Bill DraytonFather of Social Entrepreneurship, Leading Leader of Social Change makers around the world.

Rahul Singh

Character, Conscience, and Courage. Spring 2013Professor Nan Ellen Dixon5/4/2013

Bill Drayton i

Table of Contents

Bill Drayton.................................................................................................................................................................. 1

Father of Social Entrepreneurship, Leading Leader of Social Change makers around the world. ........................................................................................................................................................................ 1

Bill Drayton............................................................................................................................................................................................ 1

Ashoka...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Man of Character, Conscience, and Courage.............................................................................................6

Character................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Conscience.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Encouraging with Courage...........................................................................................................................................................10

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................. 11

Bill Drayton ii

Rahul Singh

Character, Conscience, and Courage. Spring 2013Professor Nan Ellen Dixon

5/4/2013

Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton

Bill Drayton is known to have given a name to a growing industry of “social

entrepreneurship” subsequently fathering a movement to reform how society sees

businesses and equipping current and future change makers for a changing world.1 Bill is

one of the few living exemplars of a life led for others as a servant leader of high ethical

fiber and seeking the ultimate good for people everywhere. In the world of non-profit

organizations, non-governmental-organizations, and social-entrepreneurship, Bill needs no

introduction. People know him or his organization because of the good that he’s helped

create in this world.

What is Social Entrepreneurship? 

Whenever society is stuck or has an opportunity to seize a new opportunity, it needs

1 (Hsu, 2005)

Bill Drayton 1

an entrepreneur to see the opportunity and then to turn that vision into a realistic

idea and then a reality and then, indeed, the new pattern all across society. We need

such entrepreneurial leadership at least as much in education and human rights as

we do in communications and hotels. This is the work of social entrepreneurs.

– Bill Drayton2

When the author asked Bill Drayton, or as he would like to be called “Bill,” what his “road to

Damascus” moment was in his life that made him follow his life’s passion of social

entrepreneurship, he said that it started when he was a kid. He said he was extremely lucky

to be born to great parents who let him do what he wanted. His parents were both hard

working and provided a life for him in Manhattan.3

As he grew up as a child in Manhattan, he didn’t really like subjects such as Latin or Math

and preferred History and Geography. He didn’t like learning through memorization. His

first “venture” was a newspaper business he started in the 5th grade. In a world without

copy-machines and printers, he used a typewriter and carbon paper to produce 50 copies

and sold them to his classmates. Eventually his mother found out that Bill was skipping

school to run this business. When she talked to his school’s principal, the principal vouched

for him and told his mother to be proud of such an enterprising young person.

2 (Drayton, GOOD Q&A: Ashoka, 2007)3 (Drayton, 2013)

Bill Drayton 2

Bill used this freedom wisely and continued to recruit other students and eventually

bought a mimeograph machine. He grew his newspaper from a one-page newsletter to a

20-30 page newspaper and increased distribution. He continues to support the

development of programs to help children become entrepreneurs. He said that over 700

out of the 3000 fellows in his organization, Ashoka, are centered on children. He believes

that children are the future and need to be invested in as he was invested in.

As Bill grew up, he went on to the Phillips Academy for high school, Harvard for his

Bachelors, Oxford for his Masters, and Yale for his law degree. He went worked at McKinsey

& Company, in the Environmental Protection Agency in the Carter Administration, and has

taught at Harvard and Stanford.4

Bill’s role models are Gandhi, Jefferson, and Jean Monett (the father of the European

currency).5 As he went through his higher education, followed Gandhi’s followers. While in

college, Bill was involved in the civil rights movement and was impacted by Bayard Rustin’s

work in New York. During a summer off from Harvard in 1963, Bill drove from Munich to

India to work with Vinoda Bhave who, as Rustin, was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.6 Bhave

was helping the poverty stricken untouchables in India by taking “gifted” land and

redistributing it to them. Bill learned from Bhave’s example the simple idea of creating

social good for sake of social good and not necessarily for any monetary gain. Later when

Bill was at Harvard, he started Ashoka Table, a round table for people to talk about ideas on

4 (WikiPedia, 2008)5 (Hsu, 2005)6 (Hsu, 2005)

Bill Drayton 3

how to create social change. Bill said the ideas that came from his discussions at the Ashoka

table were realized in the 1980s when he went on to found the Ashoka Foundation.7

Ashoka

The Ashoka Foundation is a non-profit organization that Bill Drayton started with some of

his coworkers at McKinsey & Co in the 1980s. He started the idea as a “Social Venture

Capital” firm that would identify, nurture, and cultivate people who wanted to change the

world to improve life for people in the “citizen sector” with the same quality as the

business sector.

