What is an Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs are (1) value-creating, (2) innovative, (3) opportunity-oriented, (4)

resourceful change agents

Jean Baptiste Say (French economist, 19th C.)

“The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower productivity and into an area of

higher productivity”

(value-creation)

Joseph Schumpeter (economist, 20th C.)

“the function of entrepreneurs is to reform or revolutionize the patterns

of production”

New products, new servicesInnovative ways of organizingDifferent combination of production factors

(land, labor, capital, know-how)New markets, new suppliers

Peter Drucker (management guru)

“the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it

as an opportunity”

Howard Stevenson (Harvard Business School)

Entrepreneurial management is “the pursuit of opportunity without regard

to resources currently controlled”

entrepreneurs mobilize the resources of others to achieve their entrepreneurial objectives

What makes social entrepreneurs different?

The best measure of success for social entrepreneurs is not how

much profit they make, but rather the extent to which they create social

value

J. G. Dees (definition SE):

Adopt a mission to create and sustain social value

Recognize and pursue new opportunities to serve that mission

Engage in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation and learning

Acting boldly without being limited to resources currently in hand

Exhibit a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served.

Social Enterprises

have social ENDSblend social & commercial MEANS

Social enterprise spectrum

From Purely PhilanthropicTo Hybrids

To Purely Commercial

From a lower-quality equilibrium to a high-quality equilibrium

Identify a stable and unjust equilibrium that causes suffering of a sector of humanity

Identify an opportunity in this unjust equilibrium, develop a social value proposition, and challenge the hegemonic status quo

Forge a new stable equilibrium that releases trapped potential and alleviates suffering, spreading through imitation

Conclusions

Social Impact Scaling up Entrepreneurship (to do a lot with a little) Innovation (pattern-changing) Sustainability Customized organizational form Partnerships (cross-sector initiatives) Emphasis on problem-solving

Are you a social entrepreneur?

Do you regularly take at least three weeks’ holiday a year?

Do you give any thought to what you will do when you retire, looking longingly at the time when you will no longer have to be in the office from nine to five?

Does the thought of not having a regular monthly pay cheque drive you to the medicine cabinet in search of a tranquillizer?

Do you need to feel that your friends and co-workers approve of what you are doing?

Do you spend any less than 24 hours a day obsessing over new ways to transform society?

Answer

If you have answered “yes” to at least two of those questions,

chances are that you are not a social entrepreneur.

But you do not need to be one to participate and learn about this new

global phenomenon!

Muhammad Yunus

Dr. Yunus, recently awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, describes his three-decade-long effort to extend micro-credit (small loans for self-employment). Grameen Bank, his creation, now makes small loans to seven million families in Bangladesh, and has helped almost half of them work their way out of poverty.

Banker to the poor