Social Enterprise - Coursework Example

Introduction Due to the increased entrepreneurship competition, achieving a competitive position in the market has become a stretch. It is therefore important for every entrepreneur to form a business plan that would allow for social venture and in this case help improve entrepreneurial commitment and vision as well as enabling one to deal with social issues. According to Ainsworth (2010) social entrepreneurship involves having many organisational goals to achieve for example a business may choose to have financial goals as well as the social and environmental. This study shows the definitions of social enterprise and social entrepreneur and how they extend opportunities to the community. The challenges that the organizations face are also discussed and how to address arising issues. Social enterprises can be referred as mission driven organisations which aims at achieving social purpose through the applications of market based strategies. Diana (2008) shows businesses aim at achieving social and environmental goals thus making the world a better place. Some of the organisations involved in achieving social goals include the non profit making organisations or the non-governmental organisations. They instead use business models to attain their mission targeting the social, environmental and financial achievement which is shown as a triple bottom line. This aim remains throughout their operations unlike other commercial businesses where social factors are regarded as objectives to be attained after gaining profits. Social enterprises also aim at maximising shareholders value and the profits they make improve their social and environmental strategies. Social entrepreneurs have various kinds of characters one includes being ambitious. This is where the entrepreneurs are able to deal with various social issues such as poverty as well as offering equal opportunities to all or form joint ventures with other such non profit and profit making businesses. Social entrepreneurs are also mission driven which shows that their aim is to generate social values to all and not revenue. They therefore have a social vision in which they focus on attaining it. Lincoln (2006) describes that they are also strategic in that they work towards improving their systems and come up with new methods of achieving their social goals. Social entrepreneurs are also resourceful where they ensure that all resources are in order for example human and financial resources which make it easy to access support systems. Social entrepreneurs are also results oriented where they aim at attaining better results such as those that improve quality of living, allows one to access basic wants and helps the lee fortunate individuals. The social entrepreneurs can therefore be referred to as individuals who determine a social issue occurring and use their entrepreneurial principles for planning, creating and strategising a venture for social change. Their performance is not measured by the level of revenue but by the formation of social groups which brings about long term benefits thus attaining sustainable development. Social enterprises operate in form of church legal entities, cooperatives, public associations etc. The entrepreneurial business assist in providing services to the societies faced with poverty or disasters (Diana 2008). Social enterprise matters most in peoples lives this is because is focuses on changing the lives on the people. It is also responsive in that it does not rely on any body in changing the social status of people around the community. The enterprise also is capable of growing in order to meet the needs of the people is serves and offers advice to individuals on better ways of investments. They do this through improving technology and thus attaining a competitive advantage. Mark and Robert (2010) show social entrepreneurs need to be more motivated in order to achieve their values and it has been shown that they have a higher degree of achievement one example of a social entrepreneur include Muhammad Yunus who made it easy for the poor people to access financial services. He also helped in giving the poor an opportunity to be self employed especially to those who were not employed. The poor were also able to have an opportunity of managing themselves in a business concept thus could not be exploited by others. According to Joseph Schumpeter, entrepreneurs seek to improve on technology through the introduction of a new product or service aiming in attaining a strategic advantage. The other example of a social enterprise is the Aravind Eye Care that is recognised internationally for their cataract operations. Forbes and Wield (2002) show the health care offers free operations to people with problems which could have otherwise been charged a range of 50 dollars and 300 dollars. The organisation was founded in order to eradicate blindness in the society. This is through the provision of cheap treatment to the poor and of high quality. They have also introduced other services such as education, manufacturing of lens and R& D. Challenges facing social enterprises There are several challenges facing social enterprises and especially in the 21st century some of these include recognition from both media agencies and from the private sector, credibility, government policy, investment opportunity and community capacity. Lincoln (2006) show recognition as the importance of giving credibility and value to the work of the social enterprises. This is because of the contribution and services that they offer to the general public as well as provision of services which could not have been available if they were under the hands of the private sector that aims at maximizing profits. Their profile should therefore be recognized by all media houses as this gives them confidence to continue providing to the community. Credibility from the public also enables the sector partner with other companies to improve economic development, community planning and the development of social enterprise opportunities. The other challenge involves technological innovations in the 21st century. In some nations we find that technology has been very useful in maintaining economic development as well as security. The process of initiating various kinds of combinations and mobilizing people to venture has some challenging effects. Such challenges include management processes and diffusing innovation. To achieve this, management has to have support from outside, have a clear strategic direction and be ready to undertake any risk. Searching for opportunities to offer to the less fortunate is also a challenge faced by the social entrepreneurs for example due to the many targets that the enterprises have for example provision of education services or health services. The entrepreneurs may be ready to provide these services but lack the passion or the entrepreneurial skills needed for providing opportunities. In some cases the social entrepreneurs find it hard to connect the bigger gaps between different opportunities available for example in rural areas there may be difficulties in linking between farmers in the rural areas and technical marketers. In such situations, more skills and vision are needed to bridge the gap. Strategic selection is another challenge faced by entrepreneurs as is can be easy to get an opportunity but difficult to making the rest believe in using it. This involves the capability of networking and convincing others to take up the opportunity. Most projects fail as social entrepreneurs tend to take different direction rather than where the firm is moving. Prahalad 2006 describes that one example include where the social enterprises may decide to provide cheap drugs to members of a particular community which is a good idea but on the other hand has various challenges in the organizations operations for example in research and development. The implementation process is also another challenge as it needs extensive creativity. This include gathering of resources, skills and passion to act on innovation processes. Implementation is important for example in cases where funds are limited thus mobilizing people to work towards achieving their goals is necessary. The innovation strategy involves having a vision and being committed which is not mostly the case of social entrepreneurs. To ensure the innovation process succeed it is necessary to have a degree of structure which ensures implementation. Innovation or changing a firm’s structure involves introducing new products or services where the social entrepreneurs do this due to their strong economic imperative. This is because they work by using their skills and through a core innovation process which yield to change. Addressing challenges To avoid these challenges from affecting the social enterprises, various objectives have been introduced which include the integration of technological, social and economic objectives as this will reduce the technological challenge. The government’s conformity activities should also be avoided and instead the sector should aim at the private sector for testing, giving certificates and carrying out the accreditation services. This objective is meant to ensure that credibility is given to the social enterprises and that it is known to every individual. The social enterprises should also set benchmarks and especially to those operating private businesses. Productivity growth should also be knows and their savings. The other method of addressing the challenges facing the social entrepreneurs is for the government to introduce a system where the sectors savings and investments are taxed lower than their consumption. This method will enable the sector to invest more to the community through improving better services as well ensuring that the sector saves more which can be used for other projects. The social enterprises should aim at giving the government much support when it comes to the improvement of quantity and quality school development or in giving job training to the community members. The sector can facilitate this process through the provision of both public and private initiatives which improves the level of educated individuals and thus the entire nation becomes economically developed (Ridley-Duff 2007, p. 382). Social entrepreneurs should therefore possess personal capabilities where they will be in a position of facing their challenges of providing a better life to individuals. This will be achieved through spotting the gaps between people and using skills to fill the present gaps. Some of these gaps include linking both the private and the public sectors to provide essential services. It is also necessary for the entrepreneurs to be clear in what they would want to provide by being passionate and patient while carrying out research and development procedures. The social entrepreneurs will also cope with the challenges through reaching a great number of people in the community and improving their networks. This enables them come up with better ideas on what is necessary and who need most help (Forbes and Wield 2002). The process of R& D enables the social entrepreneurs to spot unused resources which give them an opportunity to invest in for example a building that has been abandoned for many years can be transformed to become a health centre. According to Mark and Robert (2010) social entrepreneurs should also be prepared to face the risks that come with their operations and ought to manage their cash flows to avoid going bankrupt. To advertise their services, they should aim at word of mouth method as it reaches more people and convinces many for example using the internet where information is available globally. The skills needed in the implementation processes should be collaborated well with the resources available and if possible it is important to involve some experts to review the plan. This process avoids failure of projects and identifies what would work well. It is also important to have an exit strategy in case the plan fails to yield expected results (Prahalad 2006). Conclusion Innovation occurs due to some organized processes which are combined with a focused drive referred to as passion. This is known as entrepreneurship or being capable of facing challenges and risks in order to change a situation. Social entrepreneurs are said to recognize a problem and make use of the traditional principles which brings about a social change through the process of organizing resources, creating opportunities and managing the process of implementation. They also target their efforts and use their vision to move in the direction that gets them to their goals. Though social enterprises are not profit making, the business is also faced with various challenges which do not only include convincing people to take up an opportunity but the opportunity taken should also be commercially sustainable and be able to reach a great number of people. References Ainsworth, D 2010, Survey shows support for setting up rival social enterprise mark in Scotland, London. Diana, R 2008, Becoming a social entrepreneur, viewed 27 July, 2010, Forbes, N & Wield, D 2002, From followers to leaders, Routledge, London. Lincoln, A 2006, Welcome address, DTI presentation to third annual UK, Social enterprise research conference, London South Bank University. Mark, B & Robert, A 2010, Social entrepreneurship for dummies, Wiley. Prahalad, C 2006, The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, Wharton School Publishing, New Jersey. Ridley-Duff, R 2007, Communitarian perspectives on social enterprise, Corporate governance, An International Review, vol.15, no. 2, pp. 382-392. Read More