Defining Purpose: A Guide for Scaling Social Business

Rizwan TayabaliSupported by Ashoka Globalizer

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Adapted from

The PATRI Framework for Scaling Social Impact

© Rizwan Tayabali, 2014

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The PATRI framework takes you step by step through all the aspects of diligence needed to understand whether or not scaling is feasible

for you and if so, to produce an effective scaling plan that you can follow during implementation.

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PATRI Framework

IPurpose

IIApplicability

(Viability)

IIITransferability

IVReadiness

VImplementation

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An overview of the complete PATRI Framework, is provided in a

linked presentation called ...

“PATRI Framework for Scaling Social Business”

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PATRI Framework

Caveats1. The following guide is specifically targeted at social

businesses and therefore places an emphasis on financial viability along with impact i.e. It is designed for organisations that create their impact through the use of business models.

2. The PATRI Framework is focused on scaling rather than incremental growth. If you are simply aiming to set up operations in another location or enter another market, then the framework will still offer you value, but some aspects of it may only be applicable a bit further down the line.

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This presentation focuses specifically on the 1st step of the Framework, which addresses

clarity of purpose.

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Purpose

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Scaling social businesses can become a highly operational and financially focused

activity that can cause focus to shift towards operational growth and away from

outcomes when scaling.

Purpose

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To mitigate against mission drift, it iscritical to ensure that you have clarity of

purpose and direction before embarking on your scaling endeavour.

Purpose

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Key Factors

Primary Goal

Problem Definition

SelectionVision

Targets

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Purpose

As an entity with both impact and financial aspirations, a social business may have a

number of reasons for scaling, but it is important that they are clearly prioritised.

Purpose

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Primary Goal

This will help with decision-making furtherdown the line for all aspects of designing and preparing to scale, as any set of options can

then be assessed based on how well they service the various goals in order of priority.

Purpose

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Primary Goal

As a social business, clarifying your primary goal will also play a key role in ensuring that you have a clear basis for decision-making in situations where financial survival threatens

quality of impact.

Purpose

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Primary Goal

Thus, if your primary goal is to make an impact, you should prioritise social outcomes over

organisational outcomes to ensure that scaling results in impact rather than revenues alone.

Purpose

Primary Goal

In order to set meaningful impact goals for scaling, you will need to understand the size

(numbers) and nature (characteristics) of the problem you are trying to address

on its true scale.

Purpose

Problem Definition

If there isn’t easily accessible data related to numbers, then basic research and a degree of guesstimation is a reasonable starting point.

Purpose

Problem Definition

At the very least you should do enough to end up with a working idea of the numbers of people

impacted by the issue you are addressing, where they are located, what the problem looks

like for them, and whether or not there is a demand for your offering.

Purpose

Problem Definition

You can then improve this level of accuracy by investigating new environments or

demographics in more detail once you have selected where you want to start your

scaling journey.

Purpose

Problem Definition

Selection of areas or demographics is an important early step in your planning process.

Purpose

Selection

It is important to be strategic and focus on areas or demographics that best allow you to

service your priority goals.

Purpose

Selection

If you simply jump at the next opportunity to apply your model somewhere else, you risk following a reactive rather than pro-active

process, leading you into the more resource-heavy category of growth rather than true

scaling.

Purpose

Selection

Having researched these during the problem definition stage, you should be able to select and

prioritise candidates for scaling based on

1. Urgency of Need2. Market Potential / Demand

3. Practicality of access

Purpose

Selection

Having made an initial selection of areas or demographics to scale into, you will need a

reasonable vision of what it is you want to achieve and when, in terms of both financial

and impact outcomes.

PurposePurpose

Vision

As a social purpose entity, your vision is particularly important when considering impact.

Try and develop a rich picture of what you believe the problem will look like once it is fixed i.e. once you have impacted it with your solution.

PurposePurpose

Vision

Ideally split your vision into a long, medium and short term picture of outcomes. This will give you an early roadmap for your scaling journey.

PurposePurpose

Vision

Without tangible targets your vision will remain conceptual rather than practical.

PurposePurpose

Targets

In order to be able to assess whether your design will in fact make a difference and be applicable at scale, you will need to create

success criteria and set targets based on those.

PurposePurpose

Targets

If you want to ensure that you scale your impact along with your reach, it is advisable to set

targets based on the scale of need, rather than targets that primarily reflect growth.

PurposePurpose

Targets

Benchmarking outcomes and setting a baseline before you start will also solve impact

monitoring challenges further down the line.

PurposePurpose

Targets

All you should then have to do is repeat the benchmarking process periodically to track and monitor changes against the original baseline.

This is your impact.

PurposePurpose

Targets

You can then adapt your strategies or approach depending on whether the changes meet the

impact targets you have set yourself.

PurposePurpose

Targets

As a social business, you may also set yourself financial targets, but these should ideally be in line with your impact targets, rather than the

other way around.

PurposePurpose

Targets

To make your targets directional and easierto design for, split them into stages that

reflect the phases of your vision

1.Long Term – Aspirational2.Mid Term – Challenging3.Short Term – Realistic

PurposePurpose

Targets

Focus your detailed design and planning on your short and mid term goals.

PurposePurpose

Targets

Once you’ve identified your goals and set targets for scaling, you can assess whether

or not your impact or business model is capable of achieving those targets

i.e. if it will still be applicable at the scale you are aiming for.

Purpose

A guide to the next step of understanding and addressing applicability is provided in a

linked presentation called ...

“Applicability at Scale: A Guide forScaling Social Business”

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Applicability (Viability)

©Rizwan Tayabali, 2014

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