The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur Elizabeth Beyer explores the effects of strong leadership in the social business sector.
Engineering Change The progression towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is widely attributed to the work of social entrepreneurs. Eradicating hunger and poverty, ensuring environmental sustainability and combating HIV/ AIDS are just a few of the MDGs specifically targeted by social business initiatives. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered an address in 2001, entitled: ‘The Revolutionary Role Business Can Play in the Fight Against HIV/ AIDS’, in which he advocated the mobilisation of the corporate world to incorporate humanitarian objectives into their business strategies. This, he stated, would “do what is best for millions of people the world over”, while simultaneously strengthening such crucial assets as “reputation and customer loyalty” for business. However, the seeds of social entrepreneurship were planted well before the 2000 Millennium Summit. The term is closely associated with American lawyer and businessman Bill Drayton, who founded his not-for-profit organisation, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, in 1980. The purpose of the organisation is to provide support for social entrepreneurs the world over, fostering business ventures which address social problems while providing competitive returns for investors. Since its inception, Ashoka has supported more than 2000 social entrepreneurs across 60 countries, each of whom address social justice issues in areas such as education, youth development and healthcare. The ideological basis upon which Ashoka operates is: “Do we believe that this person with this idea will change the pattern in this field, at the national level or beyond?”. This explicitly emphasises the importance of leadership, responsibility and accountability within the specific individuals who take up the challenge. As the ‘original’ social entrepreneur, the symbolic value of Bill Drayton himself cannot be underestimated, given that he has played a significant role in shaping the entire face of corporate social responsibility as we know it today. In 2005, he was named one of the United States’ top 25 leaders by a US News & World report, and has since been acclaimed as one of the ‘50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World’ by Utne Reader magazine. The Road Ahead The social entrepreneur has therefore become the cornerstone of social business movements, that crucial moral centre around which ideology is dispersed and applied. Strong leadership is a central characteristic of the social business
- this is an undisputed fact. However, in a sector dominated by such charismatic and diverse individuals as Bill Drayton, Salman Khan and Muhammad Yunus, it is important to build strong foundations for the consolidation of social business traditions in preparation for the time when these founding fathers can no longer personally champion their cause. Accordingly, the real challenge for the future of social business is to address the disproportionate responsibility currently borne by individuals for upholding the integrity of social business, and to develop a reliable framework which can operate in a self-regulating manner. Earlier this year, Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus came under intense scrutiny as a result of damaging and unsubstantiated allegations of mismanagement. The pressure placed on him to relinquish his position as CEO has meant that the future of Grameen Bank is increasingly uncertain. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Yunus voiced his concerns “for the future of Grameen Bank’s 8.3 million borrowers” should he lose managerial control, “almost all of whom are low-income rural women”. The primary challenge for successful social businesses with
From the World Economic Forum (CC BY-SA)
The idea that corporations can become agents for social change is by no means a new concept. Discursive trends of social justice, fair trade, corporate social responsibility and social business generally represent a positive change of course for our neoliberal capitalist system. At the heart of this global discourse sits the social entrepreneur. In essence, these individuals attempt to find innovative solutions to social problems that are unserved by either government or regular corporations. Their personal vision and determination provides the driving force behind the pursuit of social justice. Understanding the role of the social entrepreneur as an individual helps to shed light on the achievements of social business in alleviating global inequality, but also highlights the challenges the movement faces in the future.
charismatic figureheads is to distance their humanitarian pursuits from politicised public debate. Politicians in Bangladesh view Grameen Bank borrowers as a potential ‘votebank’, making Yunus himself a political entity. This psyche undermines the original intent of social business and the very function of the social entrepreneur as an apolitical advocate for the global poor. Another major challenge stems from the fact that this is a sector which is vulnerable to profiteering and corporate greed acting under the guise of corporate social responsibility. Market-driven social business has its limits, certainly. However, appreciating the central function of the social entrepreneur within the social business model provides a greater understanding of the issues concerned. The achievements of social business in the past half-century are a testament to the power of individuals to change the world, a fact that is easily forgotten in our globalised age.
Elizabeth Beyer is in her second year of a Bachelor of International and Global Studies, majoring in Spanish, and Government and International Relations. TheSydneyGlobalist | August 2011
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