REFLECTIVE WRITING ON CHAPTER 1

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS DESCIPTION

CONCEPTS

DEFINATION OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

IMPORTANCE AND ROLE OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS IN SOCIETIES, POLITICS AND

ECONOMIES

CONSTRAINTS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR VS BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR

20/8/2020

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

 Social entrepreneur are individuals who have innovative ideas to solve world’s most pressing problems.
 They do that by creating product, systems and solutions to help change people’s lives.
 They have the ability to seek for opportunities
 They are also called as change agents
 Social entrepreneurs combine commerce and social issues in a way that improves the lives of the people connected
to the case.

He/she sets up an entity to implement the solution.

There are ample examples to give light upon above statements.

-A story in context to above statement would be the work of Mohammed Yunus, founder of Grameen bank.

Poor people were not able to take loans because of the collateral that they have to give against loan and their financial status.
Mohammed Yunus brought in a great change in their lives by bringing in the microfinance concept that is Grameen Bank.
Poor people were as a result able to avail loans without getting worried and start their own business with that money.
Thus poor people now had a livelihood through their business.

-There is a great ophthalmologist fondly called as Dr. V who established a hospital to eradicate needless blindness, Aravind Eye
Care.

- We have Sumita Ghosh who decided that she would establish a business to assist rural artisan's to find better paid work and the
first task was to establish some working capital. She did not have that kind of money and the banks could see that she had no
collateral to offer to secure a loan. Ghosh decided that she would persuade the artisan's to invest and in exchange they would own
shares in the emerging company. It worked although some of the investors now owned share certificates and this was their only
possession as everything else in their lives belonged to their husbands. The new business was the Rangsutra collective

In 2020 IKEA launched its Botanist range created by their designers in collaboration with social entrepreneurs in Thailand,
Romania, Jordan and India. Rangsutra, which Ghosh still leads, was one of their India suppliers together with Industries, and
Ramesh Flowers. Rangsutra is supplying cushion covers made from sustainable materials fitting in with the botanical theme. They
and IKEA are creating work for hand loom weavers and other rural artisans.

-We have an amazing revolutionary personality, lady with the lamp, Mother of modern Nursing – Florence Nightanlge.
She was able to improve hygiene practices and lower the death rates at the hospital.
Her contribution is nursing sector during wars was extraordinary. Florence Nightingale pioneered a number of services designed to
improve conditions and aid the healing process. She was bold, and courageous.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

It is a process that would generate effective and innovative initiatives and ideas or solutions to the world’s most pressing
problems.

-We have Bindeshwar Pathak is an Indian sociologist and social entrepreneur. He is the founder of Sulabh International, an India-
based social service organization which works to promote human rights, environmental sanitation, non-conventional sources of
energy, waste management and social reforms through education.
- We have Vinoba Bhave, a humble spiritual leader, the first non-violent resister to the Britishers and reformer of Independent
India started what we know as the Bhoodan movement – a landmark in Indian history where its mission was to persuade
wealthy landowners to willingly give a small share of their land to the landless people.
- We also have a notable personality Social entrepreneur and Magsaysay Award winner Anshu Gupta on trash-based parallel
economy. Gupta, popularly known as the Clothing Man is the Founder of an Indian based nonprofit – Goonj with a mission to
make clothing a matter of concern and to bring it among the list of subjects for the development sector. His mission was to
address the most basic but ignored need of clothing and the multifaceted role it plays in villages across India.

We will now see important features i.e. nature and Characteristics of a social entrepreneur.

NATURE OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Social Entrepreneurs
- Create social Value
- Recognize new opportunities to serve
- Act Boldly
- Engage in innovation, adaption, and learning
- Exhibit Accountability

CREATING SOCIAL VALUE

Social entrepreneurs create value not only for the poor and marginalized people, but also for the affluent sections of the society.
Beneficiaries perceive ‘value’ in getting various kinds of benefits created by social entrepreneurs for them, and in various positive
changes and impacts (direct and indirect) in their lives brought in because of these benefits.

RECOGNIZE NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE

its basic nature of social entrepreneurs to keep thinking about the welfare of society.
They continuously engage themselves in finding out difficulties, problems of the society and work towards finding a solution for
it.

