The Future of Social Innovation and Enterprise:Is this the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Social Enterprise represents a means of putting something greater next to the bottom line of a business. Double and triple bottom line companies provide environmental and social impact as part of their mission and link it to the success of their business. Companies such as Facebook, Tesla, and Patagonia show a trend of large companies have adopted social and environmental impact as part of their bottom line.

These companies are changing the landscape for what it means to be a successful company. For example, according to an article on Fast Company, Facebook’s Solar Drone project seeks to provide otherwise inaccessible to infrastructure areas with internet access(Terdiman). In addition to providing this service the project seeks to take advantage of solar power due to its environmental benefits. While watching to Facebook drone take-off with Mark Zuckerburg and his team smiling, I began to wonder if that is what the face of social innovation is meant to be: a CEO of a successful tech giant who has turned his efforts to social causes. This is not to belittle the impact of large companies and their social impact. In fact, these are the more public faces that propel social enterprise to the front pages of the news which is beneficial in gaining traction. I am concerned that this may be the only public face of ‘successful’ social entrepreneurship.

Studies that show America at the bottom of developed nations in terms of “tolerance and inclusion” and “health and wellness”, as pointed out by the Bloomberg article “America Is Now a ‘Second Tier’ Country”(Roston). The question is can social innovation solve this problem? Currently social innovation is represented by the Patagonias, Facebooks, and even Goldman Saks, but seems to be lacking a voice from the average American. The success of social innovation in addressing the social problems the United States faces depends on whether social enterprise is accessible to the people. The people being not only the large well-funded companies or the highly educated. This is where social impact investing can have its greatest effect. Funding enterprises that aim at the source of social inequity and are made up of the constituents that face it represents the direction social innovation must travel.

In this way social enterprise must serve as a mechanism to the American Dream. That is no matter where you are in the social ladder you can achieve a greater status through business. Aiming this at the general population seeks to provide more people with less resources the means of starting social ventures. Therefore, it should be the goal of social impact investors to propel innovation not just among the already successful. 

References:

Terdiman, Daniel. Facebook Completes First Test Flight Of Its Giant Internet Drone. Fast Company. 2016.

Roston, Eric. America Is Now a ‘Second Tier’ Country. Bloomberg. 2017.