The RIIR Oliver Tolentino MASAYA Collection :

RIIR KANTINARES
Molded colorblock clutch in hand-woven Kantinares fabric accented with knitted cotton crochet arc. Kamagong bar accent with interior magnetic closure. Quilted cotton lining with interior pocket.

KANTINARES CLUTCH
Molded clutch in hand-woven Kantinares and Ikat fabric accented with knitted cotton crochet arc. Kamagong bar accent with interior magnetic closure. Quilted cotton lining with interior pocket.

RIIR HIYAS
Colorblock clutch in knitted cotton x-small basket weave with hand-woven Kantarines fabric. Zipper closure with tassel and native nut accent. Cotton lining with interior zip pocket.

RIIR BANIG CLUTCH
Molded clutch in knitted cotton x-small basket weave. Colorful Pandan leave (Banig) flap with magnetic snap closure. Quilted cotton lining.

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All these exquisite products are now available in Shangri-La Gift Shops, Firma, and Oliver Tolentino’s Botique Shop.

That sounds way too sensationalistic, and it probably is. But the drama of that statement is certainly rooted in truth.

Allow me to explain.

Several years ago, I got enamored with the concept of ‘innovation’.

So much so, in fact, that it became a personal buzzword, advocacy, unifying battle-cry.

I read all the books and delved into all of the websites. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Innovation : The Five Disciplines. Closing the Innovation Gap. Innovation to the Core. Open Innovation. Innovation Nation. Innovation X. If the book had the word ‘innovation’ in its title (even the sub-title), it had a 90% chance of ending up on my bookshelf.

I would get indoctrinated in the religion of IDEO (the Shopping Cart video and the innovation bibles, The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation). In fact, it was a dream come true when I met Brian Quebengco and became a partner in the industrial design firm, Inovent.

For a time, some really cool friends and I put up Kolektib – an Innovation Hub in the creative hustle-and-bustle of Cubao X. We did Innovation Workshops internally and externally. It was an exquisitely fun time.

Even social entrepreneurship, for me, was a form of innovation – albeit social innovation. Hapinoy and Rags2Riches are expressions of melding social development with business models, a rather revolutionary approach which would certainly qualify as innovating.

I eventually synthesized my knowledge. I wound up conceptualizing, creating, and teaching a class in Ateneo on Innovation. It would tackle the why’s, the what’s, the how’s of the topic. I wanted to transmit the spirit to a next generation of innovators which would try to conquer and/or change the world.

The one line i always wanted my students to remember : Innovate or Die.

But beginning last year, my innovation lens would slowly shift. Not on a different tangent, but rather on a different depth.

I’m significantly more experienced and quite wiser. For all intents and purposes, I’ve changed. But more importantly, the world has changed at a mind-spinning rate – far outstripping my own evolution.

The first decade of the 21st Century was characterized by dizzying change, hyper-competition, unbridled growth – all of the factors that led to an innovation explosion. Globalization was at full-swing, the Internet began to fulfill its promise of changing everything.

And everything seemed possible. Growth was so palpable and reachable, and so businesses began pouncing on the massiveness of the opportunity. Driven by sheer momentum, they just plowed full steam ahead.

An innovation avalanche would ensue.

Innovation and Design consultancies would have a field day. So many new products, services, processes, and business models would emerge. I should know – it’s what I taught :

How Zara had reinvented the supply chain, allowing them to launch new fashion lines at lightning speed.

How the Wii would tackle the Blue Ocean of game consoles, beating the higher-performing Xbox 360 and Playstations by going on a different tangent and tackling non-gamers.

How Procter & Gamble used Open Innovation and launched connect + develop, unleashing a torrent of growth for their brands under AG Lafley’s watch.

More consumers were opening their wallets, and companies were feasting.

But towards the end of the decade, the world would undergo yet another step-change, perhaps an even larger one than the last.

Crises of global proportions would enter the lexicon.

A financial crisis would infect the world over, leading to national economies teetering on the brink. It was a full-blown meltdown and it washed over countries like a worldwide tsunami.

