Social Entrepreneurship

A known but unknown phenomenon

No one argues with the fact that society has problems. The question is what to do about them. Politicians focus on government-funded programs, whereas corporations focus on the free market economy without much responsibility. Neither of these plans is going to meet the social and environmental needs plaguing our planet, at least not in isolation. We need another way.

A solution that draws on the best of both politics and corporates: Social Entrepreneurship

The known truth is that social enterprises operate within many constraints to bring about interesting innovation and keep companies accountable. It’s as if there are two bottom lines — social impact and profitability. You can’t have one without the other.

The silver lining is that while most social enterprises are small, they’re growing in number, and have the potential to tackle great issues we face with the environment, poverty, drugs, incarceration, trafficking, homelessness, equality, and mental health.

So everyone wants to ask what social entrepreneurship is: Put simply, it’s the use of new approaches to solving old social problems. Throughout history, there have been social change agents and activists who have put their societies on a better path. However, over the past couple of decades, a distinct, more entrepreneurial approach to alleviating social problems has emerged. That path-breaking generation of social entrepreneurs broke free of the false dichotomy between “it’s a business” or “it’s a charity” to experiment with business models, innovate new distribution and replication methods, and hold themselves accountable for results.

It means using business as a tool to solve social issues. It’s risky, because entrepreneurship is already hard, and entrepreneurship exercised with the precept of placing a social cause above your profits is even harder.

There are two things worthwhile about social entrepreneurship.

The first is that they tend to be close to the social problem that they’re solving and they’re free to deliver their impact in the way they see best. On the flip side, they still have their business constraints — you can’t just allocate money and resources that don’t exist.

The second thing is that social enterprises tend to be self-funded, and that means that, in a sense, they’re in control of their destiny. You have to be conscious that plenty of businesses fail. You need to have a solid business model. And yes, earning profits can get in the way of your social impact.

Being a company that’s willing to sacrifice profits for its mission gives extra truth to its vision of change. And there is something really powerful in that. It’s like they inspire trust in their stakeholders that they’re doing the right thing.

We just looked at two of the great forces that social entrepreneurship brings to the table. The next question is how do you get more people playing the impact business game? There are three bits of magic to this:

· The first is the generation of ideas

· The second bit of magic is external validation

· The third bit of magic is what happens when you bring people together from different backgrounds to work on an idea

If you’re developing a social enterprise, make sure you’re on the ground, talking to the people you want to impact. Make sure to incorporate their stories, hopes, and dreams into whatever concept you’re developing.

Most importantly of all, social entrepreneurs are driven by values: dignity, access to opportunity, transparency, accountability, and empowerment. They are passionate about the problem they are trying to solve and keep their social mission front and center as they scale up their impact. In many cases, they have left potentially lucrative careers to find their social enterprise, motivated by a desire for a more meaningful purpose or struck by an “aha” moment that compelled them to act.

In conclusion, neither traditional business models nor government funding are always the best routes to make a social impact. Traditional business models are too focused on profit, and government funding can be scarce and restrictive. Social enterprises occupy a unique position in being able to deliver social change sustainably but the question we need to ask is:

Is the ecosystem supportive enough to plug in such ideas? Will we inspire greater social change in the world through social entrepreneurship?

Can we balance the selfless and selfish entrepreneur?

WE Hub, A Government of Telangana Initiative The Entrepreneur Zone (TEZ) MANAGE CIA Tajdar Ali Mohammed Hafeezuddin Simron Maity Neha . tanisha mantry Tanish Rawlani Vadla Pranavi ANITA THADKAPALL NISHA NIRANJAN Manisha Gowlikar Marwa Fatima Sugandha Maheshwari Divya Nandimalla Rushmitha Cheekoti Kavya Macha (MK) Likhitha Sree Bhuvana Inturi Bhargav Ventrapragada Chanakya Sushwanthkar Dundi Dr. P. Vadivukkarasi Deepti G Usha Paliath Dr. Preethi Ramadoss Gnapika Chintalapalli Gedam Uday kumar Himasree Desai Jubanayan Saikia Jashwanth Devarashetty🏌🏻 Kiran Vuppala Thulasi krishna korlakunta Krishna Mohan Dwivedi krishna Ambati Mariyam Begum ABHISHEK SINGH Mariya . Om Sonkusare T RAVI KIRAN Ravi Vibhuty Rupam Bhadury 💹 Rudransh Garg Gambo Anupama