DeSE Homework Question

In response to the question: "What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the semester?" I would say that I hope to have an outline for a website targeted at increasing awareness about new prosthetic technologies among the amputee community. I am seriously considering taking this project further and developing it into a fully functioning website, so an outline of a business plan would probably be helpful as well.

Mid-Term Crit Presentation

Dese presentation 4.27.10

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The Power of Unreasonable People

One of our reading assignments for this week was to read the first chapter of "The power of unreasonable people," by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. This chapter dealt with defining three different types of social businesses: the non-profit, the hybrid, and the for-profit social business. On the whole I felt this was a good explanation of these three different business models (although I felt they kept pushing the term "unreasonable," I guess in an effort to justify their title;)

One question that I still have, though is where the line is drawn between the hybrid model and the for-profit model. It seems as though in the examples they gave, the hybrid models were both earning modest profits, but that they were investing the profits back into their companies and expanding their growth. Is this not what is generally done in a for-profit business model too? Or is it a question of how much profit is being made, and whether efforts are being made to maximize that profit?

Team Design Project

We have split up into teams to try to address specific areas of need in Tibetan life. My group has chosen to look into Women's Health issues, and more specifically, address the fact this region has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. For our initial presentation, we prepared three boards to look into specific aspects of a potential solution:

4 Day quick design

For this assignment, the class was given a brief introduction to the Himalayan lifestyle. We were given 4 days to create some designs to deal with common concerns among agricultural and nomadic villages in the Hilalayas.

Response to "Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for a Definition" by Roger L. Martin and Sally Osberg

In stark contrast to the last article, this paper advocates a tighter definition for "Social Entrepreneurship" to limit it to direct actions which ultimately create and sustain a new equilibrium that more fairly addresses the needs of a previously marginalized segment of society. One of the points in this article that most resonated with my point of view is the belief that "a successful shift (of equilibrium) does not depend on the creation of a single venture, but on the appropriation and replication of the model." In other words, the change created in the world must be so well established that it no longer requires the constant input of skills or services from the original entrepreneur. The sustainability of the venture is what separates social entrepreneurship from other charitable organizations, and what makes the eventual success of these ventures such an exciting challenge.

Response to "Reshaping Social Entrepreneurship" by Paul Light

One of the overarching themes of this article by Paul Light is that the most commonly accepted definition of "Social Entrepreneurship" is too narrow, and places too much emphasis on the individual, rather than the organization, or the "pipeline of support" that goes into making the social venture successful. His argument is that this places more emphasis on who the entrepreneurs are, rather than what they have accomplished. To some extent, I would say he has a point - it is hard to imagine an article about Grameen bank without it mentioning Muhammad Yunus. However, this focus on the individual leaders is what gives a human face to the overarching corporation. Understanding the attributes necessary to become a social entrepreneur (traits such as innovativeness, perseverance, and the ability to market an idea) helps prospective entrepreneurs to observe and better prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead. Knowing what a particular organization has accomplished is only part of the story - but it is an understanding of the skills and traits necessary to lead the social change that is translatable to future social entrepreneurs seeking new ventures in potentially dramatically different circumstances.