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Dragons Scale Naturally; Social Enterprises Don’t: Here Are Four Tips That Make It Faster and Easier for Every Entrepreneur
If you’re a social entrepreneur, here's some bad news for you: You weren’t born to scale. According to Rob Shelton at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, in reviewing 100 enterprises from the past 10 years, the Center found that less than 10% were able to scale successfully. But he also offers some good news: In spite of the odds, you can learn to scale successfully – if you're willing to shift management gears, learn some new things and push beyond your existing model. Shelton shares a straightforward process that can make scaling possible for every entrepreneur.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Scaling your Social Enterprise – While Handling your Success: A Q&A with Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts
Few people know more about the opportunities and pitfalls of scaling a social enterprise than Alex Counts. A seminal figure in microfinance, he led Grameen Foundation's growth from a $6,000 start-up to a $20 million powerhouse, while playing a key role in the often turbulent expansion of the broader microfinance sector. NextBillion caught up with Counts to discuss his latest book, “Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.” The book – and this Q&A – provide essential advice for social impact leaders working to grow their organizations – and dealing with the new tensions scale can bring.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Overcoming a Roadblock to Scale: How Can We Attract Top Talent to Inclusive Businesses?
Inclusive business is a key way to create sustainable livelihoods for the global poor, but the sector is hitting a roadblock: finding employees. The growing number of inclusive businesses has meant that the demand for talent is outstripping supply. And as existing inclusive businesses scale up, the talent they require has become more specialized. So it's no surprise that in a recent survey of over 100 prominent social enterprises, talent was flagged as a top challenge. Christian Jahn and Susann Tischendorf at the Inclusive Business Action Network discusses the problem – and some emerging solutions.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Growth on Your Own Terms: Three Tips for Scaling Your Social Enterprise – Without Selling Your Soul to Investors
Every development-focused organization faces the challenges of funding, but the issue is especially acute for social entrepreneurs seeking to scale. Funding an expansion often means incorporating the opinions and vision of investors – some of whom may not be aligned with the enterprise’s mission or business plan. Sam Alhadeff at Finding Impact shares some essential advice on how to acquire funding that lets you scale without selling out, based on conversations with several prominent social entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: How To Successfully Scale Up While Keeping In Touch
For many social entrepreneurs, scaling their work to an international stage would fulfill a lifelong goal. Yet, in the process of scaling and operating a global social enterprise, it can be easy to lose sight of operations on the ground, with potentially disastrous consequences.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- scale, social enterprise
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The Social Innovation Paradox: Why it’s Hard to be Both Innovative and Scalable
Feeling good about using an organic cotton tote bag for groceries, instead of disposable plastic bags? Research suggests that you'll need to use it 20,000 times to offset the high water costs of growing the cotton. That's just one example of the unseen web of impacts behind seemingly positive interventions, says Bright Simons, president of mPedigree. Interventions with more concrete impacts are more often penalized for their negative side effects, he says – but they're also more likely to scale. Simons explores the resulting paradox: The most scalable interventions become risk-averse, sacrificing innovation for growth.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Adapt or Die: Accelerating Growth Amid a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
The clean cooking sector has made incredible strides in the past decade, with bilateral organizations and the development community working together to create standardized environmental impact goals. Now the industry is facing a new set of scaling challenges, say Jessica Alderman and Ron Bills of Envirofit International. The two share advice for enterprises seeking to level up, including how to avoid mission creep.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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A stumbling block to growth trips up companies trying to do good
When established social enterprises do secure funding to support their growth it is not necessarily the end to their woes.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa