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Yale's Global Social Enterprise: Students in Charge by Tricia Bisoux Sometimes all it takes to start a global student consultancy is a group of students who want to make it happen. In the 2004- 2005 academic year, students at Yale University's School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut, launched the school's first Global Social Enterprise (GSE) project with the United Nations. This year, students continued the GSE, designing entirely new global consultancy experiences. The GSE accepts only 20 participants each year to keep the costs low and logistics of travel manageable. This year, participants included nine second-year and 11 first-year MBA students who formed three teams of six to seven students each. "We wanted participants who demonstrated adaptabili- ty," says Karin Barry, one of three student leaders. "Given the conditions and stressors we would face, we chose students who we felt would be able to withstand the pressure." Destination: Madagascar During the summer, the student leaders leveraged school contacts and conducted online research to determine the next GSE projects. They looked for organizations with a socially responsible focus, an English-speaking project man- ager, and facilities the students could use while on-site. After soliciting feedback from faculty and students, the leaders focused on three organizations in Madagascar: n Mad Imports, a company that sells handmade art by native artisans from Madagascar and Kenya, asked GSE stu- dents to help it increase the living standards for the greatest number of artisans and improve its overall operations. n The Andrew Lees Trust (ALT), a U.K.-based nonprofit organization that manages seven social and environmental projects in southern Madagascar, asked the GSE to create a business plan to help it maximize the success of a coconut- growing cooperative. n Habitat for Humanity-Madagascar, which has built 539 houses for Madagascar citizens since November 2000, needed help in restructuring its loan payment system. It also wanted to create better relationships with volunteers and donors. The Madagascar projects incorporated elements that the previous year's UN Project did not, says Caroline Tsai, another GSE student leader. "The UN Project was complet- ed over two weeks in South Africa," says Tsai. "However, students told us that they felt two weeks wasn't long enough to make any real impact." GSE students speak with a farmer in Madagascar about ways to improve a coconut farming co-op on behalf of the nonprofit organization Andrew Lees Trust. BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2006 39 As a result, students and faculty advisors added a prelimi- nary research phase to the project and created a for-credit, six-week course, "Managing Social Enterprises in Develop- ing Countries," that students would complete prior to their trip. The course comprised a series of lectures that covered the broad concerns of businesses in developing markets, as well as those specific to Madagascar. A Sense of Pride During the fall, as students were finalizing their project choic- es, they were also securing donations for the trip, which was not covered by university funding. Then, the project work began. Except for its student-run nature, the 2005–2006 GSE project shared the same characteristic stages of other global student consultancies. In January, students began the course, conducted preliminary research, and contacted their clients. In March, during Yale's two-week spring break, the students traveled to meet with their client organizations and conduct in-country research. Once their on-site visits were completed, student teams prepared reports outlining their final recommendations to their clients. During their on-site research, students learned quickly that consultants must often radically change their original visions for their projects when their clients change the variables. For example, while still on campus, the students that worked with ALT had meticulously learned everything there was to know about coconut farming. It wasn't until they arrived in Madagascar that they discovered that the co-op also planned COURTESY OF CAROLINE TSAI