Where Did Social Enterprise Come From, Anyway?
“Businesses, even those outside the realm of greedy corporate drones, are designed to earn a profit. Other priorities, like environmental sustainability or job creation, are reached only through happy accidents or marketing ploys to help companies make more money. Surely, if you’re raking in the dough, you can’t be making a difference—at least not on purpose.
This outdated vision of commerce has multiple origins, but if asked, most students of social enterprise will point an accusing finger at Milton Friedman’s 1970 New York Times Magazine essay “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits.” Friedman’s point (though slightly more nuanced than the title or its interpretation might suggest) was that corporate executives have a responsibility to maximize profit. Frittering away money on other objectives—say, fighting poverty—would cheat stockholders, employees, and customers out of cash that is rightfully theirs.”
(via @GOOD)
Is the Social Enterprise Bubble About to Burst?
“Over the past two months, GOOD has profiled organizations in Africa using market solutions to solve water and sanitation challenges, improve agriculture, and promote public health. Social enterprises like these are transforming development work, and social entrepreneurs are being hailed as rock stars.
But social enterprise isn’t the first trend to hit the development sector. From women’s empowerment to “sustainability” to microfinance, the aid community has moved through its stash of silver bullets. What makes social enterprise any different?”
(via GOOD.is)
Here are three amazing infographics from GOOD.is on the clean water issue globally and its impact on humankind.
What Would the World Look Like if These People Had Access to Clean Water Every Day?
Mobile phones have been adopted faster than any other technology in history. There were 4.7 billion mobile cellular subscriptions in the world in 2009 (World Bank)
