Peter Fisk

Ossian’s ancient vineyards are located in the village of Nieva in the Spanish province of Segovia.

This particular part of Rueda is blessed with a seam of sandy soils that have protected the vines from the dreaded Phylloxera louse. The upshot is a wealth of incredibly old vine material which the team at Ossian farm with the sole intention of producing one of Spain’s great white wines.

Add in an altitude of around 900m, with the huge diurnal temperature swings that this brings, and you have some very interesting grape material coming off Ossian’s old bush vines.

Production methods are fully organic and fully manual – the old bush vines prevent any sort of mechanisation – and ageing takes place in predominantly old French 600 litre barrels.

Both Ossian and Capitel are whole-bunch pressed and fermented entirely with wild yeasts. The only grape variety is Verdejo, not generally a grape afforded the chance to reach greatness by others, but here produced with a singularity of purpose, from such old vine material, that the end result is varietal defying and capable of serious cellaring.

Also in the range is the great value Quintaluna, an amazing 60% of which now comes from pre-Phylloxera old vines, and the aforementioned Capitel, produced from a single plot of exceedingly old pre-phylloxera vines grown on a particular patch of sand over slate. These are undoubtedly some of Spain’s most interesting whites.

Ossian’s vineyards are located in the province of Segovia, northwest of Madrid, most of them in the village of Nieva where the winery stands. All of the vines are within the Rueda appellation but all the wines are sold as VT Castilla y León.

The project was launched in 2005 by local winegrower Ismael Gozalo and Javier Zaccagnini, former director of the Ribera del Duero’s Regulatory Board and partner at Aalto, one of the most successful bodegas within this appellation. The aim at Ossian was to explore the huge potential of extremely old Verdejo vines grown in this area of Segovia. The area’s sandy soils kept phylloxera at bay —it had a very small impact here. In fact this is one of the major spots for pre-phylloxera vines in Spain, with ungrafted plantings being the norm until the mid-20th century. Wines from this area tend to be less aromatic (expect white fruit and herbs in contrast with exotic fruit and herbaceous aromas), but in turn it offers structure and minerality.

Since January 2016 the Ruiz family, owners of Pago de Carraovejas in Ribera del Duero, is the only stakeholder after buying Zaccagnini’s shares and part of Gozalo’s in 2013 and recently those remaining in hands of the Nieva’s winegrower. Ismael nevertheless will remain as purveyor to Ossian. Former Vega Sicilia’s technical director Xavier Ausàs currently consults for both wineries in Segovia and Ribera.

From its very beginning Ossian stood out for its commitment to organic practices sticking to natural compost and plant extracts as its main winegrowing tools. In terms of winemaking, only natural yeasts are employed.

The range starts with Quintaluna (around €7 in Spain), made form 60% pre-phylloxera and/or ungrafted vines and 40% young trellised vineyards. The winery’s flagship wine —and for some time the sole wine produced at the winery— is Ossian. This Verdejo —which we suggest to lay down for two to four years— comes from pre-phylloxera and/or very old ungrafted vines and it is aged for around nine months in different types of oak vessels, from 225-litre barrels to vats. Capitel (around €40) is more exclusive and limited; it is a single-vineyard wine sourced from one of Ossian’s oldest plots with distinctive schist patches that result in a mineral (briny) character.

The “Verdling” range is a result of employing Verdejo and German winemaking practices. The very unusual outcome is a dry (trocken) Verdling made with the assistance of Klaus Peter Keller that retails for around €21 in Spain and a sweet version (€9.5 for 37.5 cl.) made with Nick Weiss as consultant.

Javier Goyeneche was born in Madrid, Javier studied in Spain, London and Paris, while also taking part in top international equestrian competitions. He received his degree in Business Administration from the European Business School and continued with post-graduate work in International Marketing Strategies at Northwestern University in Chicago.

In 1995, he founded Fun & Basics, specializing in contemporary fashion handbags and accessories. Within 10 years, Javier grew the business to 350 points of sale and 70 branded retail stores. His accomplishments were recognized by the industry when he was awarded Best Young Entrepreneur of Madrid in 2005.

