Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts (Section 3: Social Enterprise)

GLOBAL GOALS
Every Achievement Counts
Social, Economic, Environment Development

Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts (Section 3: Social Enterprise)
Section 3: Social Enterprise
● Why, What, Who, When, Where and How (5W1H) of Social Enterprise
● Sustainable Business Models
http://www.thesdgs2030.com © 2020 BSYS Solution (M) Sdn Bhd. All Rights Reserved.

Imagine being a consumer, you walk into two different shops looking for a new pair of
shoes. One is a traditional retail shop, the other one, as you walked in, a simple
signboard caught your attention stating that “for every pair of shoes you bought, we will
donate another pair to those who need it.” Which shop will you end up purchasing the
shoes from if the quality and pricing are more or less the same?
Imagine being an entrepreneur, you know that for every product your business sold, a
portion of the profit is going to be channeled back for the development of a better world,
or for every services your business delivered, it will benefit certain underserved or
underprivileged group or bring benefits to the environment either directly or indirectly,
how would that make a difference?
Rather than the conventional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices that only
make contribution or donation should there be any additional profit on a periodic basis,
why not blend that social contribution part into daily business operation and commercial
activities? How does it feel to be engaged in business processes that are tackling

social, economic or environmental issues, which produce social and community gains
alongside the activities? Do good, and be rewarded at the same time, both tangible and
intangible ways.
Imagine being a policy maker, balancing between growth and social impact. For
instance, fine tuning a nation-state development plan that focuses on delivering welfare
benefit while not sacrificing the profitability of businesses. From a broader perspective
(such as the global goals), practical guidelines can be formulated, with proper social,
economic, and environmental framework guiding the people to achieving a sustainable
future.
“Most people want to do good, and believe that doing so will ultimately benefit everyone,
including a company’s shareholders. But what’s been missing in recent decades is a
clear compass to guide those in leading positions in our society and economy,” ~ Klaus
Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum1
.
It is time to look at what had not been put in the accounting book all this while - the
measurable impact a business brought to social, economic, and environment
development. As suggested by Klaus Schwab in terms of Stakeholders Capitalism, can
businesses look beyond the next quarter or fiscal year to the next decade and
generation, instead of chasing short-term profits or narrow self-interest? What would
happen when businesses shift to a longer-term perspective on their organization and its
mission, and start to pursue the well-being of all people and the entire planet alongside
profits for their shareholders?
But wait, are we not doing all the charity works and fulfilling the CSR all this while? Are
we not doing enough to help those in need? Or does there exist systemic or human
factors that are causing all these social, economic, and environmental challenges such
as poverty, hunger, climate change etc.? Perhaps the view from the founder of the
Grameen Bank could shed some light on the matter.
“Charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the
initiative away from the poor. We can create a poverty-free world because poverty is
not created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and
social systems that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts that
make up that system; the policies that we pursue. You change the system and people
get out of poverty. It is the ability to control capital that gives people the power to rise
1
A Better Economy Is Possible. But We Need to Reimagine Capitalism to Do It
https://time.com/collection/great-reset/5900748/klaus-schwab-capitalism/

out of poverty.” ~ Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the
Battle Against World Poverty
Understandably, wealth concentration is one of the loopholes in our current system that
partially contributes to the issue of poverty. When we use charity to help the poor, we
avoid recognizing the real problem - systematic wealth concentration - and thus fail to
find the solution for it. We might unintentionally shrug off our responsibility through this
act of kindness. The good news is, we now have the social enterprise model that has
stood the test of time and keeps improving and gaining momentum throughout the
world. Instead of concentrating all profit into a single entity, this model tries to distribute
more portion of the profit back to contribute to social, economic, and environmental
development alongside the business activities.
What Is Social Enterprise?
There was this striking moment in a discussion after a fundraising dinner for charity
purposes back in 2014. It was about the shortcoming of the legacy charity system and
how can we further improve it. The organizer spent around three months preparing and
organizing a charity dinner, to raise funds for solving old folks home’s problem, where
the beneficiary is yet to be identified. It was considered successful as some MYR
6,000+ was raised through the event. But then, a question from the organiser brought
quite a moment of silence to the table.
“Thanks guys. We made some good progress having this amount of money raised.
Once I pass it over to any of the old folks home in the list that needs help by tomorrow, it
will all be spent within a week or two, paying most of the debts and utilities fees, if not
all. Are we going to spend another quarter to raise funds that could be spent within a
week, again?”
After quite a while, someone suggested, “Why not utilise this money to produce an
educational video clip that could be used virtually forever, spreading the awareness of
taking care of parents rather than abandon them in the old folks home? As such, this
would possibly solve the problem of mushrooming old folks' homes that need a lot of
social resources to ensure their survival.”
The point is, rather than a quick fix that might not last long, why not take a step further
to investigate into the root of the problem and solve it once and for all? This might take

a longer time but it makes more sense for the long run. Just as how we take care of our
health, taking medicine might be a temporary fix, it is the healthy lifestyle that will keep
us away from severe sickness. Social problems are more or less the same, looking at it
from the awareness perspective. Most of the time, it is our ignorance that is causing
most of the social issues.
“A charity dollar has only one life; a Social Business dollar can be invested over and
over again.” ~ Muhammad Yunus
Back to the case of aging community challenges, about the abandoned old people. You
raised me up, I walk you through the end of your life. That’s the ideology the organiser
of the charity dinner would like to bring back to the community. The concept of family
centric community had been a legacy of the Eastern world, specifically the Chinese
people. Yet, the value of filial piety, the important virtue and primary duty of respect,
obedience, and care for one's parents and elderly family members (in Confucianism)2
has faded away recently due to many aspects such as urbanization, increasing living
costs, double income family, single child family etc.
To organise charity dinner or fund raising events over and over again in the hope of
getting money to help the underserved communities will not solve the root of the
problem. To bring back the forgotten good value in a community needs to go beyond
that. The team came to a decision to start producing social issue awareness short clips
to spread out the messages through an edutainment model. Embedding messages in a
more leisure and even entertaining way. A social enterprise entity specialised in
multimedia production had been set up to produce short clips that carry social
messages since then.
If there was anything to be learned from that night’s conversation, it would be that the
survival of any community relies upon resources, from shelter to energy to food etc. It
must be sustainable. Under the current system, the survival and sustainability of the
underserved community and less fortunate people rely mostly on other better off
communities who might have excessive produce, if not the governmental bodies.
It is how we are able to pull the right information together and to redistribute the
resources in a more transparent and fairer way that will ensure the ultimate goals of no
one left behind as we progress towards the future. We have the technology tools to
leverage upon. We need a better model than our traditional model. One of the proven
models would be that of social enterprise.
2
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/filial-piety

Diagram: Social Enterprise, Getting The Best of Both Sides
According to Social Enterprise Alliance, Social Enterprises are organizations that
address a basic unmet need or solve a social or environmental problem through a
market-driven approach3
. From investment point of view, Investopedia’s definition for
social enterprise or social business is “a business that has specific social objectives that
serve its primary purpose” 4
.
Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit, and may take the form
(depending on in which country the entity exists and the legal forms available) of a
co-operative, mutual organization, a disregarded entity, a social business, a benefit
corporation, a community interest company, a company limited by guarantee or a charity
organization. They can also take more conventional structures.5
By comparison, social enterprise takes the approach of getting the best of both worlds
from conventional business models and conventional charitable organizations models. It
takes a balance stance between those two models.
As you can see from the Diagram: Social Enterprise, Getting The Best of Both Sides,
traditional charity focuses on maximising social value, and traditional business focuses
on maximising financial value. Traditional charities rely heavily on grants, donations or
5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise
4
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-enterprise.asp
3
https://socialenterprise.us/about/social-enterprise

endowment to continue their operation. The only way for traditional charities to not rely
heavily on other’s mercy for survival might be the occasional side income or revenue
generating activities, such as annual fundraising events or income generating
handmade charitable products sold at premise etc.
For traditional business, one of the ways to contribute back to society is through
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Some countries had made it
compulsory for listed companies to carry out CSR activities on an annual basis, where a
portion of the listed entities’ profit is to be channel back to bring good to the society.
Some even go to the extent of a tax break in terms of policy encouragement. How can
we further improve what had already been achieved thus far? Leveraging creative
business models and advanced technology is the answer.
Social enterprise happened to balance up both traditional charity and traditional
business worlds. By applying business solutions to solve social problems in innovative
ways, and keep reinvesting the profit back to business to create more social, economic
and environmental impact, the overall wellbeing of the society will be uplifted. In other
words, when society profits, social enterprise profits; when social enterprise profits,
society profits, and the loop goes on with persistence in reinvesting into the business for
social good. It comes full circle.
Keep in mind that it is still business at the end of the day. It’s not just about the model or
the big heart by itself, it goes back to the fundamentals of providing real value to people,
real contribution to the environment and creating genuine economic value.
Theoretically, anything a typical business can offer can be provided by social
enterprises with a change in business model. Social enterprises can only make money if
their product or service does provide what people need or really solve people’s
problems. It should be reasonably priced and professionally delivered as well. These
are the basics of business that should not be ignored. It doesn’t make sense to have all
the glorified dreams making the world a better place yet the business itself doesn’t walk
the talk by providing true value or failing to deliver quality products or services.
The ultimate goal is to achieve sustainability. The key is to embrace disruptive
technology. By aligning business to United Nations SDGs leveraging the social
enterprise model, it brings business to not only sustainable profitability but with better
purposes and real impact to social, economy, and environment development.

Image: Social Enterprise
The concept of social enterprise has been evolving rapidly. The lines of the traditional
business, government and civil society sectors had become increasingly blurred in
recent years as the social enterprise movements gained momentum.
In general, the social enterprise model is a type of business model somewhere in
between the traditional business model and charity model.
The key is:
Maximizing social impact alongside profit.

One of the differences between social enterprise and traditional business is, the profits
derived from social enterprises are principally used to fund programs that could bring
impact to the society, environment, and/or the economy. How far can social enterprise
go and where does it fit to serve its purposes? To answer this, we need to look at these
concepts of the edge of the network and the bottom of the pyramid.
Image: The Edge of The Network
When we talk about the edge of the network from the social perspective, it is about
reaching out to the people. Inclusion is the keyword. And we are looking at both digital
and financial inclusions. Bank the unbanked. Provide the poor with the basic tools they
need to hook up to the digital realm in a highly connected world. To bring these people
to the grid.
Image: The Bottom of The Pyramid

When it comes to the bottom of the pyramid, it is more about uplifting the community
and empowering the people who needed it the most. In his book "Fortune at the Bottom
of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits"6
, first published in December 2006,
the author C.K.Prahalad explained how the world's five billion poor make up the fastest
growing market in the world. Through the book, Prahalad shows how this segment has
vast untapped buying power, and represents an enormous potential for companies who
learn how to serve this market by providing the poor with what they need.
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect at Microsoft back then, described the
book as an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability. Stated in his
book review, if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper, companies must
revolutionize how they do business in developing countries.
To fight poverty with profitability, that’s how the richest man nailed it. In fact, serving the
bottom of the pyramid as a business entity is not something new either in today’s world.
For example, the Grameen Bank was set up in 1983 to help poor people escape from
poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound
financial principles so they could help themselves7
. Gojek8
, one of the South East Asia
unicorn companies that started with ride-hailing services was built because the founders
want to create impact for the little guys, providing them with a decent job, at least to
self-sustain their living.
Now that we have gone through a little bit about social enterprise, a business social
objective in terms of serving the underserved or marginalized people, how further can
this go when it comes to economic and environmental development? Let’s take
sustainable clothing as an example.
From a mere technology implementation of confirming the genuinity of the product a
consumer purchased, specifically luxury goods, can we enhance it to not only proof of
authenticity but also footprint of originality with social and environmental impact
alongside? From smart fashion to sustainable fashion. From luxury clothing to
sustainable clothing that creates social impact. People, process, technology.
How much do you know about the clothes you wear? Were the people who made them
treated fairly? Were they produced without toxic chemicals damaging the environment?9
9
KAYA&KATO and IBM are developing a blockchain for textile supply chain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3Dqm2bLu0
8
https://www.gojek.io/
7
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/yunus/biographical/
6
https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Bottom-Pyramid-Eradicating-Poverty/dp/8177587765

Using technology to document and trace the supply chain for textiles will allow suppliers
of organic cotton and customers to identify the origin and where the fabrics were
processed, as well as gain an understanding into each production and distribution
step10
. In the case of sustainable clothing, permissioned parties will be able to check
and balance the supply chain of their product as more transparency is available through
secured protocol for the traceability of ecological materials.
Improved traceability and transparency in supply chain logistics will not be just
benefiting the apparel or fashion industry, it can also be an added value to the provision
of food and medicine supply. Trust and stronger relationships could be built as
consumers will be more comfortable as they are better informed with the products they
are buying or using, from the source till their hand.
While it seems good to have social enterprise, there are some myths about this model
that we need to clear off. These include the mis-perception that social enterprise is a
charity organisation, cannot or should not be making profit, and is only meant for start
ups or on a small scale. It is not. It could be a 180-degree turn.
Social Enterprise Is NOT Charity
Most of the time, people mistake social enterprise as a charitable entity. It is not. There
is a fine line between social enterprise and charity. Technically, charitable organisations
are mostly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or non-profit organisations (NPOs).
Another obvious differentiation between social enterprise and traditional charity is the
sustainability model and ability to make a profit, at least for self-sustaining purposes.
Non-profit organizations maintain operations with donations or grants, where no
recovery of invested capital is one of the characteristics of money being put into the
entity. There is no profit consideration for the money being channeled into the
organization. The money is solely being used for the social causes. From another
perspective, the survival of non-profit organizations rely solely at the mercy of donors or
grant givers. This has become the main challenge for most of the charitable
organizations around the world.
10
KAYA&KATO and IBM Pioneer Blockchain Network to Track Sustainable Clothing
https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-11-16-KAYA-KATO-and-IBM-Pioneer-Blockchain-Network-to-Track-Susta
inable-Clothing

Social Enterprise Can Be Profitable
When it comes to social enterprise, one of the questions most people would normally
ask is, “Can social enterprise make money?” This shows that the one who asked the
question is not clear about the definition of social enterprise.
Social Enterprise is a business model somewhere in between traditional business
and a charity or non-profit organization.
As in any business, profitability is the ultimate pursuit. Why is it important to make a
profit? A matter of survival. At least, be able to self-sustain. That is one of the core
building blocks of social enterprise.
Case Study: TOMS Shoes
Take a look at one of the pioneers in social enterprise – TOMS Shoes.
According to TOMS Shoes website, the company was founded on a very simple idea, of
which whenever a customer buys a pair of shoes from TOMS, they could help to give

shoes to children in need. During earlier days of operation, they even had the tagline of
“One For One” – whenever you buy a pair of shoes, they will donate out another pair of
shoes to the needy.
The impact to date? Over 96 million pairs of need-specific TOMS shoes integrated into
larger education, health, and well-being initiatives11
. Looking at the numbers provided by
TOMS Shoes, and how they thrive since 2006, would you still think that social
enterprise is an experimental model or just another charity?
Think out of the box
The TOMS Story is a bit different than that of The Citarum Story12
, where Gary and his
brother, Sam, travelled down the Citarum river in 2017 on two plastic bottle kayaks to
12
Cleaning Up World’s Dirtiest River – The Citarum Story
http://socialenterpriseguide.com/cleaning-up-worlds-dirtiest-river-the-citarum-story
11
https://www.toms.com/impact

raise awareness about the rapid need for change. The action caused Citarum river
clean up became Indonesia’s big pilot project to protect its waters. Rather than turning a
social challenge into a nationwide movement, TOMS version was running a
sustainable business while creating social impact at the same time.
Social Enterprise Is Not Meant For Startup Only
As shown earlier in this chapter, the process, product, and profit model that might
overlook the people and environmental effect in traditional ways of doing business is
fading away. There has been more awareness and implementation in terms of
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environment, Social, Governance (ESG), and
Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) alike ideas when it comes to business practises.
It is sustainability that matters. It provides a larger purpose and some new deliverables
for companies to strive for and helps them renew their commitments to basic goals like
efficiency, sustainable growth and shareholder value13
.
In summary, there are countless possibilities that we could make a difference while
running a business that generates profit at the same time. It is how we generate the
profit and what we do with the profit that makes social enterprise a different breed
than the traditional business.
Why Social Enterprise?
While it seems like there are rooms of improvement to both the conventional business
models and those of charitable organizations, social enterprise is filling the gap to make
things work better. By taking care of social, economic and environmental impact at the
same time while not losing the ability to self sustain, social enterprise can strike the
balance between business model that goes after only maximum profit and charity model
that goes after only maximum social impact. Social enterprise promotes, encourages,
and makes social change alongside its daily business activities, which ensure
sustainability by itself, A walk the talk approach.
Back in September 2019, I joined a team of volunteers to distribute food, groceries and
some household items to seven locations consisting of organizations such as
13
The 3 Pillars of Corporate Sustainability
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100515/three-pillars-corporate-sustainability.asp

