The Greatest Investment: Social Entrepreneurship
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sk most people what the greatest advancement in the last few decades has been and you will probably hear something related to the internet, computers, space travel or medical procedures. If you press for specific answers, you might hear about how the iPhone revolutionized our access to information and kicked off a whole new industry, how Tesla has created unprecedented excitement around electric vehicles, or maybe how CRISPR has accelerated our ability to modify DNA. Virtually every part of our lives is shaped in some way by a visionary entrepreneur, many of whom have become household names, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, to name a few. However, there is a movement growing that may not be as well-known but aims to have just as big of an impact on everyday life: social entrepreneurship. It takes many of the concepts that have driven innovation and the overall economy and applies them in ways that seek to address critical, systemic and foundational problems facing societies around the world.
By Josh Duke
looking at ways to provide clean water in the face of changing drought patterns. One of the most renowned social entrepreneurs is Muhammad Yunus, who is considered the grandfather of the social innovation known as microfinance and was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in addressing poverty. Microloans allow low-income, marginalized individuals and families, who otherwise face predatory lenders at high interest rates, access to small yet critical working capital loans that they can invest in businesses and assets that can generate income and improve their quality of life.
Bruce Manciagli is the director of Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at FSU and the social entrepreneur in residence at the College of Social Sciences & Public Policy. He believes that while defining social entrepreneurship is not straightforward, it is important to make the distinction.
BUILDING LASTING CHANGE It is important to understand that social was seen as the essence of entrepreneurship.” entrepreneurs are not charity workers. While they have altruistic and humanitarian Social entrepreneurs are similar but different. tendencies, these individuals often build They are also “focused on creating a new organizations that work within the framework equilibrium, although by definition their starting of a capitalist world economy. point is a problem or system that is currently unjust or inequitable, causing the marginalization “Social innovation begins with understanding of a segment of society,” he says. This difference, a social or environmental problem within its while seemingly small, is critically important sociocultural context and becoming aware of because it shapes the entire way that a social the needs of those experience the problem,” entrepreneur defines their value proposition. he says. “It’s then that we can ideate innovative, While a commercial entrepreneur focuses on systemic approaches that are empowering, profits as a key measure of success in solving sustainable, and scalable—solutions that not a problem, Manciagli says a social entrepreneur only create social impact but strengthen views financial value as “a means to an end. It people’s capacity to act as problem-solvers is in service to achieving the social or themselves. environmental mission which, in their case, is This process leverages the best thinking and how success is defined and measured.” practices from across the private, public, and Manciagli’s formal definition of a social nonprofit/civic sectors, which allows social enterprise, one of the key tools used by social entrepreneurs to achieve a triple bottom line entrepreneurs, is “a mission-focused venture that helps regenerate our economies, societies, that applies market-based strategies to create and the planet in ways that are scaled and social, environmental and economic value and financially and environmentally sustainable.
“Historically, entrepreneurs were seen as innovators or change agents who spurred economic progress” says Manciagli. “While many of these entrepreneurs served this function by starting new business ventures, it was the creation of a new, more efficient equilibrium rather than the venture itself that
uses the majority of net revenue to advance ENTREPRENEURS OF EDUCATION and sustain its social/environmental mission. Social entrepreneurs apply their talent and It may be set up legally as a nonprofit, for-profit penchant for innovation across all manner of or hybrid entity.” fields and industries, and education is no A social entrepreneur could look to help a exception. By addressing social needs through society’s most impoverished people get out of entrepreneurial practices, businesses have the cycle of debt, or it could be an innovator popped up around the world to improve access
A NEW KIND OF ENTREPRENEUR Social entrepreneurship and our general understanding of entrepreneurship share some similarities, but there are some key differences that defines social entrepreneurship as something new and different.
Bruce Manciagli
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