Social Enterprise: Putting Innovations to Care

Social enterprise is when an organization that has a common socially driven goal that utilizes market based strategies to achieve a social purpose. These functions take the revenue and profit that they generated to solve critical social problems and crisis. TOMS shoe is a great example of a successful social enterprise that has significantly impacted our society. For every pair of shoes that TOMS shoe sold, for every pair of TOMS shoes purchased, the company donates a pair of shoes to a child in need of footwear. Since 2006, the start of the project, TOMS shoe has since given away over 140,000 pairs of shoes. By the end of 2009, that number will have grown by an additional 300,000. This company is a great example where it exploits some superstitions on business. People associate businessmen/women as money driven and the social enterprise obviously is a great way to show that the business world still care about the wellbeing of our society. These philanthropic social enterprise is an effective way to put innovative ideas together with a caring heart for the society. I believe the existence of such market must be recognized for our business market to be more diverse and prosperous.