Jacqueline Novogratz talks her new book 'Manifesto for a Moral Revolution'

Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder & CEO of Acumen, joined Yahoo Finance's Jen Rogers, Myles Udland, Akiko Fujita, and Rick Newman to discuss her new book 'Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World'.

Video Transcript

JEN ROGERS: I want to bring in our next guest. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, Jacqueline Novogratz. So Acumen invests in entrepreneurs around the world, that are looking to solve issues of poverty. And she's also the author of a new book. It's called Manifesto for a Moral Revolution. Jacqueline, welcome.

I want to start in this COVID world that we're in, right now, because you work on issues of poverty. And I think that, as we all are at home here, we've come to realize that being able to work from home is a privilege, really. Then to have jobs that allow us to do that, and working remotely. That's not available to everybody, and we're finding, really, that most low income people and their jobs, that's not available to them. Do you think that COVID-19 is going to set us back on addressing some of these issues of inequality?

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: No, Jen. Actually, the contrary. I think that COVID-19 has exposed the gaping wounds if you will, of all of our systems. Our health system, our education system, criminal justice system, food system. And in the midst of this, is the inequality, which we cannot sustain. If anything, COVID it is metaphor for what the world looks like if we don't integrate the vulnerable, the poor and, frankly, the sustainability of the earth, into the very way that we build businesses.

JEN ROGERS: So you, actually, are optimistic like, what are you seeing out there? As you are, you've all been nervous around the world. And we get headlines, I feel, that make me feel pessimistic. So what are you seeing with the companies that you've invested in, that are making you optimistic?

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: So the book is really about this idea of moral imagination, that the kind of entrepreneurs that will solve our problems have the humility to see the world as it is. So I'm with you. I'm seeing some of the ugliest stuff that I have seen in my 35 years of doing this kind of work.

Where in some of the countries in which we operate, one low income person leaves their house during a shelter at home, they get eaten by the police. And so, and for them, living on $2 a day. This is life and death.

So this is a very ugly time, and I'm also saying, you know, the audacity to imagine what could be, and I'm watching entrepreneurs that are working with low income populations pivot, not just in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, but here in the United States.

There's a guy named Sam Polk, who started, he a wall Streeter who moved to LA, and started a fast food, nutritious, affordable, restaurant, called Every Table. And it had been so popular, that had grown to eight restaurants.

When the shelter at home order came in, rather than closed down, he sent out a tweet that said, if you need, our mission is to get people a healthy affordable food. You can't come to the restaurants, we can deliver. if you can pay fine, if you can't let us know. If you can pay it forward, here's a link.

And within a few weeks, they had delivered 160,000 meals, because of people from Los Angeles, who had contributed. And now they're working with Governor Newsom to bring food to homeless people in shelters. And I'm literally, within a month, watching more of a systems change. By the end of a month or so, they will have delivered a million meals to the vulnerable.

We're starting to see what business could do as a force for good. And I'm just hoping that, when we build back better, it's with this kind of anti-fragility in mind.

AKIKO FUJITA: Jacqueline, I guess as a follow up to that you know, I've been thinking a lot about what kind of ideas are likely to emerge out of what we just experienced of the last two months. And when you look at something like the financial crisis, you know, a lot of the ideas, the companies that emerge were built on, sort of, distrust for government. You look at something like a bitcoin, you look at the gig economy, which was based on just the need to be able to monetize what you have, because you can find a job, as well.

What do you, what do you think is going to be the central theme that emerges from this, that entrepreneurs you're working with, are going to invest in, in the future?

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I think that there will be many different themes, but that will be based on a value system that recognizes we have to include the vulnerable. That understands that we have to build an anti fragility. And that it will be a much more of a network. And so some of the most exciting kinds of companies that we're seeing with Acumen, Integrate cost structures from low income people first.

