The Rise of Social Enterprises
Exploring what makes a company the most inspiring to its customers
By Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes
FLAIR
art & architecture
“ If we want to know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. And the purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society” – P. Drucker.
Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes is an architect, entrepreneur and worldwide speaker, based in Amsterdam. After developing her vision on architecture and social development, called Architecting Interaction, Stephanie founded AKKA Architects. Driven by Architecting Interaction, AKKA is dedicated to create spaces that foster interactions, such as collaboration, learning, creativity and innovation. Previously, Stephanie worked at OMA, where she run three projects in Education City, including Qatar’ s National Library and Qatar Foundation Headquarters.
Every day, we are confronted with some 5.000 messages from brands and companies. Almost 400 of those are advertisements. Only 3 % of those messages have any form of impression on us. The rest disappears in a sea of some 120.000 thoughts, 95 % of which are not even conscious thoughts. This means that getting attention for your products as a company is a very difficult task nowadays. And yet, social enterprises, even the youngest ones are proving particularly successful. They don’ t ask for attention, yet they are getting it. They don’ t sell themselves and yet they are being bought. What is the secret to their success? Why are social enterprises especially inspiring to us as customers? Why are we, now more than ever, receptive to them? Why are we likely to buy their products even before they are produced? What makes us prone to invest in their projects?
In 1978, the term‘ social enterprises’ was first used by Freer Spreckley in a publication called Social Audit – A management Tool for Co-operative Working published by Beechwood college, UK. Spreckley used the term to describe a range of socially and democratically owned and run cooperations that introduced a‘ Social Audit’ as a tool to measure their non-commercial activities along the financial audit tool to measure their commercial activities. Spreckley defines social enterprises as“ An enterprise that is owned by those who work in it and / or reside in a given locality, is governed by registered social as well as commercial aims and objectives and run co-operatively may be termed a social enterprise. Traditionally,‘ capital hires labour’ with the overriding emphasis on making a‘ profit’ over and above any benefit either to the business itself or the workforce. Contrasted to this is the social enterprise where‘ labour hires capital’ with the emphasis on personal, environmental and social benefit.”
Since then, definitions vary and if anything, social enterprises are being more and more widely interpreted. In any case, social enterprises inspire us. And when you offer inspiration, you receive attention in return. A study made by Dutch company Synergie _ has shown that what all successful social enterprises have in common is one core message: they offer a perspective for a better world, a better future. And they do that on two complementary levels: they tackle the big questions and yet work with very small steps towards a very tangible solution. And most importantly, they involve their customers in their ambitions.
Synergie’ s yearly study of the most inspiring organisations has shown that the 40 most inspiring organisations of 2016 are dominated by social enterprises, in fact the top 3 are all social enterprises. Social enterprises offer a vision, a new perspective and a real possibility for a new reality. They offer alternative answers to questions about energy, the environment and social issues. They offer a perspective about the future. Not a large and abstract perspective but a concrete, close and relatable one. They show that it is possible to improve things and that a solution is within reach. They offer a future vision but also an action plan. They are both aspirational and operational, which appeals to both sides of our human nature www. society. qa 37