Earning money and making a difference
Social enterprise may be more than just a buzzword if last Saturday’s attendance at Cambodia’s second-ever conference on the matter was anything to judge by. The 350 person-plus crowd of attendees consisted predominately of Cambodians, for whom doing business appears to be about more than merely creating jobs and turning a profit. … … Alissa Caron, country co-ordinator for Population & Development International Cambodia, … in her speech discussed the various models on which social enterprises could be based and emphasised the need for them to be businesses first. Caron saw a need at the conference to dispell the notion that social enterprises and NGOs are one and the same, even when they may share similar goals. … “Your social message has to be integrated or your customers won’t be interested,” she continued, emphasising the importance for a social business to be clearly more than just a business.
