Social Enterprise in a new light
Social Enterprise is a approach to business that looks to balance three bottom lines, profit, employee welfare, and social-environmental causes.
However, the spirit of Social Enterprise tends to follow bullish and bearish trends of it own. It seems reasonable to assume that people are more generous when they can afford to be generous, and that the spirit and amount of giving tends to recede when times are lean.
What happens to Social Enterprise when the economy is barely able to sustain itself?
Do we need to retreat from our efforts to make things right whenever things go wrong?
Is it possible to successfully engage in Social Enterprise that addresses the triple bottom line regardless of economic pressures?
I think that the answer is yes, if you understand that the spirt of give and get are as integrally related as yin and yang. Yet for this to take on both a practical as well as a philosophical meaning, the proper mechanism must be in place.
How this mechanism works is the subject of an article I wrote for XL Magazine, which you can download here.
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