1.
The Voice of
Social Innovation

2.
Social Entrepreneurs
320
The largest community of late-stage social enterprises
in the world
Organizations
296
Countries
61
51
3
25
35
21
53
69
World Economic Forum
Social Entrepreneurs

3.
World Economic Forum
Social Entrepreneurs
Meet some
of the
Schwab
Social
Entrepreneurs
Renat Heuberger
CEO
South Pole Carbon
Wendy Kopp
Founder and CEO
Teach for America/Teach
for All
Kristin Peterson
Co-Founder
EveryLayer
Thulsi Ravilla
Executive Director
Aravind Eye Care Services

4.
World Economic Forum
Social Entrepreneurs
Sector
breakdown
Education 17%
Health 16%
Employment/skill gap 11%
Enterprise devel. 11%
Rural development 10%
Environment 10%
Children and youth 7%
Financial inclusion 6%
Agriculture 5%
Homelessness/housing 5%
Other 3%

5.
What is social entrepreneurship?
• innovative, practical, sustainable, market-
based approaches
• achieve transformative social and/or
environmental change
• emphasis on underserved populations

6.
“Whether you are talking about cardiac
care or education, the fundamental
question is: How do you provide it for
everyone?”
- Thulsi Ravilla, Executive Director,
Aravind Eye Care Center, India

7.
Aravind 1

8.
Proximity 1

9.
“Rely on market signals and business
principles. Treat people as customers like
any other business would. Make yourself
easy to do business with, and ensure
strong business experience is part of your
organization’s DNA.”
- Jim Taylor, Co-Founder, Proximity
Designs, Myanmar

10.
“If we’re not making money, it either
means there is no market out there and we
need to change, or that we're not doing
good business, therefore we're not doing a
good training, and we have to revise what
we're doing. So being in tune with the
market allows us to constantly be the best
we can be.”
- Sebastien Marot, Executive Director,
Friends-International, Cambodia

11.
Takeaways from Aravind
• Universal access is achievable through
tiered pricing based on ability to pay
• Be guided by analytical rigor and seek
out operational efficiencies to scale

12.
Takeaways from Proximity Designs
• Find ways to combine deep local
expertise with top global talent
• Rely on market signals and treat
beneficiaries as customers
• Distribution, distribution, distribution!
Make data-based decisions in real time

13.
Takeaways from Friends-International
• Combine for-profit and non-profit arms
under one umbrella
• Go beyond what you can do through direct
service alone: Embrace the power of the
network
• Identify opportunities for strategic
collaborations with corporates or
governments or both

14.
The decade ahead:
From social entrepreneurship to
system entrepreneurship

15.
Very often, scale is looked at as scaling an
organization or enterprise as opposed to
scaling a concept. Looking beyond scaling a
particular organization requires a major
mindset shift. We must determine how we
can collaboratively scale action around a
particular problem through the engagement of
all the stakeholders affected by the issue. Only
then will we make meaningful changes in how
complex social problems are taken on.
- Jeroo Billimoria, ChildFinance International