ACT BOLDLY
It’s definitely not easy to be a social entrepreneur. There are many hiccups in the way like fundraising, etc.
But even with so many challenges they still choose to be a social entrepreneur and serve the society by overcoming those
challenges.
It is indeed an act of boldness. They boldly take a step forward for a single motive that is society welfare.

ENGAGE IN INNOVATION, ADAPTION AND LEARNING

It takes more to actually solve any problem of the society.
Social entrepreneurs as said above continuously engage themselves in finding out difficulties, problems of the society and work
towards finding a solution for it. In this process they are being innovative.
It takes an innovative idea to solve a problem completely and forever.
Social entrepreneurs mind always brainstorm in order to find such solutions
They adapt to situations, learn everything they can in order to bring forth an idea which would bring in a significant positive
change to the lives of deprived.

EXHIBIT ACCOUNTABILITY
These social entrepreneurs are best examples of people who exhibit great accountability to their responsibilities.
Their accountability is voluntary.
They voluntarily take responsibility to solve society’s problems because they want to give something back to the society.
They find out problems, their solutions and do their best to implement the solutions. They take it as – it’s their responsibility as
change makers, impact makers to bring light to the problems and solve it.
A great personality in the above contexts would be Sanjit Bunker Roy.
He was an Indian Social Activist and Educator who found Barefoot College.
Brief description of Barefoot College would be Barefoot College trains illiterate villagers to build and maintain systems such as
solar electricity, water and sanitation, schools, and clinics. “Barefoot” teachers, doctors, health workers, business owners, and
service workers improve their own lives and those of their communities.

Now how does that relate to nature of social entrepreneurs?

It’s the story or rather history of how this was formed gives us glimpse of nature of social entrepreneurs
For example

Sanjit Banker Roy is from a well-off family, very well educated and an amazing tennis player. But he left all these and decided
to work for the society, he wanted to give back to society. Yes, there was opposition from his mother but he continued anyways.
This shows his boldness and accountability.

The very beginning of this college was a result of conducting a survey of water supplies in 100 drought prone areas.
He was trying to find out the problem (recognizing opportunities to serve) and learn.
After the survey Roy established the Social Work and Research Centre in 1972.Its mission soon changed from a focus on water
and irrigation to empowerment and sustainability. The programs focused on siting water pumps near villages and training the
local population to maintain them without dependence on outside mechanics, providing training as paramedics for local medical
treatment, and on solar power to decrease dependence and time spent on kerosene lighting.
He wanted to give solutions and help therefore established the Social Work and Research Centre which is Barefoot College.
How he helped, the answer is what they teach in Barefoot College.
His thinking on how to solve problem and coming up with this answer shows is engagement in being innovative and adaption.

He was recognized in 2010 in Time for the programs of the college which have trained more than 3 million people in skills
including solar engineers, teachers, midwives, weavers, architects and doctors.

FROM THE OUTCOME OF BAREFOOT COLLEGE WE CAN SEE THAT SANJIT BANKAR ROY INDEED CREATED
SOCIAL VALUE.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

- Creative and innovative

- Community Driven
- Business Savvy
- Determination
- Social Entrepreneurship needs confidence courage and conviction
- Team Spirit
- They know how to network
- Social Entrepreneurs do not lose their focus anytime.

These characteristics can be understood from the above examples given, starting from Mohammad Yunus for Grameen Bank,
Dr. V for Arvind Eye care hospital, Sumita Ghosh for Rangsutra , Bindeshwar Pathak for Sulabh international, Bankar Roy for
Barefoot college, Vinoba Bhave for Bhoodan Movement, Florence Nightingale- a Nurse Entrepreneur, Anshu Gupta for Goonj.
All of them had the above characteristics.
Entrepreneurs come in all ages. They are not restricted to one particular age, gender, etc.
We have an inspiring social entrepreneur Saima Khan, a student and also the co-founder and president of StepUp Dubai.
StepUp is basically a foundation by the youth, for the youth.
Saima Khan story of helping society began when she went for a volunteering initiative event. It was then when she realized that
she really wanted to help the society.
According to her “community work is not hard, you just need love and time”
She wanted to launch an organization where the youth helps the youth especially the special needs children.
StepUp Dubai war launched after much difficulties.
Some difficulties are –

 Age – As she was just 16, it was confusing for companies and employees to see a child come and ask for funds for event
and was reluctant.
 Setting up a right team

One of the events they did was building a well.

