Big Idea Social Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

Late last year I wrote on this blog about my frustration with the lack of Big Ideas driving innovation. My rant was stimulated by a New York Times article on the grim underbelly of the “an app for everything” culture: people who were working on “small ideas,” and losing their shirts in the process. I also shared the thoughts of other entrepreneurial leaders, investors, and journalists, also bemoaning the fact that we seem to have lost our way, and are no longer thinking BIG. This morning I stumbled on a post on the HBR Blog Network, entitled “Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career.” I took some editorial license and added the words “Big” and “Social” to my blog post, simply because the author was actually making the case for Big Ideas and Social Entrepreneurship, and the hopeful sign that there may be a re-emergence of people who care about Big Ideas. Read my original post here, followed by the HBR Blog post.

The concept of “social entrepreneurship” has noticeably taken off with this generation of young people. While there some debate about the definition of “social entrepreneurship,” I am comfortable with the following explanation.

A social entrepreneur is a person who pursues novel applications that have the potential to solve community-based problems, both large and small. These individuals are willing to take on the risk and effort to create positive changes in society through their initiatives.

Examples of social entrepreneurship include microfinance institutions, educational programs, providing banking services in underserved areas and helping children orphaned by epidemic disease. Their efforts are connected to a notion of addressing unmet needs within communities that have been overlooked or not granted access to services, products, or base essentials available in more developed communities. A social entrepreneur might also seek to address imbalances in such availability, the root causes behind such social problems, or social stigma associated with being a resident of such communities. The main goal of a social entrepreneur is not to earn a profit, but rather to implement widespread improvements in society. However, a social entrepreneur must still be financially savvy to succeed in his or her cause.

I had the good fortune of working with the global social entrepreneurship NGO, Enactus and a group of my students from the UBC Faculty of Management. We interacted with other social entrepreneurship groups as far afield as Perth, Australia, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands to develop our own project. Enactus categorizes projects by the potential for the project to become self-sustaining by the participants, and the original project volunteers working themselves out of a job. Our project was designed to meet the highest categorization within Enactus. We designed a roof-top hydroponic vegetable garden project that would produce high yield cash crop fruits and vegetables for the homeless community, managed by a local housing organization. The end goal was to enable the homeless volunteers to take over the operation, generate income for themselves, and collaborate with the charity organization to enter into simple permanent housing.

“Big” Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

Reblogged from the HBR Blog Network

by John Butman | 10:00 AM May 27, 2013

There is a new player emerging on the cultural and business scene today: the idea entrepreneur. Perhaps you are one yourself — or would like to be. The idea entrepreneur is an individual, usually a content expert and often a maverick, whose main goal is to influence how other people think and behave in relation to their cherished topic. These people don’t seek power over others and they’re not motivated by the prospect of achieving great wealth. Their goal is to make a difference, to change the world in some way.

Idea entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere. They’re people like Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO and author of Lean In), who is advocating a big new idea from within an organization. And like Atul Gawande (the checklist doctor), who is working to transform a professional discipline. Or like Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoes), who has created an unconventional business model.

In my research into this phenomenon (which forms the basis of my book, Breaking Out), I have been amazed at how many different kinds of people aspire to be idea entrepreneurs. I have met with, interviewed, emailed or tweeted with librarians, salespeople, educators, thirteen-year-old kids, marketers, technologists, consultants, business leaders, social entrepreneurs — from countries all over the world — who have an idea, want to go public with it, and, in some cases, build a sustainable enterprise around it.

The ones who succeed — whether it’s disrupting an established way of doing business as Vineet Nayar has done with his company or bringing a mindset change to a small community like Maria Madison has done in Concord, Massachusetts — share the following methods:

They play many roles. They are manager, teacher, motivator, entertainer, coach, thought leader, and guru all rolled into one. Think Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn and author of The Start-Up of You), Daniel Pink (author of Drive) or, in India, Kiran Bedi, leader of a worldwide movement to transform prisons and root out corruption.

They create a platform of expressions and generate revenue to support their social activities. Idea entrepreneurs have to be exceptionally good at expressing their idea, and usually do so in many forms. They give private talks and major speeches, write books and blogs and articles, participate in panels and events, engage in social media — activities that can generate revenue (sometimes in considerable amounts), through a combination of fees, sales of their expressions, and related merchandise. Jim Collins has created a long-lasting enterprise supported by the sale of books and media, as well as fees for consulting, speaking engagements, and workshops.

