Jun 5, 2023
Show Notes:
Elaine Lum MacDonald and Will Bachman have a conversation about Elaine's journey since graduating from Harvard in 1992. Elaine started off her career in management consulting at the Monitor Company in Cambridge. After gaining experience in the field, after that she moved to Asia. She was based in Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and China for four years, gaining meaningful and memorable experiences. After this, she went to Harvard Business School and graduated in 1998. She spent a decade working for Clorox running million-dollar company's and leading marketing for a division, she went on to launch her own company, the Knowledge Impact Network. This organization focuses on helping leaders and organizations build trust and increase their impact. Elaine also works as a consultant for other organizations that are looking to make a difference in the world.
Working in Indonesia and California
Elaine shares her experiences working in Indonesia and Hong Kong in the 1990s. She describes how she had to take taxis to get around in rural communities and how the retail landscape was changing rapidly. She also shares some of the daunting and scary scenarios she encountered, such as being mistaken for a call girl or not knowing who to trust when taking a taxi. Despite the challenges, she found the experience interesting and eye-opening. She also enjoyed the experience of proving people wrong by breaking stereotypes of a young Asian woman.
Elaine wanted to experience deeper operational management and decided to move to California in the late 1990s to work for Clorox. There was a great exodus of people from the East Coast to Silicon Valley during this time, as it was a land of opportunity with startups. She met her husband and decided to stay in California where she currently lives with her family.
Working as a Strategic Marketing Consultant
Elaine worked part time while her children were young, she and her colleague shared a job and a joint identity where they were known as Elady. Elaine left Clorox to become a strategic marketing consultant, allowing her more flexibility with her time and to do more volunteer work.
Elaine shares her story of finding her passion for volunteer consulting while studying at Harvard Business School. Through the Harvard Business School Community Partners program, she was able to provide pro bono volunteer consulting to local nonprofits. She enjoyed the experience of being able to think through challenges and help organizations, and eventually she took on the role of recruiting organizations and alumni to donate their time. For the following seven years, she worked at HBS Community Partners in Northern California with the goal of inspiring and empowering alumni to use their skills for social good. She found her niche in being a connector and bridge, finding people with bright minds and big hearts and matching them with organizations that could really use their help.
Founder of the Knowledge Impact Network
Elaine became the founder of the Knowledge Impact Network (KIN). KIN is an organization that connects alumni of Harvard Business School (HBS) to nonprofits who need assistance in a variety of areas. Elaine first got the idea for KIN from her experience of helping Bay Area nonprofits while she was working with the Harvard Alumni Association. After the pandemic hit, she noticed the need for more help from alumni and decided to create KIN to allow alumni to provide support to nonprofits virtually. KIN provides a bridge between alumni and nonprofits, allowing the alumni to help with a variety of issues, such as food supply chains, by connecting them to the right experts. Elaine hopes to continue to expand KIN and provide more assistance to nonprofits.
KIN focuses on three areas of impact: core human needs (food, water, health, shelter); educating for workforce readiness; and protecting our planet. Elaine explains how she and the founders of KIN, who are YPO distinguished leaders, hit it off when they discussed how they could bring the power of CEO networks to share their knowledge with positive causes and accelerate impact. KIN is open to social impact organizations, social ventures, and experts from anywhere in the world. Organizations can apply through the KIN website, and experts can sign up to share their knowledge of a specific area. KIN then connects the organizations and experts and facilitates a 90-minute catalyst session to help the organization solve an issue.
The Social Ventures Network
Elaine then expanded the network with the Social Ventures Network, an organization which connects professionals with causes and social ventures they can get involved with. Elaine talks about how easy it is for professionals to leverage their skills for good and how the Social Ventures Network takes away the friction of getting involved. Elaine explains how the Network works with family offices who want to support a specific cause, as well as companies and individuals. The Network helps people figure out how to get involved with social ventures and learn about them, while also advancing a cause they feel passionate about.
Elaine talks about Impact circles and explains that they are a way to bring together a community of social innovators who want to take action in a certain area. An example of an Impact circle was formed when a knowledge partner met a renowned climatologist at UC Santa Barbara's Climate Hazard Center who spoke about the data available to help farmers adjust their crops and improve yields in the face of changing weather. The Impact circle brings together experts, companies, government, and academics to help figure out how to get this data to rural smallholder farmers in places like Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department agreed that this data would be extremely helpful. The team is now in the process of developing a site with the right type of data to get it into the hands of the farmers.
Influential Professors and Courses at Harvard
Elaine recounts her experience as a Harvard student, mentioning Nancy Kane, Marty Feldstein, and Michael Sandel as two of her most memorable and inspiring professors. Elaine was a history and science major, which was unusual at the time, and enjoyed the challenge and creativity of connecting the dots between different disciplines. Her current project is a great example of how people from different parts of the world can come together to make something happen.
Timestamps:
05:17 Experiences Working in Indonesia and Hong Kong in the 1990s
10:26 From Consulting to Brand Management
13:23 Joint Identity and Strategic Marketing Consulting
17:54 Harvard Alumni Connecting Nonprofits with Expertise During the Pandemic
21:43 Exploring the Knowledge Impact Network: Leveraging Knowledge for Social Impact
26:35 Catalyzed Sessions for Social Ventures
30:05 Leveraging Skills for Social Good
34:00 Harvard Education and Global Development Projects
Links:
Website: https://www.knowledgeimpactnetwork.org/
CONTACT INFO:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainelmacdonald/