Social entrepreneurship is now viewed as an important source of
development and improvement in the developed countries as it helps to create
social and economic values. Thus, a social enterprise is a business that not
only focused on profit-making but it also aims to create positive change in the
society to benefit the disadvantaged groups in the society, hence a business
that is revenue-generating, not a charity.
This article is
about Muhammed Yunus, a 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder
of Grameen Bank, sparked a movement with the simple question: “If you are
a socially conscious person, why don’t you run your business in a way that will
help achieve social objectives?”
Today, many young
entrepreneurs are attempting to alleviate global poverty, global warming,
hunger, war and many more social issues faced in the world. Many of them
believe that using the knowledge taught to them, the advance technology we had
and a heart to make a difference in peoples’ life; they can make the world a
better place to live in.
To many of the inspired
youths and adults, it’s considered the right thing to do and is viewed as being
cool/respectable among their peers. Hence, there are more and more competitions
and funding available for the youth to take advantage of to get a funding of up
to $3000 - $10,000 as a start-up cost for their business.
The trend is that most
youths would only talk about how much they are going to do to impact the world
after they graduate but most of the time do nothing about it. Hence, we are
thankful that we do have a significant number of youths who step-up and are
determined to make the world a better place, without sacrificing an income.
“What we’re seeing now is
a movement of both investors and entrepreneurs to the massive spectrum of
opportunity in between the charitable NGO’s and purely for-profit companies
that solely care about their bottom line,” explained Ophir Samson, project
manager at the Portland Trust.
I believe that social
enterprises are the perfect balance between the social and financial aspect.
People are more conscious about the social issues that are around them, thus,
they are more prone to do good and feel more towards the needy people in the
society. All these, contributes to the flourishing of social enterprises and
many other investors are now on board to contribute back to the society.
Although I do think that there will bound to be people who call themselves a
social enterprise to make profit, I still choose to believe that most of us
really do want to make a change in the world no matter how little the impact
maybe. It is always the domino effects that people come together to make a
difference that will create miracles. Youths are definitely the hope of the
future.
VentureBeat’s own Ciara
Byrne says, “What’s cooler than a million dollars? Changing a million
lives.”
References:
Helloa Jianing!!
ReplyDeleteI like your positive outlook on the future of the social enterprise industry:) And yes, I to believe that some people would exploit the term "social enterprise" for their own profit and gain. Yet, I don't think that is very wrong as long as it still creates positive impact to the society. Who are we to say that they are not beng responsible or socially conscious?
It is comforting to see more people taking interests in starting such businesses that does more than profiteering. It is good too that our government is supportive of these initiatives. I feel though, that visible impacts of change can only be seen if more people rise up, working in unity. Change that comes in drips and drabs will only have the same impact-minimal and (maybe) unsustainable. Instead, if we join our efforts together, change will come sooner and have long lasting effects.