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Transcript

Hello!! Friends in our last class we were discussing about agricultural input scenario at national level. Wherein we have discussed about the opportunities that are available as far as agricultural inputs scenario are considered and how an entrepreneur can take that particular opportunity or how he can capture an opportunity that was another issue hidden in our previous class. So now in this class we will be taking up the discussion on Social Entrepreneurship.

Basically, Social Entrepreneurship is a person who is not working for himself but he is working for the societal benefits. As, we have understood that the differences between a businessman and an entrepreneur- wherein entrepreneur is a person who is creating the needs and the businessman is satisfying the needs and entrepreneurs are creating the path and businessman are following the path and entrepreneurs are creating the opportunities from the environment and businessman unnoticed opportunity. So with this basic understanding , just I wanted to remind you these points which we have discussed earlier. With this basic issues so now let us move onto the concept of Social Entrepreneurship.

As I have already told you the Social Entrepreneurs tailors their activities to be directly tied with the ultimate goal of creating social value. The most important aspect as far as the social entrepreneur is considered. They have no intention to gain the personal profit. This is what is the fundamental difference between an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur. Social Entrepreneur wants to create opportunity for entire society but an entrepreneur is interested in capturing those opportunity for maximization of his benefits. Ashoka in the year 2012 conceptualized Social Entrepreneurship as the individual’s innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. As on date most pressing social problem is majority of the community around as per the government statistics around 33 to 34% of the entire Indian population is coming under below poverty line. So this is what is the most pressing social problem. How they can be brought out of that particular net. Because in that direction the Social Entrepreneurship is working they are both the visionaries and the ultimate realists. So they have realized this particular issue of poverty in the society which is wide spread and that is how they are envisioning these things and they are working in reality concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above else. So this is what is the basic aspect associated with the Social Entrepreneurship. The Social Entrepreneurs are mission- driven. I have already said, what is that mission? Creating the social value and delivering the social value and they act entrepreneurially. Basically, they are entrepreneurs but they are not working for themselves they are working for the societal benefits. They act with the entrepreneurially oriented organizations because for doing some social work they cannot work on their own without the support of an institution wherein we are saying that they are working with within the entrepreneurially oriented organizations and they act within the financially independent organizations so that they have sufficient amount of freedom, it is not that they are only donating their benefits to the society they are creating the values also for that and ultimately their goal is the society good.

So in a tabular form let us try to look at the differences between the technical entrepreneurship or the entrepreneurship and the social entrepreneurship. As I have already said the social entrepreneurship is going to satisfy the needs of the society may it be crossing the poverty line or may it be any such social value but on the contrary entrepreneurs are creating the needs. So basically entrepreneur is a person who struggles with a problem and he builds the solution for that problem. But social entrepreneur is aware of the problem and he knows how to fix that particular problem and that is what is the quality of a social entrepreneur. And for technical entrepreneur it is very difficult to emphasize on the social good first and make money secondary because his primary motive is making the money so that is how he will be working for primarily but as for social entrepreneur is considered making revenue is secondary but caring about the society is the primary. Social entrepreneur is also an entrepreneur with a different mindset. What is that different mindset? The points what I explained about are going to make in a different type of. Social entrepreneur makes all possible effort to improve the social conditions. On the contrary entrepreneur is interested in improve in the commercial markets and entrepreneur is also working for value system. What is that value system he is working for? It is his profit. But in case of social entrepreneur it is the social benefit. In case of entrepreneurship he benefits to innovate within the commercial markets and the innovation creates double so that’s what is the idea. But here in case of social entrepreneurship they create the wealth for social change by changing the minds of profit, alleviating suffering and by reversing injustice. So basically they are working for that section of the society where these are the major issues and that is how they want to bring them out of these particular things. So social entrepreneur are less ambitious because they are not working the self, entrepreneurs are more ambitious because they are working for self. The entrepreneurs are not interested in the social, economic or political context of the problem because their motive is maximization of their profit but on the contrary the social entrepreneurs are more interested in the social, economic, political and cultural context of the problem. Then the social entrepreneurs deliver the value, they are interested in social returns, they command regards in the society on the contrary the technical entrepreneurs demand regards in the society. They think that I have value with me, what is that value? That is the profit that is in terms of monetary terms what I have so that is why society should recognize me. But on the contrary he is there working with the society and that is how they commands regard in the society. So social entrepreneur is a mission leader and he is emotionally charged. Basically, he is an organizer and he is an opinion leader in the eyes of majority and he is visionary I have already explained this and he is socially alert. On the contrary the technical entrepreneurs are high achievers compared to the risk bearers compared to the emotionally charging and they are the change agents rather than organizers, they are the strategic thinkers rather than the opinion leaders and they are arbitrageur because they believe in investment and the trade and last but not the least they are economically alert. So these are the basic differences between the social entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship. With this brief background on the differences between the entrepreneur and the entrepreneur, now we will move onto the differences between the nongovernmental organizations and the social entrepreneur.

