Assessment
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Social problems are complex, because they are always part of a much bigger system. Therefore understanding the problem and how it is positioned among the many feedback loops is critical in developing an effective, sustainable and scalable solution. Developing such a deep and through understanding of the systems requires a great deal of commitment, collective intelligence and teamwork. However, entrepreneurs are always constrained in terms of time and resources, and they cannot afford allocating all the time and energy that is required to have a systems thinking approach. On the other hand, if the entrepreneurs do not take a systems thinking approach from the outset, they will find it increasingly more difficult, and even impossible, to shift to this approach further along the way.
This is why we work with entrepreneurs during the ideation stage to assess and develop a systems thinking approach in understanding the problem. Another key feature of this stage is that we help the entrepreneurs in conducting a through industry analysis and identifying the other already existing interventions, opportunities and threats, specially with a focus on the technological and legal factors.
Goal setting
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After understanding the system, we help the entrepreneurs in goal setting, and understanding what a better and healthier system would look like. Goal setting is a very critical stage in social entrepreneurship. Finding the right place between being 'too ambitious', and 'too specific or narrow' is a challenge that affects many aspects of entrepreneurship. This stage is crucial in developing the solution, identifying the metrics and measurement of impact.
Impact model > Business model
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The previous stages lead and enable us to develop the impact model and theory of change. Having developed a deeper understanding of the problem and its relevant system, we leverage the results of our technological and legal analysis to develop a lean-tech-enabled process for implementing the interventions (solutions), and to measure the impact.
While we believe that impact model is at the heart of a social impact enterprise, we also work with social entrepreneurs in developing viable revenue models, and to develop a business model that enables sustainability and scalability.