Bakery Hearts

Today i would like to post about my experience this semester in volunteering with Bakery Hearts.

So what is Bakery Hearts?

Bakery Hearts is the social enterprise that my group had chosen to volunteer with.

It is a social enterprise aimed at helping low-income mothers supplement their income through providing them with jobs and training.
At Bakery Hearts, the beneficiaries learn various soft skills, such as baking skills, communication skills, learning how to do sales and conflict resolution.
While it may seem like an easy job, I learnt a lot during my time volunteering there.

Firstly, I learn a lot through my interaction with the beneficiaries. Even though the social enterprise is a simple one, by providing them with jobs, I am able to experience and see just how much it impacted their lives. Some of them have been housewives for nearly a decade, so this helps them to gain the exposure and confidence to go back to work in the society.

Secondly, I also learnt the hardships of running and managing social enterprises like these. Through our volunteering experiences, we have to contact and manage the work schedule for the beneficiaries. One of the hardest part, was to communicate with the beneficiaries and ensure that they listen to us. Volunteering also gave me the experience to be at the booth, where I managed to learn a lot and interact with the beneficiaries.

Overall, I'm glad to be able to have the chance to volunteer at Bakery Hearts, I find the job that they do very interesting and meaningful, and im glad that I managed to learn from my experience.

Social enterprise: Soul Kitchen

Today i will sharing about a social enterprise called Jon Bon Jovi's Soul Kitchen.

The model of the social enterprise made me feel that it is unsustainable, as a BZSE student, but at the same time, it also inspires me as an individual.

This social enterprise basically serves food, but it is not like the conventional soup kitchen or restaurant. In this community restaurant, there are no price or menus for the food served. customers are welcome to pay for their meals, while those who can't afford to do not. This bistro is mainly to help those low income families who are in needed by providing them with free meals while customers can pay whatever they can afford. The restaurant also allows customers to volunteer at the restaurant as payments for their meals. The operations are sustained by customers who are able to pay for their meals, while the restaurant also have it's own garden to grow their food supplies.



I feel that this social enterprise is an example of how we can give back or help the society. Even though it can be something as simple as free food for the needy, it can be very important to the needy. I think that the fact that social enterprise like this community kitchen is able to work, proves that people are willing to help out each other. Even though it is a "pay what you can" restaurant, some of the more well to do customers are still willing to pay extra, to provide for someone else's meal. I feel that another good point about the restaurant, is that it allows people to volunteer or work at the restaurant, in exchange for food. By providing job opportunities and meals, the restaurant is helping the poor to feed themselves, and giving them the opportunity to learn and find jobs. I feel that although such social enterprises might be hard to start up, it is definitely able to help others in the society.

References

Haindl, Sangeeta. (2011, October 24). Social Enterprise: Jon Bon Jovi's Soul Kitchen. Retrieved 22 December 2012 from: http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Enterprise-Jon-Bon-Jovi-s-Soul-Kitchen/50334.html

seven deadly sins of social enterprise

Article

Today, i will be sharing about the seven deadly sins of social enterprise. This article tells us the 7 common things that social entrepreneurs make.


Deadly sin #1: the belief that speaking at conferences, blogging, and tweeting are entrepreneurial activities
Deadly sin #2: insufficient ruthlessness about purpose
Deadly sin #3: unwillingness or inability to prove impact
Deadly sin #4: not nailing the business basics
Deadly sin #5: Ego
Deadly sin #6: not enough time spent understanding the customer
Deadly sin #7: the sector mindset – social enterprise v private sector

I would like to highlight and talk about a few sins that I feel that are important or crucial to a social entrepreneurs. 

Firstly, I agree with sin #3, unwilling or unable to provide impact. As a social enterprise, i feel that this is the worse mistake that can be made. Although a social enterprise is essentially a business, what defines it as a social enterprise is the social impact that it provides. If a business is unable or unwilling to provide that impact, it might as well be just called a business. 