According to Saima in StepUp, in every event and everything they do they always ask themselves, how can they be different, what
are they doing that others are not and found out there was no organization in her place that was engaged in building wells.
Because it was expensive they first went for building a Hand Pump in many places across countries.
She faced many difficulties but did not stop. She feels you need be determined no matter what. She failed many times before
entering UN but she didn’t stop she proved herself.
They didn’t have enough volunteers at start but that increased later.

She was creative and innovative in setting up an organization, she was community driven which is evident from her mindset to keep
continuing helping society enough after so many difficulties and it also showed she was confident, courageous, determined and had
conviction and focus.
She managed to collaborate many organizations and schools which show her networking skills.
Social capital basically means network of relationships working towards the betterment of society.
She managed to build a team for a cause and lead it. As she says in her Ted Talk, one of her friend is interested in Psychology and
she provides her a platform (that is StepUp) where she can counsel students, labourers, etc.
This shows she and her team has team spirit.

Ashoka Foundation, Arvind Eye Care Hospitals are some entities which have taken business model organizations for the betterment
of society. Their founders are good examples of social entrepreneurs who are business savvy.

These social entrepreneurs use their know-how and business savvy to make the world a better place, combining a traditional
business model with a pressing social mission in ways that have been helping to make big changes in places around the world for
decades.

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

- Employment development
- Innovation/New Goods and Services
- Equity Promotion
- Social Capital
- Manage Relationship beyond Economic purpose.
- Works towards the Social Mission to make the world a better place.
- Enhancing Social Investments/Trade
- Social entrepreneur play the role of a change agent in the “social sector”-health, education, food and nutrition, drinking
water, sanitation, environmental stability, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and technology.
- Social entrepreneurs brings upon the systematic change and bridging the ever widening gap between very rich and very
poor.
- Social Entrepreneurship is universally accepted as a means of creating momentum for growth in developed, emerging and
less developed economies.

EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT

One of the important roles of social entrepreneurs is to help in employment generation. Employment generation also comes as a result of other
activities by social entrepreneurs whose main concern would be some different problem.

Currently, there are nearly 2 Million social enterprises in India and besides assisting in overcoming poverty and achieving social integration; it is
also creating productive employment.
In fact a type of typology that is cooperative model is sort of like self-employment. Group of people come together for a purpose
and commercialize their idea. How is this helping them and how is this self employment can be understood best from the following
example

Back in the mid-1940s, when the contractors and middlemen were exploiting the milk producers, the establishment of Kaira District
Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd., popularly known AMUL saved the day for the farmers in that area.

To get rid from the vicious cycle of contractors and middlemen they opened their own union and started selling it. In this way they
got away from exploitation and they are the owners of their co-op.

Amul is one of the finest examples of leveraging the social landscape for creating employment and promoting socio-economic
development. As milk production did not require much land but more family labor which the poor had amply, the landless poor
could easily and profitably participate in the white revolution, deriving employment and additional income from it.

Another best example would be Lijjat Pappad formed by 7 women. By forming this they became now owners of co-op earning
money which they were not before.

We have Barefoot College; the skills got in this college can also help people in getting jobs.

AN AMAZING EXAMPLE WOULD BE MIRAKKLE COURIERS.

They hire and thus give employment to deaf and dumb

When an organization is formed, it requires work force, so whenever a social enterprise is established, it directly or indirectly helps
in employment.

Beneficiaries of Ashoka Foundation have gone out and made their own foundations.

Mohammed Yunus Grameen bank has helped the poor get funds to start up their own business.

Rangsutra by Sumita Ghosh has helped the artisans from remote regions of India, the deserts of Rajasthan and plains of Eastern U.P
and all the way to Manipur in the North East. Today, it is impacting the lives of 3,000 artisans.