And speaking of tsunamis, the world became a real-life disaster movie. Environmentalists have been banging the alarm bells on the planet for so long, but it’s certainly only in the past few years that climate change has become real to the person on the street. When Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines, it was a shock to the system – it dumped one month’s worth of rain in half a day, causing floods in areas we never imagined were possible.

This climate change crisis is of course linked to to the energy crisis – our over-dependence on carbon-based fuels. Generations ago it wasn’t tangible, but now we see just how finite non-renewable energy is. It’s like we’ve got lung cancer and yet ironically still need two packs of smokes a day just to keep on moving.

And while all this was happening, the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen. The proportion of the world’s population that survives under $2 a day still goes between a third to one-half of the total human race! (depending on which statistics you look at). Without a doubt, the population and poverty crisis continues to rear its ugly head.

And so in the span of a decade, we went from an age of seemingly unbridled growth … and plummeted into an age of uncertainty. An Age of Massively Complex Problems.

And that’s why a nagging feeling in my gut gradually snowballed, until my lens shifted.

I remember some of the projects that were conceptualized in my Innovation Class. A better kind of toothpaste. Refillable packaging for laundry detergents. Heck, even an innovative cigarette that would light without matches. Of course there were some that were more interesting – especially those who were in the social innovation track.

But with all due respect to my former students, it was the teacher who was at fault. We were thinking too small. We were throwing our energies at the wrong things. (just look at my slides)

Power is useless, if misdirected. Same goes for Innovation.

Innovation is good at tackling any problem, but it can be so much greater if it tackled the right ones.

And so I’m drawing a line on the sand, demarcating where my old thinking ends and my new perspective begins :

The only problems worth solving, worth investing your life in, are meaningful ones.

In an Age of Massively Complex Problems, do we really need to design a better toothbrush?

Do we still want to use innovation to drive unbridled growth and overconsumption, for things that people don’t really need but we’d just want them to buy?

Do we want to continue ransacking the planet with novel products that don’t really add anything extraordinary to people’s lives?

I say, that may have its place in the world, but certainly not in mine.

I will invest my time, my resources, my life, in innovation that, frankly, matters.

Meaningful innovation that adds real value to people’s lives, that tackles real problems plaguing individuals, society, and the world.

A lot of Big Problems. A lot of Big Opportunities. A lot of Big Innovations needed.

I call this new evolution of my definition, Innovation(+). Innovation plus, Innovation positive, Innovation with meaning.

The time has come for us to put collective energies into innovations that can create positive differences in people’s lives, for society, and the world at large.

We need platforms for participation; Heck let’s take it a step further as Platforms for Activation – where people are actively engaged in helping things move not just onwards, but upwards.

And so it’s in these specific challenges that I will be investing my energies on :

1. Social Innovations at the Base-of-the-Pyramid
- How can we co-create business models, products, and services that serve essential needs for those that live under $2/day?
- How can we make the poor active participants and co-creators in the common drive to get them out of poverty?

2. Development of Technologies, Products, and Services that Positively Advance the Human Condition
- How can we create new innovations in education, healthcare, energy, and communications that sustainably serve the needs of this generation and the next?
- How do we use innovation and design thinking to tackle everyday problems of society – traffic gridlock, transportation, crime as some examples? (in fact, IDEO has evolved Design Thinking into tackling Big Problems – just look at Open IDEO).
- How can the Big Brands, Big Products, and Big Services reinvent themselves into positively advancing the human condition?

3. Harnessing the Web for Massive Connection, Collaboration, and Change
- As I mentioned earlier – how do we create Platforms for Activation? I can think of no better example than how Iceland recently engaged its citizens to write the constitution.
- How can we use web to either rebuild or create new institutions? Financial institutions, Educational Institutions, Healthcare Institutions, even Governments?

4. A New Kind of Society
- How do we transition a paradigm shift from the traditional economics of GDP into one that measures happiness and prosperity?
- How do we go from unbridled production-consumption-growth into true, sustainable living?
- How do we balance the currents of globalization, localization, and community?

