If you are interested in social enterprises, impact investing, start-ups, Asia, empowerment, and stories of unreasonable people committed to make the world a better place, then you may decide to read on.


I will explore the intersection of many different worlds that typically don’t intersect. At this intersection where traditional finance meets non-profit, start-up meets government, Silicon Valley meets Dhaka, there is a new type of ecosystem being built. I have found beauty in such contrasts, where in one conference room, the lady to my left may be a Goldman Sachs executive, to my right, an Indian market weaver, across the table, a member of the Singapore ministry.


This all occurs in a city called Singapore, which I have found to be quite a surprising intersection of many different worlds itself. Often referred to as the “benevolent dictatorship”, one might wonder whether Singapore might just be the ideal place to build a “benevolent capital markets”, a capital markets organized for the purpose of doing good.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Defining the lingo: What is a social enterprise?

A social enterprise is defined by Wikipedia as “any for-profit or non-profit organization that applies capitalistic strategies to achieving philanthropic goals.” I tend to think about a social enterprise as an entity with a social and/or environmental mission coupled with a focus on financial sustainability. While traditional enterprises typically measure performance in profit and financial return, social enterprises focus on creating social good (perhaps via performance in profit and social return.)

Social enterprises fit into a larger umbrella of businesses with social responsibility (as most commercial businesses have social objectives), but social enterprises are distinct in that their social and/or environmental mission is central to what they do. So whether they are structured as mission-oriented for-profits or business-oriented not-for-profits, it is their mission and financial sustainability (and not their tax code) that distinguish them from non-profits with some earned income and businesses with social responsibility.

It is important to understand this distinction, in a world of confusing vocabulary, misaligned incentives and “spin” marketing, where the terms green and organic are tossed around like buy and sell on trading floors.

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