"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger darling" (Eames - Inception 2010)
Social enterprises are amazing things. They are companies that make profits by solving a social problem. Social problems are those problems that influences a considerable number of the individuals within a society such as homelessness, domestic violence, poverty/hunger, STDs, crime, lack of education etc. Lets clear things up. Social Enterprises are not charities that solve social problems through constant donations that keep them financially afloat. Nor are they businesses that sell everyday things, make profits and use those profits to invest in social solutions. Social enterprises are business activities whose products or services directly solve a social problem and manages to make a profits by doing so. Seriously... isn't that just the greatest type of enterprise!?
Lets bring in some grim reality... just because a social enterprise is making profits it doesn't mean that its products or services are actually solving the very social problems that led to its creation. Like any enterprise, a social enterprise only needs to make enough revenue to cover its costs. By that we mean, a social enterprise only needs to make a financial impact and not necessarily a social impact for its business to remain sustainable.
Social Value trap is any social innovation that believes it is making a substantial social impact when in reality it is making a financial impact. By being financially afloat it no longer needs to innovate ways to gain new types of consumers who through collective use, would solve the social problem.
We want to be careful with our words here. We are in no way stating that social enterprises are not creating social value because they are achieving amazing results through the work that they do. What we want to say however is that social enterprises shouldn't be satisfied with just staying financially afloat. They should continue to tackle those obstacles that stops more affected people from benefiting from their products and services. To solve a social problem, everyone affected by that problem needs to collectively consume its solution.
Cast Study
One of the key reasons why products and services that can solve a social problem is not consumed by those affected by it is because people often are faced with barriers that stop them from consuming. There was a project some months ago that looked at innovating new solutions that could help family members take better care of their loved ones suffering from dementia. There were so many amazing innovative ideas that explored a whole spectrum of ways that carers connect and deal with dementia. There were innovations that helped carers gain more knowledge about what to expect during different stages of dementia. There were technologies that helped carers deal with aggressive or impulsive behaviors. There were solutions that helped carers better plan for the future, create greater effective social support systems and find ways to form new relations with their loved ones once preexisting relationships became irredeemably disrupted through the effects of dementia. All of these products and services are potential social enterprises.
However as innovative as these solutions are they were all based on the assumption that the caregiver is someone who is willing and able to utilize these solutions. That they are willing and able to take on the role of caregiver. If the task was to reach as many caregivers as possible so that all can utilize these solutions as best as they can then what about those caregivers that are unable and even unwilling to use these solutions because of their personal barriers relating to their role as a caregiver? Take a simple scenario of a caregiver who wants to gain more knowledge of dementia so that they can be better prepared to deal with what is to come. For that caregiver, any innovation that helps provide knowledge is something to be consumed. But we know that human beings are often more fragile and vulnerable than they themselves are willing to admit. What about caregivers who are still in denial of their loved ones having dementia. These are people who avoid knowledge because it makes them face certain realities that they are unwilling to face. Those types of consumers would avoid such products and services and continue to struggle in their role as caregivers.
We can say the same for the other solutions that were being catered to caregivers. Some are more able to deal with behavioral instabilities and aggression from other people and so would cherish those supporting technologies whilst others look to avoid confrontations at all cost and so would ignore those technologies that can help them. Some believe social support is needed whilst others, due to their personal and cultural belief, refuse to look for help in others. Some are great at planning for the future others are not. In reality caregivers like any consumer comes in all shapes and sizes and in any social solution we can find a percentage of people affected who are simply unable to use those solutions.
Aren't we being too difficult here?
Surely in any solution there will be some people who for whatever reason are unable to utilize certain solutions!? Well, if we return to the caregivers who suffer from denial and discover that the numbers of such caregivers is high (which it is) than these knowledge-led products end up serving only a few consumers. And if those few consumers are enough for that social enterprise to stay financially afloat then there is little need to innovate further than that. However we still end up with the social problem of caregivers being unable to look after their loved ones. And this is what we call the Social Value Trap. Because we are financially afloat we no longer need to innovate further in order to increase the number of affected consumers who can benefit from our solutions and thus through collective use, solve the social problem once and for all.
Include everyone as early as possible
Although there is nothing wrong in designing solutions to problems that can be enjoyed by a specific demographic of consumers, the inherent driving force behind most of our social efforts is to see an end to the social problem itself. This requires creating solutions that everyone can use. For this, at times, we need to dream a little bigger. This means bringing those left out of our solutions into the design stages as early on as possible and understanding what kinds of barriers stop them from utilizing our solutions. What Pre-Problems exist in our consumers before we tackle the social problem at hand. How can we e.g. help caregivers who suffer from denial before we look to design innovative solutions to disseminating information to caregivers who need it. What kinds of solutions can we first offer to caregivers who are unwilling to see old relationships with loved ones come to an end before we provide solutions of how new relationships can be made. What solutions can we create for people who refuse the help of others before creating innovative platforms that enable caregivers to connect socially.
Pre-Problems are everywhere!
Although this post focused on just one social problem i.e. caregivers looking after loved ones with dementia this same approach applies to all social problems. Before we can e.g. create green products and services we need to understand what barriers stop eco-conscious consumers from buying them. These can be personal, economic, social and even political barriers such as lack of knowledge, lack of access, lack of finances, lack of trust or even lack of emotional connection to products and services etc.
Become a game changer
There is also a business advantage of attempting to solve these pre-problems. The more people your solutions can help the more consumers you get; the more consumers you get, the greater your market share as an enterprise; the greater the market share, potentially the greater the profits. By thinking of solving those tricky pre-problems that others are not attempting, you can gain access to a greater demographic of consumers. You could become a pioneer, a game changer, a disruptive innovator, you'd create solutions to problems that no one is even thinking about creating... you can become an industry leader!!
It will be worth it in the end
I end this post with the acknowledgement that the task to solve social problems require taking a more difficult path than we had initially imagined. It requires thinking of solutions to more complex problems and it requires solving problems that we never knew were problems to begin with. But if we want to finally bring social problems to an end, we can only do it if everyone affected by them is given the best possible means of using its solutions.
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