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Find out how you can get involved in the Center's activities, find ways to enhance your impact, and join a community of leaders committed to building a better world.

Feature from the current issue

Rebuilding a City Through Entrepreneurship: One Student’s Commitment to New Orleans Leads to an Innovative Partnership

By Connie Skipitares

The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina compelled many to help rebuild the homes, businesses, and lives of its victims. In August 2005, Daryn Dodson was about to begin the MBA program at Stanford when he became consumed by hours of heart-wrenching TV footage from Louisiana. Four months later, through the Center for Social Innovation’s Service Learning Program, he organized a crew of fellow students who dedicated their spring break to clearing storm-ravaged homes. His journey planted seeds for his future as a social entrepreneur and opened the door for a partnership between the Graduate School of Business and The Idea Village, a nonprofit economic development organization based in New Orleans. It also sparked a new experiment in social innovation.

When Dodson arrived back at Stanford, he was already planning his next trip to New Orleans. This time, he hoped to help in a way that leveraged the business training and skills that he and his classmates were learning at the GSB. As he scoured the internet looking for such an opportunity, Dodson found The Idea Village. The organization, founded in 2000, was
developing a program to bring targeted resources to hard-hit New Orleans businesses. Tim Williamson, president and co-founder of The Idea Village, welcomed the offer of help.

Dodson’s second Service Learning Trip to New Orleans in spring 2007 changed the lives of everyone who went. Taking critical thinking strategies from the classroom into hard-hit retail sectors, the students used their skills to help small entrepreneurs rebuild their businesses. They broke into teams, met with small business entrepreneurs, identified their challenges, and then offered marketing strategies, consulting services, and mentoring.

“This is what social innovation is all about,’’ said Dodson. “This is what I went to Stanford to do, to learn theory and concepts I could use to solve the real problems of the world—in the case of New Orleans, to impact the recovery of a community.”

Fifteen local entrepreneurs benefitted from the project that year, sharing $50,000 in grant money to start rebuilding. In a similar effort in spring
2008, students worked with four small business owners and allocated $100,000 in grant funds. In both years, half of the funds distributed were
contributed by an anonymous GSB alumnus.

Stanford lecturer Rick Aubry, himself a social entrepreneur, served as faculty advisor for the 2008 trip. Aubry, who teaches a GSB class on
social entrepreneurship, guided the MBA students in doing field research and developing strategies and goals for the businesses. He plans to write a case study about The Idea Village.

Aubry said it was distressing to see how much of New Orleans remains abandoned. But he observed incredible personal stamina and commitment to returning the city to its once-grand state.

The experience gave students “a chance to come out of themselves,” Aubry said. “They used their MBA skills in a powerful way that leveraged
who they are.”

Jack Lynch, MBA ’08 and trip co-leader, said that working with small business entrepreneurs helped him gain a greater understanding of the
problems they face.

“I’ll always have a soft spot for that kind of entrepreneur because of this experience,” Lynch said. “Helping them gave me a sense of the power of using entrepreneurship as a tool for doing something good in society.”

The annual trips to New Orleans have deepened the relationship between Stanford and The Idea Village. “We couldn’t have done this without
Daryn and the Stanford students,” said Idea Village President Williamson. “Daryn has shown by creating this program that one person can make change happen.”

After Dodson completed his MBA in 2007, Williamson recruited him to become the company’s director of Village Ventures. Dodson’s job is to
grow the student-led trips to New Orleans. To date, 250 students from seven U.S. universities have participated, and Dodson continues to reach
out to more colleges.

Earlier this year, Williamson took a brief break from his Idea Village duties to attend the Center for Social Innovation’s two-week Executive
Program for Nonprofit Leaders, joining nearly 60 other nonprofit executives from across the globe.

“I needed to step back from my organization and reflect on what we were doing,” Williamson said. “I had a great mentor in the program who
helped me think through how I could take The Idea Village and make it grow. I can see this network of talent being used all over the world to direct positive things.”

Williamson will begin working this fall with CSI’s Alumni Consulting Team (ACT). The Idea Village will receive pro bono management consulting services through ACT’s network of alumni volunteers, and thus the partnership sparked by a single Stanford MBA student will continue to grow and prosper.

CONNIE SKIPITARES is a freelance writer based in the Bay Area.