The secret of social enterprises is an artful balance between being aspirational and operational Design: AKKA Architects
In Synergie’ s study, the top 3 most inspiring organisations of 2016 are Tony’ s Chocolonely, Tesla and Dopper. Tony’ s Chocolonely is an Amsterdam-based company aiming for 100 % slave-free chocolate. Tesla is a company founded in 2003 in Silicon Valley aiming to accelerate the world’ s transition to sustainable energy. Dopper’ s mission is to eradicate plastic waste and give everyone access to safe drinking water. These social enterprises tackle very large global challenges and yet they bring the solution down to a very concrete and tangible product. Plastic-free oceans come down to a water bottle, eradicating slavery comes down to a chocolate bar and the world’ s sustainable energy comes down to motors and batteries.
Even though the study is made from a Dutch perspective and with the Dutch public, the lessons we learn from it are universal and transferable. There are four qualities that all of the top organisations show: 1. they offer a future vision, 2. they innovate as a tool, not a goal, 3. they tell stories with- not about- their products and 4. they focus on connections with their clients rather than client loyalty. Here’ s what we can learn from social enterprises:
Offer a future vision, a new perspective
A striking feature of the top three most inspiring organisations in 2016 is that they focus on large, global issues. Whether it is a slavery-free chocolate industry, accessible electric driving or plastic-free oceans: the ambitions are high. However, the solutions are close, tangible, concrete. With a chocolate bar, a car or a bottle, these enterprises show that the road to improvement is an accessible reality. A better world is possible, and even better, you as a consumer can now do something about it. Successful social enterprises are often ‹ single issue’ organizations and they democratize the solution to make it accessible to everyone. The inspiring organizations find their raison d’ être in improving the world and people’ s lives. They see no competitors, but possible partners.
Use innovation as a tool, not a goal
For inspiring organisations, innovation is a means, not an end in itself. A simple solution to a global problem in itself requires new answers, so innovation is simply needed as a tool to get to a solution. Innovation is not the goal for these organisations, in fact the organisation itself is not a goal either, it is vehicle to make the solutions reality; it is a vehicle to create a better future. So, in comparison with conventional organisations, in social enterprises, less time is spent on asking‘ how do we organise this’ and more time is figuring out‘ how do we make this happen?’ or‘ how do we maximise this?’
Tell stories with, not about your products
For all these successful social enterpris-
The story is in the product. Tony’ s Chocolonely’ s chocolate bars are unequally divided to hints at inequalities in the world.
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