They offer a practical way to understand and implement their idea. Because people have a hard time responding to an abstract idea, the idea entrepreneur develops practices (and personally models them, too) that lead people to the idea through action. Bryant Terry, an “eco-chef” who argues that good nutrition is the best path to social justice, embeds his ideas in cooking methods and suggestions for social interaction around good food.

They draw other people into their idea. The idea entrepreneur gathers people into the development, expression, and application of their idea. They form affiliations, build networks, and form groups. Al Gore created the Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps to bring his ideas about environmental sustainability to people around the world. Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual leader and author of The Power of Now, has established the online Eckhart Teachings Community with members in 130 countries. This inclusion of many people in many ways creates a phenomenon I call respiration— it’s as if the idea starts to breathe, and takes on a life of its own.

They drive the quest for change. It is all too common that people with an idea for an improvement or a change to the world are satisfied to point out a problem, propose a solution, and then expect others to execute. The idea entrepreneur, however, sees the expression of the idea as the beginning of the effort — and it can be a lifelong one — in which they will continue to build the idea, reach new audiences, and offer practices that lead to change. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, based in Delhi, believes that world-class sanitation is necessary for India to realize its full potential. In forty years of idea entrepreneurship — spent in writing, speaking, travelling, network building, and technology development — he has influenced the way millions of people think and act.

People who have shaped our thinking and our society over the decades, even centuries, and continue to do so today — from Benjamin Franklin to Mohandas Gandhi to Hannah Salwen, an American teenager who modeled a disruptive approach to philanthropy — have followed the path of the idea entrepreneur.

These days, the model is well-defined and, thanks to the amazing range of activities we have for creating and sharing ideas, is within reach for just about anyone. If you have an idea, and want to go public with it, idea entrepreneurship can be one of the most powerful forces for change and improvement in the world today.

“Big” Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

Late last year I wrote on this blog about my frustration with the lack of Big Ideas driving innovation. My rant was stimulated by a New York Times article on the grim underbelly of the “an app for everything” culture: people who were working on “small ideas,” and losing their shirts in the process. I also shared the thoughts of other entrepreneurial leaders, investors, and journalists, also bemoaning the fact that we seem to have lost our way, and are no longer thinking BIG. This morning I stumbled on a post on the HBR Blog Network, entitled “Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career. I took some editorial license and added the word “Big” simply because the author was actually making the case for Big Ideas, and the hopeful sign that there may be a re-emergence of people who care about Big Ideas. Read my original post here, followed by today’s HBR Blog post.

“Big” Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

Reblogged from the HBR Blog Network

by John Butman | 10:00 AM May 27, 2013

They play many roles. They are manager, teacher, motivator, entertainer, coach, thought leader, and guru all rolled into one. Think Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn and author of The Start-Up of You), Daniel Pink (author of Drive) or, in India, Kiran Bedi, leader of a worldwide movement to transform prisons and root out corruption.

They create a platform of expressions and generate revenue to support their social activities. Idea entrepreneurs have to be exceptionally good at expressing their idea, and usually do so in many forms. They give private talks and major speeches, write books and blogs and articles, participate in panels and events, engage in social media — activities that can generate revenue (sometimes in considerable amounts), through a combination of fees, sales of their expressions, and related merchandise. Jim Collins has created a long-lasting enterprise supported by the sale of books and media, as well as fees for consulting, speaking engagements, and workshops.

They offer a practical way to understand and implement their idea. Because people have a hard time responding to an abstract idea, the idea entrepreneur develops practices (and personally models them, too) that lead people to the idea through action. Bryant Terry, an “eco-chef” who argues that good nutrition is the best path to social justice, embeds his ideas in cooking methods and suggestions for social interaction around good food.

They draw other people into their idea. The idea entrepreneur gathers people into the development, expression, and application of their idea. They form affiliations, build networks, and form groups. Al Gore created the Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps to bring his ideas about environmental sustainability to people around the world. Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual leader and author of The Power of Now, has established the online Eckhart Teachings Community with members in 130 countries. This inclusion of many people in many ways creates a phenomenon I call respiration— it’s as if the idea starts to breathe, and takes on a life of its own.

