Earlier this month, IDEO, the leading global design consultancy launched OpenIDEO, a collaborative platform to design and create solutions to the world’s toughest challenges. This platform is cool. It starts with a big question (the challenge that needs a creative solution) and uses the design process; brainstorming, conceptualizing and evaluating to create with the online community innovative solutions. A very interesting point is that anyone that collaborates can get recognized accordingly to one’s contribution. OpenIDEO kicked off with Jamie Oliver’s challenge “How can we raise kid’s awareness on the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?” so tackling obesity. The second challenge is “How to increase the availability of affordable learning tools and services for students in the developing world?” by Enterprising Schools, a project of Grey Matters Capital. It reminded me a lot of Ashoka’s changemakers as it crowdsources ideas/proposals and let the online community collaborate to create solutions. OpenIDEO is making it easier for everyone to become a changemaker! Check out this cool video.
IDEO launches OpenIDEO an online platform where we can design, collaborate and create solutions and social good
Socential at Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship (EPSE) at Stanford Graduate School of Business took place between June 20th and July 2nd. This rich and intensive program was one of the most gratifying learning experience that I’ve ever had. The courses were interactive and diverse covering the topics such as; mission (Jim Phills), strategy and execution (Robert Burgelman), Innovation (Jim Phills), social entrepreneurship by design (Jim Patell) how to change things when change is hard (Chip Heath), building and leading effective teams (Deb Gruenfeld), the power of social media (Jennifer Aaker), role of power and influence for leading large systems change (Jeff Pfeffer), balancing social and business objectives (Bill Barnett). In addition to the inmense knowledge that the class acquired learning from the superb Stanford faculty, the participating 48 social entrepreneurs that traveled from 15 different countries learned so much from each other and formed long-lasting friendships. One such great social entrepreneur and a dear classmate, Ben Stone, from Indego Africa has written an excellent summary of this program.
FAQ: How does Socential ensure quality of the social enterprises and the projects listed?
We have an efficient and scalable approach to ensure the quality of the social enterprises that list projects on Socential.net. We are working with trusted partners (currently Ashoka Switzerland, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and Avina Stiftung) which perform due diligence in the relevant areas and regions. Social investors can see which partner has performed due diligence on which social enterprise. We plan to add new partners as we expand our operations.
A second important quality factor is the transparency throughout our processes. We require a high level of transparency from the social enterprises that list projects on Socential.net. Descriptions of the projects and organizations are submitted in a standardized format. Once a project is active social enterprises report regularly (as defined in each project description) on Socential.net on the progress of their projects. Socential follows up to make sure this reporting is implemented. All content is reviewed by Socential before it is published.
Socential Newsletter 01/10
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Why do we need social entrepreneurs?
Social entrepreneurs are solving society’s most pressing problems that have either been ignored or have not been effectively addressed by other entities.
We live in a world that is benefitting from the breakthroughs achieved through industrial, scientific and technological innovation.
Despite all these breakthroughs, there are so many problems at all levels, global, national and local that have not been solved and some are not even tackled. These challenges include; poverty, health care, illiteracy, climate change, water, terrorism, human rights abuses, inequality, to mention a few.
Governments, international development agencies and charities have been working on these challenges for decades but the results show that their efforts have not been sufficient and/or their methods (top-down, no long term focus) have not been effective. The private sector (corporations) would not look to solve these problems as their main objective is to maximize profits for their shareholders. Moreover, many corporations have damaged the environment and have tolerated inequality in their pursuit for short term gains.
Social entrepreneurs provide solutions to society’s problems that have not been tackled or that have not been effectively addressed by other entities. Social entrepreneurs are passionate but pragmatic, result-oriented, innovative and their commitment is in reshaping society and benefitting humanity. This is why they are successful in providing sustainable solutions.
The successful microfinance movement as a grassroots, bottom-up approach is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship. Now millions of poor people are getting access to financial services such as small loans (microcredit), saving facilities, microinsurance, and remittances due to the initiative of grassroot local organizations. Big banks would not offer this service as it was not a profitable business for them and the governments were also not offering such services.
Social entrepreneurship is seen as one of the answers to the urgent need for creative and effective problem solving that would change the world for the better.
Article about Socential on startwerk.ch
This entry is only available in German.
Bunker Roy added to the elite group of the Times Magazine “The 100 most influential people in the world”
TIME Magazine released its annual list of the 100 people who most influence our world, and we are very happy to see Bunker Roy added to that elite group. A brief overview of Bunker’s work and innovation at Barefoot College is described in TIME by author Greg Mortenson: “Roy combines humanitarianism, entrepreneurship and education to help people steer their own path out of poverty, fostering dignity and self-determination along the way. His simple formula holds a key to what nations and aid organizations might do to build a more just world.” This came to our attention thanks to the Skoll Foundation News.
If you would like to get involved in some of the innovative and sustainable projects by Barefoot College such as solar electrification of rural villages in developing countries or rain water harvesting structures : please go to our online marketplace www.socential.net where you can fund some of these projects.