Next, I feel that it is also important to take note of sin#4, while social enterprises have the ability and advantage to help others, it is also important for social entrepreneurs to take note and be reminded that their social enterprise is a business. While helping the society out, it is important to ensure that their organizations remain fully functional as a business. 

Finally, i feel that the most important is sin #5. Although there are quite a few examples of good social enterprise and entrepreneurs, i feel that the most important thing is to them to remain grounded, and be reminded of the purpose of them starting the social enterprise. It is important for them to continue putting in efforts to help the cause, and not be more arrogant once their social enterprise starts to be successful.

References

Stephens, Simon. (2012, December 13). The seven deadly sins of social enterprise. Retrieved 14 December 2012 from: http://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network/2012/dec/13/seven-deadly-sins-social-enterprise

More funding options available to social enterprise

Article

In today's article, i will be looking at the news that social enterprises in Singapore are able to get more access to funding. 

The article mentioned how social enterprises are now able to gain access to more funding, especially from banks such as DBS, where they offer loans at low interest rates. The article also mentioned that it is important for social enterprise to receive such help, especially after their start up, where they are entering the next period of growth.

In my opinion, i feel that such steps taken by banks are encouraging for the social enterprise sector in Singapore. It shows that investors and banks are having more confidence in social enterprises, by seeing them as a viable business. Even though there is no widespread social issues are poverty or hunger in Singapore, I do believe that there are still certain people that requires help. It is encouraging to see that banks are willing to make the extra effort and help companies such as Adrenalin, who hires youths at risks and people with disabilities. I hope that news like this will encourage the start up of more social enterprises, which is beneficial to Singapore. 

Attracting talents to social enterprises

Today I will be sharing about an article that I read online about attracting talents to social enterprise.

Read more about the article here

In this article, it gives us tips on how to attract and retain talents. Recruiting the right employee can be a troublesome process, where they are required to have the correct skills and the right attitude. This can be especially difficult, especially for social enterprises, which the article mentioned that it might hard to provide kind of programmes and benefits that other big corporate company do. (Jervis, 2012)

I feel that the article is a very useful one, for any potential social entrepreneurs. While we had already learn something similar from modules like Human Resource Management, i feel that this article gives us more useful tips that might be useful in recruiting workers in the future.

Below are examples of tips that the article provides.

Top three tips for hiring great social enterprise talent:

1. Involve your team in the decision: Have the individual shadow your organisation, meet your clients, beneficiaries and staff.

2. Invest and reward the right individual.

3. Think carefully about your organisations need to strike a balance between purpose motivations and business acumen.

Reference

Jervis, Joe. (2012,November 27). Top Tips: Attracting the best talents for your social enterprises. Retrieved 28 November 2012 from: http://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/en/articles/social-enterprise-network/2012/nov/27/top-tips-attracting-best-talent

Creating space for social enterprise in Singapore

Creating space for social enterprise in Singapore

Today's article talks about the author and her experience on creating a hub for social enterprises in Singapore. 

The HUB Singapore, is a place created by Grace Sai. The hub is a 5,400 sq ft space, located at Orchard. (Sai, 2012). Members of the Hub call themselves "Hubbers", where they will gather at the Hub to conduct activities, workshops or even just to grab a cup of coffee together for work discussion. 

I find the concept of HUB Singapore being an interesting and fresh one because not only it acts as a common platform for exiting or even new social enterprises to come together as a whole, importantly, allowing inflow of new ideas to be shared. The hub provides them with an opportunity, both to pursue and expand their expertise to tackle social issues.
As such, it also highlight the increased signs of Singaporean developing an attitude towards making a change. Indeed, such positivity is a good sign that people are becoming more compassionate and aware towards the society.  I feel that it can be both pros and cons to such visible sign as it can also be a hinder for success as passion can be impulsive and not be able to last for long-term. This can be justified with examples of failed social enterprises or cases of deviation from the industry.