5. Innovating for The Planet
- There’s just no way getting around tackling the Climate Crisis head-on, it’s quite simply the biggest problem that we as a collective species have to contend with.
- In fact, I love what Al Gore writes in his new book/app ‘Our Choice’. In addressing the Climate Crisis, he wants ‘to make the rescue of civilization the central organizing principle of our politics, economics, and action.’

So there. A new personal roadmap, a clearer direction, a manifesto on where I wish Innovation+ will go. Where it will take us, or where we can drive it towards.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is by technologist Alan Kay – “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Such wise words in an Age of Massively Complex Problems, an age which needs more and more of us to do Innovation(+).

Congratulations to the Rags2Riches team – special mention to Matt Pardinas, Nelson Baclayo, and the Nanays – for the successful launch of the RIIR Aranaz Fall Holiday Collection!

Unfortunately, Reese and I were unable to go – the first Rags2Riches event that we missed since inception, understandably so due to the Rolex Young Laureates Awarding :p – but I think the pictures below say it all. (thanks to Ed San Juan for the pics!). Special thanks as well to Rags2Riches partners ActivAsia (especially Direk Pogs, Rache, and Manny de Luna!), Patty Laurel (for graciously hosting), and Chin-Chin Gutierrez (R2R’s eco-ethical style ambassadress) for making the event such a sweet success.

Rags2Riches Team and the Nanays who make these wonderful products. “The Back End is the Front End!”

But of course, the lifeblood of the event was certainly the new collection. And with this one, RIIR Partner-Designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan has certainly pushed Rags2Riches to new heights with her exciting and exquisite eco-ethical style designs. Cheers to you Amina!

Here’s the new collection. For more details on where to buy, visit Rags2Riches’ website here.

Some time back, Pam Imperial got in touch through the Life’s Direction’s Community (thanks AJ!) about making a special episode of Channel [V]‘s V-Life on Social Entrepreneurs, featuring myself and Reese

Little did we know that it would really be a rather lengthy episode! (Well, the upside is I think we’ll just show this as our wedding AVP on December – just kidding, Reese! :p)

Wedding jokes aside, we gladly agreed to do it because we continuously want to advocate that social entrepreneurship can indeed be a career choice. It’s certainly not a short-term thing or project, it’s a whole life’s choice and path. And yes, it is indeed viable.

Anyway, here’s the episode which first aired on May 18 -

Part 1 :

Part 2 :

Part 3 :

Part 4 :

THE BAG THAT BREATHES LIFE
by Reese Fernandez

Rags2Riches has recently launched the RIIR by Rajo Laurel Tree Bag Project. It is a project that has been inspiring our team for the past few months now (when we were still preparing it).

The RIIR by Rajo Laurel Tree Bag is an exquisite, limited edition everyday bag created by 3 communities from different parts of the country. It is created using scrap cloth (for the handle), scrap thread (for the body of the bag), and scrap wood (for the buttons). What makes it even more exciting is that we will be planting ONE TREE FOR EVERY BAG SOLD! We love how all of these causes came together into one amazing product designed by one of the Philippines’ premier fashion designers, Mr. Rajo Laurel (www.rajolaurel.com)!

This was our event’s invitation card. =)

photo credit : Ed San Juan

Yes, the bags are beautiful and very functional. =) But what makes it even more beautiful are the hands that made them. It is my honor to introduce them.

The Weavers of Bangued, Abra.

The Women of Payatas, Rags2Riches Cooperative

We don’t have photos of the wood carvers of Pardo Cebu yet but as soon as I get them, I’ll acknowledge them in this blog. =)

Special thanks to my new found good friend Anya Lim, a wonderful lady who heads a social enterprise in Cebu called Ant Hill. You can visit her site here: anthillfabricgallery.multiply.com.