orphanage and old folks home, and also rural area communities. The resources were
packed in standard packages, where all items bought were distributed evenly to all
beneficiaries. A total of 350 sets of resources were distributed through that activity.
If you take a look at the photo, you shall be able to imagine how it was being arranged.
For each beneficiary, be it a person or a family, there will be a pack of rice, a bottle of
cooking oil, a few packs of instant noodles, biscuits, condensed milk etc. Every
beneficiary received the same thing packed in the same manner.
This has been a standard practise in many places as long as resource distribution is
needed. It is an applaudable charity act looking at the effort and commitment put in by
the team that made all these possible. These kinds of activities are good as they help to
tackle underserved communities survival problems. Good news is, with advanced
technology they can now be more customised and personalised to help the needy. The
key is resource management through digital transformation, which we will cover in
upcoming chapters.

Before we go further, let’s take a look at a few other experiences I went through along
the social work journey with one of my social enterprise business partners.
It was a sunny afternoon and we had just finished distributing the Chinese buns being
donated by a good samaritan to the residents of an old folks home. We were having a
small rest and chatting under the big tree inside the compound of the old folks home.
Then came this Chinese bun seller with more Chinese buns, which he said he would
like to donate to the residents in the same old folks home that we had just distributed
one round of Chinese buns to them earlier! The newly arrived buns were eventually sent
to another nearby charity center.
On another experience, there was this good hearted gentleman who wanted to donate
some MYR 20,000 worth of adult diapers to an old folks home. Yes, no typo here. MYR
20,000 worth of adult diapers to be donated under his social contribution budget. That
would be a fully loaded small lorry. His initial request was to buy all diapers in large size,
so that it can fit even if the person just needs a smaller size. The logic is for small size
diapers to fit a big size person is harder than for large size diapers to be worn by a small
size person.
My friend overheard this intention and contacted the person before he made his move.
He brought him to the old folks home for a site visit. To that gentleman’s surprise, the
old folks home he intended to donate the diapers to had been overloaded with large
size diapers. The stocks are enough to last for another year! The charity fund was
eventually used for other purposes that are much needed.
Another friend of mine had this striking moment once he went to take his dinner at a
restaurant. It was buffet style steamed rice with self-picked, mixed and matched
vegetables or meat. Just right after he took one of the vegetables to his plate, the waiter
took away the serving and threw the vegetables in a trash bin right under my friend’s
eyes. My friend felt uncomfortable with this act. He went and talked to the owner of the
restaurant. They are coming up with a social enterprise model that will first minimise the
wastage due to overcooked or unsold food, and then slowly moving towards zero food
waste model.
This reminds me of the bakery and pastry industry, where the conventional practise was
to throw away the unsold bread and food items as they have a very limited shelf life.
Yet, the industry can’t afford giving out free those unsold items at the end of the day
before closing as they try to avoid exploitation of loopholes under such practise. For
instance, the overclaiming of food under employee benefits or resale of products at
cheaper price without revenue or profit channeling back to business due to process

loopholes. Some even go to the extent of spraying the food with pesticide to avoid them
being taken by poor or homeless people, or stray animals. They need to avoid attracting
the wrong crowd, even at the back lane. This would be a long, debatable issue.
Roughly a third of the world’s food is never eaten14
. The world is making progress in
terms of handling food disposal. In France, giving leftover food to charity is no longer
just an act of goodwill. It's a requirement under a 2016 law that bans grocery stores
from throwing away edible food15
.
According to Annika Stott, Sustainability Strategist at OzHarvest, one of the key
takeaways from France’s ban on food waste is the action garnered plenty of attention
and prompted international conversations toward halving food waste16
. Many countries
are working toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to
halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food
losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 203017
.
So we have gone through a little bit of examples on food resources. Similar challenges
apply to other resources as well. The problems lie within distribution. We never lack
good samaritan or good hearted people with good intention to help others who are less
fortunate. Yet, despite much international aid and support, why are there still poverty
and problems with resources all around the world?
In his book “The Bottom Billion”, Oxford University professor Paul Collier, who has spent
a lifetime working to end global poverty, argues that there are 60 countries whose
combined 1 billion residents experienced little, if any, income growth over the 1980s and
1990s. The “development traps” explored by Collier include bad governance and the
natural resource trap.18
At the very basic, it’s about distribution of resources and
whether the resources reach those who need it.
18
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
https://amzn.to/33sTHfS
17
https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12
16
What We Can Learn From France’s Ban On Food Waste
https://beyondfoodwaste.com/france_food_waste_ban/
15
French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/24/586579455/french-food-waste-law-changing-how-grocery
-stores-approach-excess-food
14
Reduced Food Waste
https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/reduced-food-waste

