Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the economic progress of a state. A traditional enterprise is incorporated with the objective of financial returns and usually pursues lines of business based on the entrepreneur’s personal interests, background, experience, resources, opportunity and market needs, with its performance being measured in terms of profits and revenues. Despite being profit-centric, an enterprise does have a community touch point as it creates new business, generating employment, which often has a cascading effect and results in further development by way of ancillary units or associated services. All this adds to gross domestic income by way of creating new markets, increased employment, higher earnings and increased tax base. On the other hand, a non-profit organisation is a voluntary body working purely for social and environmental benefits without any monetary considerations. Usually the non-profit organisations are limited by their resources, which prevent their widespread reach and achievement of perceived benefits on a large scale.
A social enterprise blends the profit goals of commercial enterprises with ‘return to society’ goals of non-profit ones to create a model involving a set of hybrid metrics for its performance. It thereby addresses a group of problems and achieves social change by employing entrepreneurial principles to meet the community needs without excessive reliance on the state machinery. It uses the profit-driven business model and amends it to address social and environmental issues, with an emphasis on human values rather than just profits. Social entrepreneurship involves innovative approaches to solve issues and transformation of communities through strategic partnerships. This is further elaborated by the triple bottom line framework, which assesses financial, social and environmental impact of an enterprise.
Social Entrepreneurship is gaining popularity and attracting more and more investors of late. This is despite the fact that the model faces its own challenges, as the benefits may not be harvested immediately but could be achieved only in the longer term. Compared to ‘for-profit’ enterprises, social enterprises seem to be less attractive due to relatively lower financial gains, which in turn translates to low returns for suppliers, ancillaries and lower pay rates for the staff. Although there is a need for amending the business models to sustain all these challenges, the imperative to drive social change and transformational benefit to the society is something that creates interest among a lot of potential entrepreneurs.
While we wait for the government to address the issues of unemployment, poverty and women empowerment, social entrepreneurs can step up and fill the void. There is a plethora of areas in this space, which need attention. Entrepreneurs can concentrate on various segments ranging from artisans, craftsmen, organic produce, healthcare, and tourism to sanitation and renewable energy. Although the primary objective of Entrepreneurship revolves around financial returns and growth, there has to be a serious focus on the social benefits as well. This holds especially good in a conflict area, where the social and environmental needs are in abundance. The current scenario in Kashmir warrants a path where people venture into entrepreneurial activities with a goal of both financial as well as social benefits.
Author has three decades of industry experience in global delivery management. His expertise lies in career counselling, mentoring, and entrepreneurial strategy. He is currently acting as consulting advisor and mentor to several startups
swattal@gmail.com