BUS 374 Social Innovation - Reflection: Final

Fabrice Tshiyoyi Banyingela

Professor Brittany James

BUS 374 Social Innovation

21 July 2021

Reflection: Final

It was a beautiful decision to embark on this journey and learn some of the important concepts of Social Innovation. The coursework was a mix of watching video tutorials about successful entrepreneurs and reading articles, case studies, and more interestingly an inspired book “How to change the world.” I feel empowered as an aspiring entrepreneur to create real solutions for real people.

The most interesting and exciting part of my course was the understanding of Hybrids and Social Businesses. This lesson gave me a deep understanding of how a non-profit can sustain itself by generating income for a good cause. I have learned the challenges that entrepreneurs faces when it comes to running either a for-profit or a nonprofit. By understanding the nature of a business and its ethics in order to solve a social issue, this course has awakened my entrepreneurship desire as a calling in life.

Throughout my semester course, I fell that corruption is the main cause of many social issues. As citizen, we all have the responsibility to deal with it rigorously– it starts with you. By obeying the law, one can then become a model to encourage others to do the same. Businesses are advised to create induction programme and training facilities to ensure that all employees are aware of the law and their own responsibilities to obey it. This might seem to be a difficult task, but the skill acquired during this course gives me hope to overcome this social issue.

As we grow, we tend to realize that life is made up of challenges that few can be avoided and much need to face. The world has created different systems to provide solutions to the multitude of challenges humanity is facing, but these solutions are benefiting only a little portion of the population leaving a huge number in the dark thus creating a disturbing gap of inequality.  

Among several topics, “What is your calling” made me gained new insight by explaining what Martin Luther King expressed as a definition of work which is for him “How we participate in God’s providence toward His children”. That is the aim of work, to share our ability in the development of our society. We don’t have to work for money only, from time to time, we need to volunteer as well to create a great impact. My calling is to solve social issue. But some of these issues are wicked. A wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impossible to solve. These complicated social issues have several characteristics such as they are unique, have no definitive formulation, difficult to claim success. Among the social issues, poverty is the centerpiece to break before emancipating or controlling the others.

As an entrepreneur, I need to be aware of business trends in order to implement the correct changes without drifting from the organization’s mission. In order to succeed, he or she should be able to correctly explain the existence of the company by clearly defining the “What” the true guts of the focus of the company to investors, employees, and customers. The organization must understand the outputs, outcome, and impact. Nonprofits that want to actually make a difference need to track their activities in some way. Example: “If you are trying to get in shape, you may well try to lose weight.”

Ideas to start a social enterprise in the majority have one common roadblock, funding. Non-profits organizations specifically, struggle to find ways of rising income or sustain what they have without any external assistance. Grants and donations although a short-term program become the main source of income of many organization struggling financially; however, once these programmes cease, the organization’s impact stops. Therefore it is advisable for non-profit organizations to find an approach of developing good marketing strategies to divers their activities thus increasing the chances of more income.

Another tool used to improve communities, the economy, and the environment is Corporate Social. Employees nowadays are seeking out employers that are focused on the triple bottom line (people, planet, and revenue) as they found in companies entities that create solutions for the people. By using the CSR approach, companies improve their image and employees' morale. We are advised to start local and then move from there as a way of starting small with a clear vision before moving to other places. Entrepreneurs should avoid participating in charitable efforts that are not related to their core business focus or violate their ethical standards.

The challenges that every nonprofit organization faces, we believe, involve the need for improved execution in five areas of fundamental concern. These five issues are matters of eternal vigilance for all social sector organizations. Although Social business’ mission deals with social welfare, Hybrid combine social welfare and revenue generation. This way, they create an environmental, socially friendly business that will use its profits (from goods or services) to invest in the organization for growth, never for profits or personal gain. Hybrids business must be an open social mission and have a clear goal, clear practices, and solid infrastructure. Hybrids learn to start small yet growing.  An example is provided in the article “buy one, give one” like TOMS shoes.

The goal of doing business should be to invest in products and services that serve a need, address real challenges, and also can and deserve to be profitable. There is a distinction between impact investing and ESG-based investing. Investing for impact is often described as investing with a “double bottom line” — that is, financial return and a clear, well-articulated set of impact goals. Impact investors are far more proactive in their intention for positive impact as opposed to merely avoiding the negative impacts. There is a wide variety of problem that needs addressing these include the social issues such as humanitarian crisis of refugees, alleviating the impact from climate change-induced extreme weather events, reducing air pollution in cities, addressing ocean plastics, transforming our energy system to clean energy or sustainable ways of food production, to providing access to quality education and healthcare.

As enterprises mature and impact investors remain involved, they are able to pull in funding from mainstream funds. Nonprofit organizations also play a complementary role by providing highly effective boots-on-the-ground capabilities. Nonprofits have typically been active longer than impact companies and have developed cost-effective mechanisms for delivering products and services and implementing business plans. Impact investors could be seen as strategic investors in nonprofits, which in turn play a role in scale-up, talent attraction, and the delivery of financial and operating leverage. One impact investor, for instance, built a sister organization to coach microfinance founders as they set out, and helped them build skills.

The world’s most social and economic problems are unwittingly created in the classrooms because they shape young people’s minds too rigidly say Noble Peace Price Mohammed Yunnus, is a  statement that revolts his mind in finding real solutions for the real people of India. In a major way, economics is responsible for creating the world that we live in. economics has paid no attention to this creative aspect of human beings. It has created a category called “labor” (with no creativity, no ambition, and no sense of sacrifice, pride, or accomplishment) and few as “entrepreneurs” (treated like royalty). Schools made us believe that “All human beings are born to serve under entrepreneurs. But one thing economics didn’t realize is that “All human beings are potential entrepreneurs”. All that an individual needs is an opportunity. The world needs to create those opportunities. For that, Yunnus advised students to always be ready to unlearn and relearn. He believes that poverty is not created by the poor people that he compared to the Bonsai trees. He also doesn’t believe that these people don’t have the training or skill. Poor people work the hardest but get the least. That’s why they are poor.

To survive poverty, people need to learn to pay attention to their welfare. A welfare plan involves promoting self-reliance as a way of life. We have to work to survive. Desire only is not enough. We have to do all we can, then turn to God to ask for what we might yet lack. That way, becoming self-reliant allows us to bless others. Self-reliance involves several facets such as education, health, employment, family home production & storage, family finances, and spiritual strength. A self-reliant individual is one who lives independently of social rules. He or she possesses a set of asset that comes from specific behaviors that result from a set of cognitions. Self-reliant individuals are responsible for their own well-being, self-efficacy, and have a good long-term perspective.

            Most social innovation arise as a revolution to resolve a social issue neglected by relevant officials. Today’s income inequality has defeated the purpose of a generous society. For this reason, as a social innovator, I aim in improving the quality of life through better services and fostering better social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes on the ground by registering a hybrid organization to respond to one or two issues in order to decrease the effect of corruption.