Social Entrepreneurship:

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• Social Entrepreneurship
• A Golden Opportunity for
• China to Show Leadership

2010 China Corporate Citizenship Forum 21st
Century News Group December 3, 2101 Professor
J. Gregory Dees, Ph. D. Center for the
Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship Duke
Universitys Fuqua School of Business
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First the opportunity

• China is well positioned to lead the world in
  creating an environment in which social
  entrepreneurship thrives and creates maximum
  benefits for society.
• Will you take this opportunity and create such an
  environment?

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Now the Speech

1. The Dynamics of Societies
2. The Nature of Social Entrepreneurship
3. How Social Entrepreneurship Helps Societies
4. The Need for a Supportive Environment
5. Returning to the Opportunity

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The dynamics of societies
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All Societies Face . . .
Constant Change
Complexity
Uncertainties
Shocks and Disruptions
Unintended Consequences
Competing Demands
Resource Constraints
Resulting in an evolving set of social problems
and tensions that need to be addressed
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Responsive Societies Will . . .
Adapt to Changes
Be Alert and Flexible
Empower Innovators
Experiment and Learn
Value Resourcefulness
Encourage Collaboration
Resulting in a capacity to react in a timely and
effective way to the evolving social problems
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Social entrepreneurship contributes significantly
to this adaptive capacity
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the nature of Social Entrepreneurship

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• Origins of the Term "Entrepreneur"

• Late 18th century, French economist, Say
• Entrepreneurs shift economic resources out of
  areas of lower and into areas of higher
  productivity and yield (Value creators)
• 20th century, Austrian economist, Schumpeter
• The function of entrepreneurs is to reform or
  revolutionize the pattern of production
  (Innovators)

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More Recent Theories

• Professor Peter Drucker, management guru
• The entrepreneur always searches for change,
  responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity
  (Opportunity-oriented)
• Professor Howard Stevenson, Harvard
• Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity
  without regard to resources currently controlled
  (Resourceful)

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Social Entrepreneurs

• When existing conditions in a society fall short
  of our goals for a prosperous, harmonious, just,
  healthy society, this creates a social problem as
  well as an opportunity for progress
• Social entrepreneurs create social progress by
• Applying the entrepreneurial orientation
• In order too move us closer to our social goals
  in a sustainable way

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• Thus, Social Entrepreneurs . . .

• Identify and relentlessly purse opportunities to
  create sustainable solutions to social problems
• Continuously innovate, adapt, and learn
• Act boldly, not constrained by resources
  currently in hand, and
• Hold themselves accountable for
• achieving their intended social impact and
• using resources wisely

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• A Few Brief Examples

• The problems tackled are wide ranging
• Waste Concern in Bangladesh
• VisonSpring in India and El Salvador
• Canyou Software in China
• Latino Community Credit Union in the U.S.
• Some involve major corporations
• M-PESA from Vodafone and Safaricom
• BASF and Danone partnering with Grameen

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How Social Entrepreneurship Helps Societies

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social entrepreneurship . . .

• Harnesses private initiative, ingenuity
  (including business acumen), and investment to
  solve social problems
• Enhances the adaptive capacity of a society by
  decentralizing social problem solving and
  innovation
• Serves as a valuable learning laboratory
  consisting of relatively low risk experiments to
  find what works and what does not
• Provides services that create value for both
  government and businesses, as well as the poor or
  society as a whole

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Problem solving vs. Charity

• When we want to help the poor, we usually offer
  them charity. Most often we use charity to avoid
  recognizing the problem and finding a solution
  for it. Charity becomes a way to shrug off our
  responsibility. Charity is no solution to
  poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by
  taking the initiative away from the poor.
• Muhammad Yunus, social entrepreneur
• Winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 2006from his book
  Banker to the Poor, 1999

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The Need for a Supportive Environment

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Basic Ecosystem needed for success
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Returning to The golden opportunityfor China

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What is the opportunity?

• Social entrepreneurship has been rising in
  popularity, but no society has fully developed a
  strong supportive ecosystem yet
• As a result, many social entrepreneurs have
  difficulty scaling their innovations and impact
• China has the opportunity to learn from efforts
  in other nations, begin fresh, and draw on the
  skills built in the last two decades
• Social entrepreneurship can help China build the
  bridge from prosperity to harmony

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What Does this Mean for You?

• Corporate Leaders
• Look for opportunities to use your business
  skills, technological know-how, operating
  capacities, and financial resources to improve
  the effectiveness of social entrepreneurs
• Government Leaders
• Remove barriers and create appropriate legal
  structures and regulations to empower social
  innovation and capture lessons learned
• Philanthropists and Investors
• Focus your resources in a disciplined way on
  supporting social entrepreneurs and capturing
  knowledge learned

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What Does this Mean for You?

• University Professors and Leaders
• Educate students to be effective social
  entrepreneurs, conduct research to draw out the
  lessons learned, advise public and private
  leaders on policies and strategies, and incubate
  new social ventures that emerge out of the
  universities
• Media Leaders
• Cover social entrepreneurship seriously (not just
  as feel good stories), as you would business
  entrepreneurship, help to identify the successes
  and draw lessons from the failures, highlight
  companies, individuals, and civil servants who
  are finding creative and disciplined ways to
  engage with and support social entrepreneurs

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Thank you and good luck with your opportunity!