Despite the fact that there bounds to be flaws and with only 200 "Hubbers", I am confident that Miss Sai will reach her aim of having 1000 members eventually. I feel that we can learn from Miss Sai and be inspired, as this shows the potential of social entrepreneurship in Singapore.  

The real meaning of social enterprise

In this week's post, i am just going to talk about what the title suggests, my opinions on the real meaning of social enterprise.

After reading an article about it, I feel that there should be a need the term social enterprise to be properly defined, to ensure that the term is not misused.
In the article, it shows an example of how companies can misuse the term social enterprise, and damaging the reputation of the industry in the process. It is "wholly misleading and threatens the real social enterprises sector's future" (the guardian, 2012).

In my opinion, a company or organization should have a few criteria, in order to name themselves social enterprise.

1) I feel that the organization should be socially-driven, the purpose of the company should be to achieve or address a social problem, and not for profit-maximization.

2) The company should have a social mission or social impact that can be measured, and should be used as the measurement of their success, rather than their profits.

3) The company should be self sustainable, they should not be relying on the goodwill or donations to operate.

4) The company should be providing a service or product, that defines it as a business, which makes it a social enterprise.

These four points above are, in my opinion, what social enterprises should be. I feel that it is important to clearly define what social enterprises are, to prevent confusion and any exploitation by some organizations.
References

The Guardian, (August, 29, 2012). The real meaning of social enterprises. Retrieved 16 November 2012 from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/29/real-meaning-social-enterprise

Social enterprise offers an answer to the Occupy movement

Social enterprise offers an answer to the Occupy movement

The article that I will be sharing about, is mainly to discuss about two things.

Firstly, the article mentioned about a social enterprise Boxed Water, where the company sells water that are better for the planet. So how exactly does Boxed Water help the planet? Boxed Water uses cartons that are made from 76 percent recycled material, and ‘Boxed Water’ gives 10 percent of their profits to reforestation and 10 percent to cleaning the world’s water supply. (Gourarie, 2012, Para.1) 

In my opinion, I feel that Boxed Water is an example of a good social enterprise that can help the environment in the long run. While the model might seem to be fairly simple, donating 20% of their profits and to use recyclable materials, I feel that this social enterprise is able to help save the environment. Even though Boxed Water might not be able to solve all environmental problem by itself, I feel that it provides a good example to other business, that it is easy to do their part in helping the environment.

Secondly, I will be talking about the Benefit Corporation Status, or B Corp, that the article mentioned. B Corp is a legal status for organization in several states at America. While there are quite a number of social enterprises in Singapore, I feel that there is a need to establish a legal status for social enterprises, as to clarify an organization's status. By having a proper legal status for social enterprises, it allows social enterprise to be more clear in their operations and when they are dealing with legal frameworks. It will also be easier for them to acquire grants or tax exemptions. 

Another reason for doing so, is to ensure that business wont be abusing the term "social enterprise" I feel that in order for an organization to be called a social enterprise, it must be driven by it's mission and social impact, rather than profit-maximization. As social enterprise is gaining more awareness, the public are more willing to patronize social enterprises, as they feel that it will help the society. However, some companies abusing this fact, by claiming themselves to be social enterprises, thus gaining competitive advantages over their competitors. 

In my opinion, if Singapore were to have a legal status for social enterprises,they should be required to provide a "social report card" as mentioned in the article. It will allow shareholders and consumers to able to better view the social impact of the organization, and ensure that the term social enterprise is not being misuse. 



Gourarie, Chavi. (2012, April, 5) Social Enterprise offers an answer to the Occupy Movement. Retrieved 6th November 2012 from: http://www.thecorsaironline.com/lifestyle/2012/04/05/social-enterprise-may-offer-an-answer-to-the-occupy-movement-2/

Social Enterprise rises in India

Social Enterprise rise in India

Today's article talks about the increasing number of Social Enterprises in India.