Philanthropic efforts are not what we lack, yet they can only reach their true potential in
a transparent and trustworthy system. Humanitarian efforts complemented by
technological tools shall provide a way to ensure that resources end up actually
reaching the “bottom billion” who are struggling. This could be a starting point for
seeking accountability when resources disappear as well19
.
We shall discuss further technology advancement in the Digital Transformation section
later. For now, let’s get into the sustainable business model, which is crucial to the
survival of the social enterprise in the long run.
Sustainable Business Models
How long can our business sustain? Can our business sustain without any income for 3
months consecutively? What are the best ways or models to ensure business
profitability, if not at least sustainability? These are just some of the very important
questions to be considered before venturing into any business. This has been more
alarming with the global pandemic outbreak in 2020, when none of the business has
ever experienced such a long period of lock down in most countries, which is not under
a physical war condition. The awareness towards business sustainability had been
brought up through a hard reality hit. Businesses were tested with extreme cruelty.
Are you competent enough when it comes to sustainability? How to drive career or
business success when it comes to social, economic, and environmental development
related matters? Where does equality stand?
Had we utilised our resources, especially our most precious time wisely? Had we taken
things for granted for too long? What matters most? Is it money, gold, or oil? What does
it really matter? Is it those intangible things that money can’t buy such as lost health,
family, and time? How do we, or how would we prioritise our time if we were to ask
ourselves these questions?
To add to what seems to be a never ending list, reminded by this global scale pandemic
outbreak of 2020, are we ready for another pandemic? Are we important to this planet?
Or the other way round?
The sustainable business model, which is kind of circular in nature, may shed some
lights to most of the questions above.
19
Philanthropy: A missing catalyst of blockchain adoption
https://cointelegraph.com/news/philanthropy-a-missing-catalyst-of-blockchain-adoption

“Take, make, consume, waste” practise VS “Circular” model.
Sustainable production and consumption via circular economy model is a better solution
to the recycle or waste management approach. Optimised resource usage is one
expected outcome to answer the problem statement of resource misallocation and
mismanagement. We only need an adjustment from profit as a mere indicator of
success to the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit.
Practically, how can we apply the social business model? A high level overview
checklist may provide some starting points for us to further explore and take action to
make things happen.
Social business model key considerations:
● What problem(s) are we solving? (The Purpose)
● How does it align to the global goals?
● What would be the positioning of the business?
● What brand would it be?
● Target setting and key performance indicators.
● What could possibly be the movement to achieve the goals?
● Audit or check and balance mechanism.
To make things simpler, the questions listed above can be organized into five key areas:
purpose, positioning or value proposition, vision mission statement, team, and
perseverance.
The purpose must be big and strong enough as this is what will sustain the spirit of the
team in the long run. Any business without a purpose seldom lasts long. Look around
and you shall notice those who thrive often exist with a purpose, be it social enterprise
or not. The difference in social enterprise model is about the impact it aims to bring
besides profit.
A social enterprise must have a clearly identified purpose. Some examples of
considering the purpose of a social enterprise through asking questions. For instance, is
the business uplifting the life of the ingenious people of its surroundings? Is the
business contributing to bring more economic value to the community through
enhancing productivity via technology empowerment? Is the business helping to clean
tonnes of ocean rubbish, saving the life under water indirectly while contributing to
solving climate change problems?

What major problem is the specific social enterprise solving? What is that main
purpose for the social enterprise's existence? How does it address the key social,
economic, and environmental challenges?
The above questions might help in identifying the purpose of the business existence.
But there is more to mere purpose. Once the purpose is clear, the positioning must be
right. Business positioning helps people to identify your product or services when they
are looking for such products or services. For instance, an education center that
provides free education to the poor in exchange for certain social services, a restaurant
that is managed by the deaf, or an agriculture company that produces crops with
regeneration ability and high CO2 absorption to reduce deforestation rate and relieve
global warming issues, etc.
How would a sharp positioning help from the public perspective? For examples listed
above, in the case of social impact as in education. Say if I happen to come across
someone who can’t afford the education fees, I can channel them to the respective
education center so their future is better secured with basic knowledge or even specific
skill sets. Note that the social enterprise model is a bit different from the charity way of
getting donations or sponsorship then paying for the school fees or arranging the needy
to study under special arrangements taught by volunteering teachers. The sample
model will be further discussed later in this chapter.
For the case of a restaurant managed by the deaf, it is just an option provided to the
free market. Choosing between a cafe to support a specific group of people and the
conventional branded outlets is freedom of choices. After all, the market is big enough
to have variety for people to choose from and for businesses to co-exist. At the end of
the day, it still falls back to the core of business, providing real value to consumers. In
this case, the food still has to be up to consumers’ expectation though it comes with a
noble purpose.
The same goes to the tree planting business. The better the quality of regenerative
crops that can replace conventional supply from natural resources, and the more the
planting to fulfill the market needs, the less the legacy forest will be destroyed as the
demand can be fulfilled through technology, lessening the hurt to our environment.
Social, economic, and environmental impact should be the place where the social
enterprise occupies the mind of its target audience.

Clarity leads to power. Well defined, clear goals and target setting will accelerate the
social enterprise towards the right direction. The keys are blueprint, target, milestone.
Just like going out for an overseas trip. You need to know your destination first, then a
good map for pre-trip planning, and only when time is right you get off the road towards
your destination. Along the way, things happen and there might be detours. But as long
as you stick to the right direction, reaching the destination will be just a matter of time.
Take the case of the education center. To assist 100 poor students to gain a specific skill
set every year. For the restaurant, to create at least 10 job posts and open a new outlet
every year. For the plantation, to plant 5,000 acres of regenerative trees with
commercial value on underutilized land every year. The realistic figures will not only
make the purpose and positioning clearer, but set a foreseeable milestone to the
business and stakeholders as well.
How are you going to create that social, economic, or environmental impact? What
are the key performance indexes that help to measure your success towards
achieving the goals?
When you go on a sea voyage, you need a caliber team to maneuver the ship. In a way,
the social enterprise entity is going to be the ship that carries the team to fulfill the
purpose. A synergized team of great people on board will definitely increase the
success rate. To have that synergy, everyone on board must be well aligned to the
purpose, and have the same passion in achieving the goals together.
Who would be carrying out major tasks of the business? How is the expertise line up
of the social enterprise in order to fulfill the purpose?
Being an entity by itself, social enterprise will face many hurdles and challenges along
the way, just like any other business or charity organization out there. It is going to be a
long journey and to keep that passion burning needs quite a strong mindset and a lot
more effort. There might be a thousand reasons to give up halfway. Find that one
reason to stay. Most of the time, it is the strong purpose that keeps the team going.
Why had this social enterprise been set up? Had the key persons or the team
forgotten their purpose or lost the passion? Why?

