By Rolfe Larson on June 12, 2013
Here are some highlights from the recent 2013 Social Enterprise Summit (Social Enterprise Alliance) in Minneapolis:
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By Rolfe Larson on May 14, 2013
I’ve been wondering lately: is it always a good thing for social enterprises and related organizations to receive preferential treatment, in the form of public or philanthropy subsidies and other forms of preferential treatment?
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By Rolfe Larson on May 2, 2013
I was intrigued and inspired this morning by the following, which the Social Enterprise Alliance posted yesterday on the npEnterprise Forum: Eric Dawson, an Ashoka fellow and the CEO of Peace First, recently wrote a beautiful piece for Social Enterprise Alliance. It’s about working for social change that we may never see happen in our [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on April 18, 2013
From dozens of suggestions in the npEnterprise Forum, our social enterprise social media site, here is our: TOP 10 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SOUND BITES Social enterprises are businesses that: Use the marketplace to solve pressing social problems. Have a primary purpose to do social good. Serve the common good, making money while solving social problems. Are values-led [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on April 7, 2013
The notion of “scale” gets a great deal of attention in the social enterprise world. It seems to suggest fast growth from taking a successful model to expanded size, locations and social impact, all at warp speed. Social capital, business competitions, even funders often talk about scale as if it were the ultimate goal for [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on March 20, 2013
Seems obvious: of course prior business experience is a big advantage when starting a social enterprise. But now there’s evidence that this might not be correct. Research suggests that LESS experienced social entrepreneurs were MORE successful (in terms of revenue and social media network) compared to their MORE experienced colleagues. And the WORST performance came from social [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on February 23, 2013
While the term “impact investing” (or social capital) has garnered substantial attention in recent years, the more traditional field of microfinance, still by far the largest share of impact investments, gets less attention yet has decades of experience doing social capital. Here are a few of lessons from the micro finance sector worth reviewing as [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on January 31, 2013
I don’t know about that, but it’s definitely making waves in the social change world. Social capital — and by that we mean investors and lenders who are focused on providing funds not for (or at least not only for) their own profit, but also for the greater social or environmental good — is on [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on November 14, 2012
It’s amazing how fast mobile devices have taken over our lives. I’ve had my smart phone for only a few months, but hardly a day goes by when I don’t ask it for advice. This past week alone, I looked for child-friendly restaurants, a “green” dry cleaner, bus routes, airline tickets, and a car rental. [...]
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By Rolfe Larson on October 25, 2012
Innovation and energy often come together on campus, and today many of them have an entrepreneurial sparkle. College and business school is no longer a place for just preparing and planning how to launch a new venture or nonprofit organization. For many students, the venture starts while on campus, long before graduation. Here’s an article [...]
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Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.
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