10/27/2016

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Oct 27, 2016, 02.50 PM | Source: Moneycontrol.com

India's new change agents; Social Entrepreneurs

Are you a social entrepreneur looking to scale your business? Read on how a new breed of entrepreneurs is
emerging to form brands with a purpose.
The following article is an initiative of CNBC TV18 and is intended to create awareness amongst the readers.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, entrepreneur is a person who

sets up a business or businesses, taking on nancial risks in the hope
of prot. Entrepreneurs are those souls that have a vision, and are
not scared to take risks to achieve that. O late, we are seeing a
whole explosion of entrepreneurship in India. There is a new age of
Indian businessmen, who are moving ahead, creating global
benchmarks, from Sachin Bansal to Bhavish Agarwal. There could
never have been a better tie to be an entrepreneur for an Indian.

But, while this smart business breed moves stridently on the road to success, there is another silent lot that is helping
India transition into a better nation. These people use business acumen to solve social problems. This is a new class of
entrepreneurship- social entrepreneurs. Rather than leaving community upliftment to the government or a few wealthy
philanthropists, social entrepreneurs have taken up the mantle to solve the problems aicting the community. They
come up with innovative and more importantly inexpensive and ethical solutions; models which are ready for mass
adoption. Ordinary citizens are waking up to what the corporates learned a while back- the power of an idea. A large
section of Indias population is waking up to the Thomas Kuhns paradigm shift. These ideas have the capability to
fundamentally alter their worldview.

As we live in a digital age where disruption in every sphere is the norm, there seems to be no reason why philanthropy
and community building should be immune to this phenomenon. For starters, India is the only country in the world where
companies with a net worth of Rs 5 billion or more are mandated by law to spend 2% of their net prot on corporate
social responsibility (CSR) activities. Indian corporates do not view this as a burden as the spending on CSR improves the
company's image while attracting employees and customers. On a parallel note, there has been a burgeoning trend
towards impact investing. Simply put, these are investments in companies which have an environmental and societal
impact while generating adequate nancial returns as well. Though in initial stages, impact investors have invested a
cumulative amount of $1.6 billion as per data from the Impact Investors Council (IIC).

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The rationale behind the inclusive growth is simple. Raising livelihoods of entire sections of the population will inevitably
lead to an increase in consumer choices resulting in the creation of new market segments. As markets expand, new
opportunities will appear to generate income will expand the economy. Thus simply meeting socio-economic demands
will be a prime driver for a social impact. Therefore, it is hardly a surprise that the market opportunity for societal
upliftment is tremendous.

However, the opportunities are not without the challenges. Traditionally, social sector organisations are underfunded, lack
resources and business expertise. They are classied as underperformers, and there exists a trust decit between the
organisations and investors. Measuring social impact is laborious, and the results are visible over many years which
require patience and discipline.

While the nation is in the grip of a start-up fever owing to an abundance of talent and ideas, not many have been able to
achieve the necessary scale and turn sustainable. The problem is compounded for a social sector start-up to include the
disadvantaged sections of society while remaining nancially feasible. The only solution is via brand building, positioning
and expansion.

This is precisely where Hindustan Unilever Ltd and CNBC TV18 have stepped in. Running for its eighth consecutive year,
Lessons in Marketing Excellence or popularly known has LIME has drawn the attention towards 12 brands with a
purpose from agriculture, healthcare, energy, apparel and even tourism. Each brand is presented as a case study to
students from 12 prestigious B-Schools around the country. Each team will then propose marketing solutions on how
these brands can become formidable leaders in their respective sector to an eminent jury panel consisting of industry
titans.

It is projects like LIME (in its 8th season) that have the potential to truly boost social entrepreneurship in India. To see how
the change is unfolding, click here to know more.

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