Also known as “Innovators for the Public, Ashoka has more than 3000 fellows today. These

Changemakers are involved in various projects in the citizen sector. As mentioned earlier

700 of them are involved in ways to empower children to impact the world in a positive

way. When Ashoka was launching “Youth Ventures” a program to educate young people

about entrepreneurship, Bill mentioned that Georgetown University helped his

organization with funding and strategic support.8

Bill and Ashoka’s vision of “Everyone a Changemaker” is to help empower people

everywhere to become change makers because it is what is required for people to survive

and thrive without getting marginalized by stronger business forces. When asked what

does it mean or what does it take to be a Change maker, Bill explained that fundamental

change happens at different levels and the highest level of change is that at the

7 (Drayton, 2013)8 (Drayton, 2013)

Bill Drayton 4

“framework” level. There are several levels of change and true change makers utilize

leverage from “social jujitsu” to achieve it.9

Levels of Change10

Level

Change Description Example

1 Direct Service

One person serving another directly impacts people.

An individual teacher who teaches their students a new way of learning math.

2 Scaled Service

More people are impacted because a team is created, trained and is then directly serving people.

The teacher recruits and trains ten teachers who also start to train others in the same way.

3 Pattern Change

Other people in the eco-system started to mimic direct service, or the scaled service because it works.

Other teachers not in the core group start to teach their students in the same way. Schools adopt the practice because it’s mandated by State board of education.

4 Framework Change

Institutions recognize that the pattern is creating a positive change and institute it as practice.

U.S. Congress passes legislation that impacts the Department of Education, which then impacts all States boards of education.

Many of the change makers empowered by Ashoka have helped bring national policy

changes to impact people in their countries. Ashoka empowers its change makers by

supporting them to instill certain core skills that they want everyone to learn: empathy

based ethics (applied empathy), learning to work in teams of teams (team work), and

leadership.11

9 (Drayton, Conversation with Georgetown University Students before SIPS Fund Lecture, 2013)10 (Drayton, Conversation with Georgetown University Students before SIPS Fund Lecture, 2013)11 (Drayton, Everyone a Changemaker: Social Entrepreneurships' Ultimate Goal, 2006)

Bill Drayton 5

Change at the national level in policy is not an easy feat, but Ashoka teaches its change

makers “social jujitsu” to “flip” the social system using leverage from interested parties that

have influence.12 For example, in order for Ashoka to achieve it’s vision, social

entrepreneurship and the core skills of social entrepreneurship should be taught at every

University and utilized by management consulting companies. To start, they work to

convince the 10% of the most influential organizations to adopt the vision and start

propagating it through the education system.

Ashoka creates change by empowering the future generation of leaders to be effective at

dealing with people, working in teams, and by learning core leadership development skills.

They empower future leaders to be people of character, conscience, and courage.

Man of Character, Conscience, and Courage

Character

Bill exudes character with the work he has done with the Ashoka Foundation. He lives his

legacy. He practices moral leadership, builds his ethical fiber, and lives in the service for

others. People of character are not hard to spot if one is looking in the right place. The

citizen sector is where people go to help other people help themselves. Bill is a luminary in

this sector and has helped influence it for more than 30 years.

12 (Drayton, Everyone a Changemaker: Social Entrepreneurships' Ultimate Goal, 2006)

Bill Drayton 6

Juts as William Wilberforce decided to challenge the system in the United Kingdom, Bill is

challenging the way people think of business and what it means to give back as individuals

to create a better world. Wilberforce set out to change society in a positive way from the

ground up. Wilbeforce. He wrote “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the

suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners” in his journal and in his

lifetime helped end the British Slave Trade and emancipate slaves in the British Empire.13

Bill similarly has set formidable purpose for his life: everyone a changemaker. He has set

out to help society by empowering people to be better people by learning how to be more

empathetic, work with others, and be leaders in their communities. He exercises moral

leadership by willing to dedicate his life on wanting to help everyone understand the

concepts of the empathy-based ethics.

Just as Gandhi, Rustin, and Bhave sacrificed and chose careers that served others, Bill

continues to work for a growing organization of leaders that preaches and practices service

for others. Gray Keller said that good servant leadership can be summarized by people that

love their community, listen to people, learn from others, liberate others from suffering,

and live their legacy.14 While sitting next to Bill in the small-group interaction, the author

felt that Bill lived every element well. He is a true servant leader and showed that he truly

loves young people, is willing to listen to them, wants to learn from them, wants to liberate

them, and lives his legacy.

13 (Belmont & Stetson, 2007)14 (Keller, 2013)

Bill Drayton 7

Conscience

Bill’s career shows his decisions were made by his conscience to stay true to his character.

When he was involved in the civil rights movement with Rustin, he was doing what he felt

was right by fighting for equality. When he went to serve in India with Bhave, he wanted to

help those in poverty. These are just some of the larger aspects of his life that show Bill’s

ability to keep in line with his character. One story shows specifically how Bill faced a tough

situation when it came to doing the right thing.

Bill Drayton served as a courageous follower to those he respected.15 He worked at

McKinsey & Company for 10 years. Early in his career, there was an incident when Bill’s

conscience and courage was tested. He was working for the City of New York by way of

McKinsey & Company as a consultant. He was working to design a tax system that would

have cost certain companies more money. He was pressured by someone in the Mayor’s

office to change what he was doing to better suit the needs of certain companies that

worked with the government. Bill resisted being ‘pushed around,’ even though he is very

soft spoken, and told those in charge that people were either mistaken or lying.

One of the partners came and berated Bill and asked, “Who did he think he was?” Later on,

one of the founding partners, Marvin Bower, vouched for him, and fired the City as a client.

