“A social entrepreneur is an individual who applies business and management skills to tackle chronic societal problems with sustainable solutions.
In David Bornstein’s words,
“Social entrepreneurs are path breakers with a powerful new idea, who combine visionary and real-world problem solving creativity”
“Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve problems by changing systems, spreading the solutions, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local changemakers.” http://canada.ashoka.org/what-social-entrepreneur
I believe everyone, to some extent, can embrace social entrepreneurship and create positive social change locally, regionally or even nationally.
In my experience, I have identified a trinity of social entrepreneurial imperatives that are effective regardless of the goal or the circumstances:
• First, identifying the goal and attaching to it a mission statement that is broad enough to grow with the initiative while still specific enough to keep it on course and draw in like minded stakeholders.
• Second, identifying and winning over large and small stakeholders who benefit from the achievement of the goal as well as those who peripherally benefit as each stage of goal attainment is achieved.
• Third, the role of technology, new media and innovation in achieving best practices while generating added value for current and future stakeholders.
Originally posted june 25, 2014
Edward de Gale 