They drive the quest for change. It is all too common that people with an idea for an improvement or a change to the world are satisfied to point out a problem, propose a solution, and then expect others to execute. The idea entrepreneur, however, sees the expression of the idea as the beginning of the effort — and it can be a lifelong one — in which they will continue to build the idea, reach new audiences, and offer practices that lead to change. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, based in Delhi, believes that world-class sanitation is necessary for India to realize its full potential. In forty years of idea entrepreneurship — spent in writing, speaking, travelling, network building, and technology development — he has influenced the way millions of people think and act.

Enactus UBC Faculty of Management Leadership Team Closes Out It’s First Year

The formation of the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Management chapter of Enactus occurred only three months ago, under the guidance of Dean Roger Sugden, but the Enactus student leadership team has already attracted nearly two dozen members, all of whom, including the leadership will return next year, to build the organization for handoff to future Faculty of Management students. Meanwhile, many of our current Enactus members will be off to destinations around the World for the summer.

The Enactus UBC Faculty of Management Leadership Team. Left to right front row: Stormy Johanson, Adam Prarie, Julia Moody (President)

Left to right back row: Jesse Shopa, Joey Gidda, David Mayes (faculty advisor), Chris Janiewicz

The formation of the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Management chapter of Enactus occurred only three months ago, under the guidance of Dean Roger Sugden, but the Enactus student leadership team has already attracted nearly two dozen members, all of whom, including the leadership will return next year, to build the organization for handoff to future Faculty of Management students. Meanwhile, many of our current Enactus members will be off to destinations around the World for the summer.

The Enactus Canadian national organization encouraged us to get out there and just start “doing something” rather than debating the chapter’s by-laws and getting bogged down in meetings. The team did exactly that, and have already conducted a local food drive that collected over a quarter ton of grocery items prioritized by the Kelowna Food Bank, in only four hours.

The Enactus FOM team have also introduced themselves to the Enactus team at Okanagan College, and observed OC‘s dress rehearsal presentations for the Enactus national competition to get an idea of what we need to do next year.

The global impact and reach of Enactus was made evident to us this week when I was contacted by Doina Olaru, the Enactus faculty advisor from the University of Western Australia in Perth, who is currently on the UBC Okanagan campus conducting research. Doina had somehow found out about me, and asked to meet. I quickly arranged for her to also meet with our student leaders. We were all left in awe by Doina’s story of what she and her students had accomplished in five short years with limited funding. The UWA Enactus team are three time Australian national champions for their projects, and have also appeared at the Enactus global conference. In addition to creating domestic Australian projects, the UWA team have created award winning projects in Kenya, India and Ghana, all in less than 5 years. Needless to say, our team hope that we can have a bit of their success rub off on us, and we have plans to build our relationship with Doina and to meet her team, as two of our UBC team will be Going Global in Australia very shortly.

Our most important early development has been the emerging plan for a major “Tier Three” project. Tier Three Enactus Projects are those which provide ongoing benefit to the community over multiple years, engage and employ a significant number of local community people in need. In discussion with our Enactus national field director in Toronto, we learned that of the 63 Enactus chapters at universities across Canada, there are only 2 chapters currently with Tier Three projects. The Enactus national organization is obviously very eager to increase this number. We have shared our early conceptual ideas with the national Enactus organization and they are very enthusiastic and supportive. For now, our Tier Three project remains under wraps while we do our “due diligence” and seek the endorsement of our key stakeholders, and community organizations who will also need to support the project. We are hopeful that we can begin early piloting of our Tier Three project over the summer.

Finally, we have reached out to the community for financial support and we are well on our way to obtaining those local community partnerships.

For further information and to join our local Enactus chapter, contact Julia Moody’s mobile 250-801-6402 or mine: 250-864-9552. Or email us at enactusubco@gmail.com.

ABOUT ENACTUS.

www.enactus.org

A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.

entrepreneurial—having the perspective to see an opportunity and the talent to create value from that opportunity;

action—the willingness to do something and the commitment to see it through even when the outcome is not guaranteed;

us—a group of people who see themselves connected in some important way; individuals that are part of a greater whole.

Celebrate Earth Hour Tonight March 23rd @ 8:30PM: Lights Out For One Hour

Celebrate Earth Hour tonight @ 8:30PM. Turn off all lights for one hour.

My undergraduate and graduate students in Strategy will recall the World Wildlife Fund case study we discussed. The question embedded in the WWF case study and the challenge was how the WWF could refocus and improve its organizational strategy. With the launch of Earth Hour in Australia in 2007, to its unquestionable global reach and impact today, do you think WWF made a good strategic decision?

Celebrate Earth Hour tonight @ 8:30PM. Turn off all lights for one hour.

What Makes Social Entrepreneurs Different?

Reblogged from the HBR Blog Network

What Makes Social Entrepreneurs Different

by Bright B. Simons | 8:00 AM January 11, 2013

When social entrepreneurs say that they want to “work themselves out of a job” they are not making a glib statement to sound cool. They are merely stating the obvious — they want to fundamentally solve the problem that their solution is designed to address.

Commercial entrepreneurs are different. They’re out to standardize a business model. That model might solve a social problem — but if it’s profitable and doesn’t fix the problem, that’s okay, too.

As a result, social entrepreneurs are more interested in understanding the social, economic, political, and cultural context of the problems they are trying to solve than traditional entrepreneurs are. They can be more analytical.

It is unthinkable, for instance, to imagine a social entrepreneur treating research on the health effects of tobacco use the way the tobacco industry, market analysts, and investors did in the 1960s and ’70s. It is the business of a social entrepreneur to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the social impact of various phenomena, and to be academically honest about what they learn.

That is why social entrepreneurs were among the most enthusiastic popularizers of concepts like C.K. Prahalad‘s “bottom of the pyramid,” that began life as academic research. Social entrepreneurs have also been some of the most attentive followers of the academic debate between the likes of Mark Pitt and Jonathan Murdoch about whether microfinance really helps reduce poverty. The most intrigued have even gone back to the original writings of Lysander Spooneron the subject two centuries ago.

That’s because the stakes are higher for social entrepreneurs. What may seem abstract to a commercial entrepreneur could have very practical consequences for a social entrepreneur. If Jonathan Murdoch and his collaborators are right in their calculations, then microfinance (in particular, microcredit) does not benefit the poor in the way it should, and a social entrepreneur working in the area of poverty-reduction cannot view the tool as a handy ally in her toolbox.

When I decided to get involved in finding solutions to the problem of counterfeit medicines, I couldn’t simply confine myself to investigating whether there would be a market for the solution. I had to assure myself that counterfeit medicines are indeed the primary bad stuff to go after in the complex socio-economic mix of patient abuse and supply chain crime. I read, among many others, the writings of researchers such as Roger Bate and Paul Newton. I and others in the social enterprise community had to assure ourselves that we had a sufficiently robust analytical basis in which to ground the search for solutions. I had to become not just a social entrepreneur but an analytical social entrepreneur.

True, some commercial/traditional entrepreneurs invest substantially in research too. But only to assure themselves that someone will pay enough to make the development of the solution worthwhile. That the person paying the price sufficiently benefits is actually secondary. What matters is that he’s willing to pay.

Of course, in a reasonable number of cases the benefits are real, and this leads to sustainable traditional enterprises. That’s why some have argued that ultimately all enterprises are or will be “social” enterprises. Also, in many instances, social enterprises prepare the way for commercial enterprises to follow. They till the ground when it is still not clear whether a viable commercial model exists. When social enterprises finally make headway, commercial enterprises jump into the newly created industry and seek to standardize returns from the new “value class.” Social entrepreneurs are then seen as “leaving value on the table.” But the evidence shows that over time they generate completely new value classes.

Today micro-packaging, for instance, is finally being taken seriously by giant multinational fast-moving-consumer-goods companies. A few decades ago, only social enterprises saw anything in this approach of retailing items in packages small enough to be affordable to the poor.

In Africa, where the value chains of most existing industries are fragmented, entrepreneurs struggle to standardize commercial models because they cannot simply ignore the bulk of the problem and focus on a smaller, repeatable, bit. They must often also enter partnerships, many more informal than formal, that are more organic than transactional in order to build a holistic enough value chain to attack a problem. They also need to embed themselves much deeper into the cultural and social matrix as rule of law and contractual and regulatory systems are in many African countries often rudimentary. This can make distinguishing between social and commercial entrepreneurship in Africa a tad more difficult.

But the point remains that social entrepreneurship is a vital foundation block for any system that seeks to uproot social problems anywhere. And in places like Africa, it is actually indispensable.

Billy Connolly: The George Carlin of Scotland

First and foremost, Billy Connolly is Billy Connolly. I have never set eyes on the man or met him. But for those who have little or no familiarity with Connolly’s life and work, please forgive me if I try to bridge the gap, and provide an analogy that provides context, by referencing Connolly to the late George Carlin.. I don’t have any idea how Connolly might react to being compared in this way. I suspect that if he doesn’t appreciate it, I am a marked man.