Remember that one single action may create an impactful effect, though it may not be
shown directly. Just like the butterfly effect in the chaos theory, a small change in one
state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state20
.
Though it is doubtful that a butterfly could affect any kind of meaningful change in the
weather, the theory makes sense in terms of a very small change in initial conditions
that might create a significantly different outcome.
“No act of kindness is too small. The gift of kindness may start as a small ripple that
over time can turn into a tidal wave affecting the lives of many.” ~ Kevin Heath
When you are doubtful on how little change can make an impact, think of the story
where a good samaritan changes the writing board of a blind man from “I am blind.
Please help.” to “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.” They might mean the same, but
the way of presenting it could make a huge difference and bring about better outcomes.
How can these be put into practise in the real world? From encouraging vegetarian
practise to reduce carbon footprint, to helping rural areas ingenious people to trade their
crops with a better price, to producing clean water and green energy at lower cost so it
is made affordable to more marginalised people, to reproductive commercial plywood
initiatives, the list goes on and on.
Example #1: Clothing business
Remember that belief of “there has never been a problem with the resources, the
problems lie within distributions”?
Conventionally, if we were to setup a t-shirt business, we would do it in these steps:
1. Find a designer to come out with few designs.
2. Choose the designs that we think will be bestselling.
3. Send it to the factory for mass production.
4. Distribute to outlets for sales.
5. After a certain period, collect back what was not sold.
6. Decide what to do with unsold items, most likely donate to charitable
organizations.
Is there any better way of doing this? Say, with the help of technology and a little twist in
the business model:
20
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

1. Get the designs from talented, underprivileged groups of people, such as
orphans or kids from single parent families.
2. Put the simulated t-shirt with specific design on a crowdfunding platform.
3. Once the target orders hit, send to the factory for production and distribute to
consumers who ordered through the crowd funding platform.
By doing so, we are aligning our business to the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals, specifically Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and Goal
12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
The new business model will not be wasting resources as it now only produces the
exact number of t-shirts that the market wants. Also, the business now provides decent
jobs to the less privileged group in the society while contributing a little to the economic
growth.
This is only one of the many ways we can use to rectify the resources allocation issues.
Example #2: Food business
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global volume of
food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of "primary product equivalents." Total
food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes.21
In Malaysia, the
Solid Waste Corporation states that the country’s food waste totals 16,687.5 tonnes
daily – enough to feed 12.2 million people three times a day22
.
Imagine the amount of land and volume of water being drained along with these
wastages, and the carbon footprint being produced unnecessarily due to these
wastages. Thus, addressing food waste will not only free up resources to feed the
hungry, but also is one of the most impactful ways to reverse climate change. This is
because producing uneaten food squanders a whole host of resources (seeds, water,
energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, financial capital etc.) that generates greenhouse
gases at every stage, including methane when organic matter lands in the global
rubbish bin23
.
23
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
https://amzn.to/38VfmkB
22
Rethinking Food Waste
https://gamuda.com.my/2020/06/rethinking-food-waste/blog/
21
Food wastage: Key facts and figures
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196402/icode/

The best way to reduce food wastage is of course if they can be produced according to
needs, rather than mass production with unsold items being thrown away at the end of
the day. Make to order is possible with online pre-orders, delivery on the next day or any
day after order placement date. This model applies to freshly baked cakes, pastry,
breads, and pre-set meals etc that are not time critical.
For daily food disposal, such as those from grocery stores, bakery, shopping center etc,
there are a few ways of disposing the expiring food. While edible food could be legally
banned from throwing away just like that, and must be sent to charitable organisations
or people in need, that should be the last resort to rely upon to reduce food wastage.
Initiatives should start from everyone caring enough for the resources and surrounding
people. Social enterprise that collects leftover food and turns them to plant fertiliser and
resell to nursery will bring some impact to environmental development. Awareness
activities and campaigns to empower communities with better food waste management
and reduce carbon footprint by diverting their compostables from landfills can be part of
marketing and branding activities. Possibilities of collaboration between social
enterprise startups with big corporations’ CSR initiative do exist.
From farm to table, from plate to plant. What goes around comes around.
Example #3: Education
Education inequality impairs our collective social, economic and environmental
well-being. Either we all win, or we all lose. If education is the most powerful tool we can
use to change the world, how do we ensure it reaches out to every person on this
planet? We have seen how digital inclusion and financial inclusion can play their roles
closing the inequality gap, let’s explore the business model part here.
The traditional way of running an education business would be pretty much
straightforward, be it a music school, a painting class art center, a computer literature
training center etc. First invest into the setup and facilities needed to run the classes.
Then getting in students for all scheduled training or classes.
One interesting question would be, will the classroom always be full? Especially for
those specific skill sets, training classes or courses. Let’s do a simple illustration. How
much would be the fixed costs that are required to run a classroom with a maximum
sitting of 20 students? Most likely would be just the trainer fees, the electricity, and the
documentations or printing costs that might be needed. What would be the difference in

electricity and trainer cost for a class full with 20 students versus a class that only being
filled up half? Most likely not much different.
The point is, a facility that is under-utilised at that point of time. What if we can maximise
the educational resource usage with the help of technology? How? By having a
resource platform that matches those underserved community educational needs with
those with under-utilised facilities and resources. That is one of many possible ways of
doing it. Other than connecting traditional learning centers’ supply and demand through
technological platforms, fully leveraging the digital realm to carry out something like
“education for all” movement via virtual classrooms is another area we can explore.
We have seen the likes of online education platforms like coursera and udemy. How can
these models reach out to the bottom of the pyramid? Through implementing the
sponsorship model, run and managed by a social enterprise entity, how does that
sound? Will that bring education to more people who really need it? The key is
inclusion. About knowing the state of resource usage and how to fit in the demand to
maximise the throughput.

