Uncategorized

Campus Column

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Editor

Haynes on: social entrepreneurship

A university degree is no longer a guarantee of future security; and it is highly likely that this generation of graduates will be engaging with the survival tactics of entrepreneurship.

While it is easy to feel slightly overwhelmed by society’s current confusion, don’t forget that chaos represents opportunity.

I recently watched ‘Che: The Argentine’ at Pepper Grove and realized that today’s revolution is no longer armed struggle, but rather [r]evolution of the mind. The strongest thread running through this revolution is social entrepreneurship.

Today’s revolutionaries are demanding Uhuru on the level of possibility. They are social entrepreneurs using entrepreneurial principles to organize and create social change.

Forerunners in this thought revolution include South African Bodyshop founder Anita Roddick, Kenyan democracy activist Wangari Maathai, and, perhaps surprisingly, rebel billionaire Richard Branson.

Branson would agree that entrepreneurial mindset represents this generation’s biggest potential investment for both our collective and individual future.

Today’s engaged citizens are no longer, by definition, barefoot and broke. Realistically, cash funds dreams.  There would be no Branson School for Entrepreneurship or Carbon War Room had Branson chosen to spend the rest of his life chaining himself to trees.

That’s not to say, however, that we don’t need people chaining themselves to trees. It was estimated in 2001 in the scientific journal New Scientist that proposed developments at that stage would leave only five percent of pristine Amazon rainforest intact by 2020. But my point, aside from the value of ‘direct action’ such as that I experienced at the 2007 Climate Camp outside Heathrow airport, is that wealth increases an individual’s leverage for social change.

It’s not all about the money though. In today’s entrepreneurial language wealth is a mindset. Wealth emerges from a personal investment in your own capacity to act and through investing time in creating a network of relationships. Social visionary Roger Hamilton defines wealth as being “what you are left with when you lose all your money”.

This relates to fellow Rhodes student Lowell Scarr’s quote at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation’s recent orientation weekend, “To really develop a country, you need to develop its people”.

Over the next two weeks I will be looking into the ‘carbon war room’ conceptualised by Branson and the phenomenon of an emerging ‘democratic nation’ of entrepreneurial change makers spearheaded by Roger Hamilton.

Very interesting times!

Bruce Haynes is a Rhodes University Student, Allan Gray Fellow and Capestorm-sponsored spoken word artist. You can follow him on his MySpace and his twitter feed. You can also check him out on his blog at:http://mental-guerilla-warfare.blogspot.com/

  • Andrew Mclaren
    Great article... keep them coming!

  • daniel
    This is a very thought provoking article Bruce, thank you.

    Entrepreneurship is a term that i have many reservations with, images of the "economic man" spring to mind, the idea that through competition, through succeeding where others don't you can greatly advance your social and political capital via the accumulation of money. Whilst it would be foolish not to recognize that importance of money, if we continue to solve our social, environment problems through the same avenue that created them we will find ourselves in a different cage, it may have more room than the previous but a cage it will remain a cage.

    Richard Branson may be investing considerable money in greening over the economy, or coming up with innovative technologies to help clean up our system, but they will only serve to maintain the neoliberal free market ideology that serves to isolate the individual and break down communities and make a few people ridiculously rich. Don't forget that it is Branson who is starting the first commercial space shuttle service, in the form of virgin galactic. Is it really right to be using our last drops of stored sunlight on something as elitist as space travel. This form of entrepreneurship benefits the individual and not society.

    I think it is important to define your interpretation of entrepreneurship. We need creative imaginative individuals that work tirelessly with other individuals to form communities that seek collective solutions to our challenges. We have to recognize that ever individual whom we share an interaction with is part of our community, once we make connections we must cherish them. We have to start living this now. We need to live collectively, work collectively, always looking to be ever more inclusive. It is out of the collective struggle that a mass consciousness can arise that will shift the ideologies of institutions. We are the agents of our destiny, we must unite and put pressure on the status quo, and mold it to a shape that serves us all and the Earth.
  • bruce
    Dan thanks for bringing a real element of debate to this column! you've got me thinking brother:)
  • James Thomas
    Go Bruce
    Great to get the debates going. Keep it rolling.
  • Lisa
    Bruce's next article is coming soon! I hope you all visit just as much as you have this one!
  • Fabio
    Cool Bruce, I concur with your ideals outlined here. I am believing that we are experiencing a shift towards a peer-to-peer society, where we achieve most of what we aspire through direct interaction. With free and open source media, information, technology and business models, everyone can be an entrepreneur - while I use this word more in the sense of "self-employed", not to be needing to run a business (check out www.dreamfish.com as an example of a decentralized worker cooperative).

