Four mechanisms that allow identifying opportunities for social enterprises
There are four mechanisms that exist that allow identifying opportunities for social enterprises:
1. Identifying hidden complementarities: For example, People with autism spectrum disorder at Specialisterne. Telehandelshuset, a Danish telemarketing house that employs blind people. Staff’s visual impairment results in them having unique listening skills and verbalization abilities.
2. Develop new complementarities: Mind Your Own Business, a social enterprise aimed at boys aged between 11 and 18 years – all of whom have ethnic minority backgrounds. To break from vicious cycle of underachievement at school, unemployment & crime, Mind Your Own Business motivates them to jointly start a micro business that unlocks the latent potential concealed in this target group. Similarly, Melting Pot Foundation for youth in Peru, which teaches food craftsmanship as a way of instilling a spirit of entrepreneurship in its beneficiaries.
3. Eliminate the need for complementary assets: Vestergaard Frandsen – a Danish company that designed point of use water treatment device: LifeStraw. Company does not focus on costly and complex water treatment & distribution systems that would require the presence of essential complementary assets. Their product development strategy is to only developing products that are long lasting, do not have any spare parts, and do not require electricity to function.
4. Create demand for antagonistic assets: Kono business – fair trade hybrid which imports & sells a range of textiles produced in Sierra Leone. Bangura Bags – laptop sleeves made of old bicycle tubes. Both social enterprises celebrate handmade aspect of their products and use storytelling to create brand.
1. Identifying hidden complementarities: For example, People with autism spectrum disorder at Specialisterne. Telehandelshuset, a Danish telemarketing house that employs blind people. Staff’s visual impairment results in them having unique listening skills and verbalization abilities.
2. Develop new complementarities: Mind Your Own Business, a social enterprise aimed at boys aged between 11 and 18 years – all of whom have ethnic minority backgrounds. To break from vicious cycle of underachievement at school, unemployment & crime, Mind Your Own Business motivates them to jointly start a micro business that unlocks the latent potential concealed in this target group. Similarly, Melting Pot Foundation for youth in Peru, which teaches food craftsmanship as a way of instilling a spirit of entrepreneurship in its beneficiaries.
3. Eliminate the need for complementary assets: Vestergaard Frandsen – a Danish company that designed point of use water treatment device: LifeStraw. Company does not focus on costly and complex water treatment & distribution systems that would require the presence of essential complementary assets. Their product development strategy is to only developing products that are long lasting, do not have any spare parts, and do not require electricity to function.
4. Create demand for antagonistic assets: Kono business – fair trade hybrid which imports & sells a range of textiles produced in Sierra Leone. Bangura Bags – laptop sleeves made of old bicycle tubes. Both social enterprises celebrate handmade aspect of their products and use storytelling to create brand.
This blog post is based on my learnings from the course on ‘social entrepreneurship’ offered by Copenhagen Business School through Coursera (2014).
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