Although he achieved tremendous success with Fun & Basics, Javier gradually grew frustrated with the amount of waste he saw being produced by the fashion industry. He embarked on a mission to create an entirely new concept that would combine his design sensibility and understanding of the fashion consumer with the latest in recycled materials. In 2008 he launched EcoAlf..

Under his leadership, the company has grown steadily and now produces a full lifestyle collection of outerwear, swimwear, casual apparel, shoes and accessories. Javier has strategically expanded EcoAlf ’s distribution to include many of the world’s most prestigious department stores and specialty retailers. In 2012, he oversaw the opening of an integrated EcoAlf  concept store, showroom and office in Madrid. Most recently Javier spearheaded a partnership with Apple, supplying the company with cases for its MacBook Pro products. Moving forward he will continue to forge strategic alliances that will position EcoAlf  as a leader in fashion and accessories crafted from recycled material.

The concept of the brand came after the birth of Goyeneche’s son, Alfredo (the company is named after him) when I was reflecting upon the world we would leave to the next generation, and my frustration with the excessive use of the World’s natural resources.

EcoAlf was born in 2009. Goyeneche’s idea was to create a fashion brand that is truly sustainable.

All studies showed that we are presently using five times more natural resources than the planet is able to auto-generate. We cannot live in this world as if we have another one to go when this one is ruined.

Goyeneche spent the three first years on sourcing and developing fabrics. The problem was that when I sourced the market for recycled materials the offer was small and of very poor quality. Most fabrics only contained a very small percentage of recycled material (15-20%).

So he found the need to start creating partnerships with factories in order to develop fabrics, lining, straps, labels and cords using recycled materials.

The goal was to create the first generation of recycled products with the same quality, design and technical properties as the best non-recycled products to show that there is no need to use our world’s natural resources in careless way.

Discarded fishing nets, post-consumer plastic bottles, worn-out tires, post-industrial cotton, and used coffee grinds…where people see trash I see high quality raw materials.

Hopefully, in a near future, their vision and efforts will encourage others to move in the same path, as more sustainable fashion labels will emerge resulting in a global compromise towards recycling and sustainability.

When EcoAlf first emerged, their first challenge was to change people´s conceptual approach of recycling, as recycling and quality did not seem to connect. People imagine them taking their grandmothers quilt and making a simple rough backpack.

Their efforts during the past years have clearly proven that recycling connects with quality and design, resulting in boosting a change of mentality where people now believe trash equals natural resources with the same quality.

Think micro and act macro. Goyeneche believes this change will be not be driven by governments but by small companies who will step by step guide the small customer towards this world compromised with recycling and sustainability and demonstrate that things can be done in a different way.

By investing in R+D and traveling around the world, he started to identify the ideal manufacturing resources, and started to build carefully the foundation that would become EcoAlf.

Today the company has 11 active alliances around the world (Taiwan, Korea, Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Spain, etc.) that allow us to continually develop all necessary elements to manufacture with recycled materials.

In the short time of EcoAlf existence, 30 million plastic bottles and 40 tons of fishing nets were recycled to make its products.

There are too many people complaining and a few pushing to change things. All industries should act, react and focus all resources in I+D. Natural resources are not endless and we need to start acting now, as we can still change the world we all live in.

If you want to make a difference don’t let anybody tell you “it’s impossible”!!

EcoAlf is working on a major project for a while now. Until now, EcoAlf has been reducing waste by recycling materials from landfills but my personal challenge has always been to help cleaning up the ocean.

The idea is to collect marine debris with the help of Fishermen and recycle them into consumer products. I had spent the last year investigating the feasibility of the project and finding all the right partners, such as recycling facilities, spinners, weavers and most importantly Fishermen Associations. Because the Fishermen are pulling up a huge amount of plastic in their nets and have always been throwing it back in the sea. Simply because that was how it was done during generations.

Agua Bendita was founded in 2003 by Catalina and Mariana while they were studying fashion design at the local Colegiatura Colombiana University. For a class project, they came up with the idea of taking discarded offcuts of fabrics and sewing them together to make bathing suits.

