Social Entrepreneur Profile
Caroline
Gonzalez
President
World Around Toys
Shadowed
by:
Abigail Janco, Marti Lilien and
Beth Robinowitz
Entrepreneur
Contact Data:
Phone: 917-757-3501
Email: caroline@worldaroundtoys.com
Website: www.worldaroundtoys.com
Basics:
Founding Date: 2005
Corporate Form: Plans to be LLC
Geographic Focus: Currently U.S. market,
sourcing from Peru, South Africa and India, with plans to be global.
Full-time employees: 1
Industry: Educational Toys
Social Mission Areas: Arts, Community
Development, Education, Environment, International Development, Women
Mission:
World Around Toys' mission
is to: 1) Engender cross-cultural understanding by introducing children
to the world's countries and diverse peoples and connecting children
around the globe, 2) Enhance conscious consumption by providing parents
with an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible
alternative to existing toy products, and 3) Enable socio-economic
empowerment by bolstering the income and business skills of our artisan
women partners in developing countries.
Q
and A with Students:
Q:
What led you to choose to shadow Caroline Gonzalez?
A: Our team found the project interesting and ambitious
in its aim to attain many social and environmental goals.
Q:
What issues did your social entrepreneur face during the project?
A: 1) Product development: selecting production
partners, establishing a prototype, and establishing mechanisms for
quality control. 2) Distribution strategy for initial product launch.
Q:
What was interesting, surprising or inspiring about shadowing this
SE?
A: Caroline's dedication to the social mission of WAT is
tireless; she strives to create the most educational product possible
to encourage global citizenship, all the while adhering to the goals of
fair trade and sustainability. Caroline spent five weeks in Peru
learning how the production of a WAT doll by a cooperative can help
lead to economic development and empowerment in artisan communities.
Her devotion to her ideals is inspiring.
Q:
What did you learn about being a social entrepreneur from this project?
A: A social entrepreneur must
be able to clearly articulate a vision to customers, investors and
potential employees to recruit them to work towards the vision.
Similarly, a social entrepreneur must exhibit a sense of urgency and
have a clear strategy to attain that vision in order to create and
maintain a successful organization.
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