Social Entrepreneurship : A New Concept
reposted from http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/may/10/yehey/weekend/20090510week3.html
Social Entrepreneurship: A new Concept
By Joyce Reano
In a seminar headed by Harvey Keh, director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government in partnership with the British Council, Smart Communications, Avant Charge, and Ashoka Philippines, a new strategy in generating profit while solving social problems has been presented.
During this seminar, entitled Making Change Through Business: A Seminar on the Best Practices in Social Entrepreneurship, several renowned speakers who ventured in social enterprise enlightened guests regarding the new concept. Among the speakers were Steve Koon, founder of Avant Change, Professor Lisa Dacanay, executive director of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia, Fr. Xavier Alpasa, president of Rags2Riches, Mark Ruiz, managing director of Hapinoy and Atty. Arnell Casanova, lead faculty for social entrepreneurship in the Ateneo School of Government.
“As you very well know, Ateneo is celebrating its 150 years. This year and part of our 150th year celebration, we are holding the series of lectures on certain topics that we are currently involved in. and one of the thrust of the university is to promote social entrepreneurship not only within Ateneo but even outside the Ateneo community,” Keh said.
Koon, who first lectured, gave his brief definition of Social Enterprise that is the desire to be a change maker and a moneymaker. Noting that the charity model which hasn’t changed for the past 600 year, he challenges people to innovate a model which not only generates money but serves as a business solution to solve social problems.
“I don’t believe in the charity model. In a way, it robs people of their dignity—their ability to dream and freedom. The model should be one wherein they can use their skills and be able to feel that they have valuable services,” Koon said.
He also promoted some companies such as Kiva, heifer, Ammado and the Acumen Fund which can be seen online.
Dacanay, on the other hand, contextualized the concept in the Philippine setting. She cited the forces and traditions shaping the social enterprise sector.
“In social entrepreneurship, one of the things that we are problematizing on is how we create innovative ways of providing greater access to social economic services to those who cannot usually afford it,” she said.
She cited the best practices in the Philippines such as KOOL-NE, School of Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions (SIKAT), Alter Trade Group and Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta). In line with the companies are the following concepts which she explained in depth. Empowerment, Social Inclusion, Intermediation and Resource Modification was tackled.
SIKAT, whose curriculum is culture-based, community managed and established in the partnership with the local government practices Social Inclusion. Peta uses resource modification by using films as a means of generating profit to help the marginalized.
Fr. Alpasa and Mark Ruiz shared their experience in their social enterprises in Rags2Riches and Hapinoy respectively. Fr. Alpasa whose company Rags2Riches has empowered the women in Payatas. Rags, which are actually sold for a cheap price, can be innovated and sold at a higher cost. He gave three phases. Nanays whom he called the weavers of the rags must be linked directly to the market. To increase scalability, they launched a high-end designer line. Rajo Laurel fashioned some rags into designer bags—the commodity became a saleable product in the class-A market. Phase three included ensuring product quality and efficient operations.
He also mentioned building strong community values and building a power brand. Last but not the least was to expand to more communities. Even these rags meta morphed into products which became globally competitive—and even won a couple of international awards. He did mention that he encountered a lot of difficulties. The way out of this was to trust that the Nanays are capable of solving the problem. According to Fr. Alpasa, they are even the ones who suggest solutions.
“Life is a risk, if you’ve failed you’ve never lived,” Fr. Alpasa said.
Mark Ruiz on the other hand showed empowerment of the smallest, most marginalized unit of retail and the micro-entrepreneur. Social Entrepreneurship needs to evolve to meet the needs of the Filipino marginalized. There’s not only an economic empowerment but empowerment of the self. From retail, production can be gotten.
Benefits from investing in Hapinoy include store branding, training and capacity building and access to best price and new businesses. Ruiz aims at future expansion, evolution and empowerment.
“We never treat the Nanays as beneficiaries—always as business partners,” Ruiz Said.
Atty. Casanova then talked about wealth creation and how individuals can start making a successful social enterprise plan.
Social Entrepreneurship started at 2007 and Ateneo has been running classes to train students on personal leadership. This new way of doing business and charity makes helping sustainable. Concepts of doing business with social development are merged to compose the concept.
“The wonderful world of entrepreneurship is for everyone. I don’t believe that people are born to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned and the wonderful world of entrepreneurship allows us not only to help others and help change the Philippines but provides everybody the opportunity to earn a decent living,” Keh said
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