INNOVATION/NEW GOODS AND SERVICES

It is an important role of social entrepreneurs as without it they may not be able to give a long term sustainable solution to the
problem.

 Different problems definitely don’t have same solution. Also many times same problem cannot be solved with same
solution.
 It depends on situation, place of problem and also many times the culture, status of people in that area.

The reason for same problem can vary too. Unemployment in one area could be because of lack of factories, assecibility in
that area where as in other area it could be illiteracy, lack of skills, lack of money to get education.

 So there is a need for different solutions and hence there is a need for coming up with innovative and new ideas, goods
services every time a problem is disclosed.

EQUITY PROMOTION
Social entrepreneurs adopt new approaches to many social ills and new models to create wealth, promote social well-being and
restore equity and justice within the society.
There is a great difference between the deprived and well off people. It creates differences not just in their statuses but also in
getting opportunities.
Example a wealthy family would be able to get best education possible to their children. While it also depends on the children but at
least they will be able to give the opportunity to study which a poor family may not be able to afford.
There are talented people everywhere; the only thing that they need is opportunity.

To bridge this opportunity gap is a great challenge and role of social entrepreneurs.

MANAGE RELATIONSHIP BEYOND ECONOMIC PURPOSE

It’s important to find problem, find solution for it but to do that you need an effective reliable team.
You need networking skills and make connection, collaborations to get help in implementing your solution and also widen the
beneficiaries and this is when managing relationship beyond economic purpose comes in.

Commercial, non-profit and government organizations are recognizing the need to manage business relationships for social
impact as they are confronted with three pervasive challenges. First, organizations need to address growing inequalities and
concerns about inclusiveness, fairness and justice. Second, organizations need take a more active role to combat environmental
degradation and protect our common pool resources. Third, organizations need to develop a more complete view of corporate
purpose, creating long-term value that better serves everyone, including investors, employees, communities, suppliers and
customers.

WORKS TOWARDS THE SOCIAL MISSION TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE, PLAY ROLE OF CHANGE AGENTS
A social mission is a cause that benefits society, the economy and/or the environment in various ways.

This is the first and foremost responsibility of social entrepreneurs.

Their desire to make world a better place, give back to the society is the key driver of their motivation to find solutions and
implement it.

By finding solutions, helping people which results in change in their lives for good, social entrepreneurs play the role of change
agents.

We have another example of a teen social entrepreneur to give a glimpse of importance of social entrepreneurs– Yogita Agarwal,
cofounder of SoaPen.

When they came across shocking stats of large number children getting infected with infectious diseases which could have
been prevented just by washing their hands with soap.
They found out that children didn’t actually like washing their hands with soap but they love drawing with this findings
they came up with SoaPen.
With SoaPen kids can simply draw on their hands marking all the areas that need to be cleaned when they wet and rub the
drawing, it lathers. Because they enjoy the activity so much, it turns hand washing into a habit.
This product was getting so successful that they had to start retailing it earlier than they thought.
Many parents use this while travelling.

This initiative has helped many children from getting sick. It impacted their lives for good
It did not just bought change into their lives it also brought awareness towards this problem to many people through her, it gave
awareness to the parents on how important hand washing is. Apart from solving this primarily problem it also helped people
travelling.
That’s how much important social entrepreneurs are. Not just this initiative all the initiatives bring the same results which at the
end helps the country as whole. To name a few –

- They keep on finding problems to solve; it then brings awareness to many people.
People can help the society only if they know the problem first. There are many people who work for society – social
entrepreneurs, social activists, etc and once they get aware tall of them start working towards it.

- They bring positive change to millions of lives by providing solution to problems.

- The solutions may not just solve the main problem but along with that many other problems like the SoaPen was also
helpful for travelers.
HENCE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED AS A MEANS OF CREATING MOMENTUM FOR GROWTH IN
DEVELOPED, EMERGING AND LESS DEVELOPED ECONOMIES.

CHALLENGES FACED BY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

- Fund raising
- Business plan
- Team
- Growth
- BPM
- Work Life balance
- Competition
- Legal , political issues

FUNDRAISING
To start an enterprise and help people, provide resources that can help people money is required.
It is a challenge for them to raise ample funds for their social mission.

