Socially Strategic Enterprise: Doing Well While You Do Good

Did you ever see the Academy Award-winning movie “A Beautiful Mind?”  It was based on real-life Nobel Laureate, John Nash — a mathematician and economist who proved that collaboration rather than competition creates the greatest benefit for each individual AND for all.  He proved greatest abundance is possible when we include everyone in our thinking.

Now, more than ever, this is extremely important to understand. The recent confluence of crises (e.g. environmental, financial, educational, healthcare, etc.) are highly indicative that the only way through is going to require us to work together.  No longer can we be concerned only with our own small piece of the world (and for purposes of this blog post, that means our own businesses).  We need to work together, and we need to work together now.

Those who are even slightly familiar with me and my consulting practice, know that I am all about promoting the social good.  I mean, hey – it’s the name of my company.  How could you miss that, right?

But what you might not know, is that I have a very strong conviction in the power of business and commerce to be a force for positive change in our world.  It is my belief (and I’m not alone in this) that capitalism in and of itself, is a neutral energy.  It is neither good nor bad.  It is actually the values and energies of those who use capitalism and its structures that determine the outcomes.

So what does this mean for you?  Have you thought about your own business in terms of how it affects your community, your employees, and the planet?  Just because you offer a mainstream product or service, doesn’t mean you can’t make your business the highest positive expression of your values and beliefs. You truly don’t have to sell something specifically green or socially conscious in order to make a difference.  You just need to think in terms of where your business is right now and ask:  Is this the best we can do?

Social Enterprise and social entrepreneurship are fast becoming the new model of business.  If you haven’t yet heard these terms, don’t worry — it’s never too late to explore a good idea.

A social enterprise is one that takes the best practices from the for-profit sector and the best intentions from the nonprofit sector and marries them into a commerce-driven force for good.  If that sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, read on.

There are many ways to take an existing business or nonprofit to the level of social enterprise.  Here are just a few:

• Figure out what you stand for. If you don’t know what your passion(s) are, you can’t bring them into your work or business.  So first, understand who you are at a basic core level.  Why are you on this earth anyway?  What is your purpose in life?  What legacy do you want to leave for the rest of us?
• Align your personal values and vision with what you sell or offer the world. You can not be two different people (one kind at home, and another kind at work) for very long without becoming ineffective, stressed out, and just plain fed up.  For example, if you are passionate about the environment, make sure that what you’re selling doesn’t negatively impact the environment.  And if you don’t know, find out.  Examine everything.
  
• Communicate your values and vision to those around you. Your employees, customers, vendors and community need to know who you are too.  When you express your unique perspective, you make it easier for people to connect with you on a deeper level.  They understand why they want to stick around and help you (employees) or buy your stuff (customers) or support your efforts (community).
• Understand your value to the world and charge accordingly. People will always buy what they value.  And if you are providing a valuable service or product that helps promote your vision of how the world could be, you can’t help but create positive change and do well financially.
• Collaborate with like-minded organizations to solve a community problem. Once you know what you stand for and what matters most, it will be easier for you to find those who feel the same way and who are looking to work with a business like yours to solve the same issues.  Collaboration is powerful leverage that can be used to help all parties involved realize a vision quicker, easier and more economically.

Being “Socially Strategic” means your business focuses on more than just Profit.  It means you also promote the well-being of People and the Planet.   This triple bottom line is the new wave of business practice and is something that gives me great hope for our collective future.

Do you have additional advice on the topic?  Please share it with all of us!

5 Marketing Tips for Businesses that want to Change the World

If I only had a nickle for every time someone asked me, “What’s the best way to do ______ {fill in with your choice of marketing channel/idea}?”

Yep, I’d be a very rich woman.

For some reason, even well-seasoned business people have been known to ask this question — even when they know the answer:  “It depends.”

It depends on many, many factors too numerous to list here.  But for the sake of argument, let’s just start with these 5 things:

1. Your Vision

What do you stand for?  What are you passionate about? And what is your vision of a perfect world?

Can you define it?  Really?

Then complete this sentence:  “I envision a world where everyone ____.”

If your vision were realized, would it put you out of business?  It should.  As a social entrepreneur, your vision needs to describe a world so perfect that you can understand, and explain to others, what’s currently missing in our reality.

2. Your Mission

Once you know your end game (your vision), you then need to know how you specifically will realize that picture.

This is your mission statement.  Every successful organization has one.  It keeps them focused.  And focused intention is key to getting somewhere.

If your mission statement is too long or too fancy or just plain too much, it won’t be able to do its job.  So make sure you have one that you can memorize.  (This is a sure way to test for length).  And it needs to be clear:  what are you trying to do?  And how are you doing it?  Period.

3. Your Target Market

Have you done the research?  Do you know who you are trying to reach?  Do you know what gets them out of bed in the morning? Where they hang out? And whether or not they even care about what your product/service/idea?

If you don’t know these things, stop what you’re doing right now and find out.

Find out the demographics and psychographics of your ideal customers, clients or audience members.  Then write up a profile for each of them.  (Yes, you probably have more than one.)

Make this profile at least one full page of detail.  And give the ideal person a name.  This will make it easier to write your marketing copy (because you’ll know who you’re talking to).

4. Your Strategy (aka Your Plan)

Do you have any idea how you will proceed? Do you have measurable goals?

If not, stop what you’re doing right now and work on this one.  Really. It’s that important.

The only way you will ever never know if you’ve been successful, is by choosing specific goal(s) that you will accomplish and then laying out a step-by-step plan to get there.

5. Be Flexible

Yes, you want to follow the plan.  But stuff happens.  The economy shifts.  Your ideal clients evolve.  Things change.  Get used to it.

Just pay attention.  Listen to your customers.  Listen to your audience.  And make adjustments to your plan when appropriate.

If you do all of these things persistently, you can’t help but see positive results. I promise. And for those of you in business to change the world, that’s all the incentive you need, right?

Do you have other tips for social entrepreneurs?  If so, share!

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Business Week releases list of Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs

Business Week's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs

Earlier this month, Business Week published its list of Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs in the US.  (No, I didn’t make the list…this year.)

Over 200 impressive nominations streamed in, representing a range of industries and target markets.  The magazine then culled through those, whittling the group to 25 finalists. In April they posted profiles in a slide show and encouraged readers to vote for the company they felt held the most promise. By the end of the month, over 12,500 votes had been cast.

This final list of five is quite impressive, and I hope to be interviewing each of the winners on Planet Good Radio in the coming weeks.  The five are:

No. 1 Online bookseller Better World Books. The 200-person company makes money selling books it gets for free from a network of individuals and institutions across the country.

No. 2 Health-care management and consulting company, Impact Makers, constructs disease-management programs, and performs IT work, systems consulting, and program audits.

No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 The next three runners-up: organic yogurt king Stonyfield Farm; university lecture video site Academic Earth; and San Francisco’s sustainable fish purveyor Clean Fish

You can read profiles on each of the top vote-getters as well as the rest of the finalists in Business Week’s slide show.