social innovation summit
TRANSCRIPT
The Voice of
Social Innovation
Social Entrepreneurs
320
The largest community of late-stage social enterprises in the world
Organizations
296
Countries
61
51
3
25
35
21
53
69
World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs
World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs
Meet some of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs
Renat Heuberger CEO South Pole Carbon
Wendy Kopp Founder and CEO Teach for America/Teach for All
Kristin Peterson Co-Founder EveryLayer
Thulsi Ravilla Executive Director Aravind Eye Care Services
World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs
Sector breakdown
Education 17% Health 16% Employment/skill gap 11% Enterprise devel. 11% Rural development 10% Environment 10% Children and youth 7% Financial inclusion 6% Agriculture 5% Homelessness/housing 5% Other 3%
What is social entrepreneurship?
• innovative, practical, sustainable, market-based approaches
• achieve transformative social and/or environmental change
• emphasis on underserved populations
“Whether you are talking about cardiac care or education, the fundamental question is: How do you provide it for everyone?” - Thulsi Ravilla, Executive Director, Aravind Eye Care Center, India
Aravind 1
Proximity 1
“Rely on market signals and business principles. Treat people as customers like any other business would. Make yourself easy to do business with, and ensure strong business experience is part of your organization’s DNA.” - Jim Taylor, Co-Founder, Proximity Designs, Myanmar
“If we’re not making money, it either means there is no market out there and we need to change, or that we're not doing good business, therefore we're not doing a good training, and we have to revise what we're doing. So being in tune with the market allows us to constantly be the best we can be.”
- Sebastien Marot, Executive Director, Friends-International, Cambodia
Takeaways from Aravind
• Universal access is achievable through tiered pricing based on ability to pay
• Be guided by analytical rigor and seek out operational efficiencies to scale
Takeaways from Proximity Designs
• Find ways to combine deep local expertise with top global talent
• Rely on market signals and treat beneficiaries as customers
• Distribution, distribution, distribution! Make data-based decisions in real time
Takeaways from Friends-International
• Combine for-profit and non-profit arms under one umbrella
• Go beyond what you can do through direct
service alone: Embrace the power of the network
• Identify opportunities for strategic
collaborations with corporates or governments or both
The decade ahead:
From social entrepreneurship to system entrepreneurship
Very often, scale is looked at as scaling an organization or enterprise as opposed to scaling a concept. Looking beyond scaling a particular organization requires a major mindset shift. We must determine how we can collaboratively scale action around a particular problem through the engagement of all the stakeholders affected by the issue. Only then will we make meaningful changes in how complex social problems are taken on.
- Jeroo Billimoria, ChildFinance International