Example #4: Shelter
As you will be explored to the six areas that produce true wealth later, shelter is one
important necessity for human needs for sustainability. Rather than keep building
isolated old folks’ homes and orphanages scattered across different places, are there
any possibilities to build in one place, a few buildings where old folks' homes and
orphanages co-exist? Of course the staying place will be different for the elderly and the
children. But there could be co-sharing of common facilities like garden, playground etc,
just like how you see in some neighborhood communities. The point is to have that
livelihood for what might seem to be a miserable place to stay in, as both age groups
shared a common background of not being able to be with the family for some reasons.
Remember that we are discussing resource allocation, and both elderly group and
children are our valuable resources. The elderly come with life experience with enough
wisdom to pass down to the next generation, while the children represent hopes, taking
the baton from their elder generation.
Is it possible to have a commercial day care center that is generating income and able
to take care of additional, less fortunate old people at the same time?
There is quite a difference between the people being taken care of in old folks’ homes
and day care centers for the elderly. Imagine a kindergarten alike daycare center for the
elderly. This is a service for those double income urban families where both husband
and wife have to work during day time and who might have a single parent living with
them. Of course they can hire someone for homecare services. What if there exists
another option that the elderly can have their peers and community to mingle around
during day time as well? This would have reduced a lot more loneliness issues, mental
stress or illness that associates with reduction in social activities during old age.
As such, would daycare centers for the elderly become another branch of business run
by social enterprises helping to solve the aging population and abandoned old folks’
challenges?
Example #5: Environment and Healthcare
We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Climate
action and healthcare are somehow connected. For instance, the open burning of huge
plantation areas in a country might cause the neighboring country to suffer from haze
issues, because wind knows no nation-state boundaries. The toxic gas will follow the
windflow, causing surrounding areas to suffer the consequences.

If the intention of a huge plantation project is to generate massive profit, can it be
replaced with other crops that are more environmentally friendly and not requiring huge
open burning when it comes to land clearance? For instance, afforestation businesses
that capitalize on the unique characteristic of Paulownia tree which is known to absorb
great amounts of carbon dioxide compared with other species and aim to converge dual
gains of yielding timber solutions while providing carbon sequestration24
. This will not
only help in fighting climate changes but also providing decent jobs to local people that
comes with potential economic growth.
Is there a lower cost way to provide the marginalised communities with clean drinking
water, without piped water pressure or electric pumps? No electricity, no water pressure,
no chemical, washable, durable, and economical. The Efinity EZ Water Filter Cap, a
device and filtration system that does not require electricity or tap pressure, which have
been distributed around the world, providing thousands with access to clean water25
might be the answer. A social enterprise with the intention to provide solutions where
clean water comes easy26
, at very low cost.
Another worth noting project is the Liter of Light movement, which is a global,
grassroots movement that uses inexpensive, readily available materials to provide high
quality solar lighting to people with limited or no access to electricity. The lighting
solutions utilize a very simple circuit and open source technology where the parts may
be sourced out locally. Amazingly, the lithium phosphate battery gives 12-16 hours of
light everyday, at very affordable cost.27
We have seen a few social enterprises providing solutions to cleaner air, affordable
clean water and lighting, let’s look at a healthcare example, eyecare. While running an
optical retail store is nothing fancy, applying the model similar to that of Toms Shoes
might be something worth exploring.
A startup in eyewear retail, OO Optical adopted this social enterprise model where for
every purchase of one pair of glasses, customers will indirectly donate another pair of
glasses to the economically unaffordable student. The student in need will have to fill up
the registration form through the business official website. The team in charge will do
27
https://literoflight.org/
26
Presentation for APICTA 2018 - EFINITY SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
https://www.slideshare.net/effendyzulkifly/presentation-for-apicta-2018-efinity-social-enterprise
25
Golden Hearts Award 2018: Efinity Social Enterprise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrUzD0moqp4
24
https://www.gain-green.com/