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Reflections after 2010 Skoll Forum
This year’s title (theme) of the Skoll World Forum was “Catalysing Collaboration” and I believe it fully lived up to it. The program reflected and encouraged much more interaction than in previous years. No doubt the OxfordJam programmes running parallel to the forum and the fact that many of us got stranded due to the volcano eruption resulted in further discussions and collaboration. There are many video and podcasts for anyone who would like to see or hear some sessions. One of the most inspiring speeches was from Caroline Casey delivered at the closing plenary. Blog discussions after the Forum (see socialedge ) are also very interesting to follow. There seems to be an amazing energy and momentum which is expanding the sphere of social entrepreneurship from a “small club of unreasonable people” to mainstream. Perhaps the definition of “social entrepreneur” might not be enough to accomodate the many people that are joining the movement. Call them changemakers (as Bill Drayton refers to them) or maybe a new word like social interpreneurship (see Peter Deitz’s blog): what matters is that with more people trying to make a difference and with more interaction and collaboration there is renewed hope to tackle the enormous problems that society faces today.
Socential hosts apero with social entrepreneurs and special guest – Bunker Roy of Barefoot College
On April 8th we hosted a casual Apero at our new (and first) office in Zurich Binz to celebrate the public release of our online platform Socential.net. We were delighted to welcome our partners, supporters and friends, as well as, the social entrepreneurs from Aiducation International, Barefoot College, Blind-Licht Foundation, CO2-monitor, Infoclick.ch, and Studienaktie.org, who have listed their innovative projects on Socential.net.
Moreover, we had a special guest Bunker Roy from India, founder of Barefoot College, whose solar electrification and rainwater harvesting projects in Africa and Latin America have become the new international features on Socential.net. We were honored to meet Bunker who was visiting Zurich as he was a guest of the Mind and Life XX Conference, consisting of dialogues with the Dalai Lama.
Patrik, Naoko and Linus delivered very short speeches to welcome, update and thank the guests but the night was mostly about connecting, exchanging ideas and having fun!
UPDATE: Bunker Roy added to the elite group of the Times Magazine “The 100 most influential people in the world (http://www.socential.org/948). If you would like to get involved in some of the innovative and sustainable projects by Barefoot College such as solar electrification of rural villages in developing countries or rain water harvesting structures : please go to our online marketplace www.socential.net where you can fund some of these projects.
What is a social entrepreneur?
At Socential we refer to social entrepreneurs, social enterprises and social entrepreneurship as follows;
Social entrepreneurs drive innovative and sustainable solutions to social and environmental issues. They identify a pressing social problem and use entrepreneurial skills to solve it. Their work differ from traditional charity as they use innovative business models and methods to ensure effectiveness and scalability and also differ from traditional business as they put the benefit to society first.
Social enterprises are organizations created by social entrepreneurs to achieve their social mission. These enterprises can be non-profits or for-profits and they apply market-based strategies.
Social entrepreneurship refers to the approach and work of social entrepreneurs.
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The definitions of social entrepreneur given by the main players in this field are shown below.
1) Ashoka
http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur
Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.
2) Gregory Dees, Professor of the Practice of Social Entrepreneurship, Duke University
http://www.caseatduke.org/documents/dees_sedef.pdf
Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector, by:
- Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),
- Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,
- Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,
- Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and
- Exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.
3) Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
http://www.schwabfound.org/sf/SocialEntrepreneurs/Whatisasocialentrepreneur/index.htm
Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies.
A social entrepreneur is a leader or pragmatic visionary who:
- Achieves large scale, systemic and sustainable social change through a new invention, a different approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a combination of these.
- Focuses first and foremost on the social and/or ecological value creation and tries to optimize the financial value creation.
- Innovates by finding a new product, a new service, or a new approach to a social problem.
- Continuously refines and adapts approach in response to feedback.
- Combines the characteristics represented by Richard Branson and Mother Teresa.
4) Skoll Foundation
http://www.skollfoundation.org/aboutsocialentrepreneurship/index.asp
so. cial ent.tre.pre.neur: n. 1. Society’s change agent: pioneer of innovations that change humanity
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches and creating sustainable solutions to change society for the better. However, unlike business entrepreneurs who are motivated by profits, social entrepreneurs are motivated to improve society. Despite this difference, social entrepreneurs are just as innovative and change oriented as their business counterparts, searching for new and better ways to solve the problems that plague society.
5) Roger L. Martin and Sally Osberg
http://www.skollfoundation.org/media/skoll_docs/2007SP_feature_martinosberg.pdf
The social entrepreneur should be understood as someone who targets an unfortunate but stable equilibrium that causes the neglect, marginalization, or suffering of a segment of humanity; who brings to bear on this situation his or her inspiration, direct action, creativity, courage, and fortitude; and who aims for and ultimately affects the establishment of a new stable equilibrium that secures permanent benefit for the targeted group and society at large.
