According to Milton Friedman’s saying that “the social responsibility of business is to increase profits”, the only target of firms in operation is to maximize their profits. Oppositely, there are some people who are will to forgo profits or even contribute their own savings to run a business.

They are social entrepreneurs.

(http://deliriantistiromani.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/socialenterprise_graphic2.png)

Social entrepreneurs do not sacrifice their profits because someone told them to do so but they have strong faith of changing the world little by little. Compared with local government, or the United Nations, social entrepreneurs are super heroes who can physically go to somewhere, get to know the people there, tell them “no worries, we can help you”, and do help them get rid of poverty, illness, and desperation.

Social entrepreneurs can do whatever they want and whatever they think will help the local. They may offer help in the form of a 27-dollar debt, a pair of shoes, or a training program.

To be distinct with social entrepreneurs, what the United Nations can do is quite limited even though it was fully funded. Those great international and official organizations often have more rules which have to be obey and have more restricts on what action is going to be taken. They might even hardly be able to know people who desperately need help well. Compared with United Nations, social entrepreneurs have more free.

That’s why I believe that even if the United Nations was fully funded, people still need social enterprise.

November 11th is the Remembrance Day in Canada, and people in China also celebrate on the same day, but for what they call a Single’s Day, for super discounts on online shopping websites.

This year’s Remembrance Day is the first Single’s Day Taobao.com it faced right after it became public this September. The total sale broke the gate of a billion RMB within the first minute of November 11th in China.

“The finance industry need a disrupter, it needs a outsider to come in and carry out a transformation,” Mr. Jack Ma, the co-funder of Taobao.com, said. We cannot doubt his words because his unlikely ascent and the amazing sale number has already proved to the public his great success.

(Mr. Jack Ma   Alibaba, via Associated Press)

However, not all the online retailers selling through Taobao.com enjoyed the crazy shopping festival. As some of them said, they even sustain losses on that day in exchange of a large number of sale.

Higher the quantity of supply, higher the average variable cost. The artificial festival causes a “blowout” of sales in November and December in exchange of the unexpected low sale in those two months. In other words, this festival breaks the equilibrium of the market and artificially makes a illusion of a super thriving market environment.

“I would rather not having such festival.” One of the anonymous Taobao retailer said. What is the real cost of a Single’s Day? Only the sellers know.

Related Article

The Unlikely Ascent of Jack Ma, Alibaba’s Founder, Neil Gough and Alexandra Stevenson, May 7th 2014

As a disruptor in food industry, refrigerated and frozen food thrives and gradually earn a place in the market and win bunch of consumers in these years. From the aspect of popularizing rate, it seems that refrigerated and frozen food can be considered a quite successful disruptive innovation in food category.

(http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/09/300m_innovations/source/8.htm)

However, several months ago in New York, “Frozen food makers plan to launch their first national TV ad in defence of their products on Tuesday as the category fights to boost slipping sales.” (The Associated Press, 2014)

Compared with disruptive innovations in electronic device industry or entertainment market, which simply simplify people’s life and allows a whole new population of consumers who didn’t have corresponding high skills or were;t wealthy enough to enjoy such products or services, food market is much complex. People want to know what they eat directly which will stay in their body and digestion system for several hours and eventually be transformed into life energy.

Is the frozen food as fresh as fresh food? What is its component? Is there any nutrition left with it? … Consumers always have a galaxy of questions when it is related to their physical health. I guess why that is why the rise of the disruptive innovation, the refrigerated and frozen food does not severely affect neither the recent market of grocery nor the situation of restaurants or shops.

Related Article:

Food Industry To Air First TV Ad, The Associated Press, Published Monday, May 12, 2014 12:50PM EDT