    Also, with all this information available, maybe some day, as you suggest, degrees will get a totally different meaning, through new decentralized modes of learning.
  • Do you recognize that this is high time to receive the loan, which can help you.
  • Sipho Khumalo
    Bruce

    The article is great. It does indicate that sufficient effort and reasonable reaserch was conducted in order to reach this stage. I am particularly impressed with the issue of focusing more on developing the people. South Africa as a country requires that leadership that is transparent, one with integrity and dedication.

    Social Entrepreneurship is the best way to be a contribution into the society and subsequently gain economically or otherwise. In my view, it boils back to the concept of hitting two birds with one stone i.e. developing the community and benefiting economically as well.

    I am very much impressed with the article.
  • James Ekron
    Very interesting Bruce. A thorough analysis of so many of the issues pervading our current world of indiviual activity in an exceedingly growing world of economic inter-dependacy. How does it influence Joe Public though? What is to be the response of Citizen X to a world of entrepeneurship that requires you to be so different in your thoughts, actions and mindset? How does what you so eloquently describe change the lives of citizens, businessman and especially graduates?
  • Yes Bruce! I agree!
    Keep it up - you're doing great!
  • Blaise
    Hey Bruce,

    Loved the lines: "Today’s revolutionaries are demanding Uhuru on the level of possibility. They are social entrepreneurs using entrepreneurial principles to organize and create social change."

    Rumours on Twitter are that Heart Social Investments (www.heartglobal.org) is incubating South Africa's (perhaps Africa's?!) first school of social entrepreneurship... Something to watch as we empower ourselves to empower others.

    Peace.
  • Nic Booth
    ahoy bruce, great piece man. i really appreciate your seemingly endless fountain of optimistic vibes, and your knowledge and ability to inspire. we all need to be reminded that there is hope
  • Derek Pillay
    This is well written and has good content! There's honestly nothing here for me to criticise - it's very much to the point, and the beliefs express resound closely with my own. Lol, I know constructive criticism is what you asked for but I have nothing else to say :)
  • Michael
    Very interesting Bruce. I must say I agree, money will not shape our future, nor will a degree or as you put it "people chaining themselves to trees". Rather, investing our intellect, beliefs, culture, feelings, concepts and diversity into our current society will have a more profound effect. Maybe focusing on the people of the world instead of GDP, GNP or some other monetary system will create a future society, which I believe will provide wealth for all.

    I do hope my reply provides some useful feedback towards your column, making your next posts more and more intriguing and [r]evolutionary.

    Keep it going Bruce :D
  • Lowell
    Nice Bruce.

    I am very impressed by your engagement with your topic, it is clear that you are passionate about that which you write.

    I think its the 1st time I've been quoted like that, hahaha, its a good feeling.
  • Yasmin
    Thank you for the column Bruce. Its great to have someone serving as an eye opener to all those who believe getting a degree and a secure job is the ultimate achievement.

    I would also like to partially respond to the comment about capitalism possibly being the answer. When we talk about entrepreneurship being purposeful and useful to society we need to consider it from the angle that all entrepreneurs should be social entrepreneurs in some form. If before we pursue a business we ask ourselves "will this product or service serve a useful purpose to society?" Whether we benefit the poor or not an innovative, successful product will probably answer that question in the positive. If we use that approach that kind of capitalism can result in positive change in society!
  • Immanuel
    Well done for taking the initiative to share your views. The following may serve as a good read... I look forward to chatting agin soon.

