CIDA by Roger Martin

“Much of [Taddy] Blecher’s reasoning about CIDA [Community and Individual Development Association] can be best described as generative. Like any observer, he saw that an overwhelming majority of South African blacks were poor, uneducated, and dispirited.

But he also saw, as others did not, that young Africans could flourish in the right conditions. Given a helping hand, many escaped their seemingly hopeless circumstances, then extended a hand back to help their communities and make a positive difference in South African society. . . .

‘It’s not through handouts and giving to the poor that poverty is ultimately changed. . . . It’s really through teaching people how to create wealth and, through entrepreneurship, really helping people help themselves. What we’re doing is not just building a university; what we really have to do is help people reconstruct a reason to live.’

Blecher didn’t actually have sufficient data either to make that vision his purpose in life or to see CIDA as the means of achieving it. He couldn’t prove it in advance or deduce or induce it from the existing theories or data. It required him to make leaps in his mind to reason about what might be.”