SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS - HOW BUSINESSES CAN HARNESS THE POTENTIAL

From the provision of school meals or waste management in urban areas, to the development and installation of low-cost solar energy systems, social entrepreneurs have been behind many of the most innovative and scalable solutions to challenges in international development.

Social entrepreneurs can be not-for-profit organisations or profit-making companies. What marks them out from other sectors is that by using entrepreneurial principles, they develop a product or service that in some way tackles a particular social problem.

Many of these products or services are aimed at the four billion people living on less than $4 a day. Social entrepreneurs are able to see these people not just as poor people in need of charity, but as consumers who trade cash or labour to meet their basic needs.

What does this mean for businesses?

IBLF believes that for businesses, working with social entrepreneurs can be one of the most effective ways to explore and ultimately tap underserved markets.

For instance, social entrepreneurs can help companies both design products and services that create value for low-income people and distribute those products and services more efficiently.

Furthermore, working with companies can help social entrepreneurs maximise their social impact and create a sustainable source of revenue.

IBLF has worked with many social entrepreneurs around the world, such as Martin Kalungu-Banda, founder of The Forum for Business Leaders and Social Partners, in Zambia (see picture, above).

With IBLF’s assistance, Martin forged a partnership between the country’s largest supermarket, local communities and government, which became a profitable model that business could replicate nationwide.

How can businesses work with social entrepreneurs?

Companies can support or invest in social entrepreneurship in three main ways, all of which can also create benefits for the company:

Through investing in social entrepreneurs and their organisation - either as a part of their core business operations in different parts of the value chain, or through their community investment activities.

By engaging in public policy dialogue, advocacy, and institution building in order to create an enabling environment for social enterprise.

By creating better internal climates, for example by encouraging employees to be innovative in developing new business models, products and services that combine profitable business opportunities with social or environmental solutions.

For more information and to find examples of how business and social entrepreneurs have worked together, read Harnessing potential: Why it makes sense for your business to work with social entrepreneurs