I think I first encountered Billy Connolly on the BBC or ITV when I was working for Intel and living in the beautiful boondocks of Wiltshire: the village of Great Bedwyn to be precise, on the Kennet Avon Canal, a few miles from Marlborough. Connolly seemed to me to be the British equivalent of George Carlin, dressed in kilts, the perfect blend of Scottish humor, truth, sarcasm, wit and profanity. As time went on I kept hearing about him here and there. Finally, his work became a theme for me.

Connolly is now a fully made man. Last night, Connolly appeared for an interview here in Canada on the George Strombolopolis CBC broadcast. As part of his latest film work with Dustin Hoffman, he has also appeared on Letterman, Conan, and the Leno (lounge lizard) show. Connolly is an existentialist pure and simple. He might bridle at the tag, or more likely make a joke of it, but he is an existentialist.. His main point to Strombolopolis was that he believed that one should grow old but not “up.” His point was that there was too much in life to experience, and the only way to achieve that was to be a child…. Einstein said something very similiar.

In any event, there are numerous personal threads to this tale..

Connolly is married to New Zealand actress and comedienne, Pamela Stephenson. In the 1980’s she appeared a few times on Saturday Night Live. While living in London, we decided to see a production of Gilbert & Sullivan‘s Pirates of Penzance at the Drury Lane Theatre in Soho.. The cast included Tim Curry of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame, Michael Apted, and Pamela Stephenson. As it happened it was the final performance by this, the original cast. I learned that there is a theater tradition of the cast pranking each other during the performance. I recall it as one of my favorite London theater experiences. Stephenson had an attack of uncontrollable laughter. We, all of us in the audience, applauded and cheered her to help overcome her fits of laughter. It was one of those “once in a lifetime experiences.”

There was not too much else to say, until I watched Connolly’s performance in “Mrs. Brown”, in which he starred with Judy Dench. It is the true story of the equestrian aide to Queen Victoria following her long mourning for Prince Albert. An entirely different Billy Connolly, a serious dramatic actor appeared. Connolly has further expanded his dramatic talents with the release yesterday of Quartet, another serious dramatic film with Dustin Hoffman as director.

More recently, on one of my many long trips to New Zealand, while working for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, I had the habit of using the weekends to get out and see New Zealand.. One weekend, I took a bus tour up to The Bay of Islands on the northern end of North Island. The destination was Pihia. The area is famous for the end of the war between the Maori and the British. The Maori big house at Waitangi is part of the tour. Also part of the tour is the very small and very isolated town of Russell, best accessed by a short ferry ride or a very long road trip from Pihia. Taking the short tour of Russell, I was surprised to learn that Connolly and Stephenson maintain a home there. Another surprise.

Most recently, I have enjoyed watching Connolly explore the Northwest Passage in Canada on a PBS series..

I would summarize all of this by saying that Billy Connolly displays the kind of openness and playfulness of someone of my generation who has experienced life outside the box, so to speak.. I am certain that if I had the pleasure of meeting him, we would have a great conversation about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.

Social Impact Investing Will Be The New Venture Capital

Reblogged from the Harvard Business Review Blogs:

Social Impact Investing Will Be the New Venture Capital

by Sir Ronald Cohen and William A. Sahlman | 8:00 AM January 17, 2013

During the past century, governments and charitable organizations have mounted massive efforts to address social problems such as poverty, lack of education, and disease. Governments around the world are straining to fund their commitments to solve these problems and are limited by old ways of doing things. Social entrepreneurs are stultified by traditional forms of financing. Donations and grants don’t allow them to innovate and grow. They have virtually no access to capital markets and little flexibility to experiment at various stages of growth. The biggest obstacle to scale for the social sector is this lack of effective funding models.

But the problem is not money, per se. Take a look at the social sector in the U.S. There are $700 billion of foundation assets, and 10 million people working for non-profits. These are huge numbers. Yet there are massive inefficiencies in capital allocation. Too often donors starve organizations and entrepreneurs by refusing to cover overhead. This makes it impossible for social organizations to scale. Interviews conducted in 2000 by the Social Investment Task Force in the United Kingdom, revealed what most nonprofit leaders already know: Almost all social sector organizations are small and perennially underfunded, with barely three months’ worth of working capital at their disposal. And that hasn’t changed in the last 12 years.

