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Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
Course Faculty: Madhukar Shukla, XLRI Jamshedpur
Rationale & Teaching Objective of the Course: · Social Entrepreneurship is an emerging field that offers opportunity to young professionals to create societal/economic value on a sustainable basis. According to some reports, globally this is the fastest growing sector and perhaps the only sector that is creating gainful employment worldwide. · In the academic field, Social Entrepreneurship is a recent but growing area of teaching and research. A large number of universities and business schools have regular courses or centers on Social Entrepreneurship, e.g., Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship (Oxford Said Business School), Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (Faqua Business School, Duke University), Catherine B Reynold Program for Social Entrepreneurship (New York University), Entrepreneurship in Social Sector Program (Harvard Business School), Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs (University of Geneva), Social Entrepreneurship Course Series (Stanford University), etc. · Unfortunately, most management students/professionals view social entrepreneurship as a “by charity/ for charity” venture, and not as a self-sustainable & viable entrepreneurial activity. The purpose of the course is to expose the students to viable “business models” through case-studies, which are simultaneously sustainable and/or profitable (though, not necessarily with “profit-making” as the sole aim) and enthuse them to actively think about this as a realistic vocational choice. · In a country like ours, where barely 6-7% of the economically active work-force is in the “organized sector”, there is a dire need to divert the managerial talent to develop ventures which can add/create value to the rest of the “informal sector” (that accounts for 60% of India’s GDP, 68% of income, 30% of agricultural exports, and 40% of manufacturing exports). · Lastly, in the past few years, we have had a handful of students who were actively looking for such a direction, but as an institute we have not been able to provide them with that direction/choice… hopefully, this course will help bridge this gap a little bit.
Correspondingly, this course aims to help the participants § To understand and appreciate the role of (and need for) social entrepreneurship in building a sustainable society. § To acquire the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques needed to become an entrepreneur in the social sector. § To help them develop sustainable “business” model for building a social enterprise that can make a difference
Course Design · This is a full credit elective course, consisting of 20 sessions. In addition, considerable investment of time and energy will be required from the participants for outside class activities, e.g., making field-visits, conducting surveys, preparing a project plan, etc. · Besides the course booklet, two books are recommended for the course: 1. How to Change the World, by David Bornstein 2. Everyone Loves a Good Drought, by P Sainath · The other available supporting resources for the course (for sector study, cases and projects) will be uploaded on the network, and can be accessed at: · The course will provide opportunity for interactions with practicing social entrepreneurs. While efforts will be to accommodate these interactions during the scheduled class-timings, it may not always be possible to do so, and some rescheduling/ extra time may be needed for the interactions. · The course methodology is primarily interactive and hands-on. The focus is less on teaching (faculty’s responsibility) and more on creating conditions for learning (participants’ responsibility). · The course is conceptualized in 5 modules. The sessions, coverage, recommended readings and tasks are described below:
A business entrepreneur makes a choice of the sector/ business segment in which s/he will operate, and explores and understands that sector/“market” before venturing into it. Similarly, a social entrepreneur must also decide and understand the “social sector” in which s/he would like to operate. This module aims to help the participants to identify and explore the sectors/”markets” which they find of interest, and the kind of social value creation opportunities that exist in the sector. Based on common areas of concern/ excitement/ interest, the participants will form 6 groups, and – based on existing research, and field visits – will be required to study, make a report, and present their findings during Session 7-9. The 6 “sectors” (and the groups) will be based on common interest, and will be selected from amongst the following
The presentation/report will need to answer the following questions: § Profile of the Segment: What is the profile of the societal segment impacted by these sectors? What are their needs, issues, constraints, aspirations, etc.? § Facilitating/ Hindering Factors: What do they do to meet their needs in this sector? What are the facilitating and hindering factors that influence their efforts? § Available Resources: What resources (e.g., finance, information, community support, etc.) are available to them to help them meet their needs? § Regulatory Framework: What government regulations and schemes influence – positively or negatively - their efforts? This would be the first step towards developing a project proposal for a social venture/ business, which is a requirement/ purpose of the course (In the latter part of the course, these groups would split into project teams). Deadline: By the end of Module 2, the participants must form their project groups and identify their project areas. This will help in sharing the resources that I have, and hopefully connecting the groups to some social entrepreneurs who will be able to guide/mentor the groups.
The purpose of the next 6 sessions (Sessions 10-15) is to develop an inductive appreciation of social entrepreneurship by studying real-life social enterprise as well as to stimulate thinking in direction of becoming a social entrepreneurship. To achieve this, the participants will be required to work in small groups, and based on secondary material, study, develop a case and make presentation on 6 well-known social enterprises. The purpose of the presentation will be to focus on the following four issues: · Opportunity Identification & Innovation: Social entrepreneurs are innovators who create change. What innovative insight did the entrepreneur bring to identify an opportunity to create change? How did s/he create and spread this innovation and change? · Value Creation & Impact: What new value was created by the enterprise/ entrepreneur, and how? What can be the conceptual tools to measure/assess the impact and effectiveness of the social enterprise? · Sustainability: How did the social entrepreneur make the venture sustainable –financially, organizationally, and in terms of continuity of the venture? · Leadership & Personal Qualities: What were the characteristics of social entrepreneurs’ leadership? What personal qualities (background, skills, values, beliefs, etc.) helped the entrepreneur to succeed in creating value? The social enterprises for study will be selected from the following tentative list:
~~~~ Evaluation & Grading: The evaluation for the course will be based on the following 4 components: 1. Case Presentation - 25 marks 2. Sector Study - 20 marks 3. Project Presentation - 30 marks 4. End-Term Exam - 25 marks
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