Articles & Stories
| February 10, 2012 |
Tackling Slave Trafficking at Wharton: An Interview with Nicholas Lumpp
Nicholas Lumpp is a Co-Founder of the Somaly Mam Foundation and a second-year student at Wharton.
WPSI: How did you get involved with the fight against child slavery?
Nicholas Lumpp: One of my friends from college and I learned about human trafficking a couple years out of college, and it was something that really bothered us – once you learn about it it’s hard to turn your back on. One day, we decided that we were going to raise $1,000,000 for the cause and donate it to a charity that was doing this kind of good work. We found this woman in Cambodia, Somaly Mam, and she had been rescuing kids from brothels for the last ten years. We thought this would be a great person to donate the money to. We went to Cambodia to spend some time with her, and by the end of that trip she said that rather than donate money, we should start an actual organization that’s based in the U.S., has a bigger global mission, spreads awareness and also funds activities in Southeast Asia. After everything we’d experienced with her, we decided this was something we had to do, and we created the Somaly Mam Foundation and it’s been up and running for about four years now. It’s grown substantially every day since then.
WPSI: How does the organization combat human trafficking?
NL: It does a few different things. It raises awareness – we have awareness campaigns on a global level, but mostly in the U.S. We’ve found that the educational component has brought lots of people, especially young people, to get involved with the cause. We give grants to other organizations, mostly in Southeast Asia. In hard economic times it’s hard to fundraise, but with Somali Mam’s powerful story – she herself is a former slave – we have had success and have been able to share that with the greater cause. We fund all of Somali’s operations in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, and there we support three shelters where there are around 60-70 girls at any given time.
WPSI: What is the experience like for the rescued girls?
NL: They experience a whole rehabilitation process, they learn how to create their own businesses and get jobs. One of the shelters is an orphanage where the girls live until they’re grown, in the other two they stay for a three-year program and afterwards are assisted on an ongoing basis. The last program we have is teaching the girls inspired by Somali how to become activists – that’s what separates us from everybody else I think, that we’re trying to get the survivors themselves to be part of the movement. It’s also very empowering for them because they came from this place of no power, and now they realize they have this opportunity to make a difference. That’s probably the most inspirational part of the organization, we call it the Voices for Change. There are about 15 girls now becoming activists.
WPSI: What’s the age range of the girls involved?
NL: When I was in Cambodia, the youngest girl was 4, and the oldest was 16.
WPSI: What are your future plans for the Somaly Mam Foundation?
NL: Our focus is in Southeast Asia and I think it will probably stay there because the problem is so different in so many different places. Originally when I started I thought maybe we could start in Southeast Asia and then expand around the world. Not only would that cost a lot of money, but there are different cultures. We’re going to focus on working in Southeast Asia, really understanding the culture, really working with the governments – that’s one of our other strong points, the organization works with the Cambodian government really well. That’s a huge part of having an effect, because you need to have law enforcement on your side. We are mostly in Cambodia, but I think we can expand in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam and make a lot more of an impact. We’re excited about some of the Board Members that are joining us – Sheryl Sandberg is coming onto our Global Board so I’m excited about the new team that’s coming in. We’re excited to see what these people will bring to the table.
WPSI: To what extent is the Foundation able to work with the Cambodian government?
NL: Somaly has done a great job networking with people, and coming up with these joint programs. I think it’s very easy to blame the government for all of the problems, to say your law enforcement offiers aren’t following the rules. To some extent it’s something that hasn’t been dealt with too well in the past, but if you really understand the underlying causes of all of these things you start to see that it’s way more complex than just people being corrupt. To be able to say here’s our program, we want to work in conjunction with you, it will help your country look better in the world, has helped us. The U.S. State Department’s rating for Cambodia regarding human trafficking used to be terrible, but it’s getting better and I think part of it is due to our efforts to work with the government.
WPSI: After creating the Foundation, why was Wharton a logical step?
NL: Right now I’m on the Foundation’s Board of Directors. My intention was never to create with this a full-time job, my intention was to make a difference in the cause. But we were able to raise so much money so quickly and get publicity so quickly that I realized I couldn’t do this on the side anymore – it was almost an accidental full-time job. I think there are a lot of things to learn at Wharton that are very helpful for running a non-profit, which should be handled just as any other business.
WPSI: What has been your experience with social impact in your classes at Wharton?
NL: Though I haven’t taken any classes that are specific to Social Impact, it definitely applies. All of the classes about managing people are applicable, maybe even more so in non-profits because employees aren’t getting paid as much as they would someplace else – they’re doing it for a greater cause, so your ability to motivate them and manage them is particularly important. Those kinds of management classes as well, depending on what the non-profit venture is, are important. In my case marketing has been particularly important, because we’ve been doing an awareness campaign and trying to reach people using some of those marketing concepts. Of course as a Board Member I need to be looking at the financial statements, making sure the money’s spent a certain way and how the money is accounted for, and that knowledge is so important. Almost all of the classes here are applicable in some way if that’s the way you want to use them.
WPSI: What can Wharton students do to help the cause?
NL: We have the Community Consultants at Wharton, a group of first-year MBAs that work on a semester-long consulting project and we were able to participate as a project this year, so we’re hoping to do that again next year. We’re pretty big on just getting awareness out there, I always like to say that even if you just hear about it and you direct someone to the website that would produce huge results. Everyone has his or her own talents to contribute. What’s really exciting to me is that everyone has their own talents and come up with their own ideas, contributing to the Foundation.
-Sarah Schutt
| November 28, 2011 |
Wharton Students from Management 100 form 'Philly Phusion' with West Philly High School Students - Launch Party on November 30th at The Enterprise Center
This is the drill: you get a client, you hear a problem, and you find a solution. You knock each step out, one after the other, working in tandem with a team and in concert with a counselor. You’re a compartmentalized cell, an island of efficiency. The spotlight’s over your desk and your teammates, and only them: they’re all you need to solve your problem.