The idea of designing hand-made swimsuits from sample fabrics caught on. It quickly grew from a university project to the swimsuit brand all of their friends wanted to be wearing. As demand grew, they reached out to large textile manufactures in Medellín and Bogotá, and asked them for fabric samples, the more quirky and colourful the better, which many of them gave the fledging designers for free. They continued to produce amazing, individual handmade items.

Several years and some domestic success later, Alvarez and Hinestroza decided that they needed to reach customers outside of Colombia and travelled to the 2006 Miami Fashion Week. Their exhibition display was tiny and tucked away in a corner of the event, but an editor of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition from stumbled upon their small collection and loved what he saw. A few months later, SI’s Swimsuit Edition featured Marissa Miller and Bar Rafaeli wearing Agua Bendita swimsuits. “The day that edition came out I had more than 400 or 500 messages from people who were interested in the swimsuits,” says Alvarez.

When describing her and her-co-founder’s inspiration for the style embodied by the company’s suits, Alvarez looks to the  her fellow countrymen and women – their happiness, extroversion, and diversity, especially in the way they enjoy their country’s warmth and natural environment. In a phrase, the founders of Agua Bendita have tried to embody “part of the essence” of their country through their design.

Today Agua Bendita is sold in over 50 countries around the world, from small boutiques to department stores such as Nieman Marcus. The brand is a favourite of fashion models such as Kendall Jenner, Bar Rafaeli, Irina Shayk and Candice Swanepoel; as well as by Colombian models María Fernanda Yepes and Ana Sofía Henao.

The two founders have worked hard to create a program called 700 Hearts. The program employs single mothers that have been called the soul of the company as well as heroes. It is their to improve the life of every woman they employ. Over 700 of these local women, with a passion for handmade items, work hard to put together each piece in the Agua Bendita collection. Beads and other decorations are carefully added to the swimsuits, one piece at a time. The 700 Hearts are meticulous at their job and ensure that those who purchase these swimsuits are getting the best possible product. They are excellent and combining modern and traditional styles in each swimsuit they create.

The Medellin-based company now ships more than 150,000 bikinis per year, plus 50,000 other items of beachwear. At the traditional Colombian-style red tiled house that is Agua Bendita’s headquarters in the green hills on the outskirts of Medellin, the founders have continued to expend, bringing in a CEO to look after the financial side of the business. Alejandro Ceballos admits that the company had looked into moving production abroad, to India, China and Bali, but ruled it out.

“It didn’t make economic sense” says Ceballos in an interview with then BBC. “There’s not such a big difference in the pricing, but also we do not want to be investing in developing suppliers abroad. “That would take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and we wouldn’t have the capacity to control their production the same way as we can do here in Colombia.”

To reach its customers, Agua Bendita sells wholesale, as well as through its own shops in Colombia, franchises round the world, and direct global sales via its website. Although ecommerce currently only accounts for 6% of revenues, the company says it is rapidly increasing.

With the global swimwear market now a multi-billion dollar industry, Marguerite Le Rolland, a fashion and retail consultant at market research group Euromonitor, says that Agua Bendita has been clever to create a “recognisable visual identity”. “It is a cluttered market. As a way to stand out, swimwear brands have to think about a particular design that will make them easy to recognise,” she says. “Having a recognisable visual identity means that the promotion of your brand will be done by all these fashion bloggers and Instagrammers.”

However, the founders say that the company is not resting on its laurels, and is instead continuing to expand the range of swimwear it sells that doesn’t stick to the house style. “We cannot just sell birds and flowers,” Alvarez says. “We have to have a perfect mix, understanding that there are so many trends, and sometimes you have to be part of those trends.

The company also plans to expand beyond swimwear and beachwear to “athleisure”, clothing that can be worn both while doing exercise or simply as casual wear. Alvarez adds that it also wants to expand its range of clothes for children and men, and that selling online will be a key focus. “Ecommerce is very important to these ideas, because I think it has no barriers, no limits.”

