Calling all Social Entrepreneurs by Gia Machlin, June 22 2011, 1 Comment
Last weekend I went to my 30th high school reunion (yes, I'm that old). I was blown away by how good everybody looked. Earlier this spring, I went to my 20th business school reunion and I have to say that not everyone aged so well. Why the difference? Is there something in the water up in my hometown of Croton-on-Hudson that makes people age better? My husband pointed out that the reason everyone looked so good was probably because the folks who didn't look so good decided not to come to the reunion. The whole point of a high school reunion, after all, is to show up and say "look how great I look and how well I am doing!" The motivation behind attending a business school reunion, on the other hand, is likely networking and business opportunities - regardless of how you look. So I'll venture to say there was a bit of self selection going on at the high school reunion. What on earth does this have to do with anything?? Well it got me thinking; I wonder how much self selection is contributing to our environmental crisis? At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, here's my theory:
Business and the for-profit world attract people who are motivated primarily by money. Non-profits attract people who are motivated by making a difference and trying to change the world. Business has more power that non-profits, so efforts to curb pollution, conserve our resources, and save the environment take a back seat to profit making ventures. The government is led by politicians who are either also motivated by money, or seem to be so distracted by their secret sexcapades and scandals, that they can't effectively get anything done. Sad state of affairs we are in. Oceans are in crisis, climate change is upon us, landfills are overflowing, children's asthma rates are soaring, and cities are running out of fresh water.
So what do we do? We change the face of business. Those of us motivated by social good need to infiltrate the business world. While social entrepreneurship is not brand new, it is still in its infancy. When I went to business school 20 years ago, my choices for a "major" were: Finance, Marketing, and Management/Operations. The "Social Enterprise" program is maybe 10 years old, if that. There was no "Green Business Club" back then, and this was the first year that the Earth Institute at Columbia (my alma mater) offered a Masters in Sustainable Business Management. This is our future, our hope, and our best bet for change. I'm not saying that non-profits don't have their place, they are extremely important and play a crucial role in counterbalancing big business. And so are those politicians who are fighting for change against the pressure from big oil and the powers that be. But the more we marry business and social good, the better off we will be. Kudos to pioneers like Gary Hirschberg of Stonyfield Farms and Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation. They have made incredible inroads as environmental activists and successful business leaders. They are my heroes. But we need more folks like them to choose this path. We need to realize that the most effective way to make change is by solving social crises with business solutions. As those businesses succeed, their leaders with a conscience will hold more and more power in our society. And we will have self selected our hope for change.
Here are a few of my favorite social ventures:
What's your favorite "Social Enterprise"?
Comments
items
Gia Machlin on January 01 2016 at 11:37PM
Original comments from old site:
Anonymous
Submitted on 2011/06/22 at 6:40 pm
Unfortunately, ethical business leaders are never going to dominate the business world like unethical ones do. In a world where money is the sole determining factor of success, short-term profit-grabbing schemes will always trump long-term ethical solutions so long as they’ll generate more money. It’s not a lack of people willing to be ethical business leaders that’s the issue, it’s the fact that ethical business leaders can’t in the long run beat unethical business leaders at their own game, thus it is the whole system through which businesses operate that’s at fault; while the environment is sustainable and finite, the fundamental principle upon which the entire business system is built is one of unsustainable growth in the form of an exponential, ultimately infinite, accumulation of capital.
Ultimately the accumulation of capital and the principle of sustainability are incompatible, thus it is imperative to change the way the world works on a fundamental level, not just on the surface.
Gary
gambassa.com
Submitted on 2011/06/22 at 4:13 pm
Gambassa is a project process management toolset with a social media component designed to facilitate green education, community involvement, and capture measureable results. When applied to environmental education and the classroom, students and teachers are able to effectively manage project based curriculum with large groups of students with less burden than ever. Students accumulate a portfolio of their works to be used for college, jobs, grants as well as to raise the bar of excellence for other students. Teachers are able to interact with the students in a more efficient, with more touch points throughout the process which ensures a better result, all the while reducing the amount of paper they need to cart around grading.