceptance, confidence, self-efficacy, and communication.

Well, horses, social responsibility, his daughter, and Prof. Garralda’s concern for people are the subject of this video that I have the pleasure of presenting to you on what could very possibly be a rainy day…

Fast Mover Advantage

Entreneurship Prof. Wang Taiyuan seems inclined to tell you not to worry about being first because too many “firsts” go out of business. Hence he favors fast, just as he does when playing badminton.

Entrepreneurship professor Wang Taiyuan (王泰元) believes that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities are crucial for large corporations. As a researcher, however, his interest lies in gauging the importance of CSR for new ventures and examining the best way to apply them in new ventures that are frequently short of resources. His findings are well worth a look.

On the subject of new ventures he also talks about first mover advantage versus fast mover advantage. He seems inclined to tell you not to worry about being first because too many “firsts” go out of business. Hence he favors fast, just as he does when playing badminton. Somehow the measured and unhurried tone of his voice seems to quietly convince the listener that they can be first just by being a fast mover.
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Lucinda´s River

Entrepreneurship Prof.Daniel Soriano swims and talks about entrepreneurship.

Life can be so strange that sometimes, when I wake up, it feels like everyone had too much to drink last night, just like in the opening lines of The Swimmer, a short story by John Cheever.

In the story, later turned into a film with the same title by Frank Perry, Neddy Merryl (Burt Lancaster) decides one summer afternoon that he is going to “swim” his way home through the swimming pools at various friends’ houses dotted across the county. He names the chain of pools the “Lucinda River” after his wife. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Neddy’s journey may represent more than meets the eye.

Entrepreneurship Prof. Daniel Soriano brings a different take to Neddy’s surreal journey, comparing the journey from pool to pool with the search for entrepreneurial dreams.

Prof. Soriano and I have shared an office for a good number of years, and have drunk an even larger number of margaritas together. We have, in a way, grown up together at IE. I don’t want to sound too biased so the only thing I will say is that he is fantastic company and a truly excellent professor. Sorry, but sometimes a person’s biased and unbiased judgment just happens to coincide…

Don’t miss him in action. What he does, he always does pretty well.

P.S. After the shoot, we broke with tradition and had gin and tonics instead of margaritas. Is that a sign that something is changing…? I highly recommend both the short story and the film “The Swimmer”. Prof. Soriano is also Director of the IE Business School Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center.

You just gotta ride it!!!

Entrepreneurship Prof.Peter Bryant in a roller coaster talks about the ups & downs of entrepreneurship.

As Entrepreneurship Prof. Peter Bryant puts it “Change and I have a relationship”. Years ago he studied philosophy and history at Harvard and Cambridge Universities. Then he shifted gear to a number of management roles in different industries, including Qantas Airways, Deloitte and A&B Venture Capital, plus being responsible for the creation of a number of spin-off companies. Two of these spin-offs were successfully launched on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and another attracted early stage venture capital investment. But his relationship with Change was far from over, and in late 2006 he transformed into a professor. Allow me to quote now a young poet, Charles Olsen, from New Zealand, not very far from Prof. Bryant´s homeland, Australia:

It´s the way things go
that somehow changes all I know
of the world I see, that bring us
closer than I never thought we could be.

That´s what it is. Once you start a conversation with Peter, you´ll be impressed by his knowledge, his great advice, and the kind of person he is. You just gotta try it!!!
After the shooting of this video on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we had lunch together. It looked though that I had not had enough of his company because I asked him to join me in the evening to go to a nice live music club.
It´s the way things go…the way things go.

A Hawaiian Passion

The idea to shoot ¨A Hawaiian Passion¨ came about in Colombia while Entrepreneurship Professor, Paris de L´Etraz, Juan Jose Güemes, and myself were attending two different IE Business School events in Bogota. During a coffee break, Juan Jose happened to mention to me that Paris is passionate about paddle boarding, which he practices in the island of Kauai in Hawaii, where he has been vacationing for the past 15 years.

Obviously, upon visiting Kauai, I immediately loved the place, not to mention paddle boarding, which I had never even heard of before. Nothing stimulates me more than my ignorance.

In this video, Paris talks with mythical board shaper Dick Brewer, to whom he offers a present from the painter and surfer, Miguel Panadero. We also meet the amazing handicapped painter, Mo Hamilton. Apart from that, Paris quotes Paul Theroux and introduces a Hawaiian concept called ¨Holoholo,¨ a tool he thinks entrepreneurs can use for idea creation.

I hope you like it.

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