Qatar Sports Investment bought PSG and gave Dragon Rouge a two pronged challenge. Revamp the brand’s position in the eyes of Parisians, and engage a broader global audience with PSG, and by association, Qatar itself.

PSG was focussed too narrowly on a small (and shrinking) hard-core support base. It is now a showcase of how to build a sporting brand for a global multi-media audience, whilst not forgetting its roots.

Signing the likes of David Beckham for a time in 2013, and more recently Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG now has an unassailable lead in Ligue 1 in France and is making an impact on the world’s most popular sport.

After Qatar Sports Investments bought the club in 2011, the project’s aim was to reflect their vision to make PSG one of the best clubs in Europe, and to create a brand that sits in a global arena next to global sports brands such as Manchester United, the New York Yankees and the LA Lakers. The key to this is Paris itself; the city of light, the city of sophistication. Starting with the central brand element – the logo – “Paris” is emphasised above the Eiffel Tower, creating a stylish, compact mark that has been crafted in 3D as well as the flat graphic version to work across the many applications.

Chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi said “The evolution of the Paris Saint-Germain logo marks an important stage in implementing our ambition.”

The brand has evolved to reflect the style and elegance of Paris itself, the club has taken this concept to all levels, on and off pitch, from the sleek offices to the players exuding a confident Parisian style. Launched in June 2013, it’s already changing attitudes to the game in Paris with a sense of spectacle that you expect from the city of light. With the stadium rarely having an empty seat, it seems that the PSG story has only just begun with plans to expand it to 60,000. And while the club is dominating the scene in France, the fans (and the team) are ‘dreaming bigger’ for the future.

The project has widened the club’s appeal, PSG now have 32,500 season ticket holders – more than they have had at any time in the club’s history. They are expanding the stadium to meet demand, and most tellingly, there are more family season ticket holders than ever before. The brand continues to climb sports power brand rankings and has a broader and more global engaged audience.

“For generations, Tchibo has been the professional home of change-makers, seekers of opportunity and innovation drivers – because it is our business to keep reinventing ourselves. That is how we continually meet the taste of the times with our coffees – and how we keep inspiring our customers week after week with clever new products that add that certain something to life.”

Founded in 1949 in Hamburg, Tchibo GmbH is now one of the most successful international consumer goods and retail companies. In Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic Tchibo is the market leader in roasted coffee – and the Tchibo, Gala, Davidoff Café, Eduscho (Austria) and Jilhavanka (Czech Republic) brands exist as great retail and product brands. Online shops in Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Turkey take the diversity of  offerings into our customers’ homes at the click of a mouse.

Here is the Tchibo timeline:

1949. Hamburg native Max Herz, a merchant by training, and his business partner Carl Tchiling Hiryan lay the foundations for today’s Tchibo Group. Their business idea of sending roasted coffee to customers by mail revolutionises the coffee market. Tchibo was very innovative even back then: customers could choose between having their coffee packed in tins or sewn into pouches made of handkerchiefs or tea towels. In particular, the Mocca Festtagsmischung (Festive Blend mocha) is a bestseller at 13.50 DM per lb.
The name Tchibo is derived from the words Tchiling and the German for ‘bean’ (‘Bohne’). At first, the word ‘Tchibo’ stands for a droll little manikin. Among other things, he spreads news about the roasted coffee on fliers and later in the customer magazine.

1952. Tchibo magazine is published monthly with the latest fashion tips, entertaining stories, recipes for tight budgets, clever sewing patterns, novels and beauty tips, as well as horoscopes. The magazine, unique in its field for many years, is enthusiastically snapped up.

1953. As well as having fresh coffee delivered by mail, the people of Hamburg can now buy it in the building next to the roasting plant onHoheluftchaussee – directly from the factory. “The coffee packets were practically flying off the shelves,” recalls a former Tchibo employee.

1954. The arrival of Tchibo Gold-Mocca! Gold-Mocca rapidly becomes Germany’s most popular coffee blend. The special feature of Gold-Mocca is that it is a blend of nine different coffees. Until then, mocha blends were usually made from a maximum of five. And it’s not just the coffee that keeps customers happy: a see-through container it is sold in is also very popular.

