Quite happy to say that our concept of fortnight theme has taken the discussions to next level and we do plan to work more on industry level themes (as requested by a lot of readers).
This fortnightly theme is social entrepreneurship - we plan to cover relevant ventures in social entrepreneurship space, clear out some of the misconception around the subject, and of course, talk to social entrepreneurs.
If you believe we should cover few specific ventures/topics, please let us know.
Can I own a House, a BMW, a MaC Pro, Holiday once a year etc…are the most common questions for Being a Social Entrepreneur. Answer is YES for all the above questions.
For being a Social Entrepreneur, you need to have the passion, a passion to solve a pain point. This is the key.
A common trend which you see in Social Entrepreneurs is that they are not Serial Entrepreneurs. They start with a problem and provide various dimensions to the solution of the problem.
Like this, there are many mis-conceptions for people to become social entrepreneurs. If you can cover as many topics as you can on this, it woudl be valuable insight to people.
Let me know if I can help in anyone in this topic.
Social Entrepreneurship would be an excellent topic. As, not many in India are even aware of the term besides techies, bloggers, entrepreneurs, media etc. People often confuse social entrepreneurship with social work, non-profits and no business models.
Probably, your angle of approach to this topic could provide a better understanding.
Defining social entrepreneurship is paramount. As Hari and Utkarsh mentioned above you can do good and yet make profit.
Comat Technologies is one such company which has done just this. There is a 3 in one offer to rural areas which is simply irresistable.
http://www.comat.com/
This should be exciting 2 weeks for all of us.
There is this really good term glossary for social business/enterprise on: http://www.clearlyso.com
Whilst i agree that defining Social Entrepreneurship is important, i don’t think it is more important to show its breadth and variety.
Many social entrepreneurs do many diferent things and with differing degrees of social impact or social mission.
The important thing is that social entrepreneurs start ‘social’ businesses and enterprises, which seek to tackle social and/or environmental problems through commerce. This is surely the turning point of our time and reflects a growing shift in peoples attitudes towards others, towards their natural environment and towards business as a ‘REAL’ tool for positive change.
A great debate, Simon