Bill said that this was exactly the type of company he wanted to work for, a company that

was high in “ethical fiber” and always did the right thing.

15 (Chaleff, 2009)

Bill Drayton 8

A McKinsey consultant is supposed to put the interests of his client ahead of

increasing The Firm's revenues; he should keep his mouth shut about his client's

affairs; he should tell the truth and not be afraid to challenge a client's opinion; and

he should only agree to perform work that he feels is both necessary and something

McKinsey can do well. Along with the professional code, Bower insisted on

professional, as opposed to business, language, which is why McKinsey is always

The Firm, never the company; jobs are engagements; and The Firm has a practice,

not a business.16

He worked with McKinsey for 10 years before working at the EPA. He developed an inner

circle that he was able to later found Ashoka. He developed close friendships with those he

worked with at McKinsey. John Maxwell says in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, the

Law of the Inner Circle can drastically help or hurt leaders.17 He surrounded himself with

people that were of high moral and ethical fiber.

Bill mentioned that he was lucky to be able to work with such a group of people. Ashoka

still maintains a strategic partnership with McKinsey & Company. As he was able to enjoy

the company of good people, Bill “pays it forward” by growing Ashoka to include the best

and the brightest change makers to come together and solve the world’s problems.

Perhaps the best indicator on whether Bill lives what he says is by looking at his decision to

empower others. With his education, Bill could have had a lucrative career if he had

16 (Huey, 1993)17 (Maxwell, 1998)

Bill Drayton 9

remained at McKinsey or could have become a CEO of a profit-oriented organization.

Instead, Bill decided to follow his passion and his personal mission to help create a better

world.

Encouraging with Courage

Bill’s life shows the author that it is possible to pursue social good before personal gain. He

shows that there is a sustainable model for developing leaders to develop a better world.

He shows that it is okay to create a strong vision that brings ultimate good to all people and

pursue that vision.

As a student of Leadership, the author has sought mentorship and advice from various

experienced individuals and has read several volumes on the subject. Bill exemplifies the

type of leaders that Jim Collins says lead organizations from goodness to greatness in Good

to Great.18 He isn’t loud and boisterous, but rather contemplative and passionate. He

exemplifies the level 5 leaders that Maxwell talks about in various books including The Five

Levels of Leadership.19 Bill develops leaders to develop leaders.

The author sees that his visions of “every citizen an entrepreneur” is not impossible just as

Bill’s vision of “everyone one a changemaker” is not impossible. It may be difficult, but not

impossible.

18 (Collins, 2001)19 (Maxwell, The Five Levels of Leadership, 2011)

Bill Drayton 10

Conclusion

Bill Drayton impacts the lives of individuals everywhere just as he impacted the author’s

life several years ago. While reading a book on business, the author came across a quote by

Bill explaining that standard words that describe business of “profit” and “non-profit” were

inadequate. This seed of thought caused him to change the vision for his company. When

further researching the subject of “social entrepreneurship,” the author came across The

Search for Social Entrepreneurship and was introduced to the concepts that helped shape

his own company’s mission.20 Many of the concepts from Light’s book on social

entrepreneurship such as pattern change, and social jujitsu are easy to read academically,

but are hard to comprehend.

It wasn’t until recently that Bill’s impact in the world of social entrepreneurship became

more palpable. It wasn’t until the author had been able to hear from Bill’s own mouth, how

to create lasting “framework” change, that he realized how much he has to left to learn. The

only way to create change is to practice it and continuously think about how to propagate

change to higher levels. The author’s personal leadership journey is going to be difficult but

it has been made just a little easier by the knowledge that people like Bill have walked in

front to show what’s possible.

20 (Light, 2008)

Bill Drayton 11

Bill is a leading change maker that leads with empathy. He is a living testament to what is

possible with passion, vision, perseverance, and determination. He continues to walk

towards his vision of empowering people around the world to become change makers by

learning core skills to be able to live in the coming world. His focus on children and desire

to help the next generation of humanity cope with change is a self-less act of commitment

for others. He understands the unlimited capacity of human beings and their ability to do

good for each other.

Bill Drayton 12

Bibliography

(2007). A Man of Character. In K. Belmont, C. Stetson, & C. Stetson (Ed.), Creating the Better

Hour. Macon, GA: Stroud & Hall.

Drayton, B. (2013, April 23). Conversation with Georgetown University Students before

SIPS Fund Lecture. (R. Singh, Interviewer)

Drayton, B. (2006, Winter). Everyone a Changemaker: Social Entrepreneurships' Ultimate

Goal. Innovations .

Hsu, C. (2005, October 31). Entrepreneur For Social Change. Retrieved April 23, 2013, from

US News and World Report:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051031/31drayton.htm

Huey, J. (1993, November 1). How McKinsey Does It. Forbes .

Keller, G. (2013, March 23). Lecture to Character, Conscience, and Courage Class. (R. Singh,

Interviewer)

Maxwell, J. (1998). The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

WikiPedia. (2008, May 1). Bill Drayton. Retrieved April 20, 2013, from WikiPedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Drayton

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Bill Drayton 14