Isn’t every business a social venture? After all, it pays taxes, generates employment and hopefully increases incomes of its stakeholders. So why the hoopla around social ventures, social entrepreneurship and social investing? Not surprisingly, social entrepreneurship is the latest victim of feel-good “buzz-word compliance,” an all too common disease in management. What was a business process improvement in the 80s is now a hotly debated incremental or quantum innovation; hiring someone who speaks a foreign language in a foreign location is part of the new and improved HR strategy; no self-respecting company will let go the opportunity to talk sustainability and social responsibility and Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP) strategy!
The increased media focus and the casual throwing around of fashionable jargon serves some purposes -some useful and others not. It democratizes notions and concepts and makes them acceptable; it generates pressure to actually do something, however small, with a social angle; It can also however, unfortunately, trivialize the enormous challenges of having really meaningful social impact and make it just an agenda item for the next corporate event.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Is Social Entrepreneurship an Oxymoron: Sanjay Anandaram - India Chief Mentor - WSJ
Author: Sanjay Anandaram
