Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/54913
Competing for Ideas preneurship backgrounds might work their way into governmental and public policy positions. of small startups and charitable organizations, say these experts. Not only are there specialized consulting firms focused on social entrepreneur- ship, but established global firms like McKinsey have divisions devoted to these ventures. "The same is true in finance," Mair adds. "There is a whole new industry shaping up in responsible investment and social impact investment." Students who take such jobs are set to make a difference. Says Oxford's Hartigan, "Even when students go into mainstream con- sulting, they still carry that fanati- cism around. We had a student who went to work at Morgan Stanley and started its whole microfinance department." At the other end of the spectrum are the social entrepreneurship majors who start their own com- panies. For instance, recent Babson graduates launched a business called Give Back a Pack. When any retail customer buys a backpack, its price includes a second back- pack stuffed with school supplies that is donated to children in devel- oping communities. In the future, even more oppor- tunities will open up, Mair pre- dicts. That's because she expects there to be more dual-degree pro- grams between business schools and governance schools, meaning more graduates with social entre- 8. Keep fine-tuning the program. Once a school claims that it's com- mitted to social entrepreneurship, it has to make sure the curricu- lum and the university operations reflect that, says Kiser. "At Bab- son, our trucks use biodiesel fuel because it's hard to espouse the principles of sustainability if you don't understand the challenges," she says. "A school starts to teach differently when it authentically acts on the beliefs it promotes." If a school isn't committed to its social entrepreneurship programs, Hartigan notes, those initiatives can get trapped in what she calls the academic ghetto. "Some uni- versity social entrepreneurship programs remind me of the gender diversity programs at big corpora- tions. You have one poor woman in the corner screaming, but no one is paying any attention." To stay on course, these educa- tors also recommend that schools choose faculty champions for their social entrepreneurship pro- grams and stay abreast of current content in publications such as Stanford University's Social Inno- vation Review. Smilor suggests that schools expand their own perspec- tives on teaching social entrepre- neurship by inviting faculty from other schools to talk about what they do and how they do it. Above all, says Kiser, schools should stay connected to what stu- dents want. "They're only in class for a certain amount of time, so look at what they choose for their co-cur- ricular activities," she says. "If you can do it and still stay true to your Oxford's Pamela Hartigan is also founding partner of Volans Ventures, which builds scalable solutions to world challenges. I hate the term social entrepreneurship. To me, any kind of entrepreneurship has to be social entrepreneurship. Any time you put "social" in front of it, you just diminish it. That being said, I see key differences between social entrepreneurs and those heading nonprofits. Many nonprofits are palliative or advocacy-oriented organiza- tions. They're trying to solve a social problem, but they aren't addressing the root causes. Social entrepreneurs want to address root causes. They want to trans- form systems and practices. They want to create sustainable sources of funding. Our Emerge Venture Lab competi- tion is an idea competition rather than a business plan competition. Students submit synopses of their ideas, and a panel selects the most promising ideas after first interviewing the team. The center accompanies and mentors the teams for the next year, then chooses the final winners, who are the ones whose ideas seem most advanced and likely to succeed. We think it's important to look at ideas, because no entrepre- neur I ever met started with a business plan. As Bill Gates says, "By the time you have the business plan, it's too late." core, integrate the passion of the stu- dents into your business courses." These academics are convinced that social entrepreneurship is becoming part of a movement that simply can't be overlooked. Says Kiser, "Creating both social and economic value is what a good busi- ness in the 21st century does. You can't operate a business today if you are not aware of the social environ- ment and all the other dimensions of your impact." That same aware- ness is percolating through all levels of business school in every corner of the world. BizEd May/June 2011 31