Building a Successful Social Venture : a guide for social entrepreneurs by
This is the first book on creating and running a social enterprise to combine theoretical discussions with current cases from around the world, filling a huge gap in the literature. It serves as an eminently practical blueprint for those who wish to build, sustain, and grow social ventures. Building a Successful Social Venture draws on Eric Carlson's and James Koch's pioneering work with the Global Social Benefit Institute, cofounded by Koch at Santa Clara University's Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Since 2003, over 200 Silicon Valley executives have mentored more than 800 aspiring social entrepreneurs at the GSBI. It is this unparalleled real-world foundation that truly sets the book apart. Early versions of the book were used in both undergraduate and MBA classes. Part 1 of the book describes the assumptions that the GSBI model is based on: a bottom-up approach to social change, a focus on base-of-the-pyramid markets, and a specific approach to business planning developed by the GSBI. Part 2 presents the seven elements of the GSBI business planning process, and Part 3 lays out the keys to executing it. The book includes "Social Venture Snapshots" illustrating how different organizations have realized elements of the plan, as well as a wealth of checklists and exercises. Social ventures hold enormous promise to solve some of the world's most intractable problems. This book offers a tested framework for students, social entrepreneurs, and field researchers who wish to learn more about the application of business principles and theories of change for advancing social progress and creating a more just world.
Educating Social Entrepreneurs, Volume I : From Idea Generation to Business Plan Formulation by
Educating Social Entrepreneurs: From Idea Generation to Business Plan Formulation appears at a time of unprecedented environmental disasters, natural resources depletion, and significant failure of governments and global businesses to attend to worldwide social problems. In this era of downsizing, restructuring, and social changes, notions of traditional venture creation and the ways of creating social values have been challenged. We draw on examples from various parts of the business world and societies to prepare students, scholars, and entrepreneurial managers to deal with the challenges presented by a new and diverse business environment to create business plan for a social venture. Illuminating troublesome aspects of the global social and business worlds, this workbook comprises two volumes that covers key issues. Students, scholars, and entrepreneurs who want to help a world of multiple disparities by dealing with social entrepreneurship will find this to be beneficial reading.
In the Business of Change : How Social Entrepreneurs are Disrupting Business as Usual by
Meet the social entrepreneurs who are using business to disrupt the status quo and rebuild their communities Our communities are facing the fallout from the demise of vital industry, bankrupt economies, bad policy or policing, and political mismanagement. People are looking for answers, and the "same old" simply won't do. In the Business of Change is a practical and inspirational guide that showcases how social entrepreneurs from places such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver, who are weary of waste, injustice, and government inaction, are using business savvy to tackle challenges in their communities. Part storytelling, part lessons learned, coverage includes: Profiles of remarkable individuals and companies in such diverse sectors as employment, food, art, education, and social justice An overview of lessons learned and real impacts on the ground Tips for getting started, connecting to the local community, and scaling up. In the Business of Change is for everyone who wants to rebuild their communities and believes that business can be a powerful, positive force for change.
From Head Shops to Whole Foods : The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs by
In the 1960s and'70s, a diverse range of storefronts—including head shops, African American bookstores, feminist businesses, and organic grocers—brought the work of the New Left, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism, and other movements into the marketplace. Through shared ownership, limited growth, and democratic workplaces, these activist entrepreneurs offered alternatives to conventional profit-driven corporate business models. By the middle of the 1970s, thousands of these enterprises operated across the United States—but only a handful survive today. Some, such as Whole Foods Market, have abandoned their quest for collective political change in favor of maximizing profits.Vividly portraying the struggles, successes, and sacrifices of these unlikely entrepreneurs, From Head Shops to Whole Foods writes a new history of social movements and capitalism by showing how activists embraced small businesses in a way few historians have considered. The book challenges the widespread but mistaken idea that activism and political dissent are inherently antithetical to participation in the marketplace. Joshua Clark Davis uncovers the historical roots of contemporary interest in ethical consumption, social enterprise, buying local, and mission-driven business, while also showing how today's companies have adopted the language—but not often the mission—of liberation and social change.
Lean Startups for Social Change : The Revolutionary Path to Big Impact by
"There's a new way to change the world," writes social entrepreneur Michel Gelobter. It's called the lean startup--but it's not just for new ventures. It's been revolutionizing businesses of all ages for years, and Gelobter shows it can have the same transformative impact on the social sector. Traditionally, entrepreneurs develop a detailed plan, find money to fund it, and then pursue it to its conclusion. But conditions can change drastically at any point--you can end up locked into a process based on now-obsolete assumptions. The lean startup is all about agility and flexibility. Its mantra is "build, measure, learn": create small experimental initiatives, get real-world feedback on them quickly, and use that data to identify what works and discard what doesn't. And then test some more. Gelobter explains exactly how nonprofits and advocacy organizations can adapt lean startup concepts to their unique circumstances. He offers dozens of real-world examples: an established homelessness group whose data analysis showed that reducing a single overlooked metric could get many more people off the street; a technology-based literacy startup that used lean techniques to reach 2 million children in two years, when a more traditional program took fifteen; and many others. The standard approach wastes time and money--the lean startup promises to help social sector organizations vastly increase the good they do.
Peace Through Entrepreneurship : Investing in a Startup Culture for Security and Development by
Joblessness is the root cause of the global unrest threatening American security. Fostering entrepreneurship is the remedy. The combined weight of American diplomacy and military power cannot end unrest and extremism in the Middle East and other troubled regions of the world, Steven Koltai argues. Koltai says an alternative approach would work: investing in entrepreneurship and reaping the benefits of the jobs created through entrepreneurial startups. From 9/11 and the Arab Spring to the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate, instability and terror breed where young people cannot find jobs. Koltai marshals evidence to show that joblessnessnot religious or cultural conflictis the root cause of the unrest that vexes American foreign policy and threatens international security. Drawing on Koltai’s stint as senior adviser for Entrepreneurship in Secretary Hillary Clinton’s State Department, and his thirty-year career as a successful entrepreneur and business executive, Peace through Entrepreneurship argues for the significant elevation of entrepreneurship in the service of foreign policy; not rural microfinance or mercantile trading but the scalable stuff of Silicon Valley and Sam Walton, generating the vast majority of new jobs in economies large and small. Peace through Entrepreneurship offers a nonmilitary, long-term solution at a time of disillusionment with Washington’s big development” approach to unstable and underdeveloped parts of the worldand when the new normal is fear of terrorist attacks against Western targets, beheadings in Syria, and jihad. Extremism will not be resolved by a war on terror. The answer, Koltai shows, is stimulating entrepreneurial economic opportunities for the virtually limitless supply of desperate, unemployed young men and women leading lives of endless economic frustration.