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1-Page Summary of How to Change the World
From Ashes to Ashoka
Bill Drayton was born in New York City, the son of unconventional parents. His father left Harvard to pursue gold mining, archaeology and other pursuits. He also traveled around North Africa. Bill’s mother was a concert cellist who later became an agent for other talented musicians.
Drayton was very entrepreneurial at a young age. He started his own newspaper when he was in the fourth grade. At Phillips Academy, he edited the literary magazine and joined the NAACP where he organized a boycott of a local store.
Drayton was fascinated by Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian social entrepreneur. He also admired Thomas Jefferson and Jean Monnet, who helped to create European unification.
Drayton attended the Ashoka Table at Harvard University, where students asked important business and government leaders questions. He also studied with David McClelland, who discovered how entrepreneurs work. Drayton then went to Oxford for postgraduate studies. After completing his education, he worked at McKinsey & Company and taught at Stanford University and Harvard Business School before writing The Blue Ocean Strategy.
In 1977, he was appointed assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). During his time with the EPA, he developed an environmental protection method called “bubble” that are now used worldwide. His approach simplified regulation so much that factories could get away with releasing less pollution and achieving cleaner air as a result. This system laid the groundwork for emission trading in Europe today to meet its Kyoto targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% before 2010
Drayton left the EPA in 1981 when the Reagan Administration began to cut its budget. Drayton fought against these cuts, but he didn’t want to spend his career playing defense.
Investing in Social Change
In 1978, Drayton established Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. He used his network of friends and money from private foundations to start a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs create social change. It took years for the organization to prove itself before it was able to get funding from larger organizations such as corporations.
Drayton had some interesting ideas about official aid. He believed that it wasn’t very effective because of the way it was distributed through bureaucratic channels. Ashoka, however, has funded social entrepreneurs who have pursued productive approaches to aid such as:
Let children run things — Social entrepreneurs often don’t have the money to hire experts, so they look for other ways to solve problems. Childline is a good example of an organization that teaches kids how to help each other.
People without training can be very effective. The Grameen Bank, for example, relies on villagers to make loans instead of trained bankers. In India, the Comprehensive Rural Health Project teaches basic health services to villagers who then provide prenatal care and lower infant mortality rates.
When it comes to the environment, make sure you’re making money. If you don’t do that, people will continue to harm the environment and ignore your pleas for them to stop — Drayton’s bubble concept was an early example of this idea in action. Chico Mendes and Mary Allegretti applied similar logic when they wanted rubber tappers in Brazil to help save the rainforest while still earning a living.
Small business owners can make more money. There are many social entrepreneurs who have come up with great ideas to help small businesses become profitable and grow. One of them is the Self-Employed Women’s Association, which has helped 300,000 women in India by providing child care services, credit and insurance for its members. Another example is Grameen Bank that provides loans at low interest rates so that people can start their own businesses.
