Triple Helix Spotlight: Social Business as a Practical Reality

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Colleagues,

As reported in Triple Helix News from the Institute for Triple Helix Innovation...Karl Weber, freelance writer and editor, writes about ‘Why Social Business Is Capitalism's Missing Link’ in his November 10, 2008 blog entry for Harvard Business Publishing. Mr. Weber discusses his work with Muhammad Yunus on his book Creating a World Without Poverty. While microcredit is recognized as an important tool for economic development that deserves greater support from the world community, other tools are needed, and among them is a new idea Yunus calls social business.

The for-profit company that is the backbone of the free enterprise system and classical economic theory recognizes no other type of business. This blog argues that this is an incomplete picture of human nature as people are driven by many other forces as well. Among these are the desire to do good for others, to help the needy, to make the world a better place--in fact, to solve all the unsolved problems that challenge humanity around the world. Yet today's capitalism is powerless to act on these motives, because it makes no place for them. The result is an enormous void in our social and economic systems--a void that social business aims to fill.

Read on & comment at: http://www.triplehelixinstitute.org/?q=node/219

ENJOY!

CC

[William Smith]

This is not a new concept. It has been around for quite a few years. The following definition of Social entrepreneurship is taken from Wikipedia:

"Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.

The main aim of a social enterprise is to further its social and environmental goals. This need not be incompatible with making a profit - but social enterprises are often non-profits. Social enterprises are for ‘more-than-profit’."