In a nuteshell, the article talks about the increasing number of people, especially students, are attracted to the idea of a social enterprise. India is still a developing country, and especially with it's large population of 1.22 billion (indiaonlinepages, n.d, para. 1) shortage of housing remain an issue. From the article, it gives an examples of how social enterprise can help solve issues like shortage of housing. The Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions at India School of Business, came up with a model that "yielded an internal rate of return of 100 per cent, despite the project’s relatively slim profit margins, while keeping costs to homebuyers controlled." (Neil Munshi, 2012, para.7) In addition, the article also discuss about how social enterprise is being seen as an attractive model, as it is not a charity, but a business

In my opinion, this article highlights all the attractive points of a social enterprise; the fact that it not just helps the people, but it is also a business to earn a living. Nowadays when people are more conscious about helping others, social enterprise can be an alternative to help others in need, and yet be sustainable at the same time. It is also seen as an attractive option to students in India, they can not only escape poverty through starting a business, they can help to spread social entrepreneurship among their friends and peers around. 

Personally, I feel that it is important to let people know about the benefits of a social enterprise on a continuous basis, which can be a solution to help tackle social issues. A perfect example is as shown above, when investors can earn money through building houses, and yet the houses are at an affordable rate. This also intrigued my curiosity, whether social enterprises for housing would be able to succeed in Singapore. Housing prices in Singapore are getting more and more expensive, and has become one of the few subject of debates for the past few years. Although many people in Singapore are able to afford a house, there are still some people, especially elderly that are homeless. Maybe having a social enterprise for housing in Singapore, will help houses to be more affordable, and provide those homeless people with have a roof over their heads. 

References:

Indiaonlinepages (n.d) India's Population Retrieved 3rd November, 2012 from:
http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html


Neil Munshi (29 October, 2012) Social Enterprise rises in India, Retrieved 3rd November, 2012 from:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/9fb2ee08-e7aa-11e1-8686-00144feab49a.html#axzz2AhWpWfl3

Is Social Entrepreneurship Transforming Millennial Talent Acquisition?

Today's article which I have read and found recently, talks about how social enterprises are able to attract more Millennial Talent (also known as gen Y). 

In a nutshell, the article discusses that more and more people ranging from the age of 16-29, are becoming more conscious about social responsibility. Majority of them are willing to sacrifice financial benefit to work in a company with a social mission and for a good cause. 

To supplement that, a recent study from Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that "90% of MBAs were willing to sacrifice financial benefits to work for a company that demonstrates a strong commitment to social good (i.e.positive ethics, community reputation etc) (Paisner, 2012, para.2). This is how visible and transparent that more people are stepping out of their comfort zones willingly and making contributions with their expertise. 

Personally, I can relate to this article. Being a student and youth, I feel that youths nowadays are more conscious about the job or career path which they choose. Financial benefits might not be one of the main considering factors. With the desire to add elements of being socially responsible, companies might just motivate potential and passion-driven employees to join on board and work hard for their causes.

I think this article discusses and reflects a promising future of the social enterprise industry , especially among the Millennial Generation. With more increased awareness of social issues, it acts as a wake-up call for people out there to realise how each of them people are able to make a change to the world and our society. 

In my opinion, third sectors and social enterprises can seize this opportunity of making use of such mentality to attract more talents to join their organizations. The best way to attract and retain talents, is to ensure that the employees get motivated and inspired through the work that they do. While every organizations will have it's mundane administrative or finance work, it is important to let the employees  interact with the beneficiaries on occasionally basis, or get chances to witness the social impact that the organization has done. This allows the employees to be constantly reminded and get motivation, to continue to work hard for the organization.

References:

Mathew Paisner (10th October, 2012) Is Social Entrepreneurship Transforming Millennial Talent Acquisition, Retrieved 28 October from http://www.forbes.com/sites/altruhelp/2012/10/10/is-social-entrepreneurship-transforming-millennial-talent-acquisition/