Of course, the launch and the product would not be possible without the talents and passion of my team. Thank you Matt Pardinas (sales and marketing manager), Michelle Smith (sales and marketing associate), Nelson Baclayo (Production Director), Jing Ludovice (Community Relations Officer), Miguel Abrera (Community Relations and Communications Officer), Helen Guerrero (Finance and HR Officer) Cynthia Cabrera (Community Expansion Supervisor, Payatas Cooperative Member), Jhane Abris (Production Supervisor), Fencia Fonte (Off-Site Production Supervisor, Payatas cooperative member), Nhing Estabillo (Production Coordinator, Payatas cooperative member), Kuya Yam, Kuya Marco, and all the communities who participated!

For orders and inquiries, you may email r2r_matt@yahoo.com. =)

We’ll be coming up with an amazing campaign soon!

Last year, I had the good fortune to attend INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Program (ISEP). A few months later, I got an invitation from Hans Wahl, Senior Associate Director of ISEP to attend a Leadership Roundtable/Social Entrepreneurship Conference/ISEP Reunion in Istanbul. Who could say no to that? And so I – arms twisted :p – accepted, and I must say that it was such a worthwhile experience to have attended the three-day event.

Day One : ISEP Leadership Roundtable

Filipe and Hans – the ISEP program heads – facilitated a leadership roundtable wherein we had a very healthy exchange of perspectives on how the social entrepreneurship field is evolving, the social entrepreneurship “path” (entrepreneur > manager > “evangelist”?), the key challenges and opportunities, as well as a special focus on building the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

Personally, the discussion on the next generation of social entrepreneurs was the one that fascinated me the most. After all, this has been a question I’ve also been asking myself for the past year. (I for one see three options – 1. fresh graduates from other disciplines (as there isn’t a formal social enterprise degree yet), 2. NGO practitioners who’ll adopt more business skills, and 3. corporate executives/entrepreneurs who’ll be making the leap).

It was a very engaging and diverse group – from practitioners, academicians (INSEAD, Wits, Sabanci, ESSEC), social enterprise networks (Ashoka, Scwhab), and supporters.

Day Two : ISEP Social Entrepreneurship Conference

The second day was the conference proper, with most of the participants in the leadership roundtable as resource speakers :

with Wendy Ngoma who’s trying to jumpstart more social entrepreneurs in South Africa. The conference was held at Sakip Sabanci Museum, c/o partner-institution Sabanci University.

Hans Wahl, Senior Associate Director of INSEAD-Social Entrepreneurship gives the welcoming remarks.

Filipe Santos, Academic Director and Assistant Professor INSEAD-Social Entrepreneurship talks about his current studies and perspectives in social entrepreneurship. He claims that social entrepreneurs are really “simple people” who are a little bit “crazy” by nature.

The conference had mainly two formats : roundtable discussions and networking sessions. The latter was interspersed in-between the plenary sessions, wherein the resource speakers would host small cocktail-like discussions revolving on specific topics. I for one, had two opportunities to host on microfinancing and microenterprise development.

With regards to the roundtable discussions, there were three :

Roundtable 1 : Social Entrepreneurship – Innovating to Build a Better Future
L-R. Hans Wahl, Miguel Martins (IES), Florence Rizzo (Ashoka), Mirjam Schoening (Schwab Foundation), Anant Kumar (Lifespring Hospitals), Burcu Kumbel Guler (Kocaeli University), and Hulya Denizalp (Youth Tour, Social Entrepreneurship Platform of Turkey).

Roundtable 2 : Sustainable Innovation for Social Change – Towards Sustainable Livelihoods & Ending Poverty
L-R : Runa Khan (Friendship), Laila Iskandar (CID), Majid El Jarroudi (ADIVE), yours truly, (Grameen Turkey).

Roundtable 3 : Growth, Scale, and Sustainability – Lessons from a Quarter Century
L-R : Filipe Santos (INSEAD), Iman Bibars (Ashoka), Anne-Claire Pashe (l’ESSEC), Andreas Heinecke (Dialogue in the Dark), Veronica Colondam (YCAB), Ercan Tutal (AYDER), Ibrahim Betil (TOG)

To wrap-up the plenary sessions was a keynote presentation by Soralva Salti, Director of INJAZ-AL-Arabia, recepient of the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Enterpreneurship. She gave a very heartfelt and compelling talk about her experience in building her social enterprise, which ‘harnesses the mentorship of Arab business leaders to help inspire a culture of entrepreneurialism and business innovation among Arab youth‘; She spoke of how she had to persevere through years despite all the challenges, and fulfillment as its own reward as the social mission continues to be achieved.

