The Greater Good

Entrepreneurship can address social and environmental problems.

The contemporary paradigm of entrepreneurship usually involves a tech start-up with a gargantuan valuation that sets out to disrupt a known market and eventually scale up to become a major corporation. Any concern with social issues is probably an afterthought – the “giving-back” component of the new business model.

An alternative ecosystem of social entrepreneurs is emerging. For them, making a profit is secondary to benefiting society and the planet. These are grassroots outfits of varying size; they are not chasing a high growth model. But no matter how small an organization is, it can have a significant social impact.

Social entrepreneurship challenges the core principles of capitalism.

Establishing social service as a top priority is not the sole differentiator between social entrepreneurs and their conventional counterparts. Social entrepreneurs also find new ways to conduct their everyday operations. One of the most significant of these innovations is prioritizing collaboration over competition. Business...