SYNAPSE - 2014
SYNAPSE - 2014
The founders are
unable to move out of
the founder’s role and
to a governance role.
They stay
entrepreneurs
do not know how to deal with that. There have
been corporates that have been running foundations like Azim Premji, Dr. Reddy’s, and
the Tata Foundations. These companies know
the ropes of how to use these funds but a large
number of companies are unsure of how to
best utilize this money. There are organizations like Ficus and a few others who are
working on it, who help organizations to work
out their CSR plans.
One other important change that happened in
the sector is that 2 years ago in April some of
these social entrepreneurs came together and
they formed the National Association for Social Enterprises (NASE India). Their focus is
only on for-profits. They hadn’t been able to
achieve too much till last year, but it has been
revived now with Ms. Payal Randhawa as the
Executive Director. Their objective is to act as
an industry forum like CII or FICCI but for
social enterprises.
What do you feel are the leadership
challenges a social entrepreneur will
face as he looks to get ahead in the industry?
In letting go, the
ability to create those
systems and processes
which will take care of
the primary vision of
the organization is a
big issue.
These will be the same leadership challenges
that all entrepreneurs face, that at some point
of time you have to let go. You can’t micromanage. As organizations grow larger, you
will find in many small-scale industries that
the founders are unable to move out of the
founder’s role and to a governance role. They
stay entrepreneurs. And this leads to problems. So creating a governance structure is a
big industry challenge which many social
entrepreneurs are unable to do. Those who
have grown and successfully sustained their
enterprise are those who were able to create a
second team which does the actual managing.
Their role becomes a more strategic challenge.
The second challenge is the HR challenge of
getting the right people. It may not be a lead-
ership challenge per se, but in letting go, the
ability to create those systems and processes
which will take care of the primary vision of
the organization is a big issue. When these
organizations generally start, a lot of it isn’t
planned. You intuitively do things which feel
right, you learn. But then you have to create
the systems and processes so that the operation works the way it should be working
which is something people often cannot do.
That is a different capability.
Another, challenge which all organizations
face and not just ones in this sector is that
organizations do require having a lot of advocacy done. You work within a regulatory environment, so you have to influence the regulations. And influence them legitimately, not by
bribes. So you have to put your point forth in a
way which would be acceptable to people, you
have to negotiate. That becomes a challenge
when they grow, how to interact with these
agencies, and to form partnerships. One difference I see between the corporate sector and
the social sector, is that the growth of corporate sector is through having a competi