Since the early 2000s, Bronx-born, Philadelphia suburb-raised Alicia has used business as a force-for-good at home and abroad. She is obsessed with helping entrepreneurs build sustainable and meaningful businesses.

There’s an old saying, usually attributed to Confucius, that goes something like this, “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ve fed him for a lifetime.” This quote can best be used to summarize Alicia’s career. An updated version of that well-known philosophy seems fitting to sum up her professional legacy of empowering others through the global businesses she has started: “Teach a woman to bake and you’ll feed a village for a lifetime.”

Alicia currently serves as Advisor to numerous social enterprises and for-profit organizations. She provides guidance on a wide range of topics, including strategic planning, financial modeling, and social media marketing. Alicia employs both waterfall and agile methodologies, utilizing cutting-edge project planning software, tools, and AI to achieve the best results for her clients.

Prior to this, Alicia served as an Advisor to the Oakland Department of Planning and Building where she was responsible for overseeing components of the revival of the City’s Proactive Rental Inspection Program (PRIP).

The goal of the Program is to locate all residential rental properties within the City and conduct proactive inspections to ensure and improve upon the overall quality of life for the Citizens of the City and address the issue of substandard rental properties and promote greater compliance with the City’s Municipal Codes and Health and Safety Codes.

Additionally, Alicia worked extensively with the Department of Diversity and Equity (DEI). Alicia wrote the Planning & Building Department’s first Racial Equity Assessment which will serve to evaluate the Proactive Rental Inspection Program. The report will be used to inform the development of the PRIP plan and ensure is established with baseline conditions for Oakland residents to inform the creation of specific elements and measurements by which outcomes can be tracked over time and to address social inequities inherent in existing housing conditions.

She served as an esteemed Fellow of FUSE Corps – “a national nonprofit that partners with local government to help urban communities thrive”. FUSE works “with cities and counties on a range of issues, including economic and workforce development, healthcare, public safety, climate change, and education”.

ALICIA POLAK

Using business as a force for good

If you’re thinking about starting a business; are stuck in a certain stage of your business planning and operations; just need to get things done; or if you want to make an impact in the world but aren’t sure how, and you need an inspirational driver to help realize your professional or personal potential – Alicia is your go-to force for change and accomplishment.

Since the early 2000s, Bronx-born, Philadelphia-raised, who went on to spend much of her adult life in New York City and Cape Town, has used business as a force for good at home and abroad. She is obsessed with helping social entrepreneurs build businesses that generate societal wealth, do the least amount of harm to the environment and community while doing the most amount of good for all those involved.

Alicia’s beliefs and values remain steadfast over the course of two decades. Job creation, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE),and Systemic Equity are the core elements of all the work she has done since leaving Banking. She is now embarking on a new journey, called Battling Back from Baseline™ to help those dealing with depression.

South Africa

After spending time with an NGO in South Africa, Alicia was further inspired to create something that would contribute to sustainable job creation while generating societal wealth.

“I wanted to create jobs for people as a means to make them self-sufficient.”

The first business Alicia built was in South Africa – The Khayelitsha Cookie Company. The company was built to help create long-lasting employment opportunities for those – especially women – who were deemed unemployable. Today it this is South Africa’s longest-running Social Enterprise.

Through this innovative business model with a social objective, Alicia utilized the entrepreneurial and analytical skills she had gained on Wall Street to expand her model for social transformation. The success of the initiative motivated her to replicate and share the model in other developing and underdeveloped countries, as well as in disadvantaged communities in the US.

Alicia founded The Khayelitsha Cookie Co., which today continues to employ women (and men) from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa, to bake, pack, and sell their KCC branded cookies to hotels and restaurants across South Africa.

Alicia is an Advisor on Social Enterprise across multiple continents, an Educator and Mentor. She provides fiduciary advice and guidance to private and public institutions. Her expertise includes:

 

• Consulting and Coaching
• Curriculum Design and Evaluation
• Demographic Research
• Feasibility Analysis
• Marketing and Business plans to determine revenue streams
• Marketing from concept to roll-out
• New Business Venture guidance
• Nonprofit Management
• Scalability Analysis (to determine additional sources of income)
• Workforce Development advice, plans and guidance