The Voice of

Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurs

320

The largest community of late-stage social enterprises in the world

Organizations

296

Countries

61

51

3

25

35

21

53

69

World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs

World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs

Meet some of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs

Renat Heuberger CEO South Pole Carbon

Wendy Kopp Founder and CEO Teach for America/Teach for All

Kristin Peterson Co-Founder EveryLayer

Thulsi Ravilla Executive Director Aravind Eye Care Services

World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneurs

Sector breakdown

Education 17% Health 16% Employment/skill gap 11% Enterprise devel. 11% Rural development 10% Environment 10% Children and youth 7% Financial inclusion 6% Agriculture 5% Homelessness/housing 5% Other 3%

What is social entrepreneurship?

• innovative, practical, sustainable, market-based approaches

• achieve transformative social and/or environmental change

• emphasis on underserved populations

“Whether you are talking about cardiac care or education, the fundamental question is: How do you provide it for everyone?” - Thulsi Ravilla, Executive Director, Aravind Eye Care Center, India

Aravind 1

Proximity 1

“Rely on market signals and business principles. Treat people as customers like any other business would. Make yourself easy to do business with, and ensure strong business experience is part of your organization’s DNA.” - Jim Taylor, Co-Founder, Proximity Designs, Myanmar

“If we’re not making money, it either means there is no market out there and we need to change, or that we're not doing good business, therefore we're not doing a good training, and we have to revise what we're doing. So being in tune with the market allows us to constantly be the best we can be.”

- Sebastien Marot, Executive Director, Friends-International, Cambodia

Takeaways from Aravind

• Universal access is achievable through tiered pricing based on ability to pay

• Be guided by analytical rigor and seek out operational efficiencies to scale

Takeaways from Proximity Designs

• Find ways to combine deep local expertise with top global talent

• Rely on market signals and treat beneficiaries as customers

• Distribution, distribution, distribution! Make data-based decisions in real time

Takeaways from Friends-International

• Combine for-profit and non-profit arms under one umbrella

• Go beyond what you can do through direct

service alone: Embrace the power of the network

• Identify opportunities for strategic

collaborations with corporates or governments or both

The decade ahead:

From social entrepreneurship to system entrepreneurship

Very often, scale is looked at as scaling an organization or enterprise as opposed to scaling a concept. Looking beyond scaling a particular organization requires a major mindset shift. We must determine how we can collaboratively scale action around a particular problem through the engagement of all the stakeholders affected by the issue. Only then will we make meaningful changes in how complex social problems are taken on.

- Jeroo Billimoria, ChildFinance International