Keynote address by Soralva Salti

To wrap-up the conference, the organizers had prepared a short video :

Day Three : ISEP Reunion

The third day was for the ISEP Reunion – basically, all alumni from the previous ISEP runs were invited for a day’s worth of activities.

The first morning session was a discussion on INSEAD’s Social Networking Platform, a tool spearheaded by Christine Driscoll. It gives social entrepreneurs a common online space to have discussions around topics of interest as well as share resources and information.

The second session was in preparation for the field work activity. Hans shared a tool that is gaining more and more ground for social enterprises – SROI, or Social Return On Investment. While traditional enterprises look only at financial ROI, social enterprises also factor-in their social impact measures.

We then went to the field in order to apply the tool by interviewing representative social entrepreneurs.

The venue was in an event organized by Turkish Social Entrepreneur Ercan Tutal, whose Alternative Life Association works with the differently abled :

After the event, we headed off for a late Turkish lunch :

L-R Esther Verburg (Made-By), Moi, Hans Wahl, Wendy Ngoma, and Veronica Colondam.

We went back to our plenary venue to process the SROI experience as well as go through a discussion led by Christine on Venture Philantropy. This was particularly interesting especially since LGTVP – one such institution engaged in this – had invested in Rags2Riches late last year.

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All-in-all, it was certainly great to have experienced a jampacked 3 days with such awesome people in such a wonderful city. Until the next ISEP conference!

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Postscript : By the way, an interesting thing also happened to me : during one of the networking sessions, a local TV personality Ozlem Denizmen got so intrigued by the story of Hapinoy that she interviewed me by the Bosphorus sea. Here’s the unedited video which found its way to Turkish television (scratch one off the bucket list! :p)

Last December 2009, I attended INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme in Singapore.

As part of ISEP’s ongoing efforts to create a vibrant community as well as advance the field, they are organizing their 4th Conference, aptly entitled ‘Social Entrepreneurship for Social Change’ in Istanbul, Turkey this coming June 4.

Hans Wahl, Senior Associate Director has extended an invitation to join – as well as participate on the Leadership Roundtable (which will be held adjacently to the conference) -  and as such I will be excitedly attending

You might want to join too! Check out the official conference website for more details.

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“SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SOCIAL CHANGE” Conference

Today, social issues are being tackled through socially innovative approaches instead of traditional philanthropic methods.

Social entrepreneurship entails a comprehensive approach, which is both innovative and realistic, dealing with the core of social issues and trying to change conditions that create them; contrary to temporary solutions provided by philanthropic endeavors.

INSEAD Social Enterpreneurship Program (ISEP) is organizing an international social entrepreneurship conference and alumni meeting every year since its establishment in 2006. The 2010 Social Entrepreneurship Conference that will take place in Istanbul is ISEP’s 4th conference.

These international conferences are organized by ISEP and local partners. This year’s organization is a partnership between ISEP, three ISEP Alumni from Turkey, and Sabancı University (the details of organizing institutions and committee members are under the heading of “About Us” in the web).

The Social Entrepreneurship Conference includes interactive panel discussions and keynote speeches on major opportunities and challenges faced by social entrepreneurs around the world.

Inspiring speakers with compelling stories will definitely impress the attendees!

As the organizing committee, we believe that this conference is a great instrument to publicize the importance of Social Entrepreneurship in Turkey, discover new ways to tackle social problems and bring innovative models into light.

Thus, we INVITE you to join this remarkable event in the 4th of June 2010 that is the first international conference on “Social Entrepreneurship” in Turkey.