1955. The first Tchibo shop opens its doors at 10 Caffamacherreihe, Hamburg. It lets customers sample a cup of coffee before buying a whole packet. A cup of Gold Mocha with sugar and cream costs 20 pfennig. Each issue of the mail-order magazine contains a double-page spread with Little Tchibo touting the virtues of the “direct route”: at Tchibo, everything is handled under one roof – the whole coffee business from the coffee-growing countries to the customer.

1958. There are now 77 Tchibo shops in Germany, with another one opening almost every week. Max Herz travels throughout Germany with his wife, Ingeburg,looking for top locations. He renovates and refurbishes the shops and trains up new staff. By 1965, there are already well over 400 shops.
Tchibo’s Gold-Mocca brand is number one on the German coffee market.

1961. Wensley Ivan Frederick William Pithey makes his first television appearance for Tchibo. This marks the beginning of one of the longest-running relationships between a company and its advertising figurehead in the history of advertising. The coffee expert Mr. Pithey travels to coffee-growing countries, inspecting coffee plants, sailing with the coffee on ships and advising customers in the shops. Mr. Pithey is used until the early 1980s.

1962. From 1962 ‘Tchibo’ no longer refers to the manikin, but to the coffee and the firm. The company is now officially called Tchibo Frisch-Röst-Kaffee Max Herz GmbH.

1963. Tchibo opens ‘Frischedepots’ (Freshness Depots) in bakeries and confectioneries. By 1971 there are already close to 2,900 depots. A new era for coffee connoisseurs begins with the introduction of the first mild coffee variety.

1964. The first large-scale Tchibo roasting plant goes into operation in Hamburg.

1965. Max Herz dies. His sons Michael and Günther continue to run the family business.

1972. Tchibo Coffee Service is founded.

1973. Tchibo coffee expands its traditional range and starts to sell Non Food items without coffee in its shops. Early bestsellers are table sets and breakfast boards.

1975. Tchibo’s new Mobile bakeries supply rural areas with coffee and fresh pastries.

1977. The second large roasting plant goes into operation in Berlin.

1984. Tchibo introduces its espresso machine ‘picco’ to the market. More than 200,000 machines are sold in the first year. The ‘Feine Milde’ variety is Tchibo’s top-selling roasted coffee.

1985. The freshly-roasted coffee bean is launched as a catchy, memorable symbol of Tchibo’s high quality.

1986. Tchibo shops are selling ever more specialty coffees – and snacks too.

1987. The ‘Frischedepot’ system is extended to supermarket retail – Tchibo Coffee and Non Food are now available in many supermarkets. Fine coffees have their own personalities, just like good wine. From October 1987, Tchibo’s Privat Kaffee (Private Coffee) range offers the best coffees from selected producer countries. Each variety has its own distinctive flavour.

1990. Tchibo products are now available in the newly reunified East German states – in Tchibo shops, supermarkets and bakeries.

1991. The expansion into Central and Eastern Europe begins: Tchibo opens offices in Hungary (Tchibo Budapest) and Slovakia (Tchibo Slovensko). The first site in the Czech Republic is founded, in Prague. Tchibo Coffee Service enters the market in Britain.

1992. Launch of Tchibo Poland and market entry into Hungary.

1993. Founding of a Slovakian branch office in Bratislava – this site is later relocated to Prague.

1994. Tchibo Coffee Service GmbH becomes a separate company, supplying B2B clients and the hotel and catering trade. ‘A new experience every week’ – Tchibo surprises its customers every week with new Non Food goods on various themes. Tchibo opens a shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. A company-owned coffee roasting plant is constructed in Marki, Poland.

1995. Opening of a second site in Russia (Moscow).

1996. Tchibo direct GmbH is founded. Non Food goods and Tchibo coffee can now be ordered by catalogue.

1997. Tchibo Holding AG acquires the Eduscho group of companies. Tchibo enters the travel business. In 2007, more than 225,000 customers book their travel through Tchibo. Tchibo also uses the Internet as a new distribution channel for the first time – all products can now be ordered online.

