Dhanesh Chandra Roll No: --PGPSM03035

Reflection from Lecture and Bornstein and Davis (Page 1-47)

SE—Social Entrepreneurs.

 There is difference in functionality of various players a (Social Entrepreneur, Business, Social Activist, Non-Profit
Foundation, Government) in creating value to the society.
o Social Entrepreneur focuses on Social impact (SROI) they create in the society. Their focus is on creating
sustainable business model with defined social outcome.
o Business – Their focus lies on market demand, Profit, Payback to Shareholder, Distribution of Profit.
o Social Activist – Their focus lies on raising the social issue. They are so absorbed in the problem that they
miss to give solution to the problem.
o Non Profit Foundation – Nonprofit organization ignores the importance of Return on Investment, rather they
believe on creating long term impact on the society.
o Government social objective is to serve people, their primary duty is providing public goods and services in
an equitable manner.
 Qualities of Social Entrepreneur-- a) Risk Appetite: SE takes calculated risk, they are not very high risk takers as
perceived by society rather they analyses the system so well that they perceive risk as uncertainty’s)
b) Inner Locus of Control: They don’t take failure as indication of personal inadequacy but as an indication of gap in
their understanding c) Autonomy d) Persistence—To achieve major social impact it needs a force to drive it forward
that requires stubbornness to navigate the idea through the system.
 Last Mile Delivery: Most of the initiative does not reach to the last mile. So SE tried to bridge the gap and tries to link
all the unconnected dots to provide sustainable solution to the weakest link in the society.
 Social Innovation: Focus on novel solution that is efficient, effective and sustainable.
 Driver for Social Change:
o Social Entrepreneurs create public value pursue new opportunities, innovate and adapt and act boldly, leverage
resource but they don’t control the process they just act as a facilitator.

Social Entrepreneur
Driver for
Social Activist
Social change

o Social Entrepreneurs always existed but in the past they were called visionaries, humanitarians, philanthropist
example Florence Nightingale, Gandhi, Martin Luther king.
 Decades of Social Oppression to Woman, Dark
skinned people, the disabled, Minority groups
Why Social
like Gay, lesbian and Transgender people
change  Inequitable distribution of resources in society

o
o Transition from authoritarian government to democratic government has led to increased extension of various
services like education healthcare, and communications.
 Elements of Social Entrepreneurship: SE is often misunderstood as Nonprofit generating organization. In addition to
innovative not-for-profit ventures, social entrepreneurship can include social purpose business ventures, such as for-
profit community development banks, and hybrid organizations. Their focus does not lie on maximizing profit for the
external shareholder, rather on improving human and environmental well-being.
 SE acts as a change agent: Social entrepreneurs are reformers and revolutionaries, but with a social mission. They
focus on fundamental changes in the way things are done in the social sector. They pounce upon the underlying causes
of problems, rather than simply treating symptoms. They seek to create systemic changes and sustainable
improvements so that irreversibility is achieved.

Insight from two articles from SSIR and Greg Dees

 Profit Versus People: In the equation of profits and Social impacts, profits should not be treated as equal to social
impact. No amount of profits can compensate for failure of social impact. SE has only one ultimate bottom line by
which they can measure their success. It is their intended social impact. Their performance is measured in terms of
successful impact they create on the lives of human being be it in term of shelter, cleaner environment, health care,
education, reduced poverty, or some other social improvements.

 Approach to decipher a Social Problem by SE: Function of SE is to reform or revolutionize the pattern of
productions. It is not always necessary to come up with new ideas to solve a social problem rather old tested ideas to
solve a problem with a new source of supply of material or a new outlet of product could also be recognized as SE.
Their innovations may appear in how they structure their core programs or in how they assemble the resources and
fund their work Entrepreneurs tend. It may appear that their approach is uncertain and risky but they know how to
manage risks for themselves and for others.
 Role of Markets: Markets are not the correct indicator as measure of performance for social entrepreneurs. In
particular, markets fail to capture the real value of social improvements, public goods and benefits for people who
cannot afford to pay. As a result, it is much harder to determine whether a social entrepreneur is creating sufficient
social value to justify the financial resources used in creating that social value. For instance, it is inherently difficult to
measure social value creation by reducing pollution in a given stream, or by providing companionship to the elderly,
or to provide support disable people, or to provide education to children, or to provide shelter, or to provide warm
cloth in winter to destitute. The calculations are not only hard but also contentious. Even though improvements can be
measured, it is often difficult to monetize or give a currency value to it.

 Act in mission mode to create and sustain social value: Social entrepreneur acts in mission mode to solve the social
problems. The mission of social improvement is rarely superseded by private benefits (financial returns or consumption
benefits) for individuals. Making a profit, creating wealth, or serving the desires of customers may be part of the
model, but these are means to a social end, not the end in itself. Neither Profit nor customer satisfaction is the gauge of
value creation rather social impact is the gauge. Social entrepreneurs look for a long-term social return on investment.

 Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities: Successful SE engage in a process of continuous
innovation, adaptation, and learning. Success lies in persistence combined with a willingness to make adjustments as
one goes. Rather than giving up when an obstacle is encountered, entrepreneurs ask, “How can we surmount this
obstacle? How can we make this work?”. They treat failure of a project as a learning experience, not a personal
tragedy.

