Does your company or idea include a ‘social mission’? Many entrepreneurs today, especially from the Gen Y, are bringing some social agenda with their venture to the marketplace.  The old notion that you work for 30 years, then begin doing charity work and pro bono services once you’ve “arrived” is dead.  Lifestyle entrepreneurship is here and thriving.  It is now time to look at work/life integration, not simply “balance”.  What do you love personally? Is that your business? if no, why not? Would it or could it integrate with your business?  These are some questions we all ought to ask ourselves as entrepreneurs.  Do I want my business to have a social mission? Well, that is obviously up to each individual and/or team.  The key to recognize is that having a social mission carries additional benefit and not simply the value of the mission itself. In today’s more socially conscious marketplace, having an open social mission improves brand image, marketing, and loyalty. That is, if the mission is authentic and not fabricated for those purposes.

The modern consumer can smell inauthenticity from a few simple interactions with your organization. Fancy marketing hype and a good smile don’t get you quite as far as it used to.  Especially in economic downturns, people are more skeptical of corporate bull and sales hype.  If, however, your mission is authentic, you will reap the benefit.  This is the beauty of the modern economy.  We are rewarded for pursuing social agendas, allowing us to ‘have our cake and eat it to’!  It is no longer simply a drain on for-profit resources but a boon.  It is much more an investment than some ‘sacrifice’ and that is great!  It allows us to continue on with the social mission as our business is bolstered by it, who doesn’t want that?

So the question is, what are some simply ways to develop your social mission? Here is a simple list of ideas to get started:

• brainstorm causes, concerns, and areas of interest that you have personally.  It doesn’t have to be so cliche as ‘inoculate babies in Burma’ (although that is great if it authentically is a concern) but even hobbies can become great social causes.  For example, I am an avid mountain biker.  There are many concerns for trail preservation, natural forest maintenance and other related interests.  Maybe I should distribute bikes to children in Burma! Simply create a list of ideas and interests.
• Identify interests that run congruent with or compliment your business.  What is your business? Do any of the above ideas coincide with your business in any way?
• Identify a list of interesting charities and special-interest groups that compliment your own ideas and/or those of your business.  Do any groups do anything listed above? Are there other ideas gleaned from this new list of charities and non-profits?
• Explore the ideas and concepts with your team to garner support and acceptance as well as to explore alternative perspectives to the new idea.
• Develop the ‘dot org’ side of your business.  Start a website or blog and begin developing your social mission and agenda.  You may use the platform to focus and hone your purpose, deciding on the key areas your social mission will include.
• Create a 6-month action plan to integrate and enact this new mission.  Be wary of any dangers and shifts in current company culture to ensure preservation or positive transformation of it.

This is a simple list to get you started. Many companies are becoming economic powerhouses will changing the world (at the same time!) and your organization can do it to.  You don’t need to wait until your “microsoft” is built to start a multi-billion dollar “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” of your own (which I think is totally awesome by the way, I just don’t have that pocket change laying around quite yet).  Your social mission can begin WITH your company, not after it…

What other ideas are out there to help entrepreneurs in their social mission?  What is your social mission?!

This video is a keynote that Chris Anderson, Author of “Free:…” & editor at WIRED magazine, gave at the Revenue Bootcamp put on by Garage Ventures. He discusses Free and the “animal forces of digital economics” that I find fascinating.

Entrepreneur Magazine’s November issue featured an article regarding a new-ish concept that Starbucks has embarked upon.  Many companies carry a common goal, a desire for international brand recognition and dominance.  Well, in some industries, that may not be the way to go.  Starbucks, one of those international branding phenomena, is actually “hiding” their brand within a few new locations.  What?! Yes, they are practically invisible as the the backer of a few new shops being opened.  With a billion dollar namesake, why would you forsake it? Well, coffee happens to be an area where indie is in.  Local, hip, one-of-kind, shoot-from-the-hip, is desirable.  People like their coffee shop, not some international cookie-cutter.  The new “15th Ave Coffee & Tea” is just that, local, hip, and still Starbucks (although you may not realize it).  The new coffee house features many ideas and innovations typically found only in local establishments with a coffee connoisseur founder.  That is in-part because of the liberty given to the new shop to run as such.  Protocols are a little more liberal but carry the support and resources of a powerhouse company in Starbucks.  Also, Starbucks is not the only one embarking on this trend.  As the article points out, Great Harvest Bread Co. has done this since the beginning. Similar ideas are coming out of Marriott Hotels and others.

(photo from Boston Globe Article)

I am passionate about entrepreneurship and individual empowerment, it is no secret. Part of my personal mission is just that, to empower individuals for societal advancement through value-based entrepreneurship. I believe profit is an important indicator of impactful ideas and a resource for continued development. I have written on the “selfless-ness of entrepreneurship” here.

I recently came across an article here about a man with a similar vision who is doing some fantastic work in moving the vision forward. His name is Iqbal Z. Quadir, founder of the The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. Quadir founded Grameenphone in Bangladesh, a company valued at $3 billion that brings telephone service and prosperity through employment to millions who have not had it until now. He teamed up with the Grameen Bank to bring about the company. Grameen Bank was founded by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize recipient. A large part of the profits going to Grameen Bank help fund the powerful micro-credit business it helped popularize that brings additional prosperity by giving opportunity and expecting responsible action with micro-loans (I’m a fan of Grameen as well…). The Legatum Center’s purpose follows suit, to bring technology and development to impoverished countries through for-profit ventures. There are powerful advantages to private action such as this:

MIT Economics Professor Bengt Holmstrom, a member of the Legatum Center executive committee, said there is merit in Quadir’s view that pouring more aid money into Third World governments will simply feed and empower politicians and fuel corruption. Holmstrom said the center’s “focus on entrepreneurship and self-help, and its bottom-up approach, are really distinguishing features.’’…