1998. Eduscho coffee sales begin in Slovakia.

1999. In Poland, ‘Gala’ is introduced as a second brand.

2000. The first Tchibo shop in Greater London is opened. Tchibo increases its business involvement in Eastern Europe by entering the market in Romania. Mail-order and e-commerce are introduced in Austria.

2001. For the first time, Tchibo offers a complete set of golf clubs as well as the ‘play golf’ card, giving those interested in the sport an inexpensive way to start playing. Tchibo launches its direct-to-customer business in the German-speaking Swiss market.

2002. Tchibo begins offering financial services: eight different insurances are offered in collaboration with the insurance experts AXA – in shops and online. British customers are now able to buy Tchibo products online. Tchibo opens its first Tchibo golf course at Fleesensee Golf & Country Club. The company now offers golf lessons in cooperation with the club. At Christmas, Tchibo becomes Germany’s largest supplier of jewellery products for the first time. Tchibo opens a shop in Kiev, Ukraine. The first Tchibo shops open in Switzerland: in Lucerne, Winterthur and Basel.

2003. Tchibo is Germany’s biggest coffee shop operator. Tchibo offers exclusive tickets at a uniquely low price to see star tenor Luciano Pavarotti, giving the wider public a chance at ‘A Night to Remember’. Tchibo opens Europe’s biggest high-bay warehouse in Bremen. Tchibo offers cars for sale for the first time; in cooperation with FIAT Automobil AG, the Fiat Stilo ‘TCM Edition’ goes on the market at €14,990. From September 2003, customers can also order flowers via www.tchibo.de. They are delivered in cooperation with Blume 2000.

2004. Tchibo mobil is founded, revolutionising the mobile phone market. The joint venture between Tchibo and O2 Germany is the first provider to offer an affordable mobile flat rate.

2005. Cafissimo launches. It is the firstsingle-serving system in Germanycapable of preparing three different coffee specialties in just one machine.

2006. Tchibo launches a new marketing platform: innovative services. Whether it is correspondence courses, concert tickets or crafts, Tchibo offers regular surprises for customers, delivering compelling value-for-money at exceedingly fair and transparent terms and conditions. Since 2008, these services have been offered under the ‘Tchibo Plus’ brand. In Turkey, the first Tchibo shop opens in Istanbul Cehavir, Europe’s biggest shopping mall.

2008. The ‘A new experience every week’ slogan is complemented witha new campaign – ‘Only at Tchibo!’ – which is now used in advertising and promotions across all Tchibo divisions.

2009. Launch of the Turkish online shop. Tchibo celebrates its 60^thanniversary

2011. Tchibo launches into the world of social media with various channels of its own – a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, a Xing company page, a Google Plus page, a YouTube channel, and a corporate blog that will go on to win many awards in the following years.

2012. Award-winning efforts: “Do good and talk about it” urged the German Business Ethics Network (DNWE) at the presentation of its Business Ethics Award. Tchibo is honoured for its achievements on the path towards becoming 100% sustainability in all areas of our business.

2013. Tchibo wins the German government’s inaugural CSR Award, a prize that serves as both confirmation and obligation. We are honoured for our exemplary business activities, which are comprehensively geared towards sustainability and social responsibility

2013. Download and buy – German customers love having convenient smartphone access to our world of shopping using the Tchibo app or the mobile-optimised web shop. Within days, Tchibo tops the list of the country’s most popular apps. At times, the number of downloads surged so steeply that on one day the app was actually second in the Apple Store download charts.

2013. Launch of cross-channel services: “Tchibo makes it easy!” Order, pick up, exchange – by linking its sales channels and the online and offline shopping worlds, Tchibo provides its customers with a seamless shopping and service experience. All Tchibo shops are equipped with iPads for ordering online, on-site.

