Social Entrepreneur, ecopreneur, philanthropreneurs..What!?

I came across the word ‘Triple bottom-line’ a couple years ago in the book ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things’ , which piqued my interest. This is a conscience-led capitalism which seeks to synergize Environmental Restoration, Social Justice and financial Sustainability, the book said (Sentence that I have used several times both in conversation and writing). Businesses should recognize that yes, we need to make profit but not at the expense of people or the planet. We need to balance the 3 E’s i.e. Economy, Equity and Ecology. Besides making profit, we should be committed to using business as a tool for social change. And such businessmen are not just entrepreneurs but ‘social entrepreneurs’

I have heard ‘ecopreneur’ too! It is a portmanteau of ‘Ecological’ and ‘entrepreneur’. An Ecoprenuer is an entrepreneur focused on eco-friendly (i.e ecologically friendly) issues and causes, while making money.

Just when I think, that’s about it, I come across the word philanthropreneurs! Apparently this is the model that Buffet and gates follow. Accumulate as much wealth from the capitalistic market and apply the dollars and the model for social causes.

Read this interesting article here, which says

‘Social enterprise is not a solution. It is an identifier. It enables people to define themselves as having priorities around ‘We’ the society as well as ‘Me’ the individual. Any organization that wants to attract the best and brightest from Generation Y needs to engage seriously in this balancing act. The great challenges of our times; climate change, peak oil, extreme poverty…, WILL NOT be solved with the capitalist model functioning as it is. New, Generation Y, additions to the workforce understand this fact.’

Well, it calms my nerves that charity and making money can go hand in hand. This is something that I have struggled with in my mind and is one reason why I am not in the non profit sector yet. If you want to make a difference, you want to be able to feed yourself too!

I suspect this concept might take us one step further in understanding the ‘We’ and ‘Me’. Once we get that straight, it might be harder for us to be oblivious to the social issues around us.