 Resource Utilization: Quantum of social problems and degree of complexity is huge. SE acts in resource scarce
environments so they have to act wisely to get maximum utilization of the resource.

 Risk Management: They take calculated risks and manage the downside, so as to reduce the harm that will result from
failure. They understand the risk tolerances of their stakeholders and use this to spread the risk to those who are better
prepared to accept it.

 Identification of Problems: It is very important for SE to correctly identify the needs and values of the people they
intend to serve and the communities in which they operate. In some cases, this requires close connections with those
communities.

 Strategic Fit Between Investor Value and Community Needs: Creating a fit between investor values and community
needs is an important part of the challenge, social entrepreneurs create market-like feedback mechanisms to reinforce
this accountability. They assess their progress in terms of social, financial, and managerial outcomes, commonly known
as SROI (Social Return on Investment).
 Core Value of SE: It is important to look out for social impact they create by their activity. Finding ways to sustain
organizations that are not cost-effectively delivering social value is a terrible waste of energy and resources. Social
sector leaders should look for creative resource strategies that enhance their impact, rather than simply sustain their
organizations

Insight from Goonj

 Business Model: Organized discarded item into three categories namely A, B, C (Cloths, Shoes, Utensils, Music
Instruments etc.) based on the condition of the items, Second life to the discarded items Advertisement on one sided
used paper, Collection of discarded pins. This is basic Value creation activity of Goonj.
 Organization Structure: Absence of hierarchy in the organization. Operation team consisting of highly educated
teams were considered at part with shop floor workers, even CEO of the company considered himself as equal to the
shop floor workers.
 Waste as Resource: What we consider as a waste has the potential to become one of the key resource which can act as
potential source of revenue to bottom of pyramid. Waste should be seen as discarded material so that second life to the
product can be given
 Myopic Vision: Often we fail to observe the problem in holistic manner. We observe the problem only at the surface
and fail to see the underlying reasons. We often fail to deduce the various other associated problem related to the given
problems. for example, if one is hungry it does not but also means that he doesn’t have accessibility to other basic
resources like Education, health, Shelter, Basic living conditions, often our solution lies in just giving them food to
satisfy their hunger and ignore the other. There should be shift in thinking from theme based problem solving to
looking individual as a whole and not a subset of a single problem.
 Treat Beneficiary as your Equal Partner: It is important to realize that bottom of pyramid should not be seen as
victim. Beneficiary is not the right term to interact with haves not people because inherently it establishes the
relationship of donor and grantee and so a sense of superiority and inferiority. So our effort should not be looked as
someone who is equal partner then only long term relationship can be established with the community. Sense of respect
it of utmost importance to have any conversation.
 Traditional Wisdom: Lots of traditional wisdom are hidden in the community. Solution to the social problems are
often hidden in the wisdom of the community. They are inherently capable of solving the problems. They have an idea
about how to solve a given problem, they only require resources to solve the problems. Lots of merit lies in
decentralized approach of solving a problem firstly it builds confidence among the community and also intervention
made in their life becomes sustainable as they feel they are part of problem solving process. A strong belief in the
wisdom of people goes long way in building as sustainable to solutions to their problems. It is important for all
intellectual and educated people to learn from them rather than imposing their own Bookish Learning for example to
build a bridge there is no need of costly infrastructure observed in the city rather bamboo bridge could also be a
sustainable solution, Similar is true with medical science they ancient way of treating disease with Ayurveda is far
more effective than allopathic treatment.
 Respect for Each and Every Work: There is need to question our economic system which gives undue preference to
the person who performs mental work as compared to physical work. For example, Designer of building is skilled
workforce and the persons who actually build is unskilled labour. Both of them are equally important in the final
outcome but society has given undue preference to one section of society.
 Eradicate Cause Rather than Symptom: To eradicate a problem one should not target the symptom rather focus
should be on the root cause. for instance; we often try to cure malaria through various medicine and often ignore the
sanitation aspect which is the breeding ground for the mosquito. Real reason is mosquito and not malaria, so focus
should on eradicating mosquito
 Trust and Partnership: It is important to build trust among the community. If one wants to have long term impact of
intervention one has to take whole community with himself. Sustainable impact is only possible if one has partner
relationship. Just work for them take a little step and move forward step by step and Focus on the receive dignity and
you will get the desired results.
 Financial Importance: No doubt finance is importance for any organization to exist. It acts as an oil to the engine
without which it is very difficult to drive any activity. But one should not be bogged down by heavy jargons of
financial statement, Profits- Loss etc. but if your social impact is well thought out, investment do come from the
members of society. Success was measured in terms of how many people, Business organization were able to copy
their ideas
 AAA principles (Affordability, Availability, Awareness) – AAA was overarching principle behind each and every
social problem they were solving. For instance, to solve Menstrual problem they developed Cotton Sanitary napkins,
(Affordable—Low price as compared to other napkins available, Available—Through SHG, Awareness—Chuppi thoro
Baithak.) AAA principle has been guiding principle to carry out all the social intervention towards social change.
.