So in other words, designed for the people you want to serve, and build from there, using the right kind of capital. Importantly investing in the right kind of character, to build real change. And so you're seeing day care systems, like my village out in Montana, that is 120 small businesses. We stay at home, women at home that are taking care of young people. It's not a franchise model, because it's more of a community model, where there's a sense of taking care of one another. And like you said, working with government. That this is a moment to start finding new partnerships to create change.

What I'm excited by, in the US, is there's a whole class of entrepreneurs that are neither left nor right, they're not driven by ideology, they're driven by solving problems. Including in health care, where they are building models using accompaniment, or hiring people from the community to accompany others in the community, frankly to keep them out of hospital. And building revenue streams from big insurance and government. So that they can create profitable companies that also keep the low income neighborhoods people in the lower income neighborhoods, healthier.

So we talk a lot about stakeholder models and reimagining capitalism, even at the highest levels of Wall Street. Thank goodness for that, I think. I'm seeing models on the ground, that should be role models and business models for the future.

RICK NEWMAN: Jacqueline, hi. Rick Newman here. I'm a cynic. I think humanity can go a lot further, in terms of damaging itself. But I'll try to keep an open mind. So I want to ask you, in everything you've learned, what do you think, could you list two or three obtainable skills that would make people more self-sufficient, and help them, you know, get closer to raising their own living standards?

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Yeah. I'm going to flip that, though. I love a cynic. Although I don't think cynics typically are the ones to create those new innovations.

I would say the entrepreneurs themselves need to start by listening. Number one. In a way that we have not been listening to those who we really want to serve. And then the another skill, is to hold opposing truths intentions. 3, 4, and 5, in this moment in history, we've got to do much better at looking identity, not as a tool of dividing, but as a way of connecting. And build in, of course, sustainability into our companies.

Here's how it works. Two guys have a solar torch, a lantern. And they want to eradicate kerosene. A billion and a half people, 140 years after Thomas Edison invent the light bulb, still had no electricity 10 years ago. Didn't know how to do it. But they have these skills, which we too often think of as soft skills. The hard skills. Because you have to fight the Senate, you have to fight the status quo. And we put in the right kind of capital, patient capital, 10 to 15 year equity investing into these companies. We accompanied the companies with using our social networks, to enable them to make partnerships with corporations.

It's a long story, if you think about 10 years. It's a short story, if you look at 140 years with no electricity. But they just announced this year that they've bought 100 million people light and electricity. These are customers that make $2, $3 and $4 a day.

That's why I feel so optimistic that we can solve these problems. That too often the skills we learned in business school are not the skills that are going to reimagine, and then recreate the systems that will allow all of us to participate. And that's what we have to do to build back better.

JEN ROGERS: Before we let you go, just real quick to get your take on this. After this break, we're going to be having the second installment in our climate change series. And I know that climate change has been something that you have focused on before. There are people saying that because of this crisis now that we're in, the climate change issue is going to get pushed back, because we're not going to be able to focus on that. What do you think of that idea?

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I think that these are false dichotomies. And that this is actually one of the big skills that we need to do is, hold these opposing truths in tension. We know that low income people are the ones who are disproportionately impacted by climate, not only in this country, but in countries across the world.

And so at action that we have a number of for profit funds that are, specifically, focused on the intersection of poverty and climate. And I actually believe that by focusing on the integration of fighting climate, you can build in much more anti fragility and resiliency into the long term.

But we have to give up our short term metrics, in terms of how we measure what successes is, and get to a place where we are looking, not just at profit in the center of our systems, but the human dignity, shared humanity, and the sustainability of the environment. And the great news, which is a point to end on, is the generation that's coming up. This is how they see the world. And this is how we build back better.

JEN ROGERS: Jacqueline Novogratz, great to see you. Her book is Manifesto for a Moral Revolution. Thanks much.

JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Thank you guys so much. It's great talking to you.

JEN ROGERS: Much more to come here. As I said, our special series on the climate crisis continues. How rising sea levels are disrupting coastal communities, and amplifying the negative effects of gentrification. That's in two minutes.