Highly recommend! Martin and Osberg have written a book that shines new light on the concept of social entrepreneurship – and, more broadly, achieving widespread social change. The book is not a “how to” handbook for social entrepreneurs (although surely will be useful to them), but rather offers an interpretive guide that helps us make sense of one of the most important phenomena in the world today: social entrepreneurship.
Take the idea of “shifting an equilibrium”, which Martin and Osberg highlight as at the heart of the work of social entrepreneurs. That lens calls for an analysis of what forces keep the status quo as it is – not painting a portrait of an inert context, but understanding the set of reinforcing dynamics that keeps things as they are. Only by doing that analysis can we understand what levers might fundamentally change the equilibrium. Of course, this idea echoes writers that talk about system theory, is consonant with on-the-ground innovators like Bill Drayton whose work with entrepreneurs at Ashoka aims for broader changes in systems, and also is reflected in the work of funders like Omidyar Network (and the Skoll Foundation, which is led by Osberg and where Martin sits on the Board) that focuses on the interplay between the entrepreneurs and their enabling context. But this book illuminates the relationship between the entrepreneur and shifting the equilibrium in fresh and useful ways that help us make sense of these disparate threads.
While the book is propelled by the stories of remarkable organizations and people, the heart of the argument is not just about their personal, heroic qualities. Rather it is about how they managed to understand and move complex systems – typically not via an amazing new technology or the replication of a single solution, but via, for example, the hard work of shifting and strengthening the health care infrastructure in country (PIH) or moving the social norms and self-empowerment of a community (Tostan’s work in Senegal.) Where the authors discuss the characteristics of the entrepreneurs, it is by identifying a compelling set of tensions with which the leaders grapple – abhorrence and appreciation, expertise and apprenticeship, and experimentation and commitment.
The last few chapters of the book offer a guide to factors that may facilitate the odds of scaling up solutions, highlighting factors such as managing costs down aggressively, open source platforms for sharing, adding value to existing assets, reducing labor costs. These categories are intuitively compelling, and several are strangely absent from the existing writing on social entrepreneurship and scale. I hope the final few chapters will be a provocation to others to conduct research on these factors. For example, the authors’ focus on the role of cost brings under the microscope a factor that is a core dynamic driving firms, industries, and disruption in the for-profit sector – and in the social sector outside the US (where designing for scale and low unit cost is often THE starting point) – but which is only occasionally visible in dynamics that unfold in the US. Why is that? Similarly, under what conditions does an “open source platform” lead to the spread of ideas versus being one more failed “build it and they will come” strategy? These questions go beyond the scope of the book, but are prompted by it—a sign of a provocative argument that points to the next step of questions we need to explore as a field.
An important contribution and a good read!
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How can large scale positive change happen? Read this book and find out.
I was excited to read this book in preparation for interviewing one of the authors, Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, at our annual Women Moving Millions Summit. ( Sept 17/18/19) To say this book rocked my world would be an understatement. As a career philanthropist, and an active investor, I want to align my resources with my values, and one incredible way to do so is by supporting social entrepreneurship. I have long struggled with how to even define social entrepreneurship, but no longer, thanks to these authors. SE is about creating a new and better equilibrium, and heaven knows that is not easy. The authors lifted up many examples of accomplished social entrepreneurs, and I was particularly excited to read about my dear friend Molly Melching, the founder of Tostan. I had met Molly a few years earlier and was so taken by her theory of change that I went to Senegal with my 14 year old daughter to learn more. I am now a vocal champion of TOSTAN and their incredible model. There are many more examples given in the book of people, and organizations, that I am excited to learn more about.This is a book I want to share with everyone because I think we all want a world that works better, and especially works better for those that have the least. Disrupting the status quo is not easy, but it is so needed. If you want to understand how change on a massive scale can happen, this is the book for you.PS - I did interview Ms. Osberg and she was absolutely incredible. Photo is me with Ms. Osberg and the awesome Pat Mitchell.
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