Professor Jeff Kroeker’s article, featured in The Globe and Mail this past July, highlights a flourishing business (Salem’s Ethiopia) situated in Addis Ababa: one that was able to pinpoint the requisite procedure for expanding to become a profitable business while at the same time retaining the value proposition that attracted customers to it in the first place.
This article was enlightening because it reinforced the notion that profit does not have to be prioritized over affecting positive social change. The two can be pursued concurrently.
Apart from Salem’s Ethiopia, another good example of this fact is Mala Collective, a Canadian company which brings rudraksha bead jewelry from Bali to be sold by various retailers around the world. From the beginning, Mala Collective has ensured stimulation of the local employment rate in Bali. From those who plant the rudraksha trees to the workers active in the harvesting stage, job creation has been palpable, a great benefit to the local community. Additionally, it is a fair-trade company, so these numerous workers share in the profit of world-wide sales.
Given its steady ascent on the worldwide market, Mala Collective demonstrates that social enterprises have arrived. Moreover, gratefully, they seem here to stay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sources: