Are you a Social Entrepreneur?
Social Enterprise is the process of
using a business model to achieve a
social purpose. Social Enterprises
operate anywhere there is a community
need for social change, from meeting
local community needs to tackling global
issues.
new ways of creating our ideal communities; new ways to close
the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged and new
ways to meet environmental and social challenges, or even
localise employment and economic prospects. The Chinese have
a word, Wei Ji (which means both crisis and opportunity) that
epitomises the spirit of social entrepreneurship where the urgent
social needs of a community are seen as an opportunity for new
ventures, projects and enterprises.
“What is Social Entrepreneurship? Whenever society is stuck or has an
opportunity to seize a new opportunity, it needs an entrepreneur to see
the opportunity and then to turn that vision into a realistic idea and
then a reality and then, indeed, the new pattern all across society. We
need such entrepreneurial leadership at least as much in education and
human rights as we do in communications and hotels. This is the work of
cooperative established initially to provide opportunities for out of social entrepreneurs”
Jordan Purcell-Ashburner
Social and Community
Enterprise Central Coast
Coordinator, Community
and Culture Programs,
Wyong Shire Council
Examples range from Destiny Rescue - a
local organisation that trades handicrafts
to fund intervention into child sex
slavery globally, to the London
Symphony Orchestra which is a
work musicians in a depression. Social enterprises are working to
solve environmental challenges, create employment
opportunities for the disadvantaged, promote arts and culture,
and provide community transport and virtually any area of
community need.
Social Enterprise, like entrepreneurship, has traditionally been
hard to define. There is always an exception to every rule and the
spirit of social entrepreneurship presents itself in endless forms.
One of the more innovative ways social enterprise is described
considers the term not as a noun but as a verb, not as a thing but
as a way of doing things. One of the best ways social enterprises
can be understood is through the social entrepreneur; the way
they think and act, and the ways they operate and do things.
Social enterprise can be considered more thoroughly as an
approach to meeting social needs rather than as an entity.
Social entrepreneurs are attuned to the needs and aspirations of
their communities, they understand the ‘gaps’ that must be filled
and understand that these needs must be met in a way that is
economically sustainable. Social entrepreneurship is trending as
more entrepreneurs seek to pursue a purpose in life (beyond just
material gain) and the growing need to solve pressing social
problems, which increasingly demands an innovative and
entrepreneurial response.
Bill Drayton
They say the world’s problems are solved each evening around the
dinner table; however this rarely translates into action. The social
entrepreneur is that rare individual that finds solutions, creates a
vision and has the leadership, tenacity, practicality and creativity
to translate that vision into a reality. Social entrepreneurs often
create new ventures, businesses, enterprises and non-profit
organisations, however many also create new projects, programs
and opportunities within existing organisations that are
transforming their communities. In many cases people do not
realise they are social entrepreneurs and simply consider
themselves to be people making a difference.
Later this year we will showcase an