The Role of Innovation

Social Entrepreneurs as Engines of Innovation

Just as business entrepreneurs are willing to take risks and play around with ideas until they find one that works, social entrepreneurs must dare to innovate even if it means treading where no one has ventured before. Of course, not all social innovations are successful. But even so-called failures are usually blessings in disguise because they inform the social entrepreneurs what to avoid in a future enterprise. Since social entrepreneurs often work in a variety of different social contexts throughout their career, with each new situation demanding a different approach or even a different solution, they must be flexible in the way they think and approach problems.    

Innovation – A Tool to Better the Whole Society 

There is no doubt that innovation plays a vital role in any entrepreneurial enterprise. While the ability to generate innovative ideas is important, this alone cannot make the social entrepreneur successful. Many people can think creatively and generate a lot of ideas, but many tend to rest on their laurels once their own problems are solved. According to William Drayton, the social entrepreneur effects a paradigm shift in the whole society:

“There are many creative, altruistic, ethically good people with innovative ideas. However, only one in many thousands of such good people also has the entrepreneurial quality necessary to engineer large-scale systemic social change. Entrepreneurial quality also does not mean the ability to lead, to administer, or to get things done; there are millions of people who can do these things. Instead, it refers to someone who has a very special trait -- someone who, in the core of her/his personality, absolutely must change an important pattern across his/her whole society. Exceedingly few people have this driving motivation. Most scholars and artists come to rest when they express an idea; many managers relax when they solve the problem of only their company or institution; and most professionals are happy when they satisfy a client. It is only the entrepreneur who literally cannot stop until he or she has changed the whole society.”(1)

A Case in Point: Andrew Carnegie & the Birth of the Library System

“Imagine that Andrew Carnegie had built only one library rather than conceiving the public library system that today serves untold millions of American citizens. Carnegie’s single library would have clearly benefited the community it served. But it was his vision of an entire system of libraries creating a permanent new equilibrium – one ensuring access to information and knowledge for all the nation’s citizens - that anchors his reputation as a social entrepreneur.” (2) – Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg in the Stanford Innovation Review

Social Entrepreneurship and Eye Care

Unite For Sight supports eye clinics worldwide by investing human and financial resources in their social ventures to eliminate patient barriers to eye care. The village and slum communities where Unite For Sight and the eye clinic partners now work had not previously had access to eye care due to many patient barriers. Unite For Sight's model enables the local ophthalmologists to create real change and a sustainable impact for those living in extreme poverty. With Unite For Sight's support, the local ophthalmologists develop and lead eye care programs that provide high quality, cost-effective care to the world's poorest people.

Unite For Sight’s programs are sustainable because emphasis is placed on nurturing and developing local potentialities so that eye clinics can meet local eye care needs on a long-term basis. Unite For Sight provides the necessary support to cultivate leadership, talent and ideas among its eye clinic partners. Not only are eye care programs led by local staff, but local volunteers are also trained to serve as support staff at local eye clinics. To nurture local talent, visiting specialist volunteers, such as ophthalmologists, optometrists and ophthalmic nurses, provide training to local specialists. Unite For Sight’s model is able to significantly increase the number of surgeries provided by local eye clinics annually. 

Unite For Sight works with partner eye clinics to provide local solutions, identifying, and overcoming community-specific barriers to effective healthcare delivery, such as transportation and communication. Patients are transported to and from the eye clinic. Moreover, local community leaders and members are involved in outreach activities, raising awareness and providing education regarding eye care to those who would otherwise not have access to eye care. Unite For Sight’s model has been employed successfully in a variety of different social contexts in Ghana, Honduras and India.

Innovation = Job Creation, it's a simple equation.

We are currently narrowing a field of 30 applicants for 12 availabl Postdoctoral Researcher/Entrepreneurship Fellowships. The basic premise is that we are selecting a dozen incredibly bright folks from science, technology, engineering and medical fields, and we are going to help them accelerate their particular technology of interest into commercial application – technology commercialization as it is known. On a side but related note, we have also partnered with the National Postdoctoral Association to sponsor the Kauffman Foundation Outstanding Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award and the Emerging Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Award. 

As I had the pleasure of being among those interviewing these incredibly bright individuals, a few things became quite obvious. First, and probably most significantly of any other general characteristic I gleaned, was the high percentage of immigrants. And they came from all over the world – India, Iran, Italy, Finland, Germany, and Scotland just to name a few from my group of interviewees. As it turns out, around 75% of the total field were immigrants. Keeping in mind that applications were from US-based schools, I found this to be astonishing. 

Obviously that speaks well of our schools that there is such demand, but it also speaks to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in this country as most of these individuals see their best path to commercializing their technology is in the U.S. That is not to say, however, that there isn’t much more that we could and should be doing to encourage even more activity, but that is a subject for another post. 

Another interesting observation was how many of these immigrant scholar entrepreneurs are already well along their way to building companies – several of which already employing others. And rest assured that with the innovations they were promoting in the fields of therapeutics, medical devices, environmental controls, etc., we aren’t talking minimum wage, dead-end jobs. 

I know that immigration is touchy subject, and we have certainly published our share of research on this space; but the undeniable fact is that commercializing innovation leads to job creation, which restores the health of our economy. Those that would push out or prevent this source of growth to our economy would be cutting off their xenophobic nose to spite their face. If I had my way, we would staple a green card to each and every diploma from anyone graduating in any of these promising fields. 

After all, they may very well bring the innovation to the market that saves your life some day. And if that day should come, I doubt that you will be overly concerned if it were invented with an Asian, European, or Middle Eastern accent. 

As always, I am happy to hear supporting and opposing views – that’s what the comment button below is for.