2014. Leap to world leadership: Tchibo is the third-largest retailer of organic cotton worldwide – another step on the way to Tchibo becoming a 100% sustainable business. The ranking was published by the non-profit organisation Textile Exchange in its Organic Cotton Market Report.

2014. Launch of the “Tchibo Lieblingsstücke” (Tchibo Favourites) range – for the first time, Tchibo bestsellers including linens, crockery, socks, and many other items are permanently available in the online shop and can be ordered throughout the year by our customers.

2015. Tchibo FOR BLACK ‘N WHITE – Tchibo launches its first major coffee filter innovation in a decade. Thanks to a special slow-roasting process, the new FOR BLACK ‘N WHITE coffee has a distinctive full-bodied flavour– whether taken black or with milk.

2015. Tchibo auctions: whether for a wellness holiday, musictickets, a digital radio or bicycle – customers can bid ‘their’ price. The best price wins!

2016. Qbo, a world premiere: individual, connected, sustainable. The new capsule system features barista quality through the patented PressBrew process, innovative milk technology, and smartphone app controls.

2016. A screw cap for coffee packages! Customers now have an ideal way of sealing the package to preserve the freshness of the beans – the cap protects the coffee better than conventional methods such as rubber bands, tape and the like.

From their earliest days of providing books and building libraries in Nepal, Room to Read has continued to expand their activities based on the needs of local communities. Through their library program and early cross-national evaluation, they identified that children were not in the habit of reading for pleasure and were not able to read at grade level. Therefore, in 2008, they piloted their reading and writing instruction program activities in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. This led to pilots in other countries and eventually a much larger-scale intervention that was incorporated across Room to Read programs. After noticing that girls were dropping out before transitioning to secondary school, Room to Read established its girls’ education program to help girls receive individual material and academic support; increase family, community, and school support for girls to stay in school; and help girls develop key life skills and negotiate important life decisions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQnR_L_YUlc

Room to Read’s efforts are focused into two main areas: building literacy and the habit of reading among primary school children, and empowering girls to complete secondary school and succeed beyond that. One of the elements that makes this organization unique, however, is the way it goes about its global outreach. Following a model similar to Amnesty International, Room to Read has become one of the most prominent international education programs with a university following; the organization boasts 50 chapters in 16 countries, with over 11,000 volunteers. Their documentary, Girl Rising, has become well known throughout the United States.

Along with creating a global movement, the more concrete aspects of the Room to Read model include: programs to support girls both financially and emotionally, both in school and after graduation; building new schools and providing training or supplementary materials to teachers; establishing and stocking libraries;and publishing books in the local language. Room to Read was ranked third in educational NGOs by The Global Journal for 2013, and received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator. Among its other accomplishments, the organization has founded over 15,000 libraries and impacted the lives of 7.8 million children.

Dai Wei founded Ofo with his fellow Peking University cycling club members in 2014. At the time they only had 400 yuan ($60) in the bank. Three years later they had created a business worth $2 billion, and expect to be profitable by 2018.

Ofo’s business model has attracted big-name investors like Alibaba and Chinese car-sharing giant Didi Chuxing. It rides a global bike-sharing boom seen across the world in recent years. In China alone, there are at least six major bike-sharing companies. Another Chinese bike-sharing start-up Mobike, which launched in 2015, is also valued at more than $1 billion with investors like Tencent.

But the journey has not been an easy one. Dai Wei’s family and friends were initially sceptical of his vision. His teachers, classmates, and even his parents, didn’t believe he could survive long. “They told me, ‘if you put the bikes on the streets, all the bikes will be stolen in three days. So you won’t be able to survive for three days.”

“Every time I came home, my parents and I would have a long conversation about whether I should get an internship in some big company, or apply for a full-time job or start a business. We talked about it until the end of last year,” he said.

Ofo as a global bike-sharing platform “like Android” 

The streets of many big Chinese cities like Beijing are clogged with hundreds and thousands of brightly-coloured bikes, which are mostly provided by the various bike-sharing apps trying to increase their market share.

