Social Entrepreneur Of The Year
Over the years, many Entrepreneur Of The Year country programs have honored an inspiring and successful social entrepreneur with the Social Entrepreneur Of The Year award. In 2006, Ernst & Young is proud to collaborate with the Schwab Foundation, a non-profit organization created in 1998 to promote economic and social progress through entrepreneurship, and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the presentation of the Social Entrepreneur Of The Year award in several countries.
What makes a Social Entrepreneur?
Social Entrepreneurship is about applying a practical, innovative and market-oriented approach to social, economic and environmental problems which transforms and benefits society. A social entrepreneur is one who has created and leads an organization, whether for-profit or not, that is aimed at catalyzing large scale and systemic social change through the introduction of new ideas, methodologies and changes in attitude.
Social entrepreneurs create innovative, hybrid organizations that look like businesses – indeed, they may be set up as for-profit organizations - but their bottom line is social value creation.
Social entrepreneurs share some common traits including:
An unwavering belief in the innate capacity of all people to contribute meaningfully to economic and social development,
A driving passion to make that happen,
A practical but innovative stance to a social problem, often using market principles and forces, coupled with dogged determination, that allows them to break away from constraints imposed by ideology or field of discipline, and pushes them to take risks that others wouldn’t dare,
A zeal to measure and monitor their impact. Entrepreneurs have high standards, particularly in relation to their own organization’s efforts and in response to the communities with which they engage. Data, both quantitative and qualitative, are their key tools, guiding continuous feedback and improvement,
A healthy impatience. Social entrepreneurs don’t do well in bureaucracies. They cannot sit back and wait for change to happen – they are the change drivers.
What are the judging criteria?
When selecting the members for its network, the Schwab Foundation applies six criteria:
Innovation
Sustainability
Direct Social Impact
Reach and Scope
Replicability
