Social Entrepreneurship

Catalog description

The goal of this course to prepare students to lead companies that have embedded social missions and to engage various stakeholders that are at the nexus of business and social value. Internally, leaders will need to be prepared to manage the organization's culture, establish a mission, and find synergies in pursuit of a triple bottom line. Externally, leaders must manage not only supply chain and customer relationships, but also seek to fundamentally change the social, environmental and legal environments in which business operates.We will study leading social entrepreneurs and their companies, providing compelling examples that doing well and doing good can be inextricably linked by using the levers of business to achieve profit and social impact. We will explore a range of cases, from small start-up organizations dealing with growth issues to more established firms that have successfully scaled their operations while maintaining a commitment to social mission.A major focus of the course will be on the challenges associated with connecting social initiatives and missions with bottom-line benefits. How can the goals of a company be articulated in and driven by the corporate mission? How can leaders establish a mission that is big enough to attract employees, customers and partners but specific enough to be achievable? Also, what does success look like for a social entrepreneur? And, which goals are established by the market and which by the mission?Students will also wrestle with questions on the implementation and execution of social entrepreneurship. Central to this theme is corporate growth. How can companies grow in reach and profit, while staying true to their mission and maintaining their quality of services or products? If companies chose to expand through partnerships, does the additional breath outweigh the risks of losing some control over their social…