Today in Global Small Business: Doing Good in This World

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• 5 tech companies doing good in this world.
• Why India could single-handedly shape the future of e-commerce.
• What you need to know about the global economy this week.
• Quote of the week: "I think, because of globalization, the world is getting increasingly smaller, so that if some event happens around the globe, it’s not something that happens way out there. That event might very well have something in common with what’s happening here." – Sidra Hamidi, Ph.D.
• Israel and USA sign cybersecurity agreement.
• Sidra Hamidi was just 7 years old when she moved with her family from Karachi, Pakistan, to the Chicago area.  Now, she's bringing an impressive resume to Eckerd College as one of 12 new tenure-track faculty members.

Solving Global Literacy

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A native of Pakistan, Shafiq Khan was a remarkable digital leader at Marriott International.  He would return frequently to Pakistan, and the state of the country's education system for the poorest members of society were stark. Khan began to connect the dots between the work he did at Marriott and a way to help solve global literacy.  Teach the World Foundation was born.

The company has developed digital tools to help teach those children who cannot afford basic education Pakistan, and the program has expended to Bangladesh, as well.

Read the interview with Shafiq Kahn where he talks about Teach the World Foundation and its mission.

E-Commerce Helps Small Businesses Go Global

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How do you create jobs and generate livelihood in a country?  Set up an e-commerce platform, such as the case in Pakistan, by China's biggest e-commerce portal Alibaba.

The [China] prime minister Nawaz Sharif] termed e-commerce a catalyst for bringing improvement in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, which he said could help promote the disadvantaged segments of the society. He said digital transactions were a solution for small entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and reach global markets.

E-commerce has the potential to unlock growth in emerging markets and elsewhere.

Read more ...

No Matter What, You Have To Put Yourself Out There

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Umar Cheema, an investigative reporter for the largest English-language Pakistani newspaper, The News, writes of his recent abduction ...

Abducted and Tortured - for Reporting the News

Lesson learned:  No matter what, you have to put yourself out there and take a stand.  We commend Mr. Cheema for doing so in this piece (and in his life) -- because the most important element to life is "freedom."  We hope he is allowed to keep that freedom along with his ability to write brilliantly.

Related article:  "Who Attacked Umar Cheema?"  Others here and here.  Lastly, "The Significance of Umar Cheema's abduction - Blog - Committee to Protect Journalists."

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog