“Social entrepreneurship is
the art of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on
investment(the double bottom line.”
The
first question that will now strike to an average person’s head will be “What
is social entrepreneurship?” and “Who are social entrepreneurs?” Social
entrepreneurship is basically a term which is in search of a good definition.
The current use of the term is quite vague and
limitless, it needs boundaries to demarcate its function. It needs a theotrical
framework that will link it to the theory of entrepreneurship. As per UNCTAD
2004 “Entrepreneurship offers new competition, and as such promotes improved
productivity and healthy economic competitiveness.” Social Entrepreneurship is
therefore basically a field in which entrepreneurs tailor their activities to
be directly tied up with the ultimate goal of creating social value. While
doing so, they carry the little or probably no intention to gain personal
profit.
Now,
the term social entrepreneur is also ill defined most of the time. A social
entrepreneur must have the passion of a social mission with an image of
business like discipline, innovation and determination. The lack of consensus
on the definition of social entrepreneurship means that other disciplines are
often confused with and are associated with social entrepreneurship. According
to Skoll Centre For Social Entrepreneurship the definition of social
entrepreneurs should not extend to philanthropists, activists, companies with foundations
or organizations which are simply just socially responsible. While all these
agents are needed and valued, they are not social entreprenuers.
Social entrepreneurship is not different from starting a
profit-motivated company-the challenges are perhaps only tougher. They come up
with problems of retaining people with motivation, scaling up viable business
models and of course, raising resources. But the modern day social enterprise
has one advantage compared with a conventional NGO-it is run by a professional
who understands target setting, performance and accountability.For instance,
Mr. Krishnan opted to set up his venture as a company rather than as a
charitable trust. The company has on its board, strategy consultant Rama
Bijapurkar, ICICI chairman N Vaghul, Tarun Das of CII and Kishore Chaukar of
the Tata group-well-known people who brought credibility to a start-up and also
a specific set of skills to the table. "To some extent, being from IIM-A
helped to establish my seriousness and get them on board," says Mr.
Krishnan. Like any corporate, GiveIndia also periodically works out the cost of
raising funds and compares with other ways of raising funds. The goal being to
raise funds in the most the cost efficient and effective manner.
Therefore I would say that social entrepreneurship has recently
emerged more amongst various people in the market but the term needs to
demarcate its boundaries in order to become specific in the theory of
entrepreneurship.
- SHELVI CHIKARA
(English hons 2nd year)
