Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Axial Shift: Social Entrepreneurship

My business partner, Primavera, sent me to the front page of yesterday's New York Times Business Section to see the article entitled Starting Over, With a Second Career Goal of Changing Society. I am so pleased to see Harvard University is joining the social entrepreneur movement with its new initiative "intended to help [fourteen fellows] learn how to be successful social entrepreneurs or leaders of nonprofit organizations focused on social problems like poverty, health, education, and the environment." The pilot program is geared towards individuals in their 50s and early 60s who have had successful careers in a variety of sectors and for whom a traditional retirement of travel, golf, and liesure is not an appealing use of their time. There are other social entrepreneur programs at educational institutions like Columbia University's RISE-- Research Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship. As its name suggests, RISE seeks to research and understand better the business of social entrepreneurship.

While both the Harvard intiative and Columbia's RISE are indicators that the trend of social entrepreneurship is growing, so too are online ventures like www.change.org and www.changents.com. These online ventures are social networking platforms with the explicit purpose of linking individuals to ways to implement social change. There is a very powerful underlying tool here that I am excited to see come to fruition in a multitude of ways. What these social platforms are doing for social entrepreneurship is what www.facebook.com is doing for consumer focused advertising, among other money-making ventures. The members of www.change.org and www.changents.com are already a self-identified group of do-gooders. This means that the corporate sector is likely looking for ways to understand, connect, and ultimately relate to this growing group. If the corporate sector sees a possiblity to profit from impacting social change, we'll all benifit greatly.

Imagine if the best way to relate to a group of powerful consumers is to build water wells for villages in Africa, fund community-based education projects on sustainable water catchment and farming, train a new generation of leaders equipped to negotiate conflict in our global community, or fund projects that benefit low-income women and girls-- now that is change I wish to see in the world.

2 comments:

  1. Sound like the Production Collective is off to a wonderful start! Combining entrepreneurship with a passion for justice comes very close to the top of my own sense of priorities. It was Burt Bacharach who wrote: "All the world needs now is love, sweet, love. That's the only thing there is too little of." Not! The ability to get things done, built an effective team, partner with others ... and moving along this path with a sense of humor and humility ... these things are needed too. Add effective entrepreneurship with love, and you have a powerful combination to create "the change we need."

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  2. Hey Julia,

    I've hard soo much about you from Addie Owens and she promoted your blog via facebook messages to me! It looks awesome...and since we're on the topic, have you seen WiserEarth (http://www.wiserearth.org/) or read any of Paul Hawken's work. He's one of my father's favorites on the subject...

    All the best, hope we get to meet sometime :)

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