Social Entrepreneur Profile
Ron Gonen
Co-Founder
and Managing Director
RecycleBank
Shadowed
by:
Laura Clancy, Giselle Leung and
Greg Zumas
Entrepreneur
Contact Data:
1733 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia
PA 19130
Phone: 917-822-6476
Email: gonen@recyclebank.com
Website: www.recyclebank.com
Basics:
Founding Date: 2004
Corporate Form: Limited Liability
Company
Geographic Focus: Pennsylvania, Delaware, New
Jersey and New England
Full-time employees: 12
Industry: Services
Social Mission Areas: Education,
Environment, Consumer awareness, and Business, government and citizen
collaboration.
Mission:
*Provide cities with a cost effective
and environmentally conscious solution to the rising cost of waste
disposal
*Offer rewards program to
provide households with financial incentives to increase the amount
they recycle
*Enable companies to partner
with their consumer communities
Q
and A with Students:
Q:
Can you tell us a bit about Ron Gonen?
A: Prior to RecycleBank, Ron was a Senior Consultant at
Deloitte Consulting. Ron focused on developing CRM and strategic
account management programs for clients. His clients have included Bank
of America, Bank of Montreal, Bank One, GE, and DIRECTV. Ron was a
co-recipient of Deloitte Consulting's National Impact Award in 2002 for
his development and management of a consulting unit that provides pro
bono consulting services to non-profit and charitable organizations. In
addition, Ron was a founding member of the National Conference for High
School Students Against Hunger and Homelessness.
Ron received an MBA from
Columbia Business School where he was a Eugene M. Lang Center for
Entrepreneurship award winner and received a Bachelor of Arts in History
and Economics from the University of Massachusetts where he graduated
cum laude and was awarded Massachusetts Commonwealth Scholar honors.
Ron has been a guest speaker
on the role of business in society and environmental policy at a number
of venues, most recently at Columbia Business School, Wharton,
University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, CUNY, Penn
State, EarthRight , The National Recycling Coalition Annual Conference,
The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia Conference and
the NYC Cleantech CEO Conference. Ron is a mentor for the Global Social
Venture Competition.
Q:
What led you to choose to shadow him?
A: We were interested in shadowing Ron because his
business idea offers a new paradigm on how we can engage governments,
businesses and citizens to promote recycling habit and effect positive
environmental, social and financial impact along the way. We were also
interesting in following a venture that has the potential to scale. In
this case, Ron's vision is to roll out RecycleBank programs on a
national basis.
Q:
What issues did your social entrepreneur face during the project?
A: 1. HIRING: With a fully fleshed out organizational
chart, Ron needed to build out his company by recruiting capable
personnel in sales, marketing and relationship management in order to
grow the business. 2. DELEGATION: As RecycleBank gradually transitioned
from a start-up to a structured organization with a leadership team,
Ron needed to relinquish some control and delegate responsibilities
over major aspects of the organization. 3. CLOSING DEALS: To extend the
reach of RecycleBank, Ron needed to close deals and roll out the
company's recycling programs in other counties in Philadelphia,
Delaware and New Jersey.
Q:
What was interesting, surprising or inspiring about shadowing this
SE?
A: To promote the services and value offered by
RecycleBank, Ron has to address three sets of audiences: consumer
households, corporate vendors who participate in the reward program,
and municipalities. What was interesting was watching Ron tailor his
message depending on the audience so that the ideas expressed could be
best understood. While the underlying value proposition of RecycleBank
does not change from audience to audience, how they react to that
proposition depends more on their internalized and preconceived ideas
of recycling as a social value. Thus, Ron has found it advantageous to
emphasize "putting money in the pocket," or economic
development, when selling RecycleBank's services to municipalities and
households.
Q:
What did you learn about being a social entrepreneur from this project?
A: 1) Being flexible and quick
to addressing changing circumstances is a requisite to taking the
start-up to the next level 2) In RecycleBank's case, a social venture
is first and foremost a _business_ and it must respond to investor's
expectations while striving to achieve social impact. 3) Just because
there is a strong social/environmental component underlying the
business doesn't mean it has to be the major marketing message. It is
more important to talk about the business in terms of values that the
consumers can internalize.
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