Disciplined Approach to Social Entrepreneurship (edX)

From social entrepreneurs, to those employed in a not-for-profit, and entrepreneurs who value corporate social responsibility/sustainability within a business/government, this course will allow you to gain the relevant knowledge, tools and skill-sets to further your passion for social change.

Throughout the course there are in-depth interviews with four successful social entrepreneurs, Selco in India, Friendship in Bangladesh, Edible Garden City in Singapore and Greenbatch in Perth, Australia. Each of these social ventures has a clearly identifiable social mission and they have generously shared insights as to how they balance social aspirations with financial viability and how they have achieved scalabilty whilst minimising operational costs.

What you'll learn
After completing this course, you will be able to:

• summarise the importance of social entrepreneurship
• explain how social entrepreneurships differ from traditional entrepreneurships
• use design thinking to generate solutions for a social problem
• delineate the characteristics of effective social entrepreneurs
• explore the different types of social entrepreneurships including structures and business models, and
• apply the disciplined entrepreneurship approach from ideation to developing the product plan

Syllabus

Module 1 - Fundamentals of social entrepreneurship (Part 1)

• identify the key features of social entrepreneurship
• differentiate between social entrepreneurship and traditional entrepreneurship

Module 2 - Fundamentals of social entrepreneurship (Part 2)

• identify the key motivations of social entrepreneurs
• describe the importance of social entrepreneurships in relation to consumers, communities and societies

Module 3 – Design thinking for social entrepreneurship

• identify the key stages of design thinking
• understand the role of design thinking in entrepreneurship and social innovation
• use design thinking to generate solutions for a social problem

Module 4 – Disciplined approach to social entrepreneurship (Part 1)

• create valuable specificity through market segmentation and defining a beachhead market
• develop an end user profile using multiple personas who share your values
• calculate your potential total addressable market

Module 5 – Disciplined approach to social entrepreneurship (Part 2)

• define the customer experience directly related to the product or services you are providing
• quantify the unique value you bring to your target customer using use-case diagrams
• map the process needed to acquire customers/end users

Module 6 - Disciplined approach to social entrepreneurship (Part 3)

• develop a business model that incorporates your social values
• determine how you will overcome common obstacles in getting your product/service adopted by customers
• identify and test key assumptions in the business model