If you've been interacting with a non-profit, or have come close to a business school lately, it's likely that you have heard the term ‘social entrepreneurship' thrown around. The ‘soc-ent' bug is spreading like wildfire across the United States , as non-profits, corporations, and schools are scrambling to become a part of this phenomenon.

What is ‘social entrepreneurship' exactly? There is no one specific definition agreed upon in academia, but a general explanation would be: the application of creativity, innovation, and market principles to solve social problems. Or more simply, the use of entrepreneurship to solve a social mission.

My name is Kesav Mohan. This year I am fortunate to be on the Duke University Enterprising Leadership Incubator Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship (or ELI Fellowship for short). The fellowship takes me to five different countries around the world for seven weeks each. In each country, I take on a different internship with a different social entrepreneur – with the purpose of getting on the ground experience with people who are solving difficult problems in creative ways. The places and internships are:

-- In Caracas , Venezuela , I worked with a non-profit organization called Eureka which had one purpose: to promote innovation in Venezuela . The nation does not encourage nor reward creativity. The non-profit's attitude was different than many non-profits I had worked for: their philosophy ‘was that to heal the sick, the best thing was to promote what was good about society (instead of trying to solve what was bad).' They fulfilled their purpose through a multitude of events: holding invention fairs and creativity competitions, as well as special niche projects which focused on community-based solutions to general problems.

-- In El Paso , Texas , I worked with the Newspaper Tree (the publication that you are currently reading), which has a mission to provide better local news. As the world becomes more global, information more rapidly created and disseminated, and news sources become concentrated amongst global conglomerates, an attempt to accurately report local news and provide it in a new medium (online – instead of paper form), represents an innovative solution to a common problem.

-- In Dublin , Ireland , I worked with the Trinity College MBA Programme, and helped institute a social entrepreneurship programme into the curriculum. The idea is to expose MBA students to this new field, and encourage them to use their MBA skills to solve social issues. Non-profits often have a dearth of MBA skills – and by instituting a social entrepreneurship component into their curriculum, the TMBA has a chance to expose the next generation of Irish business leaders to new methods of solving social problems.

-- In Dubai , United Arab Emirates , I interned with Dubai Humanitarian City (DHC), a branch of the national government attempting to provide a series of strong support services for NGOs. Dubai , within five to six hours by plane of 75 percent of the world's humanitarian crises, is blessed with excellent logistics (or transportation services), and has access to phenomenal financial resources. The work I did with DHC varied from week to week – but I did get a keen insight into an organization which will rapidly become one of the most transformative forces in humanitarian aid.

-- In Ottawa, Canada, I am currently working with the Ottawa Inner City Health Project, an organization which is delivering innovative high-quality health care to the “lost” population – the homeless, alcoholics, and the mentally disadvantaged – in a cost-efficient manner, saving the public health care system a substantial amount of money.

As I sit in the last internship of this year, I realize how much I have learned about social entrepreneurship and its place in society. In truth, I've found it difficult to tell if social entrepreneurship is new, or if society has finally come up with a name for something which has existed for a long time.

What I can write in good faith is that the social entrepreneurs that I have interacted with have been imbued with certain characteristics that make them more able to innovatively solve social problems. Why do I feel these characteristics are important? Because to a fault, social entrepreneurs are people who have the capacity to move ideas into reality – and perhaps, even if we are not solving social missions ourselves, we can absorb these characteristics to better our personal lives.

The characteristics that social entrepreneurs share are:

(1) Social entrepreneurs are here to solve a local niche problem, and they have an idea to do so.

Social entrepreneurs are not here to solve all of the world's problems. Rather, social entrepreneurs find a niche problem and come up with an idea to try to solve it very, very well.

Social entrepreneurs try to solve a problem that exists within a cultural context. More often than not, I've found that social entrepreneurs are from the community, state, country, region where the problem exists. Because they have an understanding of the social, cultural, economic, and political issues surrounding their issue, social entrepreneurs can better solve their target problem.

(2) Social entrepreneurs build teams.

Successful social entrepreneurs are always building teams to support and move their idea forward. They embedded their solution within a web of relationships -- the stronger those relationships are, the more likely the idea is going to succeed. Social entrepreneurs are acutely aware that a team is stronger than any one individual, that many voices (in concert) will almost always be more effective than one voice, and that various individuals can bring together a variety of skills to solve a problem.

(3) Social entrepreneurs fix the problem, not the blame.

Social entrepreneurs, because of the nature of their work, are always involved in a state of crisis. They are trying to solve difficult issues. Many operate in an environment where budgets are tight and deadlines are tighter. In short, when a social entrepreneur tries to solve an issue, things are always going wrong.

Almost to a person, I have found that social entrepreneurs rarely are interested in fixing the blame when something went wrong. Rather, they have an acute interest in solving the problem and getting a solution back on track.

•  Social entrepreneurs engage in the efficient use of resources.

Social entrepreneur organizations clearly focus on the efficient use of resources. This characteristic may be because they have few resources available and must use them sparingly; or because they are governed by the market mentality of limiting waste. They may need to solve a problem (for example, how to bandage wounds?) or use existing resources creatively (what can we do with these spare bandages?).

But the key point is that the social entrepreneurs I have met are always focusing on two questions:

(A) What do we need, and how do we get it?

(B) What do we have, and how do we use it?

Additionally, the social entrepreneurs I have interacted with keep tabs on the bottom line. They often calculate something called ‘Capital Social Return on Investment,' which is basically how much good they are doing divided by how much money they are spending. They move out of esoteric zones (we are feeding the hungry – please give us funds) towards more solid, honest calculations (we are feeding 350 people for $175 – so we can feed one person for every 50 cents you give us). By providing donors with hard numbers, social entrepreneurs enable their benefactors to get a clear understanding of how money is being used. Social entrepreneurs can also use their capital social return on investment as a barometer to determine how cost-effectively they are fulfilling their mission.

•  Finally, social entrepreneurs seem to share the same philosophy: Decide. Act. Adapt. Overcome. Evolve. (Repeat).

Social entrepreneurs seem to share a certain mindset. They make decisions and act upon them quickly. When they face problems, they adapt their strategy to overcome those problems. Finally, they are willing to evolve their solutions to solve the problem – instead of holding carefully to a solution because it is dear to their hearts.

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