However, bike-sharing companies are facing challenges,  including the sheer number of bikes on the streets as a public nuisance. In March, thousands of illegally parked bicycles were impounded in Shanghai. Similarly, in Singapore, authorities have also impounded more than 100 errantly parked bikes from bike-sharing companies.

Despite tightened regulations, the cut-throat race to win over users to the app is still a numbers game – and Dai Wei has devised a plan to win. He sees Ofo’s future as a platform for other bike-sharing companies to manage their business.

An example would be in Hangzhou, where Ofo is working with a local bike-sharing company called Qibei. In the city, people can use Ofo’s app to scan and unlock Qibei’s bikes. “Ofo is going to be like Android,” Dai Wei predicted.

“We will provide the standard API to different local bike sharing companies. We have the management system ability because we manage six million bikes now, and no other companies can manage that many bikes and they don’t have experience.”

The Ofo platform is easy to use. After downloading the mobile phone app, users may scan the QR code or enter the plate number displayed on each bike to receive a passcode and unlock it. Our bike-sharing system requires no docking stations, providing significant flexibility for users to find and return bikes anywhere, anytime.  Once they reach their destination, the user may park the bike anywhere that is legitimate, convenient, and easy for the next user to access.

Ofo’s mission is to solve the “last mile” problem of urban transportation, helping commuters and travelers get to exactly where they need to go by making bikes accessible to everyone.

But Ofo does more than help commuters and travelers access bikes for getting around their cities. As a partner of the UN Development Programme, they are focused on achieving Global Sustainability Goals and promoting green and healthy living, and have also launched a partnership with Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation to provide bikes and scholarships for schoolgirls in Malawi.

Dai Wei is dreaming big, and has a vision of “100 million yellow bikes by 2030.”

In the past year, most of the financial startups that set out to upend the highly regulated realm of traditional banking have run into roadblocks. Many would-be disrupters are now working for or with traditional banks, as vendors, rather than competing with them. One standout exception is SoFi, the working name for six-year-old alternative lender Social Finance and the startup that currently has the best prospects for transforming itself into a full-service consumer finance company.

“Doing anything disruptive in financial services is very difficult. It requires a lot of capital, patience, and ability to navigate the regulatory requirements,” acknowledges CEO Mike Cagney, a former Wells Fargo trader who co-founded SoFi with three Stanford Business School friends.

His company started life hosting parties for recent graduates of prestigious universities (hence “Social”)–and offering to help them repay their student loans at lower rates (“Finance”). Student loan refinancing remains a big business for the company, which claims 300,000 customers and $20 billion in loans extended; but SoFi also has expanded gradually into other types of financial products, including personal loans, mortgages, wealth-management products, and insurance. 

Now Cagney is trying to figure out how to get regulators’ blessing for SoFi to provide traditional accounts. That’s the holy grail for any startup to fully replace a bank, it has to provide a place for its customers to deposit their paychecks. But the government has been very reluctant to grant such depository charters to nonbanks in recent years.

Anyone who wants to bring about change has to be ready to break the rules. But in sectors such as health and social care, that can be really difficult. The art of rocking the boat while staying in it is something it seems no-one is ready to help you learn.

That’s where the School for Change Agents comes in. Brought to you by NHS England Horizons team, the School is entirely online, free, backed by the world’s largest health organisation: the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and is a platform for change agents to learn together, using powerful, guided learning.

The NHS was launched in 1948. It was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth – one of the NHS’s core principles. With the exception of some charges, such as prescriptions, optical services and dental services, the NHS in England remains free at the point of use for all UK residents. This currently stands at more than 64.6 million people in the UK and 54.3 million people in England alone.

The School for Change Agents is a free five week virtual learning programme for change activists in health, social care, and related sectors.

• Five modules
• Absolutely free
• Handbook and study guides
• Guided Social Learning
• Meet fellow change agents from all over the world

Download the 2017 Programme Guide.

If you’ve been frustrated by having to navigate stifling hierarchies to get the changes you know are needed, or criticised for being a dissenter, disruptive or even divisive, then the School is for you. It’s more than just a school — it’s a platform for learning, and a community of people like you.