The following posts here below provide you with four examples of social entrepreneursip:
↓ Biohof Schüpenried walks the participants through the farm facilities and explains how the farm diversified its income sources.
↓ Christian Hiss explains his model of Regionalwert AG, a people’s owned stock company that invests into local agricultural value chain.
↓ Madison Ayer talks about his challenges and solutions providing the right tools for higher yields to small farmers in Kenya.
↓ Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya explains his IT platform ekgaon for small farmers in India: A mobile phone service at their fingertips! |
Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with nearly 3000 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries putting their transformative ideas on a large scale. Founded in 1981, it has provided start-up financing, professional support services, and connections to a global network across the business and social sectors. It has also been a platform for
people dedicated to changing the world.
We had the pleasure of hearing how Stephanie Schmidt at Ashoka in North America sees social entrepreneurship, what she thinks social entrepreneurship is about, as well as find out from her about some of the challenges social entrepreneurs face in the near future.
Stephanie Schmidt, Ashoka
Founded by Bill Drayton in 1980, Ashoka has studied and supported social entrepreneurs throughout the years. (Ashoka is in fact the name of the third king of the Maurya dynasty in India who ruled in 304-232 BCE. He is said to be the first social entrepreneur because of his focus on social and environmental issues as part of his rule.)
According to Ashoka, here are the main characteristics of 1) social entrepreneurship ventures and 2) social entrepreneurs:
1) Social Entrepreneurship Ventures:
- A new innovative idea is at their core
- Systems change is what is desired
- Social impact is the main result with change normally occuring within 5-10 years
- High risk
2) Social Entrepreneurs:
- Believers in change-making and transforming a sector
- Naturally entrepreneurial
- Creative
- Have a deep sense of ethics and responsibility
- Trustworthy, able to develop trustworthy alliances and relationships, build trust and inspire others
- Both visionary and pragmatic
With the rise of the social entrepreneurship movement, we are seeing the following changes in the mindset of individuals and societies:
- ”Others should solve it” -> ”I can solve it”
- ”Big problems are too complex” -> ”We can solve problems at scale”
- ”Bureaucratic systems” -> ”Teams of teams organic systems”
- ”Change is up to specific chosen people” -> ”Change is the result of co-creation among all!’
According to Stephanie, the main challenge for social entrepreneurs in the years to come, and the key pathway to scaling up beneficial social change, lies in making connections across sectors. In other words, partnerships among non-for-profit, business and civil society organisations are key in order to bring social innovation to scale and must be increasingly fostered by all actors. (download her presentation here)
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