COURSE DESCRIPTION

How can we build companies that measure results in terms of sustainability and positive impact on communities? This five part course is an intensive experience that provides entrepreneurs and executives with the concepts, tools and strategies needed to build enterprises that address economic as well as social and environmental needs. Through a series of lectures and exercises, this course will help you build a plan for creating or transforming your business.

The course will continue on March 6, March 13 and March 20. You can sign up for the entire series or for individual workshops.

Workshop 2: Financial Sustainability

In this session you will develop and discuss your business model and business strategy. We will begin by reviewing several business models together with examples of how GOOD COMPANIES use them. We will incorporate for-profit, non-profit and hybrid business models. We will review issues in the development of good products that meet customer needs. And we will review methods of measuring financial sustainability.

Activity: You will prepare a review your company’s or organization’s key financial indicators and set goals for the future. You will create a 1 – 3 year forecast of your business’s revenue goals. 

About Dr. Girling and Mary O'Connor

Professor Robert Girling received his Ph. D. from Stanford University and has taught and consulted in 20 countries. His previous professional experience includes teaching at the Federal University of Bahia, the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, the University of the West Indies, and American University in Washington D.C. He has consulted with the World Bank, USAID, the United Nations, and the International Center for Research on Women. He is a social entrepreneur who co-founded LIDERE, a school improvement program in Brazil which worked with 80 schools in Northeastern Brazil and a co-founder of the Sustainable Enterprise Conference series. Professor Girling is the author of over 50 articles and books including Structures of Dependency (1973); Multinational Institutions and the Third World (1985); Education: Management and Participation (1990); A Escola Participativa (10th ed.) (2006); The Good Company (2012)

Mary O’Connor is an organizational consultant and the founder of The Institute for Social Entrepreneurship, a training and coaching company that helps visionary entrepreneurs stimulate innovation and productivity, and create profitable businesses. She is an expert in marketing strategy and business development, with a specialty in green business strategy.  Ms. O’Connor has helped hundreds of businesses create breakthrough results using transformational technology including KPMG, New Leaf Paper, YWCA and Solar Sonoma County. She co-founded the North Bay Sustainable Business Alliance in 2007, providing a social networking forum for green business. She is a facilitator of the sustainability education program “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream”. Mary is on the steering committee for the Sustainable Enterprise Conference and a fellow of the Leadership Institute for the Ecology and the Economy. A national public speaker, Mary leads presentations and workshops on Sustainable Leadership, the Power of Green Business, and Social Entrepreneurship. She graduated from Sonoma State University with a BA in Anthropology, and received her MA in Organization Development from SSU in 2006.