BUSINESS PLAN
Since it involves an organization, making an effective business plan is necessary. Business plan is also necessary for
fundraising as investors invest on what they find interesting and a bank before giving loans will look for financial
feasibility in your business plan.
Business plan also gives a sense of direction on how the business would be and how it would proceed
it’s thus a difficult task to make an appropriate business.

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT (BPM)

Business process management (BPM) is a well-known holistic discipline used widely in practice for managing business
processes and achieving better organizational performance.
That is after setting up the social enterprise, all the processes involved in delivering services should be managed every
single day, to see if any shortcomings are there, to see if more resources are required, etc.

TEAM
You need to form a good team, reliable force to tackle the challenges and implement your solutions.
You cannot reach the goal alone.
Along with individual effort it needs team work to face a challenge, to work better and efficiently.

GROWTH
It is important and role of social entrepreneurs to increase their beneficiaries as much as possible, to increase their reach
towards more and more deprived.
It is a satisfaction of social entrepreneurs if he is able to bring in positive change to the lives of maximum people
possible.
Growing the reach, expanding a social enterprise is a difficult task again requiring more funds, more volunteers, etc.

WORK LIFE BALANCE

Charity begins at home.
A person a responsibilities towards his/her immediate family and then also has responsibility towards giving back to
society, help the society, country we live in.
So it is essential that social entrepreneurs balance both of the above mentions responsibilities without neglecting anyone.
COMPETITION
Social entrepreneurs establish an entity for the benefit on the society.
Even if they generate profits, it is not divided among shareholders rather it is pumped back to the organizational
processes for growth.

The product/service offered by the social enterprise may be served by another business entity.
It then becomes difficult as now he has competition from a business enterprise which is profit oriented and may have
more funds than the social enterprise and hence is more capable of reaching the people (like through advertisements).

If people don’t know of the organization they won’t be able to benefit from it.

LEGAL/POLITICAL ISSUES
For setting up an entity legal procedures are involved.
Law and other changes in the government also effect the establishment of the firm or implementation of any idea.

PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) Analysis should be done before
setting up the enterprise.

Goal Capture a Market Securely Fill a market gap, change

the world
objective Build a business, earn profits Create sustainable solutions
for social change
Profit Motive Maximize shareholder value; Advance social aims; profit as
profit as an end a means towards financial
stability
Risk Basic business risk Basic business risk plus social
aspects
Growth Competitive for one company Collaborative for societal
impact
Link to social problems indirect direct
Feedback Established market and Need to be creative to obtain
consumer information sources market responses
competition Win; for one business over the Exists because no one else
others in the market adequately solves the
problem; win for the society
Capital Benefit for robust financial Contend with unpredictable
and managerial services and fragmented financing
 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR VS BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR
Social entrepreneurs concentrate more on transforming the approaches of modern society for the good of the community and the
environment where as business entrepreneurs concentrate more on the income and wealth building aspect of things.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS

BEGINNING For Society For themselves

GOAL Solving community problems Profit and wealth creation and be number 1.

MINDSET How “they” will benefit How “I” will benefit

BUSINESS PLAN Based on Optimum utilization of money and Optimum utilization of money and resources for least
ORIENTATION resources with innovative ideas to keep on helping cost and maximum output, profit scenario.
society.

GRWOTH GOAL Innovative ideas solutions Reach more consumers, more sales for more profit and
Effective ideas solutions wealth.
Cost- effective ideas solutions
so that the service or product reaches as many
people as possible and affordable to as many
people as possible.
GENERAL
Best, better than the competitor
POSITIONING Helper

GAP finding Find loopholes in society to help people. Find gaps or opportunities in the market to make use
of it and make products to make profit.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Mam, I have copied whatever was there in your ppt here so as to keep all the information in one
document.

Websites have been referred for better understanding, reference purpose, and getting statistics and also to add
some interesting points directly from the articles.

https://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/06/26/the-10-greatest-social-entrepreneurs-all-time/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzXlr3CFfgo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunker_Roy

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-81-322-2827-1_5

https://www.peoplematters.in/article/entrepreneurship-start-ups/generating-employment-through-social-
entrepreneurship-18273