I am extremely interested in the scale and impact of social enterprise. We as a team are interested in the many forms of social enterprise. So I was intrigued by an article in this month’s Harvard Business Review | Disruptive Innovation for Social Change (authors Christenson, Baumann, Ruggles, and Sadlter). The premise is that disruptive innovation is likely the way in which widespread social change will occur. Led by forces in the 3rd sector (but not exclusively) this kind of innovation can turn aging organisations (NHS) into effective entrepreneurial machines or launch social entrepreneurial inventions across the UK.
At the heart of this innovation are Catalytic Innovations. Described by Christensen, et. al as…
1. They create systemic social change through scaling and replication.
2. They meet a need that is either overserved (because the existing solution is more complex than many people require) or not served at all.
3. They offer products and services that are simpler and less costly than existing alternatives and may be perceived as having a lower level of performance, but users consider them to be good enough.
4. They generate resources, such as donations, grants, volunteer manpower, or intellectual capital, in ways that are initially unattractive to incumbent competitors.
5. They are often ignored, disparaged, or even encouraged by existing players for whom the business model is unprofitable or otherwise unattractive and who therefore avoid or retreat from the market segment.
Most widespread example from the article: Microfinance.
What’s really cool about this research and the premise of the article | It is geared towards social investors. We are onto a few projects that we think can scale, creating massive social change—and I intend to apply the 5 qualities above to them. This will help shape the conversation with investors and create a common language in which to discuss the concept. This is important because the concepts we are working on are a bit on the bleeding edge and are attracting a large audience of curious onlookers, but a much smaller pool of serious investors. Do you have a project or idea that needs investing to create large scale social change–apply the qualities to see if it is a Calalytic Innovation. If it is not, it still may be a good idea–but rather a sustaining innovation.
As my favorite designer says “innovate never pirate“.
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