Report from a Global Social Venture Symposium

What is the need for a system to articulate one’s social impact as a business? This question seemed particularly pressing during Thammasat University Global Social Venture Competition Symposium and Southeast Asia Regional Finals, where tens of thousands of demonstrators paraded on trucks and motorbikes through the streets of Bangkok challenging the Thai government to dissolve parliament.

Eric Wong is the General Manager of Digital Divide Data’s office in Vientiane, Laos. In March he represented Digital Divide Data at a Global Social Venture Symposium in Bangkok.

What is the need for a system to articulate one’s social impact as a business? This question seemed particularly pressing during Thammasat University Global Social Venture Competition Symposium and Southeast Asia Regional Finals, where tens of thousands of demonstrators paraded on trucks and motorbikes through the streets of Bangkok challenging the Thai government to dissolve parliament.

We were out of earshot of the mostly peaceful protests during the presentations, which were made by entrepreneurial teams from Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia on the 21st floor of the elegant Pan Pacific Hotel, but what came across to me loud and clear was that the protestors and these entrepreneurs were essentially calling for the same thing: Better economic opportunity for the poor and a more sustainable future. The difference is that they are using completely different strategies!

I spoke about the question of how to find the right balance between social enterprise and the need for impact management with a number of the social entrepreneurs, who were gathered for the symposium.

We always look at financial reports as an assessment tool to manage our business. So we also need to have a strong social impact system in order to measure our social mission…. The idea behind the DDD  is that we do not want to give away fish; we want to teach how to fish. So the social impact measurement is to ensure that we are always on the right track, finding the right balance – not swaying too much to the social side or on the business side, because if we go too far to either side we miss our goals.

After the speech, I received a lot of feedback and support from the attendees and many of people from business circles as well as entrepreneurs approached me in order for us to continue exchanging our ideas on social enterprise, and ideas on how we ensure that we will have a lasting social impact on the community we work in.

Personally, I learned a lot during this gathering and it strengthened my faith in DDD, which has done a great job so far to ensure we continue to focus on DDD’s original ideas. To me, the lasting social impact we have on underprivileged people’s lives makes it worth the effort. It is a great experience and honor for me to be part of DDD’s journey.

1. Jeremy Hockenstein says:

   April 26, 2010 at 1:00 PM

   Eric, Thank you for representing DDD at this event. It is interesting to read you linking the common goals we all share – protesters and DDD – and our progress towards them. Best, Jeremy