Compare that to the world of venture capital. If a business entrepreneur came to us with a plan for growing a new business without spending a penny on overhead, we would show him or her the door. Why should it be any different for a social entrepreneur?

We believe we are on the threshold of a major change not unlike the early days of the modern venture capital industry. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, a new type of investment vehicle was created: the professionally managed venture capital partnership. This organizational innovation drew investment capital from institutional players like pension funds and endowments and allowed for appropriate time horizons. Soon venture capital became a core part of many economies and those bold moves changed everything. Entrepreneurship has never been the same.

Just as the formation of the venture capital industry ushered a new approach and mindset toward funding innovation within the private sector, impact investment has started to bring opportunities to harness entrepreneurship and capital markets to drive social improvement. This in time will bring much needed change to the social sector.

We’re already beginning to see innovation. People are developing new securities that link social performance to financial returns. There are new experiments — models that use the tools of finance to try things in different ways — sometimes creating income streams from novel concepts, likefunding cancer research. There are also hybrid organizations like the Acumen Fund, Bridges Ventures and Root Capital that channel patient capital to high social return investments around the world. There are even organizations like Endeavor and Social Finance that help entrepreneurs gain access to global capital markets to fuel growth in employment and social impact.

Within the last two years, government agencies in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada and Israel at the national, state, or even county levels have begun exploring the potential of social impact bonds. These are financial instruments that pay an investor if the cost or incidence of something (foster care or prisoner recidivism) is reduced, with comparable or better results, than a government program. If so, the investor makes money; if not, they lose money.

As more and more examples emerge from all regions of the world — addressing issues as diverse as recidivism, drug discovery, sleeping sickness, literacy, food deprivation, and poverty — one begins to get the sense that there’s no stopping this idea whose time has come.

Things will change rapidly over the next five to ten years. If investors can find the same courage the early institutional backers of the venture capital industry found, we will see talented social entrepreneurs build large, effective organizations that move the needle on a social issue and deliver acceptable financial returns at the same time.

To get there we need success stories — like the early investments venture capitalists made in companies like DEC, Intel, Scientific Data Systems, Teledyne, Genentech, Apple and Tandem — that build confidence and unlock private capital. When investors believe they can earn acceptable returns, money will flow. And smart people will feel they can succeed because they can attract capital.

We live in a world awash with capital — some $200 trillion in financial assets according to McKinsey & Company. We also live in a world of remarkably low interest rates. If we can create instruments — like social impact bonds — that can deliver a financial return of about 7%, a high social return and limited downside risk, then we can meet two needs. We can provide reasonable returns that are uncorrelated with equity markets and attract capital to entrepreneurs who can develop innovative and effective ways of improving the fabric of our society.

Follow the Scaling Social Impact insight center on Twitter @ScalingSocial and register to stay informed and give us feedback.

Scaling Social Impact
Insights from HBR and the Bridgespan Group

More blog posts by Sir Ronald Cohen and William A. Sahlman

More on: Social enterprise, Venture capital

SIR RONALD COHEN AND WILLIAM A. SAHLMAN

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of Big Society Capital and The Portland Trust. He co-founded Bridges Ventures and Social Finance UK, and is director of Social Finance USA. In 2012 he received the Rockefeller Innovation Award for innovation in social finance. William A. Sahlman is a professor at Harvard Business School where he focuses on entrepreneurial finance, the process by which both social enterprises or for-profit companies gain access to necessary resources to pursue opportunities.

Enactus Launches Chapter with UBC Okanagan Faculty of Management

Human progress depends on our ability to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit that lives within each of us and channel the unique talents, passions and ideas we each possess toward creating good in the world.

en•act•us

A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.

entrepreneurial—having the perspective to see an opportunity and the talent to create value from that opportunity;

action—the willingness to do something and the commitment to see it through even when the outcome is not guaranteed;

us—a group of people who see themselves connected in some important way; individuals that are part of a greater whole.

“Big” Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

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“Big” Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career

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A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.

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Reblogged from the HBR Blog Network

What Makes Social Entrepreneurs Different

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Social Impact Investing Will Be the New Venture Capital

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Human progress depends on our ability to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit that lives within each of us and channel the unique talents, passions and ideas we each possess toward creating good in the world.

A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.

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