Archive for Talent

This story originally appeared in our July 14th, 2011 e-magazine. Click here to download the pdf e-magazine.

Among the many challenges that social enterprises face, a key one is finding and keeping the right people to run the business. What does it mean to be a manager in the social enterprise workspace, and who are the right people, from the bottom to the top of the ladder?

By Nisha Kumar Kulkarni

Social enterprises face challenges similar to other businesses, but where they diverge is in scale and vision.  However, the problems of actually running a business remain the same, whether it is in processes, or technology. But perhaps one of the key challenges that social enterprises face, more than regular businesses, is the people challenge.

Given that socents often already have more severe funding issues, they are less likely to attract the same amount or level of talent that any other for-profit business might. As Professor Madhukar Shukla  of XLRI says in an interview to Beyond Profit in this issue, prefixing the word ‘social’ to a business conjures images of lowly-paid not-for-profits. » Continue reading “The People Problem”

We at Beyond Profit believe in the power of entrepreneurship to drive development. But creating a new social business isn’t an easy task – it involves a huge risk (personal and financial), and a special mix of business know-how and savvy street smarts that aren’t easily taught in a classroom. How can we both inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to take that risk, as well as equip them with the skills to be successful? This group of social enterprises is doing just that. This week, we bring you five organizations supporting the next group of changemakers.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Social Enterprise of the Day – Youth Social Enterprise Initiative

International; Non-Profit

The Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) funds what most financiers would consider a risky investment – youth-led businesses in South and East Asia. But while others might think it’s unwise, YSEI knows it’s vital to driving sustainable change in developing countries. Their support goes beyond financial. Along with up to US$15,000 in seed funding, YSEI gives skills workshops and offers technical consulting. YSEI only funds ventures targeting poverty reduction, marginalized groups, environmental protection, gender equality and human rights. Once accepted as an YSEI fellow, young entrepreneurs have access to a wide network of potential mentors, advisors, investors and collaborators.

Sattar is leading the way for entrepreneurial women in Pakistan.

After a trip to Pakistan in May, Beyond Profit has created a multi-part series, The Other Side of Pakistan, about a side of the country you may not have heard about before. We look forward to your comments and questions.

I can’t get a word in edgewise. I’m sitting in Maimoona Sattar’s office, trying to have a conversation about women in business in Pakistan, but between the two phones in Ms. Sattar’s ears, her office assistant, and a potential woman entrepreneur, I’m the lowest rung on the ladder of priorities. If Ms. Sattar is any indication of the big picture, the tables are turning for women in Pakistan.

Ms. Sattar is the head of the Women’s Business Incubation Center (WBIC), (a project of SMEDA which we covered last week), and an entrepreneur in her own right. She’s been charged with increasing the number of female small and medium enterprise owners in Pakistan. “Look,” she tells me matter of factly, “Pakistan is half women. How can women just be consumers? They have to produce something, something other than children.”

» Continue reading “The Other Side of Pakistan: Entrepreneurial Women”

Last week we participated in the first workshop organized by the TiE Special Interest Group on Social Enterprise in Mumbai. TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur) has a long history of facilitating entrepreneurship in India, but this marked their first foray into the social enterprise space – in fact, the Special Interest Group on Social Enterprise launched at our very own Sankalp, Intellecap’s annual event where social enterprises and investors can connect and collaborate.

While Sankalp signaled the arrival of social enterprise on the subcontinent, the workshop signaled a significant nod of approval from the mainstream for this burgeoning sector, our burgeoning sector. There is a yearning to build the social enterprise ecosystem. And mainstream entrepreneurs are showing that they want to learn, to share their ideas and experiences, and, most of all, to ask questions.

The biggest challenge that emerged during the day was the issue of Talent – attracting it and keeping it. Getting talent to buy into the vision of a social entrepreneur is huge. Getting mainstream folks to take a massive pay cut is, well, huge. Hiring people who are hungry, eager to grow, and can rise up?  Huge.

It takes a certain mindset to work in social enterprise, a space that isn’t yet established, in an organization without clear organizational structures, is not for everyone.

What can social entrepreneurs do to overcome these hurdles? First, tell a good story and perhaps more importantly, have a knack for telling this story. Second, the social entrepreneur needs to be convinced, after all, she is betting her career and money on the idea. If she is convinced, convincing others becomes much easier.

It is a bit of a catch 22, isn’t it? You can’t build the business until you have a team.  But you can’t convince the team to follow, until you have a business!

The road to being a successful entrepreneur is a hard one. The road to being a successful social entrepreneur may be even harder. But social entrepreneurs are persistently showing that they welcome the challenge.  We look forward getting more of them in the field and in the conference rooms of India!

This post first appeared in the September 15 edition of RADAR, the Beyond Profit Magazine Newsletter