Reflection document on Social Entrepreneurship Saturday

Social Entrepreneurship movement is considered as next big thing and start ups of the development sector. The time needed to solve the social issues is vast, but thanks to the social enterprise movement, these issues are finally being fixed using sustainable business models and market forces. One of the most important tasks for the entrepreneur is to gain clarity about customers’ needs and willingness to pay. This helps in establishing a sustainable business model and create social impact alongside profits for external shareholders. That makes the social entrepreneur different from persons involved with Charity, For Profit Business and Government.

I will quote these three articles as a source of my brief understanding:

• Dream Bigger, Plan Better: 7 Tips to Keep in Mind Before Starting a Social Enterprise
• Is social enterprise becoming a reactionary force?
• If the Goal is Scale, Promote Theft

I attended a lecture on Mr S K Shelgikar on 25th November 2017. Mr S K Shelgikar, Advisor for Yunus Social Business Fund was the speaker for the talk at Transforming India Initiative - ALC that was revolving around the concepts of Social Entrepreneurship. The target audience were TII Fellows and internal team of consultant at ALC India.

Social enterprise as per me is applying a market-driven approach to addressing social issues and creating positive community change. The fundamentals of social enterprise became more clear today. The best part of the class was three principle on which social enterprise is based : Not for profit maximization, Serving the unserved and Done by personal choice while enjoying the invested time.

Mr. Shelgikar gave a lot of emphasis on mental experiments. They are the good intellectual exercises that drives people towards setting up the goal. I was intrigued on hearing about: Harm Principle, Theory of Regulation and Lexical ordering of virtues. There was so much quoted from Bhagvad Gita, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Immanuel Kant. This was heavy philosophical stuff that has bounced above the intellectual capacity. He also defined two uncharacteristic traits of Social entrepreneur: Fully convinced in disconnect between inputs and outputs & Empathy for others.

I personally assume the challenge remains in making social entrepreneurship rewarding. Perspectives from employee is different from the perspective of the social entrepreneur. Still, there is good amount of information that has to be reflected and may help me grow as Intrapreneur.

Life in ALC India

I have joined at ALC India Limited today. I have moved into consultancy act from programme implementation role. I hope my work will take me places and the initial exposure that was localized in the nature and context will be broadened. Tangible gains go hand in hand with the intangible ones in career of every employee. There will be business relation to establish, field tours to get insight, policy level to conduct and markers to lay for the future. Hoping this life will not be fully devoted to the job and conforming to its mindless dictates.

When I quit the job with Chaitanya, I almost felt I had unfinished business to do. I felt that my reputation with ADS and in peers had been very good. And then you have to start searching for job after a gap, it is tough. It knocked me out for few interviews. I have seen a lot of ups and down with the career even a pink slip. I have emerged stronger after experiencing harsh realities of the lives early on in his career. When you get on a learning path, it is the best time of your life. Every day means something, every lesson provides the clarity you clamour for. Life is not about doing it alone. It's about learning from those who have already achieved great heights, and adding that history to one's own built-up.

"Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained" - Marie Curie