Social Entrepreneurship

Taking it to the next step from my previous post, if entrepreneurs make less money compared to working for someone else then why get into this field. More so why did the new breed of Social Entrepreneurs come up? Well Social Entrepreneurs (as I understand) are there to bring about a Social Change. There are some Social Entrepreneurs for who money doesn’t matter but to sustain and bring about a change it’s necessary. As I have maintained before, entrepreneurship shouldn’t be about money (be it Social or otherwise) it should be about bringing about a change (be it Social or otherwise). If your idea is good (not even great) money will come, as part of your revenue model or as grants, as long your idea is sustainable and claims to bring a change.

But where is Social Entrepreneurship headed now a days? The number of Social Enterprises in on the rise and the amount been funded is huge. The pool of socially responsible investment dollars in the United States has now grown to $2.34 trillion.  As Vinod Khosla said that most VC’s work (or rather their business model) revolves around making profits. So why would a VC come forward for a Social Enterprise where the return is less and more so less likely to come by quickly. What needs to change is how the money is being poured in, is it the same VC’s funding it or has their thought process changed. The Social Enterprises need to be valued based on the social impact.

Have the things really changed, I’m a bit skeptical about the same. Last month when I was presenting at one of the IIM’s on Social Entrepreneurship one of the students asked me if it’s ‘That kind of work’. Why is Social Entrepreneurship linked with ‘That Kind of work’ I ask and even if it is why should one shy away from it. Social enterprises is NOT ‘that kind of work’ and neither are all Social Enterprises Not-for-profit, there are many social enterprises that are for profit. As C K Prahalad said, if we stop thinking of poor as ‘poor’ but rather start identifying them as consumers there is a whole new market to be explored.

There are a new breed of entrepreneurs that are coming up. What has changed in the last few years? Why has Social Entrepreneurship gained significance in the last few years? Is it because people have started to realize that it’s not just Money that will change the world but you actually need Change Agents to bring about a change?

~ by sudip on September 21, 2009.