Many times it happens that looking into the fact ors that we discuss for the social entrepreneur it gives us the impression again I am underlying that word it gives us the impression that social entrepreneurs are nothing but nongovernmental organizations. If you are perceiving it in this particular way if you are understanding social entrepreneurs as a nongovernmental organizations you are grossly wrong. You need to come out of that. So what are the differences that adjust between the nongovernmental organizations and the social entrepreneurs that will be discussing with this slide. The nongovernmental organizations are having the pure social purpose but the social entrepreneurship is driven by social as well as the financial goal. As I have given you the example so the social entrepreneurs are interested in bringing that section of the society which is living below poverty line to the above poverty line or they are interested in creation of the wealth in the society. They are interested in providing all possible livelihood opportunities for that section of the society which is driven of that. But the nongovernmental organizations are going to make all possible efforts to support them from the outside but the social entrepreneurship are interested in development of their own capacities so that with their own involvement they can be income generator or the employment generator. Then the nongovernmental organization the source of funding is the donations, the charitable contributions so and so forth. As far as the funding pattern of the social entrepreneurship is considered it is the earning from the business and they are circulating that money for the good of the society and ultimately this is not that they are distributing unlike the nongovernmental organizations and their income but they are investing that amount in such a productive purpose so that an individual himself becomes capable of overcoming his own problem and the community in which he lives and he is making the community more solid so that they can face all sorts of problem. Then the social entrepreneurs are basically selected on skill and performance. If you are not having that skill that will develop with you through training and various other processes but in case of NGOs or the nonprofit organizations voluntary participation of the people is solicited. In case of social entrepreneurship on the basis of social values delivered along with the financial returns so that is the crux of social entrepreneurship. But in case of nongovernmental organizations performance measurement is on the basis of social values delivered. So, social entrepreneurship runs enterprise setting using the market tools of commercial social advertisement for selling products and services. But the nongovernmental organizations runs on social plan for fund raising, social out reach, selling services or products true of costs. So here they are more interested in raising the fund and distribute among the society. Here they are more interested in generating the income or generating the funds from within the society with their own skills and with their own performance. So that’s what is the basic difference. So this particular issue because they are generating the funds on their own with their own skills and with their own involvement that is how the social entrepreneurship is going to be more sustainable but in case of nongovernmental organizations there is a risk of non sustainability. The reasons behind NGOs categorized under non sustainability because they are more dependent on public funding or the donations or the charitable contribution so on and so forth. If for any reasons you are not getting that charitable donation or the funding so then your works will be under question mark. We do not have that particular aspect in case of the social entrepreneurship. These question marks are automatically eliminated because they are generating income on their own. So the examples that we can quote under nongovernmental organizations are you are all aware of Helpage India, CRY, AID etc. there are so many such NGOs that you can count upon. As far as the social entrepreneurship this is a new concept wherein good numbers of institutions that are coming up like SKS Microfinance, Rang De, Arvind Eye Care etc they are coming under the examples of social entrepreneurship.

With this let me elaborate one example of the social entrepreneurship which is creating an employment opportunity or the income generation opportunities for the people. SKS Microfinance is distributing small loans, can you imagine these loans, it emerges from Rs 2000 to Rs 12000 to poor women so that they can start and expand the business and increase their incomes. This is what is the basic crux of concept of social entrepreneurship. Otherwise banks are giving funds to those entrepreneurs or those who are interested, it may be in terms of many thousands or may be in terms of few lakhs or few crores and so on and so forth. But this says at micro level that too in a remote village and you go and talk to those communities because they are already afraid of getting money from various sources and they may or may not manage it very well they are good numbers of risk factors in all. But the institutions like this they are going to them, they are educating them, they are motivating them to take up very small amounts of finance and with that they can start generating their income generating activities and that’s what is the basic idea behind SKS microfinance which is working as social entrepreneurship organisaton. Then the Micro-entreprises range from raising the cows and goats, maybe you can start with one or two cows or goats in order to sell their milk maybe if you are already have the cow you can purchase the utensils suitable for the market and you can enter into with these meager amounts or even you can open your tea stall. So these are some of the examples that are available in the market as far as the social entrepreneurship is considered. The social entrepreneurship uses the group lending model where the poor women guarantee each other’s loan. Unless we have the banking model wherein there are good numbers of formalities to be followed but this is a pear grow and well intimated grow and they are living in a same social setup, they are aware of each and everybody needs as well as the problems, as well as the various concerns they share many things in common and that is how they are becoming guarantor of each other and that is how they are getting the finance from such an institution for generating the income. So that’s what is the beauty of social entrepreneurship. Then coming to the financial literacy – with this they are enhancing their financial literacy and which is a must element for being a part of this social entrepreneurship activity. Re-payments rates as per the records available on collateral free loans are more than 99%. None of the financial institutions in our country have achieved these levels of re-payment except the social entrepreneurship initiatives. This itself reveals the importance of the concept of social entrepreneurship wherein you work with the small and the close knitted groups you can get such a positive response. With this we can say that social entrepreneurship deal with complex social need especially when there is less public funding or doing social welfare deeds or works. As I have already told social entrepreneurship is a concept wherein the entrepreneur is not interested in his own personal benefit but he is interested in the benefits of the society or his respondents with whom that he is working. This concept is almost similar to the concept of social marketing. If you are aware of the concept of social marketing wherein in case of marketing the person who is selling good sad n services he is interested in profit but in case of social marketing the person is giving the idea and he is also using all the marketing information as well as the tools and techniques of marketing but in case of social marketing the person who receives that idea or who receives that innovation he is going to be the beneficiary. In the same way social entrepreneurship is also working. With this we are closing today’s discussion and in the next class we will be discussing about the communication skills for the entrepreneurship development.

Thank You.