Welcome: The Significance of Social Enterprise.

I’m excited to be taking part in a new project of Common Wealth Enterprises and to be adding my voice as one of the contributing authors here on this blog.  Through the coming months, I will share my thoughts about the evolution of social enterprises and highlight interesting developments within this sector, both locally and globally.  I hope to be able to raise some interesting topics for friends, business partners, or any other socially-minded individuals who happen to stumble their way to this site.  Failing that, I hope that this process helps me to educate myself to the exciting and growing area of social enterprise – a concept that I believe has real transformative power to help shape the future of our rapidly globalizing world.

A bit about myself and what brings me to my involvement with Common Wealth:  As a research scientist, I am daily steeped in a culture that values innovation and the development of novel technologies.  I trust that many problems can be greatly assisted by technical advances and I take a certain geeky pleasure in fantasizing about where the next scientific breakthroughs can take us!  However, as I’ve become more acquainted with the process of research and development, I’ve also become (intimately) familiar with some of its limitations.  Perhaps the most obvious pitfall being that research is a slow process with many bumps, twists, and turns along the way as one moves towards a goal.  In a world facing a daunting list of accelerating political, social, and environmental problems in the 21^st century, it is not practical to look merely to technological miracles to light our path to the future.  In these times, it seems much more prudent to look around at the tools and tech that we have now, then to start dreaming up ways that they can be used to move us towards where we want to be; as individuals, communities, and as an increasingly merged international culture.

This is one of the things that makes the social entrepreneurship field so exciting to me right now.  Not only does it suggest that positive change can be made towards some of the largest concerns that face our world today, but that the changemakers can operate through organizations that profit and are thereby sustainable.  While this concept is not entirely novel, recent developments in social media and methods for increasing transparency give hope that we can make a real cultural shift in business to reward those who operate towards the common good.  For those of us disgusted at the seemingly endless parade of scandals of solely profit-driven corporate ventures, or frustrated by the limited reach of local non-profits, a cultural shift could not be more welcome.  For these reasons, I hope that we’ll soon be just as likely to find the dreamers, idealists, and creatives clustered around a boardroom table as we are to find them at a studio, lab, or rally.

But, before I get ahead of myself and start to wax too poetic; Welcome!  I hope that you’ll journey with me and join us in exploring existing social enterprises, and in discussing ideas for further innovation in this field.  I look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully learning from some of the many great minds already involved in this area.

Cheers,

D