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To cap off our Blog Series this week I decided to interview a local Microfinance organization started by some of our own Spartans. The Spartan Global Development Fund was started officially on July 4, 2009, when they made their first four microfinance loans.

The main idea behind microfinance is to provide small loans to the poor small entrepreneurs to help them rise out of poverty. Due to the nature of this finance sector and its origination in NGOs, funding for microfinance institutions comes mainly from subsidized funding.

has seen such an increased popularity in the last decade, which has led to more than 91 million customers, most of them women, with loans totaling more than $70 billion by the end of 2009. India and Bangladesh together account for half of all borrowers! However, the system is as you may think. In fact, it may be quite the opposite. In India some lending firms are growing at 60 percent to 100 percent a year. Investors in India’s largest microcredit firm, SKS Microfinance, for as much as 95 times what they paid for them a few years earlier!

As I am sitting here working from home due to massive amounts of snow, it got me wondering; if my office is closed, how does weather affect other businesses worldwide? There is no question that weather affects our everyday lives. It helps us decide what we are going to do and where we are going to go, so it's no wonder that it affects businesses too.

If you’ve been reading our blog series then you know that microfinance is a term that describes the practice of giving small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries that would not otherwise be able to get a loan. This seems great, but some say that these loans are unfair because of their high interest rates they charge. There are companies that specialize in this and make a lot of money because of the extreme interest rates, however Kiva is different.

To most people in the developed world, banks have become an integral part of our lives. For the most part they have operated silently in background just as we would wish. We take out a mortgage (or two), pay our credit cards and deposit any extra money into a savings account. We don’t really think about it – they have always been there and we assume they will always be there to serve us. This lifestyle is in direct contrast with low-income citizens from small towns in developing countries.

It’s time for another blog series at globalEDGE! This week we’re going to be talking about microfinance; but before we get into this topic further, I’d like to give a little background on what exactly microfinance is.

It is a country already considered one of the biggest maritime arms smugglers, in addition to being accused of letting its military charge “protection fees”, akin to those of mobs, to companies operating within its borders. However, Yemen has devised a strategy for raising money that can be considered either ingenious or moronic. Already faced with corruption through the majority of military branches, it has decided to use its military for a more economic and productive purpose.

In a conducted by Ernst & Young, the majority of companies responded that diversity of gender, ethnicity, and experience are important components of a successful management team.  These respondents stated that financial performance and overall reputation would be improved by incorporating diversity throughout an organization.  Despite their own advice, many upper management teams are composed exclusively of people from one country.  In order to capitalize on opportunities in emerging markets, it to have managers with first-hand knowledge of business around the world. 

During the cold winter months, businesses use an enormous amount of energy to heat their working facilities. With soaring energy prices , businesses are looking for ways to save energy to reduce these high energy costs. A company in has found an exceptional way to do just this. Sweden’s creative approach to heating might just surprise you.