attention to four:
• The need for constant review and adaptation of the organization’s business model;
• Building partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders;
• Strengthening individual and organizational abilities related to agility and adaptability;
• Developing cooperation within ecosystems. The tools demanded by organizations to survive in the VUCA world are also relevant to organizations with a high level of social impact — social enterprises. Let us consider each one of these approaches in terms of applicability to social entrepreneurship.
1. THE NEED FOR CONSTANT REVIEW AND ADAPTATION OF THE ORGANIZATION’S BUSINESS MODEL
Transformation and changes in business models in modern organizations are sometimes routine, requiring constant and close attention from the management. Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath examines how strategies “behave” under conditions of extreme uncertainty and constant change. She told the Harvard Business Review editor about ways to recognize the impending crisis and outmaneuver the competition. Rita notes that the general interest in new business models is due, first of all, to the increasing speed of everything. “Product life cycles and design cycles are getting shorter. When the pace of change gets faster, people realize that they need to look for the next big thing. The second issue is interindustry competition. Competition is coming from unexpected places. Who could have anticipated that the iPad’s success would put all kinds of display devices? And the third trend is disruptions from business models that offer better customer experiences instead of simply products.” (McGrath, 2011).
The business models of organizations today are subjected to serious changes due to the factors mentioned above — sometimes the changes are merely incremental, and sometimes they are radical, which involves abandoning existing products, sales channels, etc. In this case, we are talking about a traditional business.
In social entrepreneurship this approach is extremely relevant due to the fact that the external environment is also subject to strong, unpredictable and intense change, and the business models themselves usually have a complex architecture. Reviewing and evaluating the current business model of social enterprises, identifying weaknesses and growth points should be an integral part of ongoing work for these organizations. However, it is necessary to note a number of features that are peculiar to social entrepreneurship and cause specific changes in the business models of social enterprises, on which they can make a special emphasis:
• the need for social enterprises to achieve a “double effect” — the performance of social enterprises should always be evaluated from the perspective of achieving economic results and social impact, so the transformation of business models should follow this principle, otherwise such organizations may face the threat of “mission erosion” or loss of sustainability;
• the possibility of engaging mixed resources — the “hybrid” nature of social entrepreneurship (possessing the properties and features inherent in both the commercial and non-profit sectors) defines the unique opportunities that are available to social enterprises. For example, access to a wide range of resources available to both sectors — grants, donations, loan funds, etc. (subject, of course, to the availability of the necessary organizational and legal forms). Such capabilities allow social entrepreneurs to develop more complex, integrated business models;
• participation of a wide range of stakeholders — the presence of stakeholders in social enterprises, on the one hand, creates the need to take into account the interests of all parties in changing and transforming the business model, and on the other hand, helps to implement the emerging opportunities with their participation.
2. BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS WITH A WIDE RANGE OF STAKEHOLDERS
Increasingly important in the business world are the concepts of “collaboration”, “cooperation”, and “cooptation” — approaches that help organizations cope with uncertainty and change. These approaches are particularly important in areas where collective effort is required to achieve results, such as sustainable development. The authors of the Harvard Business Review article “The Collaboration Imperative” note that “we are seeing both a growing awareness of the critical need for improved collaboration” to achieve sustainable development and address the most urgent problems faced by the humankind” and “the emergence of innovative models that create value for companies and drive systemic change. Optimal collaborations focus on both business processes and outcomes. They start with a small group of key organizations, link self-interest to shared interest, encourage productive competition, and, above all, build and maintain trust.” (Billman et al., 2014).
In social entrepreneurship, the business relying on the development of partnerships is an extremely important goal, because the specifics of the tasks solved by social entrepreneurs — their scope, scale, and depth — determine the need to develop cooperation with a number of organizations to achieve common goals and results, creating social good. The features of social entrepreneurship, which characterize the specifics of building partnerships, include the following:
• the use of cross-sectoral opportunities — creating public goods, filling the existing gaps of the market and the state are at the intersection of the interests of a number of actors in different sectors (public, commercial, and non-profit);
• going beyond competition — the creation of a public good implies going beyond such limits;
• strengthening the synergies — developing partnerships in social entrepreneurship leads to a tremendous increase in synergies by combining resources and competencies.
3. STRENGTHENING INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ABILITIES RELATED TO AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
Adaptability and agility are becoming the cornerstone properties for organizations that want to survive in the long term. In “Lessons in Agility from a Dancer Turned Professor” published in Harvard Business Review, author Jennifer Jordan draws an analogy between the qualities required of a ballet dancer and the modern manager of an organization. “Agility” has become a hugely popular management buzzword. But what does it really mean? My first introduction to the concept came long before I studied management, let alone talked about it with executives in the classroom. My first exposure to agile was in the ballet studio, when I was studying to be a dancer. All young dancers aspire to agility — to be up there with the leaping Baryshnikovs, the twirling Kents, and the gliding Nureyevs. But now, far from
