In this issue

Social entrepreneurship as a transformative force

A popular approach to social entrepreneurship is to see it as applying business management skills to achieve social ends. Nothing wrong with that. Many social minded ventures could benefit from sharp management common in successful private sector firms. But social entrepreneurs can be transformative forces too: people with new ideas to solve society's most stubborn problems. Like leaders have to be, social entrepreneurs too must be relentless in the pursuit of their vision.

Since its founding in the 1950s’ the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement has been a force for change in rural Sri Lanka, empowering the most marginalised and rural communities to figure out how to address their own needs. For Sarvodaya, micro credit has been a tool for village regeneration and local activism. It’s also a third way between state provision of public services and full-on privatisation. Government is resource-constrained and private capital is weary of low returns in rural investments.

Organising disadvantaged communities to address their own needs matters. However, the advent of technology, global supply chains, and the advantage that scale confers, mean that entrepreneurs can no longer ignore the impact these have had on consumer expectations.

Village entrepreneurs may stay local but they cannot ignore product development, marketing and supply chain. Sarvodaya Development Finance, a firm controlled by the movement, is taking an innovative and transformative approach to village regeneration and entrepreneurship. They are featured on the cover this month.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.