The world today has been shifting towards shared values and responsible business practices. Large companies are now seeing sustainability beyond just “profit”, but also considering their stakeholders and the environment. Only businesses that operate responsibly can survive in a long term. Such responsibility embraces multi-faceted aspects of business, which are addressed in ISO 26000. Companies now look at CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) beyond charity and philanthropy activities. Instead, CSR is integrated within the DNA of the companies, meaning more strategic and sustainable, aiming at holistic impact of the business growth.
Along with the movement of CSR, there are emerging trends of new (start-up) businesses predominantly initiated/founded by young people. This new type of business, embarked from concerns on social or environmental problems, and is driven by genuine motivation to create solutions for society. Interestingly, digital era of millennium generation, has been triggering the inception of innovative IT into the social business model. Indeed, it is fascinating yet exciting.
Despite the sparks of passion for people to adopt this business model, there are potential problems as we know statistically 80% of new businesses usually fail in the first 5 years. Social entrepreneurs are overwhelmed with the social/environment mission they are carrying, hence have little time to manage their business profitably. Whilst banks/financial institutions are usually more interested in commercial credits, the social entrepreneurs often find it hard to convince funders about their social/environment mission. Where to seek help?