Social innovation ventures are organizations that directly address a social need through their products and services and derive their financially sustainability through market-based activities rather than indirectly through socially responsible business practices such as corporate philanthropy, equitable wages, or environmentally friendly operations or through the “unrelated business” activities done by non-profits. Like any entrepreneurial activity, social ventures require creative ideas, meticulous planning, focused execution, and the flexibility to withstand unanticipated challenges and competitive responses. However, unlike a typical business start-up, they consider positive social impacts to be at least as important as financial returns. As a result, social ventures can be distinctly different from “pure” business start-ups in a variety of ways including measures of performance, sources of investment capital, organizational form, and the ongoing attraction of talent and support.
This course is for students interested in learning how to start a social innovation venture. While some participants may ultimately become social entrepreneurs, the course content is applicable to a wide variety of contexts in the public, private, and social sectors. For example, future policy mavens, corporate bigwigs, nonprofit moguls, and “do good” investors will all find something to take away from topics covered during the semester.
Since starting almost anything requires substantial effort and the need for financially sustainable solutions addressing the world’s (region’s, nation’s,…) most vexing problems is substantial, the primary mantra for this course will be “go big or go home” (and have fun at the same time), both financially and in the degree of potential social impact delivered by proposed ventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment