Nikhil T.

George
MGT 3150, Professor Bill Todd
Impact Speaker: Rohith Malhotra

This past week the Scheller College of Business hosted Rohith Malhotra, the founder and
Executive Director from the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) as the Impact Speaker. The
Center for Civic Innovation is Atlantas home for social entrepreneurship which through public,
private and community partnerships takes a targeted approach on key challenges facing the city.
During his short talk Molhatra spoke about open data, discussed entrepreneurship, and explained
the birth of the center for civic innovation. Rohiths talk was primarily focused on open data,
which is defined as information that can be freely used and distributed by anyone. He started off
by saying Open data is not a technology issue; its a human one which led him to a moving
story about how big data can transform societies, even in rural villages in Andhra Pradesh, India.
He talked about how the villagers painted a giant excel spreadsheet on the wall in the center of
village so as to hold government officials accountable for timely payment of wages. Opening the
data can open up a new economic opportunity and help public organizations make more
informed decisions
Rohit talked about a Recipe for Pay for Performance to reinvigorate a city. For this to take
place however the city needs a struggling public entity with limited capital, a comprehensible
amount of good, usable data and people who can problem solve at low cost, high efficiency. He
identified Atlanta as the city with most potential, with an upward mobility of only 4%,
comparable to the income gap in Ghana.

Rohit forwards that even with the thriving

entrepreneurial ecosystem in Atlanta the lack of collaboration and communication creates poor
structuring to solve the problems.
The rest of Rohiths talk was focused on CCI and the pay for performance system that CCI
follows. The first step that CCI takes in the pay for performance system is identifying a key,
overarching issue-open data, food access, education etc. The Center brings together people from
all walks including corporations, nonprofit officials, community members and other stakeholders
who identify problems that can be fixed by local entrepreneurs, and then issue a public request
for business proposals. From there, CCI hopes that a passionate, community-minded
entrepreneur will step up and fill the gap. Rohiths talk really emphasizes how open data is a
human challenge and is the engine of true innovation.

Nikhil T. George
MGT 3150, Professor Bill Todd
Impact Speaker: Rohith Malhotra