SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Social Entrepreneurship

Socially Responsible Entrepreneurs

Social Entrepreneurship

Introduction

Gone are the days when companies were evaluated as successful only on the basis of the profits and revenues they are earning. In today's world, since the concerns of making the society better have grown higher, the efforts of companies towards the betterment of society are also counted in the factors which make them successful. In this regard, several entrepreneurs have emerged who are not only profit oriented, but are also socially responsible. A social entrepreneur is one who recognizes a social problem and works towards solving it by applying principles of entrepreneurship. These efforts are continued in order to bring a major and positive change in the society. Moreover, these social entrepreneurs normally take a social initiative which is not for profit and is voluntary (Lang, 2011).

This paper aims to identify two entrepreneurs who are not only profit oriented, but, also initiated great efforts towards the betterment of society.

Discussion

The two entrepreneurs that I have identified are Anita Roddick, who was the owner of The Body Shop and Blake Mycoskie, the owner of TOMS shoes. A brief profile of both of these entrepreneurs is as under:

One thing, which is worth mentioning, is that they both have the same leadership style; namely transformational or charismatic leadership.

Leadership Style of Anita Roddick and Blake Mycoskie

As already mentioned above, both of them have the same leadership style. Although the theory of charismatic or transformational leadership is as old as Max Weber, the concept has started developing recently. The theory suggests that leaders with charisma have strong referent power, and this comes from their need to create an influence on others. Transformational leadership brings change in individual entrepreneurs, who then strive for bringing changes in society. Leaders exercising this form of leadership have a strong influence on the followers, which in turn increases the morale, motivation and performance of followers by several means. These mechanisms include portraying as a role model for the followers creating an inspiration in them to act accordingly, making connections between the individual identity and the identity of the firm on the whole. They challenge their followers to own their work. Moreover, these leaders also know the strengths and weaknesses of their followers, which help them in streamlining the tasks in a manner that optimize the performance of their followers. Both of the two entrepreneurs have all these qualities.

In the next part of the paper, we will cover the business principles adopted by each of the above mentioned entrepreneurs in order to get profit, and to be socially responsible simultaneously.

Anita Roddick

Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop in the year 1976 she faced a lot of controversies as her first store was situated in between two funeral homes, but she outwitted all of these. She was a very outspoken business woman building her company on the basis of ethics; her own values as the core of her organization, The Body Shop.

Business Principles for Obtaining Profit

The business principles which Roddick applied in order to achieve profit was simple ...