Social entrepreneurs buck trends, swim upstream, and break through the bounds of ideology and disciplines.
Those are the conclusions of John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan in their book, Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World, Harvard Business School Press, 2008. Their study of successful social entrepreneurs led them to the following ten characteristics.
Social entrepreneurs:
- Try to shrug off the constraints of ideology or discipline.
- Identify and apply practical solutions to problems, combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity.
- Innovate by finding a new product, service or approach to a social problem.
- Focus first and foremost on social value creation and, in that spirit, are willing to share their innovations and insights for others to replicate.
- Jump in before ensuring that they are fully resourced.
- Have an unwavering belief in everyone's innate capacity, often rgardless of education, to contribute meaningfully to economic and social development.
- Show a dogged determination that pushes them to take risks that others wouldn't dare.
- Balance their passion for change with the zeal to measure and monitor impact.
- Have a great deal to teach change-makers in other sectors.
- Display a healthy impatience.
