Social Entrepreneurship

Given enabling environments for social entrepreneurship, both individuals and institutions will have similar incentives (beyond their social motivation) to innovate, explore, pursue and develop solutions, goods and services for their local communities and global markets.

The first step would be to understand the local ecosystem and its stakeholders and to become familiar with existing and similar experiences, their successes and failures, both at a local level and in other places. This would keep us from duplicating efforts, repeating mistakes and would allow us to learn from such experiences and to identify local partners and others with relevant experience.

TAVOS Media Network is a trail-blazing venture based in Palo Alto, California, that empowers people in underserved communities around the world through local media services. Our vision is to build a global network of local media microfranchises to give voice and promote the life and prosperity of every community.

I recently watched Muhammad Yunus full of joy, sharing his story and advocating for his ideas during his Nobel Lecture of December 10, 2006, at the Oslo City Hall, Norway. I was deeply inspired and connected to his values and believe. I would like to contribute my 2 cents in promoting his lecture in this post.

It cannot have passed anyone that the Grameen Bank got awarded the Nobel Peace Prize some time ago, and the scientific community thinks about the social entrepreneurship more seriously than ever before. Yet many both inside the social entrepreneur community as well as outside tend not to see what social entrepreneurship is and more importantly why we so desperately need it.

Why business models are critical to innovation in emerging economies – From social entrepreneurship to building an idea or a business – Part 1

Emerging economies represent new challenges for ideas and businesses, which is why new social entrepreneurship opportunities are now the Petri-dish for what is emerging. Some examples exist of great reference;

From a recent Fortune magazine that I read that most companies in S&P have been rated as risky. This represents a huge challenge for companies as new emerging economies such as India, China or other countries mean new business models which have to be sustainable and scalable and I do not think that there are in most text books or case studies of today.

It is not volunteerism that we need. Not even social responsibility.

What we need is community engagement and tangible benefits for each and every party involved. Only then can a project prosper in the long term, long after the unique champions who push them are gone.

So here you are, a for-profit / non-profit / social entrepreneur, your business plan is done, your powerpoint is ready and you're meeting with a potential funder. You've got a crisp elevator speech, you present your pitch and then the funder says, "this is a very interesting idea but why don't you come back once you're up and running."  (See http://www.xigi.net/2006/05/28/mamamikes-response.html)