This is the drill, if you’re a student in Management 100. These students are given a semester-long project that involves helping a start-up somewhere in Philadelphia: they’re tossed into the world of consulting and told to make do with what they’ve learned.
This is the drill. Usually.
But a team of freshmen dubbed ‘Philly Phusion’ went for something a little more novel, a little more involved. They partnered up with the Executive Incubator Group and decided to help with their publicity.
The Incubator Group is exactly what it sounds like: a place where young entrepreneurs are nurtured and grown, hatched, groomed, and taught how to fly. As a subsection of The Enterprise Center, it’s designed to build Philadelphia businesses and businesspeople from the ground up.
Most Management 100 teams lift burdens from businesses and really do make a difference, but for Philly Phusion, it wasn’t as simple as just picking up a spreadsheet full of problems and a mandate to solve them. They needed constant communication with their client, and a certain closeness that precluded compartments and isolation. The team’s name doesn’t lie: they really did bring on a ‘phusion’ of ideas and leadership that culminated in something incredible: plans for a launch party the likes of which you’ve never seen.
It wasn’t easy. Showing up to a room full of high school students and expecting them to let you help never really is. Even harder is maintaining constant communications with the Executive Incubator Group when you can only meet once a week. Throw in a lack of funds and public attention, and you’ve got yourself a real puzzle to work through.
But they did it. Philly Phusion held a fundraiser early on, telling people what they were all about and nearly doubling funds. Men and women on the street were hooked on the idea of West Philadelphia high-school students building their own businesses, and couldn’t help but put in a few dollars. Attention was garnered through a series of marketing schemes using flyers, Facebook, and old fashioned word-of-mouth. As for the communications problem? Well, it just came down efficiently running down the list of ideas during every weekly meet, and squeezing every ounce of progress and compromise out of every last minute.
The shy, silent high schoolers quickly became accustomed to speaking their mind—every update on the launch party project went through them and they weren’t afraid to ask for what they wanted. The give and take of fact and opinion was incredible: there were no shear lines between what made Philly Phusion their mentors or what made them their friends.
A semester of this struggle has brought us something special. Think red carpets running down from your car’s open door and waiting photographers snapping off shots as you walk into the party proper. Young businesspeople are at their stands, ready to pass off information and tell you all about their products and services. While munching on cupcakes from one business, you hear about the t-shirt maker a few rows over. While still fumbling with a pamphlet about a man offering drum lessons, you get to listen to a student who’s an expert at cleaning up street blocks. The room’s thrumming with potential—there are dozens of products and services to choose from.
In between sessions at the stands, you might even get to meet with Congresswoman Janie Blackwell or listen to a speaker from the very generous Hersha Real Estate Investment Trust. This is all while grabbing a Starbuck’s coffee and a free slice of pizza from Abner’s Pizzeria, of course.
Like I said: a launch party for start-ups the likes of which you’ve never seen. It’s all happening on November 30th, inside The Enterprise Center. If you haven’t already heard about it, consider this an invitation.
Join us on 4548 Market St. from 5-7 PM and get yourself a source of excellent products and services while sending business to a few future CEOs. It’s a perfect set-up: you can net yourself a few premium goods while just being good.
-Naim Kabir
| November 1, 2011 |
This is Africa: Celebrating Innovation and Operational Excellence is the theme for Wharton's 19th Africa Business Forum on November 4
On Friday, November 4, Huntsman Hall will play host to Wharton’s 19th Africa Business Forum (WABF). A comprehensive conference on the investments, innovations, and growing consumerism within Africa, the Forum will bring together international participants with a series of panels on Marketing, Finance, and Management, as well as a keynote address. With the 2011 theme of This is Africa: Celebrating Innovation and Operational Excellence, WABF is building on the summer work of some of Wharton’s own students.
A co-chair of this year’s conference, C.J. Bak ’12 spent his summer in Dar es Salaam, having opened a Subway franchise in the Tanzanian city. Having previously covered Africa for an emerging market hedge fund, Bak identified a growing yet isolated consumerism within the nation’s commercial capital. With the goal of conveying international brands to the African market, Bak combined a demand for goods with that for jobs in the March 2010 opening of his first franchise. The Wharton student’s restaurant became Africa’s first Subway comprised of an entirely training-program educated staff; in fact, the store’s manager was not only sent to Dubai for official Subway training, but as well had access to a computer for the first time. With Bak now in Philadelphia, the summer goal was to cultivate a “culture of personal empowerment, in which each employee had a sense of ownership.”
For Amee Patel ’12, too, such a fostering of personal empowerment defined the summer spent in Kenya. Working for a start-up global financial services company, she spent three months with a team of Kenyan analysts in securing financial services for the nation’s most impoverished citizens. Splitting time between local customers and the sales team, Patel facilitated an almost immediate microfinance, in which mainly self-employed customers received a microloan over their mobile phone. For Patel as well as Bak, Wharton created “a greater sense of what’s possible.”
This November, WABF will build on the work of students like Bak and Patel in drawing together the innovators behind Africa’s emerging consumerism. Among the conference’s multinational participants will be keynote speakers Alexander Cummings, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Coca-Cola, and Mark Lamberti, Chairman of the Board of Massmart, a Wal-Mart-owned African retailer. In addition to the Forum’s keynote addresses, WABF will offer twelve panels for students and visitors alike.
With its weekend-long conference beginning Friday, November 4, Wharton and the Africa Business Forum promise a greater sense of what’s possible on the continent.
-Sarah Schutt