A similar delimma I met this Summer

This Summer, I worked in a social venture called the One Education. I feel that what I read in “How to take a social venture to scale” is exactly what I met in July. One Education is a social enterprise strives to bring together the best educational practices and innovative ideas to promote leadership skills and social responsibility in middle school and high school students in China. It was founded in 2011, and 2014 is their breakeven year. It is a small starts-up with about 10 full-time & part-time employees. Working directly with CEO Shell for three months, I found that we are facing the same dilemma as Paul mentioned

First, Staffing. One of our main business is to provide standard or customized social innovation and design thinking curriculum to schools. This is a human-capital intensive service which means that we need to keep launching projects to keep breakeven. However, most elites are seeking for big brands, international companies and Fortune 500. Thus, how can we attract talents is essential for us to survive.

Secondly, Alliance-Building. In China, the true decision-makers in education market are the families and schools of students. Parents will consider the reputation by “Big name” of sponsors and partners. Schools tend to choose training suppliers with international background. Based on this consumer behavior analysis, capacity building is so important to us, which determine the customer loyalty and market share. So, we need to find large organizations to partner with other entities.

Thirdly, lobbying. Due to the centralized political system in China, any campaigns related to policy-transformation are not likely to be authorized and even fail before beginning. But the Lobbying strategy does remind me a similar way- acquiring the qualification by government. If succeed, the government will be our most effective sponsor who can use a top-town recommendation to reach numerous potential customers-schools.

As a self-sufficient enterprises, we can make money by seeking and operating projects. Therefore, we are not likely to meet the challenge from funders/sponsors in Kimberly’s article. But I agree with her that to evaluate the social impact we should focus on the shared contribution rather than direct attribution.

After this summer, I deeply feel that being a social entrepreneur is a lonely, tough, time-consuming career. But as Huch said: “The worst thing that can happen for the poorest people is that the next generation of superstar entrepreneurs ends up in Silicon Valley.” Yes, to be a social entrepreneur is not rich, not comfortable, always lasting. But the world needs people who can make a real difference. Everyone is a changemaker.