the filtering and screening process to ensure that the beneficiaries receive the glasses
they need28
. This is being done along with hundreds of free eye tests and inspections
activities to schools.
The business is not doing any extraordinary event or activity which is way much
different from the core retail model, thus no huge costing needed in terms of branding
and promotion. What has been applied is just a small step further from the main
business, with some complementing activities that generate social impact and bring
good to the people that need the product yet couldn’t afford it. Another difference is the
willingness to share the profit and give back to the society through a more effective way
that somehow relates back to the business.
Example #6: Gamified Social Good
What kind of game would you develop if you are a software or gaming apps
development company? The bloodshedding war game, zombies killing game, or similar
violent action games? What if we can gamify social good?
It has been done, and it works. For instance, Ant Forest, an app-based game that
rewards users with green energy points for choosing low-carbon activities like taking
public transportation or using less plastic29
. How does it work? Once players have
earned enough green energy, they can plant a virtual tree in Ant Forest. For every tree
planted in the virtual game, a real tree is planted in rural China. What's the purpose of
the game? It is making people think about how their micro choices can be solutions to
big problems. What is the achievement? According to Ant Forest, 500 million people
planted 100 million trees to date.
Note: Ant Forest received a 2019 Champions of the Earth award30
, the UN’s highest
environmental honour, recognized for inspiring consumers to reduce their carbon
footprint, resulting in China’s largest private sector tree-planting initiative.
Two aspects for the program’s stunning progress could be due to its convenience and
the fact that it’s something that people are genuinely concerned about. As Xu Di, the
30
Chinese initiative Ant Forest wins UN Champions of the Earth award
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/chinese-initiative-ant-forest-wins-un-cham
pions-earth-award
29
Gamified Social Good, An In-App Game That Helps Slow Down Climate Change
https://socialenterpriseguide.com/gamified-social-good-an-in-app-game-that-helps-slow-down-climate-cha
nge/
28
https://oooptical.com/to-apply-free-specs/

program's founder put it, "The success is not because it's entertaining and interactive,
but because it's part of the public interest. We believe human nature is good. We
lowered the threshold and cost to allow people to do good things. Users like to do small
things every day to help protect the environment."31
Incentivizing good behavior has
proven to be a working model in guiding people towards a better world.
Are you saving the Earth through promoting a healthy lifestyle? Are you encouraging
people to take initiatives to act against climate change? Things like plant trees, plant
hope when it comes to marketing campaigns? If you think you are too small to make
any impact as an individual or a small business entity, think again. Ain’t countries made
up of every single individual and small entities? It is a collaborative effort and collective
results at the end of the day. From individual to organisations to nation-state to regional
collaboration and the world as a whole.
“I don’t consider myself a woman of science but finding solutions to problems that could
change people’s lives for the better is what drives me, and I hope to be able to do much
more,” said Teng Yu Mein, a housewife who came out with the Efinity water filter idea32
.
The examples could go very long. There are no limits to what social enterprise can do
as long as the model strikes some balance between profit and impact. These are just
some possibilities where social enterprise models can be applied. Think of how you can
make a change in your business model so that it does not only make profit but also
contributes to the social, economic, and environmental development as the daily
activities are carried out. The profit might become lesser initially, but the overall impact
and satisfaction could be long lasting. Satisfaction and happiness, ain’t that what most
of us really want behind every single profit we are going after?
Chapter Summary
Must we apply the social enterprise business model into our business? While it is good
to be, it doesn’t have to be. The model or the entity is just a form of tangible
representation of the ideas, what matters most is the genuine intention and true
willingness to bring impact alongside social, economic, environmental development.
The case of the small town real estate developer says it all. Back then, the social
32
How a spray bottle started it all
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/07/how-a-spray-bottle-started-it-all-eureka-moment-whil
e-ironing-leads-housewife-to-invent-water-filter/
31
Want a tree planted for you? Start walking!
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e78556a4d33457a6333566d54/index.html

enterprise term did not even exist. Yet, the houses were built upon a confirmed number
of buyers and taken up, thus no wastage of resources to building materials with unsold
properties. A concept similar to the clothing business example in this chapter.
In a nutshell, the conventional business model carries out social impact activities
periodically under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, social enterprise
practices it in everyday business activities. While the social enterprise model might have
been around for quite some time, it is still a long way to go for people to take up the idea
and implement it into their business practices. This is where the opportunities are for
entrepreneurs to be, specifically socialpreneurs and technopreneurs who have in their
hand the powerful tools to make the world a better place - advanced and emerging
technologies.
Perhaps the most notable struggle is on balancing the profit and impact. Must profit
exist in the first place? Is there any law to prohibit business to make profit? A very
interesting question to wonder about. If all businesses become social enterprises, will
there still be wealth concentration?

Our Team (Authors)
Koh How Tze
Experienced in ICT system development and
integration, and digital media landscape. Currently a
business strategist specialized in digital transformation
related consultation, serving clients from governmental
organizations, MNCs and SMEs.
LinkedIn | Facebook
Joyline Chai
Actively involved in community and social services,
Malaysia’s SDG Pioneer, with a business background
specialized in Property Management Services,
Corporate Training, and Corporate Branding &
Marketing Consultancy.
LinkedIn | Facebook
Razleena Rindu
She combined both her passion in street selling and
addiction in exploring into the internet world, which led
her to E-commerce since 2005. In addition, she also
loves to educate people into going digital from learning
new languages and to share her spontaneous
marketing strategies.

This book is part of the development blueprint for a technology driven social impact
project. For further info or collaboration possibilities, kindly get in touch with us at
projectdecacorn@gmail.com or visit any of our web portal here:
http://www.thesdgs2030.com http://www.socialcapital.asia http://www.socialenterpriseguide.com

Further Readings:
Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts (Section 1: Sustainable Development)
https://www.slideshare.net/howtze/global-goals-every-achievement-counts-section-1-sustainabl
e-development
Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts (Section 2: Global Goals)
https://www.slideshare.net/howtze/global-goals-every-achievement-counts-section-2-global-goal
s
Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts | Content Structure Preview & Briefing
https://www.slideshare.net/howtze/global-goals-every-achievement-counts-content-structure-pre
view-briefing
Global Goals: 5 pillars of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
https://www.slideshare.net/howtze/global-goals-5-pillars-of-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs
Reinventing Capitalism In The Age of Big Data (Reading Notes)
https://www.slideshare.net/howtze/reinventing-capitalism-in-the-age-of-big-data-reading-notes

Global Goals: Every Achievement Counts (Section 3: Social Enterprise)

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