- Published Date: 14/11/2019
- by: UNDP
Social incubator: a business idea incubation for a sustainable quality society
Today the business concept of social enterprise is a much-talked-about topic. A lot of us may not yet have a full understanding of this type of business and entrepreneurship – although it can be something quite close to home. A social enterprise is a business of which the primary objective is to address one or more social issues by offering sustainable alternatives. And one day when a society or community no longer enjoy benefits provided by the business sector, it has to be able to subsist independently. The idea is what drives entrepreneurs towards the goal of a sustainable social business, which would then also influence the quality of a certain sustainable community. This is how social entrepreneurship is different from the traditional model of business.
Businesses have been coming up with principles or experimenting with different ideas on development innovation and social impact assessment in order to help people make innovative cause-driven plans using a comprehensive and thorough method before putting ideas into real actions. Here are some interesting business projects we can learn from.
1. IKEA Bootcamp
For a global brand like IKEA, there’s hardly anyone who has never heard of it. Besides quality furniture, the Swedish company has recently launched IKEA Bootcamp, a program that searches around the world for start-ups that share IKEA’s development goals of being accessible for all people and affecting a positive impact on the world, people and society. Selected teams of innovators would join an intensive bootcamp led by specialists from various fields for three months. Those with the best ideas would see theirs developed and realized into practical solutions.
more information: https://ikeabootcamp.rainmaking.io/
2. 100%Open
One of London’s noteworthy social business models, 100%Open connects big organizations with people and innovations by making the process simple. Their synergic business model stimulates the creation of open innovation, embracing brainstorming and collaborations to develop the best prototypes through the following seven steps and techniques:
1. Determine business objectives and particulars
2. Prepare for collaboration
3, Find consumer needs
4. Discover new original idea
5. Share and collaborate with team members
6. Develop new product and service prototypes
7. Build sustainable business partnerships
more information : https://www.100open.com/toolkit/
3. School of Changemakers
Good, cause-driven projects are alive and kicking in Thailand. One of which is School of Changemakers, an institution that has been supporting changemakers-to-be for the past five years – whether in terms of resources, funding, knowledge, counselling and community networks. The Bangkok-based social enterprise is constantly exploring the market and social entrepreneurship environment to identify what is lacking in order to bridge the gap of inequality, one of the challenges of bringing about change. There is a helpdesk that provides consultation for entrepreneurs for 2-3 sessions every month, as well as an intensive social incubator program called “Penguin Incubation” that incubates changemakers for eight months, with mentorship and support in every step of the way.
more information : https://www.schoolofchangemakers.com/
4. UNDP’s The Social Inbucation Playbook : Empower grassroots social incubation
Similarly, UNDP has published ‘The Social Incubation Playbook’ to empower grassroots social incubator to be able to support social activists, innovators and social entrepreneurs in their region. The playbook acts as a guideline for capacity development which includes:
1. How to choose your path – begins with knowing and understanding yourself, what you want to do and achieve, and what your goals are.
2. What tools to use and how to make the most of them fittingly. This ranges from understanding your team through observation, motivation and valuing every individual idea to obtain insights for method and solution development; coming up with specific ideas that inform solutions from various perspectives and are used to develop prototypes for users to identify all possibilities; to putting the plan into action. These steps would help make strategy designing and the process of resource collection more sustainable.
Download the playbook here: https://www.th.undp.org/content/thailand/en/home/library/other-publications/the-social-incubation-playbook.html
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