Project Diaries: Foreword
Foreword-
I had been a troubled soul lately. I often am. I brood over things and exaggerate them to feel a bloated sense of reality. The project that I was doing had involved a lot of theoretical understanding and contemplation till now, but I was itching to get a first hand feel of the practical nuances. I will tell you what the project is about and how the thought process behind it began. The phenomenon of social entrepreneurship had fascinated me no end since the past one year- the idea of creating a socially motivated for profit entity was galvanizing- to say the least. The rampant bungling and non transparency in the non profit sector had demotivated me. To listen to statements from a minister defending a fellow minister accused of bungling a sum of 70 lakhs by saying-" He couldnt have bungled this amount- this is petty change for a central government minister" was flabbergasting. Seriously. Also, the very fact that the non for profit model- where you always have to look for alms from one entity or the other appeared to be flawed from its very premise. My experience with the non for profit sector tells me that funding does start to go down eventually. The concept of a SELF SUSTAINING social enterprise- with a proper business model in place and more easily map-able standards of transparency engrossed me ever since I was offered an internship by Neev Soaps-a herbal cosmetics production unit started out by a couple( both NIT-Kurukshetra alumni) in Hurlung Village in Jamshedpur last year. I couldnt come then, but the phenomenon had stayed with me. I followed new happenings in the field- the arrival of a plethora of young and motivated social entrepreneurs, a new class of Venture Capitalist's called social VC's who would invest in a Social Enterprise for "triple bottom line returns"- financial, social and environmental returns, with a keen eye. So, when I was mailing this HRM professor from IIM Lucknow who had agreed to mentor me for a project and had asked me what I was interested in doing. I had no option but to say " Sir, I want to study the social entrepreneurial landscape of India- developing key indicators to assess the social value getting generated out of the activity the enterprise is involved in". In my extensive study on the subject, I came across a method of social accounting called SROI ( Social return of Investment) which used social accounting principles to assess the net social worth generated for the amount of total input( monetary as well as non monetary) coming in the enterprise. This very extensive method used very sporadically in the country could prove to be an excellent tool for anybody- the organisation itself, future investors( consumer of the produce generated by the activity, a social VC and any institutional or individual philanthropists), stakeholders, to assess the net social value the social activity is generating per rupee invested in pure financial terms. Given the fact that there is talk of establishment of a social stock exchange in the country, this analysis if made mandatory for an organisation for getting listed on the exchange could prove to be a handy tool for individual investors for assessment. Also, this could tell the organisation which areas it should work on to increase the impact. This isnt an ideal model totally and I dont ascribe to the fact that all social value can be measured quantitatively using financial proxies and sometimes we have to put an estimate inspite of how solid our financial proxy is, but I am inclined to think the odds in favour of this research method outshadow the odds against by a whopping margin.
I had been a troubled soul lately. I often am. I brood over things and exaggerate them to feel a bloated sense of reality. The project that I was doing had involved a lot of theoretical understanding and contemplation till now, but I was itching to get a first hand feel of the practical nuances. I will tell you what the project is about and how the thought process behind it began. The phenomenon of social entrepreneurship had fascinated me no end since the past one year- the idea of creating a socially motivated for profit entity was galvanizing- to say the least. The rampant bungling and non transparency in the non profit sector had demotivated me. To listen to statements from a minister defending a fellow minister accused of bungling a sum of 70 lakhs by saying-" He couldnt have bungled this amount- this is petty change for a central government minister" was flabbergasting. Seriously. Also, the very fact that the non for profit model- where you always have to look for alms from one entity or the other appeared to be flawed from its very premise. My experience with the non for profit sector tells me that funding does start to go down eventually. The concept of a SELF SUSTAINING social enterprise- with a proper business model in place and more easily map-able standards of transparency engrossed me ever since I was offered an internship by Neev Soaps-a herbal cosmetics production unit started out by a couple( both NIT-Kurukshetra alumni) in Hurlung Village in Jamshedpur last year. I couldnt come then, but the phenomenon had stayed with me. I followed new happenings in the field- the arrival of a plethora of young and motivated social entrepreneurs, a new class of Venture Capitalist's called social VC's who would invest in a Social Enterprise for "triple bottom line returns"- financial, social and environmental returns, with a keen eye. So, when I was mailing this HRM professor from IIM Lucknow who had agreed to mentor me for a project and had asked me what I was interested in doing. I had no option but to say " Sir, I want to study the social entrepreneurial landscape of India- developing key indicators to assess the social value getting generated out of the activity the enterprise is involved in". In my extensive study on the subject, I came across a method of social accounting called SROI ( Social return of Investment) which used social accounting principles to assess the net social worth generated for the amount of total input( monetary as well as non monetary) coming in the enterprise. This very extensive method used very sporadically in the country could prove to be an excellent tool for anybody- the organisation itself, future investors( consumer of the produce generated by the activity, a social VC and any institutional or individual philanthropists), stakeholders, to assess the net social value the social activity is generating per rupee invested in pure financial terms. Given the fact that there is talk of establishment of a social stock exchange in the country, this analysis if made mandatory for an organisation for getting listed on the exchange could prove to be a handy tool for individual investors for assessment. Also, this could tell the organisation which areas it should work on to increase the impact. This isnt an ideal model totally and I dont ascribe to the fact that all social value can be measured quantitatively using financial proxies and sometimes we have to put an estimate inspite of how solid our financial proxy is, but I am inclined to think the odds in favour of this research method outshadow the odds against by a whopping margin.
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