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All businesses, whether or not they are conscious of it, have, for better or worse, an impact on the wellbeing of people and the planet. Today, the move towards deliberately having positive impacts on people and planet is gaining ground, with some important Caribbean examples.
To realise what your firm’s impact is, your organisation needs to become aware of the different resources it is using as inputs, the outcomes it is generating through its products or services, and the associated changes in well-being for people and the natural environment.
These changes in wellbeing and nature, positive and negative, constitute the ultimate value that the organisation is generating, its realised purpose.
Many organisations naively, though sincerely, believe that the purpose of a business is simply to make money. Most people, and most boards, are so caught up in ensuring financial viability and returns, or the doing and the satisfaction of customer demands, that their impact, the ultimate value, is out of their attention span. Many are not even aware of the overall impact they have and find it difficult to conceive of a real bottom line, far less to measure it.
What is a social enterprise?
The world over, including the Caribbean, there is a sizeable group of businesses, organisations and different legal entities that think of themselves as social enterprises. They are explicitly and systematically seeking to produce a positive impact on people, communities, and society using entrepreneurial means, and re-invest any surplus into creating further positive impacts. Among these are co-operatives, mutual societies, social enterprises, affordable housing initiatives, associations and foundations. Together, they form the basis of the social economy.
The European Commission estimates that ten per cent of all businesses in the EU, approximately 2.8 million, are social economy enterprises. They employ 13.6 million people, or about 6.2 per cent of the EU’s work force.
Social enterprises can operate using a variety of legal forms. Some are co-operatives, others are registered as private companies limited by guarantee, some are registered to be "for profit," others "not for profit," yet others as benevolent or friendly societies, foundations or charities.
According to Lex Mundi, in the UK the most common organisational forms used by social enterprises are unincorporated associations, community interest companies, companies limited by guarantee, and community-benefit industrial provident societies.
[caption id="attachment_943845" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Dancers from Jamaica's Ashe Academy perform at Carifesta show at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain on August 19, 2019. Jamaica has a social enterprise policy. - FILE PHOTO/ANGELO MARCELLE[/caption]
Social enterprise in Jamaica
In a 2019 study on the state of social enterprise i
