Idea Contest
“Overknit your Pension” – Barbora Kuckova and Olga Guttenova from Slovak Republic are the Tour winners of The Social Business Idea 2010 Contest
Barbora Kuckova and Olga Guttenova’s winning idea was to develop a social business aimed at fighting poverty and social exclusion of elderly women.
During the Networking Event of The Social Business Tour 2010 in Bucharest, the Tour winning team of The Social Business Idea 2010 was announced, as well as the national winners of the preliminary phase (from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Romania).
Barbora Kuckova and Olga Guttenova’s winning project idea is called “Overknit Your Pension” and addresses women pensioners with knitting skills. According to the idea, these elderly women would be offered workshops on modern design and knitting patterns, so that their products (sweaters, hats, scarves etc) would fit today’s fashion standards and would become a “must have”. More than that, a “grandma’s brand” would be created for the knitted products, which would benefit from internet promotion and, also, partnerships could be created with fashion designers.
The six national winners are:
Austria: Nicole Prop, Theresia Berger & Dorit Haubenhofer with “First eco-social Green Care centre in Austria”
Slovak Republic: Barbora Kuckova & Olga Guttenova with “Overknit Your Pension”
Hungary: Melinda Kassai & Aron Horvath with “ProRatatouille Program”
Czech Republic: Lucie Lankašová & Kristina Řešátková with “Employment of people with disability in community compost garden”
Romania: Beuca Ioan & Popovici Vasile with “Sustainable Development of Micro-region Ruscova Valley”
Serbia: Dragana Tomic, with “Centre for Social Responsible Entrepreneurship”
The Tour winning team, Barbora Kuckova and Olga Guttenova, will receive comprehensive and long-term assistance in realizing their idea from the Erste Group – this assistance will range from expert advice to provision of the required start-up financing. The national winners will each receive consultation and training to the value of 5.000 Euro, which will be provided by the ERSTE Foundation. Additional support will be offered to the winners by the sponsors of The Social Business Idea Contest: ERSTE Stiftung, Slovenská sporiteľňa, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Consumer Protection, Republic of Austria, Wolf Theiss, Hub Prague.
The Social Business Idea 2010 was, as the name indicates, a contest between ideas—and not a contest for the best social business projects that have already been implemented. The submitted social business ideas should have had the potential to solve a clearly specified social problem: e.g., in the areas of education, agriculture, health, energy, finance, and the social integration of people who are affected by poverty and social marginalization, and fulfill the other criteria of a Social Business—financially viable, socially and ecologically sustainable, and consistently focused on social goals. That also means that profits always remain in the business and are used for expansion and improvement.
The winner of The Social Business Idea 2010 (Tour finale) was chosen by an international jury, whose members included:
Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Founder and CEO of Grameen Bank
Ester Bergmann, representative of the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Consumer Protection, Republic of Austria
Dominic Bruynseels, BCR CEO
Ewa Konczal, Ashoka CEO
Michael Landau, Caritas Vienna CEO
Boris Marte, ERSTE Foundation Member of the Board
Hans Reitz, Founder of the Grameen Creative Lab
Jennifer Rowe, good.bee CEO
Special Sponsors of The Social Business Idea 2010:
