When trying to describe what social entrepreneurs do, people often say they operate in the ‘fourth sector’ — the borderland between private enterprise, the public sector and voluntary work. Social entrepreneurs seek to combine public benefit with commercial activity and profit interests.
Grameen Bank was awarded the Nobel prize in 2006. Photo: Press Photo
Bill Drayton coined the phrase ‘social entrepreneurs’ in 1981 when he founded Ashoka, an organization set up to invest in social enterprise. The phenomenon also gained international recognition when the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus. The bank’s business idea is to encourage commercial activity through the granting of small loans, primarily to the poor.
In Sweden, we have used the term social enterprise for just over five years. But Karl-Henrik Robèrt founded The Natural Step — an association focusing on social and ecological sustainability — back in 1989, and must be regarded as one of the Swedish pioneers in this field.
“The main problem is not environmental degradation and the climate threat but the total inability of our leaders to define the word sustainability,” he says. “And how are you supposed to lead others towards something you don’t know the meaning of yourself?”
Driven by change
This is the view of many social entrepreneurs, who are driven by the need to focus people’s attention on a problem and to try to solve it rather than to make money. A Swedish teacher, Nils Holm, is the founder of På Rätt Köl, an organization that seeks to help young people with ADHD complete their upper secondary education. It is not primarily the entrepreneurial side of the venture that attracted him to it, he says.
“In fact, I’ve only just now understood that I’m an entrepreneur. In my case, I got involved through seeing how badly these young people needed help. The entrepreneurship came second. And it’s not the money that interests me in this connection, it’s inspiring confidence in my idea and getting people to believe that it can grow into something big."
Social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is now becoming as widespread and natural a concept in the business world as the environmental aspect has grown to be in recent decades. Many believe, therefore, that it will evolve into a clear competitive advantage for companies in the years to come, and will eventually be fully integrated into business processes.
“It’s difficult to be a good entrepreneur if you don’t understand the social responsibility it entails,” says Karl-Henrik Robèrt. “The line between ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs is dissolving.”
Johanna Ögren
The author alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in this article.
Translation: Stephen Croall
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