    http://www.ssireview.org/images/articles/2007SP_feature_martinosberg.pdf
  • Nice column. I think that currently the notion of wealth and wealth creation sticks in the throat of many of us, especially after witnessing the unadulterated greed that led to the credit crunch, as well as the cronyism we witness daily in South Africa. We need to develop a more balanced understanding of notions of wealth and abundance. Indeed, Richard Branson and Bill Gates would be nobodys, if they never generated wealth, and were now not in a position to be active around social change. We need models of wealth generation that are benevolent, ethical, meaningful, and contribute towards a better world. The problem in this world is not money, its about the unequal distribution of money. If you think of money as rain, and yourself as an apple tree, you would never say you dont need rain. Apple trees need rain, consistantly, and not always in huge abundance. But to survive rain is needed. Fortunately there are a new generation of business people who view themselves as having social impact, while making money. This is what we need to move towards. The Grameen Bank is one such business. Based on ethical business principals, it is a great and powerful poverty alleviator. Even within the NGO sector, the notion of generating sustainable income, instead of donor handouts is becomming more and more prevailant. Business and making money is not the problem, rather, the way in which business is done, and the dog eat dog approach of doing business is where the problem lies. I believe benevolent social capitalism is a possibility.
  • Lawrence Sisitka
    Nice stuff Bruce - maybe could do with more attention to the need for a more collective approach to entrepreneurship in the African context (aka Wangari and others involved in the social movements). This in comparison to the more individual approach of the Roddicks, Bransons et al. One of NIA's songs 'Blackbird' opens with the lines: "I dream of blackbirds in graceful flight, tell my people that the revolution is now of the mind" So you are not alone!
  • Kevin
    Firstly i need to congrulate you on finally getting a platform where you could actually express such integral views on the way we view the whole subject of self appreciation.
    I mean, amisdt the current social climate, where you find people resorting to materialistic things for happiness and where money is the only goal that all seem to pursue, you seldom hear anyone finding fulfilment once they have achieved any of such things. Instead you find that, like addicts, the more we get the more we want hence we lose that sense of living as we are only concerned about obtaining that "commodity" that everyone seems to be going after. We seem to have lost that idea of collectively organising ourselves for the good of all, but we are just obsessed with outcompeting each other,the "keeping up with the Jones's" kind of mentality.
    I guess we as people have or seem to have forgoten that the only fulfilment that drives our hearts to pump more of that life-giving blood, gives us a sincere sense of achievement and actually brings happiness to our chaotic lives and the world as a whole, is not founded on the mansions that we strive to buy when we achieve or the amount of credit that is in your account, let alone the damn degrees we spend so much effort in obtaining, but is derived from the moments,smiles, cries etc that we share with others.The true sense of happiness.

    The moment we start realising that money doesn't really make the world go round but makes it more "shapeless",more "devoid of flexibility" is the moment we are going to start looking at our lives from a whole new angle and hopefully the appreciation of the more intricate parts of our nature and of our surroundings will start making sense to us.
    Until then I hope you keep trying to get the idea across, we'll be listening......!
  • Jessica
    Awesome stuff Bruce! You are definately inspiring minds! keep going. Love the touch about Lowell!
  • Liesbeth
    I'm always scared away by the word 'entrepeneurship'. It reminds me of primary school when we had a yearly market day when we were forced to sell stuff - in my case things I made that nobody else wanted to buy. How do you suggest we become 'entrepeneurs' without actually starting a business, how exactly do entrepeneurial principles promote social change and freedom? I don't think communism or socialism is a viable way to run a country, but is capatilism the answer? Personally I think consumerism is part of what's messing up society. Can lots of people feasibly adopt entrepeneurship without promoting, or ideally decreasing consumerism? I'm keen to hear your thoughts on that.
  • Hannaroozle
    Very awesome column Bruce! You write with such intelligence, profundity and wit :)
  • Tabby
    Good one Bruce :)
  • Peter
    Bruce that was solid. Keen to read your next column.
  • Jess
    An interesting and inspiring article cannot wait to read the next one you have to offer!
  • ali
    brilliant work there buddy!!!!
  • lisa
    great first column entry!!
blog comments powered by Disqus