‘Executive focus need of hour’

Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CSIE), IIT-M and Social Impact Lab, University of Southampton came together for an initiative called Social Enterprise Education Programme (SEEP) under UK British Council. Under the initiative, UK India Social Entrepreneurship Education Network (UKISEEN) was formed to promote social entrepreneurship education. The event also witnessed the launch of UKISEEN website by Mei-Kwei Barker, Director, British Council, South India.

The seminar witnessed the participation of illustrious alumni of IIT-M, who shared their experiences and the challenges they faced while pursuing social ventures. The seminar was conducted to give budding social entrepreneurs a glimpse of how they can make a difference to society and to provide tips on overcoming challenges they might encounter on the field. 

Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande acted as the moderator for the panel session, with fellow IIT-Madras alumni Jaishree Deshpande and S ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, as well as Raj Melville and Naveen Jha of the Deshpande Foundation.

Desh kick-started the seminar by saying, “I work with technological innovations. Technological innovations are all about coming up with an innovation that the world hasn’t seen before and has an impact. Social innovations on the other hand, deal more with relevance. The ideas you bring to solve the problem need not be patentable or a new concept. The goal is to build the capacity amongst the people who you are trying to serve to absorb the solutions you propose.” 

To highlight the communication gap between social entrepreneurs and the people, Naveen Jha said, “Without knowing the relevance your idea has for the target audience, your social venture will surly fail. Without having a contextual understanding of the problem, the effectiveness of the solutions can be misplaced. Social entrepreneurs must co-create solution with the end users to make the venture most effective. Social change is a dynamic process and you must be versatile enough to change with the needs of the people.”

Naveen also maintained that building an ideal ecosystem will ensure that people will benefit from the innovation. “You must construct a supply chain so that the benefits can percolate into the conscience of the people and bring about social change.” 

Kris said that relying solely on data is not a good parameter to start a social venture. He added that, “In India, the data that you will be provided will almost always be inaccurate. The data will be compiled to benefit somebody entirely different from the people. To get maximum traction among the people, you have to work with the people to find the solution. You need to fine-tune your innovation to fit their needs.”

He further added that trust plays a vital role for the success of any social venture, “It is imperative to build a good rapport with the people. They are very smart and if they sense a hidden agenda, you will lose their support and the project will be a failure.” 

Desh added that several NGOs lacked the executive insight to carry out their innovation. He highlighted the plight of several NGOs in USA as well as India, where they start off with a plan but soon run out of funds before fulfilling their goals. He also added that feedback in for-profit sector ensures that the plan is well thought out. “In the non-profit sector, due to the lack of feedback, you could be developing a product that the people don’t necessarily require. The need of the hour is to bring executional excellence to the non-profit sector and compassion back into the for-profit sector,” said Desh, in concusion.