What is socially impactful entrepreneurship?
A new form of entrepreneurship has now emerged: socially impactful entrepreneurship, or MIO. Solving social problems is the starting point for this form of entrepreneurship. MIO thus goes further than just the environment, greenery and nature. And it works both ways. On the one hand, towards the impact that an organization has, simply by being there. The way in which an organization uses existing (natural) resources and how it compensates for any damage. Natural raw materials are needed, production processes produce harmful emissions, production sites affect the environment and the health of local residents can be at risk.
In this respect, MIO builds on the old CSR. On the other hand, it is about the impact that an organization wants to make. How she purposefully helps to put social problems on the agenda and solve them. Socially impactful entrepreneurship is currently the way in which companies can distinguish themselves. The issue is the most important starting point.
Impact occurs when companies provide solutions to social issues. For that reason issue thinking the must have of the 21st century. The other points are content, identity, intuition, insight, intention, innovation, internal support, integrity and inspiration. We briefly explain these eleven I's below.
What are the objectives of socially impactful entrepreneurship
The starting point of this form of entrepreneurship is solving social problems.
Who is involved in socially impactful entrepreneurship?
B-Corp organizations
A B Corp (abbreviation of Benefit Corporations) is a company that pursues social goals in addition to business goals. B-Corps must meet strict guidelines and are certified by B Lab. In the Netherlands, approximately fifty organizations have already been certified, including Tony's Chocolonely, Moyee Coffee, Triodos and Dopper.
Social enterprises
Social enterprises have been working to solve social issues for years. Think of Plastic Whale or Moyee Coffee. However, they are not (yet) able - often due to a lack of investment power - to actually achieve profit or rapid growth. This is different at large companies. They can develop successful business cases like no other and are increasingly taking on the role of contributing to solving social problems.
The eleven i's of MIO
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- 1. Impact – it seems obvious, but it is important that the organization indicates that it wants to generate impact and also has internal support and financing for this.
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- 2. Issues – one or more issues are always the starting point for socially impactful entrepreneurship. Issues with which the organization wants to profile and distinguish itself and to which it wants to actively commit itself. The issue must match the
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- social positioning, competencies, identity and values of the organization and should not lead to discussions that put pressure on the reputation of the organization.
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- 3. Content – content is always central to socially impactful entrepreneurship. What an organization does must be correct and acceptable to its stakeholders. This means that she must actually delve into what is going on around an issue, what caused the issue and how it has grown, who is involved, etc.
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- 4. Identity – the social issue that an organization is going to solve must fit its identity and the primary business process. It must be logical that this organization is working on this issue. Only then will the organization be credible and authentic and will it eventually be accepted as an authority in this field.
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- 5. Intuition – your own intuition is leading in socially impactful entrepreneurship. The organization or management must have a good feeling about the choices and trust that their own values are correct and convincing.
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- 6. Insight – into current and future developments – what will change and what does this mean for the organization and the choices and motivation of stakeholders and customers? What do they want and why and can the organization do something for them?
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- 7. Intention – the intention behind the choice of a social issue must be correct, the organization must not have a hidden agenda.
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- 8. Innovation – when creating impact, innovative solutions or solution directions are always necessary.
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- 9. Internal support – the solution to the issue must be supported internally. On the one hand, to motivate employees to contribute to the ultimate success. And on the other hand, to ensure that all employees take the issue and the way to deal with it into account in all their work, choices and contacts.