Social entrepreneur

[purushothaman pillai]

Dear Friends,

 

I have appended a reply from one of my/our friend, on real meaning of social entrepreneur.

In fact, I posted a portion on what was said by the CEO of Ashoka Foundation ( Mr Bill Drayton); that does not mean that it is the  only definition; this I posted so that we will reflect on this and explore further; so, our friend has done an exploration and posted.

 

Social entrepreneurship is so important for engineers and scientist because, we are also the social change agents. I must tell what I learnt from Mr A Ramakrishan, who was Dy. CEO of L&T that if we as engineers do our normal job that it itself is a good social service and delivering of our social responsibilities; we do not require to do anything extra-ordinary. This point is more relevant as more engineers are there in BUM & GCT78.

 

Social entrepreneurship is a challenging job for many of us as this is one area which requires  most of our talents for best application. Social sector is the less productive area, the less efficient area and least profitable area for corporates to have any interest; that challenging tasks are ahead for both managers and engineers.

 

When we started GCT78, we made a point that we will not collect money from members for its operation. The model looked very attractive and very similar to any business model. And, of course it will work. If I can make my living operating in this less efficient market and make a reasonable income; I would just to it, many people, poor and backward people are going to benefit from my effort; I wish many young engineers to take up such assignments; I have lots of daring experiments, I myself wish to take up.

 

The change managers pretty well know that in many occasions change (attitude) has to come from the managers themselves, before they can apply or tell their subjects!

 

As  our friend suggests that Charity Begins at Home; that abundant love and charity comes from Mother Herself; we are taught the art by Her. It is very sad many mothers and fathers are at receiving end in their old age as the life style is getting changed and life expectancy(age) is increasing. There are social entrepreneur opportunities here also, both serve and earn.

 

For me, social entrepreneur simply means an entrepreneur in social sector. It is much neglected area by corporate and challenging for me, even very little margins are ok,   but I go greedy to do it in more volumes so that my income is reasonable and my coverage is more and satisfying.

 

With warm regards,

 

Puru

 

=====================================================

Dear Purushothaman,

 

SUB: Social Entrepreneur-- real meaning.

 

I have a different opinion about this Puru.

I am a strong believer of the phrase 'CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME'.

In my family, I have a lot of needy people for whom I am doing some help to bring them up in life. There are really very old people who are staying with their wards, who feel that they are a bit of burden to them as they are not allowed free to roam about. The burden becomes more painful if they are sick and they have to be treated regularly. The type of burden here is 80% financial and 20% is devotion of time. I could partly take care of the first part (Sometimes fully) and still I am unable to contribute the time required to relieve them. In simple terms, the people will be happy if you can take care of them fully and relieve them from this regular chores. I used to think of building a small house and keep all the so-called unwanted people in this home and give my best to them. I could see their happiness if you talk to them and listen to them at least for half an hour every day. They feel psychologically relieved because some one is listening to them. Some times it is too boring to listen to them as they start their 'Malarum Ninaiyvugal'.

If you have the patience and sincerity to listen to them (After all what they need is this), you are capable of healing their ill feelings about the present generation. You feel more elated, if you are lucky enough to convince them that the younger generation also have their own world and they also need time and support for achieving their goal in life.

It takes time and time and more time to help them by listening to their voice. You can see a radical change in their attitude afterwards. The only problem now is that they expect you regularly there and listen to them, hold their hands and take them for a walk, tell them what is happening in this world or even read a book or magazine to them.

 

The difference here Puru is you are only spending money and time here and NOT earning. But you still have the fullest satisfaction of what you are having now by helping the poor. In my opinion, if some one takes care of their own surroundings, then there will not be a need for external help. What do you say. Both of us talking about the social responsibility. I view it in a different way. Thats it.

 

More to come in this forum.

---

Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for just 2¢/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.