Social Innovations

 Business and Social Issues How do we address social issues? Is business important in addressing social issues? What business models are best in addressing social issues? These questions lead to more questions, but the reality is that a business model is developed to build a customer base and improve profit. Impact can be delivered in similar ways and business models like the lean start-up is extremely applicable to social issues. Lean start-ups get customer feedback from the start of their process and develops products based off customer input rather than starting with a business plan and product and then finding customers for the product. With social innovations, the customers are known, but the way to meet their needs are not always clear. Using the lean start-up model customer input can be used to help develop products that have true impact. This video shows how Bio Lite is innovating and how they have used lean start-up business modeling to impact lives across the world. https...

  Capital, Money, Cash, Donations, Grants, Revenue How do non-profits and social innovators stay 'in business' and have the ability to pursue their mission? Money. Without the 'business' of getting money, it is very difficult to carry out missions to make social improvements. There are grants, loans and donations that may provide an influx of capital and help with reaching goals or providing services, but those are not always consistent or reliable. A business component that generates revenue will help social innovators fund their programs and continue their impact. image from skoll.org Vera Cordeiro is someone worth knowing about. In reading about her this week, I am struck by her tenacity, vision and the power of embroidered sheets. She saw a problem. As a pediatrician she treated patients who went home to unsanitary living situations and returned to the hospital for further care. She recognized that all the medical care she could provide would not heal children who d...

  image from: https://www.beachcombingmagazine.com/blogs/news/the-starfish-is-not-a-fish Starfish hurling I have always liked the parable of the starfish about the child who is actively throwing starfish back into the ocean and when questioned about the difference he could possibly make considering the vast amount of starfish on the shore he replies that he made a difference to that one. I live near the Pacific Ocean and am well versed in tide changes, exposed starfish and the ecosystems that interact with starfish. I have never considered that hurling starfish into the sea to "save" them might actually be a negative thing. Are the ways that we help others productive or enabling? Do they disrupt natural consequences or cause problems that we did not foresee? Is the way I engage in community service the best use of my energy, time and talents or is it flinging things into the wide world thinking that I made a difference for whatever I removed from a situation and hurled into a...

  DESIGN THINKING Empathize, Define , Ideate , Prototype , Test     Design thinking allows innovation when looking at social issues. Empathizing and understanding the people involved and effected by issues. Homelessness and poverty are not sterile abstract issues, they effect people and impact generational trajectories. Design thinking begins with empathizing and understanding the individuals involved and working to define problems through the lens of empathy and individual understanding. After empathizing and define, ideation and brainstorming can begin to come up with potential solutions. Prototyping a solution and testing are final steps that  are informed by the foundational design steps. This type of thinking allows for a true attempt to understand problems before proposing solutions. Erzsebet Szekeres Hungarian Social Innovator     I am so impressed by Ms. Szekeres and her ability to use design thinking to create innovation that effects an entire...

     There are big problems in this world. Some are wicked problems that are so interconnected that it seems impossible to ever truly solve them. Things like poverty and homelessness have a multitude of root causes that contribute to the issues. Lack of education, illiteracy, substance abuse, mental illness...the list of factors to some social problems seems never ending. BUT  we can make a difference! Susan Matteucci! The story of her drive to make a difference, a life changing and generationally changing difference to an underserved, traditionally disadvantaged population where she lived has had impact in a huge way. You can learn more about SCC and what they do here: http://www.southwestcreations.com/ I am so impressed with how asking for volunteer sewers at a church meeting and then sewing three times a week in a church's room has grown to a multi-million dollar organization that supports women and their families as they provide employment and social support...