By Rolfe Larson on May 23, 2016
Research shows that successful social enterprises often share common characteristics. There are many theories why some social enterprises flourish while others languish. Is it leadership, business planning, funding, market or timing that makes a successful social enterprise? Joining Vision and Action is dedicated to providing social enterprises, nonprofits and government agencies with the tools and […]
By Rolfe Larson on February 12, 2016
Small museums face challenges attracting resources. Admission fees can discourage attendance and reduce gift shop sales. What to do? The following summarizes a discussion in the npEnterprise Forum, the 10,000-circulation online forum for all things social enterprise. The particular question posted by Jean Hardy Robinson was about a small history museum in a thriving tourist […]
By Rolfe Larson on January 14, 2016
Compiled by Rolfe Larson and Janine Vanderburg With President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, this seems to be a good time to assess the State of Social Enterprise (SE). We decided to crowd-source this one primarily through the npEnterprise Forum (npE), the 10,000+ circulation, non-commercial, moderated online forum for all things SE. […]
By Rolfe Larson on September 23, 2013
Here’s a suggested framework from my colleague Jim Kucher (founder/managing director, Income for Outcomes). This reminds me of our earlier blog about social enterprise sound bites. That blog can be seen at: http://managementhelp.org/blogs/social-enterprise/2013/04/18/top-10-social-enterprise-sound-bites/ Here’s what Jim wrote: A viable social enterprise must have: • A viable social change theory (what makes you think you can […]
By Rolfe Larson on October 9, 2012
There are many reasons why one social enterprise grows fast, while another one doesn’t. Frankly, I think luck has a lot to do with it, but there are many other factors as well. A recent article in the Guardian suggests that the attitude of the leader is the most critical ingredient, and that’s hard to […]
By Rolfe Larson on May 29, 2012
Support social enterprise by eating or shopping at one!
By Rolfe Larson on April 17, 2012
Marc Lane, arguably the most prolific writer in the social enterprise sector, last year wrote another one of his useful books, entitled: Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Drive Entrepreneurs. It’s a good book to glance through, and even more important, to have nearby on your bookshelf for when you have a legal question about social enterprise. For […]
By Rolfe Larson on January 19, 2012
Following President Obama’s State of the Union speech last week, we thought this would be a good time to evaluate the state of the social enterprise sector. So here is the npEnterprise Forum’s official, revised* State of the SE Sector 2012 address. Emerging Private Sector SEs Private sector SEs are now gaining momentum and recognition. Truth […]
By Rolfe Larson on October 26, 2011
Have you ever gone online to order something and then wondered if you could buy it from a social enterprise? We often have, which is why the npEnterprise Forum created the Social Enterprise Shopping Guide. Support the SE sector while shopping online! Here’s the web address for the Guide: http://bit.ly/qsDUzN
By Rolfe Larson on October 17, 2011
Steve Jobs once said: “I am as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” So also it should be for the social enterprise sector. There are plenty of great things that are not SEs. To gain credibility and traction in the marketplace, the SE field cannot be all things […]
Rolfe Larson provides consulting and training in areas such as strategic planning, market research, feasibility analysis, business planning, marketing and implementation strategies.
[Read more ...]
