BUS 374

  Summary of the main ideas and topics of the week. This week we learned about hybrid organizations and social business. A hybrid organization is one that uses for for profit business techniques with non-profit, social enterprise ideals. They can use various methods to integrate the two halves, and all have their pros and cons. There are tax issues to consider, and finances, customers vs beneficiaries, and the conundrum of how to staff an organization that is both for profit and non-profit effectively. Social businesses can utilize many different business models, including  Cross-Compensation,  Fee for Service,  Employment and skills training,  Market Intermediary,  Market Connector,  Independent Support, and  Cooperative. Each has benefits and works to build the social enterprise.  I enjoyed reading the Social Enterprise examples in "22 Awesome Social Enterprise Ideas and Examples". It was interesting to read about the examples of busin...

The material this week discussed some key problems faced by Non-profits. Key among them was the concept of the non-profit starvation cycle. Non-profits face multiple causes of this starvation cycle, including unrealistic expectations from those who fund them. Funders unreasonably expect non-profits to continue to reduce overhead, spend less on advertising and marketing. This in turn results in underfunded overhead and incorrect tax reporting. This is a cyclical problem, where reporting is lower than actual, but then because lower amounts are reported, lower amounts are expected.  This can be corrected if funders are educated on how much things actually cost, and grants being given based on impact rather than overhead. All of this needs to be changed so that non-profit organizations have the freedom to invest in their infrastructure in order to see higher impact in the long run.  This was made abundantly clear in Dan Pallota's TED talk. This talk really got me thinkin...

This week was about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR is one outlet of social innovation which involves the philanthropic efforts of for profit corporations. Companies typically fall into one of four archetypes when it come so social responsibility: the Shareholder Maximizer, which emphasizes risk mitigation and increasing shareholder value, the Corporate Contributor, who focus on stakeholder relationships, the Impact Integrator, who strategize their social impact across business units and throughout the corporation, and the Social Innovator, for whom social impact of vital and central to their over all business strategy. All of these archetypes can see increased value in several ways, including new market opportunities, improved regulatory relationships, drawing talent, increased stakeholder satisfaction,  and improved supply chains.  I was very interested in the information about B Corps. It was gratifying to know that there are companies out there for whom the...

  Week 7 was all about lean start up. the concept was originally intended for start up businesses, but large corporations have assumed the concepts to their advantage, and it applies well to social innovation as well. The three key principles are the Business Model Canvas, a document that allows a startup to visualize how they will create value for themselves and their customers. The second principle is the customer development, where they develop minimum viable products (MVP) and immediately seek customer feedback. And third, utilize agile development, where their product goes through incremental iterations, improvements, and testing, (repeatedly) to develop their MVP. This was super interesting to have agile development explained in this way, as I have heard my husband, who is in Quality Assurance, refer to it. I assumed it was a software program, not a development concept, and learning that there are different applications was eye-opening.  How can sharpening your busi...

  This wee we studied revenue generation, specifically the various ways an organization can raise capital or leverage assets to increase their capital. We learned that the best way to increase the scope of a social innovation is through a business mindset. This means having a sound financial plan, which includes accurate projected Income Statements,  Balance Sheets, and Statement of Cash Flows, and accurate forecasting. We learned about external (conventional finance, social investors, grants and contracts) and internal (leveraging accounts payable, accounts receivable, assets) capital options, and crowd sourcing, and the pros and cons of each.  The reading this week was one of my least anticipated material, as I struggle with financial concepts and numbers due to dyscalculia. However one thing that caught my attention was in the instructions for this week's application assignment. The voiceover stated that "it is pleasant to talk about helping others and changing the wor...

  This week we studied Solution and Impact Evaluation. It is vital to measure the right things, so that youi can truly know that you are reaching the mission you strive for. Measuring the impact is the most difficult metric, but the most important. One way to ensure that all of your efforts are doing the most good is to create and design with a mission statement in mind. This mission statement should be short, concise, and include a verb, a target population, and an outcome (something you can measure). I rather enjoyed Kevin Starr's Lasting Impact video. In it he describes several innovations that seem, on paper, to be a great idea, and solve an important social issue. Educating children. Clean water. However he goes on to point out the ways that these products fail in the real world application, and why, and how the wrong measures are attributed to those failures. I appreciated these real world examples. So much of theory and reading might go over my head, but a straw that ta...

 This week's topic was all about Design thinking. Essentially, design thinking is a problem- solving system for discovering new opportunities in creative ways. It can be utilized by any business and in any profession and by anyone to achieve results. It consists of four basic elements:   Define the problem Consider all the options Refine options (repeat) Choose and execute Another way to look at it is: Empathize (or in other words, observe, engage, and immerser yourself with the population you are designing for) Define, or unpack and synthesize your findings Ideate, or go wide in your solution exploration Prototype your solution, make it real Test and refine your prototype When we do this with empathy for and feedback from the people we are designing for, it is called Human Centered Design.  We read Chapter 9 of How to Change the World, and learned about Erzebet Szekeres and her son, Tibor. Tibor was born in Hungary with multiple disabilities, and because of the cult...