While most people at Wharton would associate Grow To Be Great with the business textbook arguing against corporate downsizing, those of us in the world of social entrepreneurship think of growing to be great to be the challenge of the developing world.  William Easterly, professor of Economics at New York University, has a wonderful recent article in the Los Angeles Timescommenting on these growth challenges in the face of the Western “aid machine” that fuels itself off perpetuating the perception that Africa is a starving, war torn, and backward place.  Easterly’s commentary is powerful and supportive of a view that resourceful, social entrepreneurship and not a continuous stream of handouts is the key to growth.

“The real Africa needs increased trade from the West more than it needs more aid handouts. A respected Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda, made this point at a recent African conference despite the fact that the world’s most famous celebrity activist — Bono — was attempting to shout him down. Mwenda was suffering from too much reality for Bono’s taste: “What man or nation has ever become rich by holding out a begging bowl?” asked Mwenda.”

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