Initiatives help blend skills of the corporate world with the social agenda of NGOs.
Social entrepreneurship is increasingly finding its way into B-school campuses to facilitate future managers to choose the right business strategies, keeping in mind their impact on society and the environment.
With the focus on the aspect of social responsibility for business leaders of tomorrow, management institutes across the country are coming up with various initiatives to promote social entrepreneurship.
According to the business schools, the initiatives help blend the entrepreneurial skills of the corporate world with the social purpose of non-governmental organisations.
And the initiatives from the business schools are also luring an increasing crop of professionals preferring to take the path of becoming social entrepreneurs by shunning cushy jobs.
The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) recently played host to EXIMIUS, its first entrepreneurship summit in August. Capping the summit was a panel discussion on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’, featuring eminent speakers who have dedicated their lives to this cause.
At Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, the interesting concept will soon make its debut into Xpressions ’08, the annual inter-bschool meet at XIMB through ‘Spardha’, the social entrepreneurship game.
“We are planning to introduce ‘Spardha’ with the objective of developing the education and infrastructure of villages through micro-planning. The participating teams will submit the plans for a particular village and the plan of the winning team may be implemented on a larger level. The game will be introduced during the annual festival held in November at XIMB,” says a core committe member of XIMB.
Similarly, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company Syntel is promoting an organisation called Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) within the campus of K J Somaiya Insitute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) that holds competitions and workshops on social entrepreneurship across B-schools to promote awareness about the subject.
“We also invite venture capitalists and private equity firms at these events to advise budding entrepreneurs on taking up social entrepreneurship. Moreover, our students also develop self help groups (SHG) in slum areas in Mumbai to market low-cost water filters and making slum dwellers financially responsible as a build up to their future ventures,” said Suresh Ghai, director of the institute.
In order to nurture potential social entrepreneurs, business schools are walking an extra mile to make room for the subject.
For instance, the Social Entrepreneurship Fair held at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) aims to encourage entrepreneurs, who would act as agents of change in society and is a meeting point for active social entrepreneurs, emerging social entrepreneurs and venture funds.
But while making a social impact is a top agenda for most of the budding entrepreneurs, they also want to earn money like any other entreprise.
“Save The Environment, which is being incubated by us, is working on providing clean drinking water in eastern parts of the country like West Bengal and Orissa where the arsenic content in underground water is alarmingly high. Unlike a non-government organisation (NGO), the enterprise offers water to the locals at nominal prices,” says Kunal Upadhyay, chief executive officer at IIM-A’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).
Upadhyay notes that many more management institutes seem to be encouraging students to take up social entrepreneurship. “Even at IIM-A, every year several students are interested in taking up social entrepreneurship in sectors like health and water,” he adds.
The Entrepreneurship Development Cell, initiated by the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, also aims to develop the spirit of entrepreneurship among students as a quality and as a career.
It also plans to develop a strong network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, senior professionals and individuals directly or indirectly associated with entrepreneurship and to develop a resource centre of information about entrepreneurship and its various aspects.
The cell has organised various events ranged over social entrepreneurship events on campus to generate IIT business plan contests.
Likewise, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), had recently come up with the concept of ‘ThinkYuva’ to identify and eradicate social issues like filth, poverty, malnutrition and bribery.
Not to be left behind in the race to promote entrepreneurial talent in an upcoming sector, some management institutes have shaped their curriculum in a way to accomodate the concept of social entrepreneurship.
The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) is planning to launch a two-month training programme called Social Entrepreneurship Development Programme at its Gujarat campus in January.
“Social entrepreneurship should not be linked to social work. A social entrepreneur must identify business ideas, should not depend on grant permanently and make profit to give it back to the society. The non-government organisations (NGOs) pay well today and even corporates offer huge amount under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So the students with an urge to do something for the society get attracted to social entrepreneurship and the academic institutes today have realised this need to groom such students,” says Ajay Dixit, who teaches social entrepreneurship at EDI.
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), on the other hand, has designed a uniquely architectured One Year Diploma Programme in Social Entrepreneurship and a Three Year Part Time MBA Programme in Social Entrepreneurship.
The institute has also established a Social Enterprise Cell on campus to address issues of sustainable development, micro enterprise development and management, marketing of rural products, management of NGOs, micro insurance and micro finance through workshops, lectures, seminars, conferences, training programmes, management development programmes and symposia.
Indian School of Business (ISB) is all set to oganise a three-day international business conference on ‘Igniting the Genius Within’ in October, which offers the participants an opportunity to tap into the contemporary approaches for developing global leadership, sparking innovation and nurturing change in their respective organisations.
Besides, ISB’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development has created a forum for Technology Innovations at the Centre that focuses on discovering innovative solutions for domestic markets.
