Developing a Successful Social Business
Developing a Social Business does not equal a Social Media Business. A Social Business is not about how many Likes or Retweets you get. It is about positive social change in the communities we live and work. I was really inspired by this talk by Gustav Praekelt of the Praekelt Foundation at the 2011 edition of Net Prophet.
Social Businesses are not:
- Charities
- Non-Profit Organizations
- Corporate Social Investment projects
A Social Business is a ‘non-loss, non-dividend company designed to address a social objective.’ We’re about to launch a business designed to address a social objective, next week (26 May 2011 to be exact) at the CTEC prize giving, that uses almost all of the technology covered on this blog over the past 5+ years 🙂
Does your business address a social objective?
More about Gustav Praekelt:
Gustav Praekelt is the founder of Praekelt Digital – a company that develops mobile solutions for emerging markets. After completing his B.Sc. in Computer Science and Philosophy, he co-founded one of the early digital interactive studio in Africa and was its technical director for 10 years.
His belief in the power of mobile phones to transform Africa inspired him to establish the Praekelt Foundation in 2006. A technology incubator that develops robust, highly scalable mobile solutions for social good, its programmes have reached over 50 million people across 15 countries in Africa.
More about the Praekelt Foundation:
Praekelt Foundation was founded in early 2007 by Gustav Praekelt and Robin Miller in response to the opportunities created by the rapid and unprecedented spread of mobile phones across Africa. Gustav, a digital entrepreneur and obsessive technologist, saw how many of the mobile technologies his consultancy developed could be used to give communities access to services & information which had previously been inaccessible