Synopsis:
Become a social entrepreneur and transform your career, your life and the planet. That s the challenge that Martin Clark sets readers of this book. His inspiring message is that all of us, however ordinary we feel, can make a difference and help build a better world. How? By joining the new business movement for the twenty-first century: social entrepreneurship, a model that couples sound business practice with social benefit. Though the term social entrepreneur isn t yet widely used, some of the pioneering people and projects in this growing movement are household names: think of Jamie Oliver s restaurants staffed by unemployed young people, Tim Smit and the Eden Project, the Body Shop, The Big Issue. All of them started with the simple idea of making a profit by doing good the best way of running a business for anyone with a social conscience. There are many more high-profile examples, from Muhammad Yunus s work offering microcredit to the very poor to eBay founder Jeff Skoll s efforts to promote social values, but you don t have to be rich and famous or work on a grand scale to make the world a better place. Local projects like recycling furniture, improving disadvantaged children s diet, and setting up buy-to-let schemes to house homeless people can achieve tremendous impact. And for those involved, few things could be more fulfilling than bringing about change for the benefit of others. As a social entrepreneur himself, Martin Clark is an ideal guide to one of the hottest topics in business today. His aim is practical: to provide not just inspiration but also ideas, tools and tips to help anyone do business in a way that benefits the community. Social entrepreneurship has the potential to transform corporate practice and make a major contribution to tackling the world s ills and it might just change your life.
About the Author:
Martin Clark is development director of Citylife, a national social investment charity based in Cambridge. After taking a first degree in geography, he set up a youth employment charity in Sheffield, lived and worked with unemployed people, and carried out research into unemployment for his PhD. His career as a social entrepreneur began twelve years ago when he helped set up a social enterprise promoting alternative financial products to help people invest in their own communities. In his spare time, he enjoys goalkeeping, driving an old camper van and spending the night on mountain tops.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.