While this is most certainly an award for my fiance’ (!) , it’s also a glowing testament of the work that Rags2Riches is doing. In fact, as Reese is the first to always mention – this award truly belongs to Rags2Riches, our Communities, our Nanays, our Partners, our Designers, our C0-Advocates, and of course – our country, the Philippines

With the award, Reese and Rags2Riches will be putting up RISE – the Rags2Riches Innovation and Social Enterprise Center (although other auxiliary names are being explored for it :p) which will be the livelab that will further scale our work in Eco-Ethical Style.

More details of this endeavor in the months to come – but suffice to say that 2010 continues to be an exciting year for this Social Business Enterprise.

Congratulations, Reese!!! We’re all very proud of you

ROLEX ANNOUNCES FIRST WINNERS OF YOUNG LAUREATE AWARDS

Five Pioneers Poised to Change the World

Geneva, 15 April 2010 – Five visionaries aged under 30 from Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States have been selected as the Young Laureates in the inaugural Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme, Rolex announced today at a press conference in Geneva.

Chosen from a pool of nearly 200 candidates worldwide by an international jury of experts, these outstanding social entrepreneurs impressed the judging panel with their passion and conviction to overcome challenges in the areas of science and health, applied technology, exploration, the environment and cultural preservation.

The Rolex Young Laureates are:

Jacob COLKER, 26, United States – is changing the way people get involved in community service. His internet-based programme allows volunteers to use their smartphones to donate spare

minutes to charitable and scientific organizations.

Reese FERNANDEZ, 25, Philippines – is committed to alleviating poverty by training people to become social entrepreneurs. Her Rags2Riches enterprise has already empowered hundreds of women to earn a living by turning scrap materials into elegant fashion accessories.

Nnaemeka IKEGWUONU, 27, Nigeria – intends to boost the living standards of millions of Nigerian farmers through his interactive, mobile radio network. Hundreds of thousands of rural listeners are already receiving and exchanging information on sustainable farming practices and health issues.

Piyush TEWARI, 29, India – has set up a foundation to train a network of police officers and volunteers to respond quickly to road accidents and administer rapid medical care. By providing immediate assistance to victims, he hopes to stem the thousands of fatalities that occur on Indian roads each year.

Bruktawit TIGABU, 28, Ethiopia – is building on the success of a television programme on health that she and her husband are producing for preschool children and their parents.

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“Rolex is delighted to support these exceptional young men and women who represent the best of their generation,” said Rebecca Irvin, director of philanthropy at Rolex. “In tackling the problems that face humanity, they do not think in traditional ways or stick to old ideas. Their innovative projects have begun to have a profound effect on their own communities, and potentially could improve the lives of millions of people.”

An expansion of the long-standing Rolex Awards for Enterprise, the Young Laureates Programme honours men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 with inventive ideas. Each Young

Laureate will receive US$50,000 over the course of two years. During the first year, funding of

$25,000 each will give the recipients time to focus on their pioneering projects, while the second instalment will help them move forward in implementing them. The Rolex Awards international network of innovators, comprised mainly of former Laureates, is available for guidance and to help the winners take the projects to another stage.

“In this sound-bite world of ours, Rolex is giving a message to these motivated young people to take time to think things through and do their projects right,” said American ecologist Margaret

D. Lowman, one of the 10 jury members who chose the winners. “The younger generation really gets it when it comes to the planet and how the machinery of the earth works. We only need to empower them to act and Rolex is doing this by providing the gift of time.”

Another jury member, Singaporean explorer Khoo Swee Chiow, agreed: “Rolex is giving the Young Laureates time to mature. I think preparation is important. That is why, I guess, it took me

ten years before I finally climbed Everest.”

On 11 November 2010, Rolex will mark the accomplishments of the Young Laureates at an event at the recently launched Rolex Learning Center, a hub for educational exchange, at a highly respected Swiss university, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Experts from

related fields, including some former Laureates, will join the celebration.

For further information, visit: young.rolexawards.com, or contact:

Mary O’ Mahony
Head of the Rolex Awards Young Laureates Programme
The Rolex Awards for Enterprise, P.O. Box 1311, 1211 Geneva 26 Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 302 2179, Fax +41 22 302 2585

thank you to Rags2Riches Partners Cream Silk and Manny Angeles’ no.twentyproductions for making this video possible.