News, ideas, projects, resources, and inspiration for people who want to change the world through business.
Most of the major industries have at least one reality show—fashion, real estate, food, music, entertainment, even logging. Business has “The Apprentice”, but somehow the show’s catch phrase “You’re fired!” might not resonate in this economy. What about updating the show to fit with our shifting values toward social responsibility. “The Social Apprentice”?
I’m sure someone has thought of this idea, and that it’s ended up crumpled in a television executive’s trash bin. But if there can be a show about young professionals who find love in a pitch black room, then I don’t see why there can’t be a show about savvy business people who compete to become the leader in socially responsible business. Similar concept to “The Apprentice”, except contestants race to come up with creative ways for companies to better the world.
Is this too crazy an idea? Here’s my case for “The Social Apprentice”:
1. We need new heroes
We like to see someone come in and change things for the better. Ty Pennington from Extreme Home Makeover is a huge celebrity as a result of this (though EHM is not exactly the most responsible show). Our society is waiting for someone to come in and help businesses get back on track, especially when it’s not someone political. We’re dying for a moral corporate turnaround, and if we can attribute a human face to that effort, even better.
2. Drama isn’t the only way to gain an audience
The common position is that reality shows thrive on unnecessary personal drama, and that a show like “The Social Apprentice” would be too boring and self-serving. But the success of shows like Top Chef and Project Runway are partially based on the commentary and critique by an expert panel. As a result, audiences gain a greater appreciation for the talent and thought that goes into creating successful products. I imagine audiences would be interested in the tough decisions and processes involved in creating a business with social value.
3. There’s something in it for the businesses
Product placement is out of control on reality television. But what if we took that a step further? If a business sponsors a challenge or plays an integral part in the series, it gets face time and it demonstrates its active commitment to doing good. It’s almost a no-brainer to get involved—the only catch is that participating companies need to be ready to admit shortcomings.
4. Companies have to admit their shortcomings
Right, so about that. The business world is out of luck since sooner or later it will have to open up the conversation and show a bit more transparency. The social responsibility train has already left the station, and consumers will find out if companies are naughty or nice one way or another. The successful business will be the proactive one that can demonstrate it cares and is making an effort.
5. The time is right
Even two years ago, “The Social Apprentice” would not have worked. The idea of socially responsible business hadn’t hit our culture the way it has now. Every other television commercial is about responsibility this and sustainability that and more efficient and more friendly. Audiences hear that everyday, and are curious to know what’s really behind those words.
Micro-entrepreneurs generally face two main obstacles: getting funding and managing finances. Micro-lending programs like Kiva have done a tremendous job of addressing that first challenge. But what about that second one?
David Del Ser, founder of Frogtek, has it covered. He’s providing the financial tools and skills to micro-entrepreneurs through the power of mobile. Think about being a small business owner in the developing world and having all your sales technology literally at the palm of your hand: touchscreens, accounting software, barcode readers, interactive learning modules. That means more data, smarter decisions, and better service—the start of a growing business.
Check out our interview below.
What are you up to at Frogtek?
We are busy building the first business tool specifically designed to run on the mobile phones of micro-entrepreneurs. To be more concrete, we are focusing on the small mom & pops and their accounting and inventory management needs.
Is the smartphone then basically a substitute for the personal computer?
Exactly. We believe the smartphone will become the main computing tool for the base of the pyramid (BOP), since it doesn’t have to compete with laptops or PCs as in the richer world.
Almost every adult has a cell phone at the BOP and from the drop in price of technological products, we can infer that in 3-5 years everyone at the BOP will have a smartphone.
Will they also buy a PC computer? Well, it will depend on what they can’t do on their smartphones, which is an interesting inversion to what happened in the US and Europe.
I think of the iPhone and all the app possibilities. Even in the US we’re starting to realize the power of smartphones.
Of course now that the smartphones have powerful interfaces and an internet connection, here too we’re starting to see what novel applications they can foster.
The difference is that those apps still have to compete in most cases with their equivalents in laptops and desktops, as even while on the move you can always wait until you get home to write that long email. In the developing world, there won’t be any laptops necessarily, so you’ll write that email on your phone for sure!
So you’re giving people the technology tools, but I imagine there’s also a sizable gap in knowledge and skills. How are you educating your customers about running a business?
We will have to educate them at two levels. First, they’ll need to learn how to use our tool. But to extract all its potential, they will also have to learn the business skills required to run efficiently a retail operation.
How will we do that? Even if we’ll use teachers and workshops in the early stages, our goal is to have a self-teaching tool. Using the multimedia capabilities of the phones, we plan on creating short how-to videos, interactive animations, audio testimonials and even simple games that modularize the knowledge and make it simple to digest.
The benefit of using the phone is double. On one hand, once you’ve built the content, its replication is free. On the other, the shopkeepers will take advantage of the idle time they have in their shops, instead of having to close them to go to a classroom and forgoing some income.
Did business school prepare you for the challenges of social entrepreneurship?
I’ve heard before that you can’t teach entrepreneurship, let alone its social sister. By that I take that the drive and desire to build a new organization can’t be taught and that’s one of the most important ingredients for a successful venture.
In my case, the two years at Columbia business school gave me the tools to analyze an opportunity, to understand the rudiments of how to capture it, and to devise ways to ensure its lasting social impact.
Furthermore, it provided an excellent testing ground to sharpen skills, which I took advantage of by launching Microlumbia, a student-run fund focused on investments and consulting for microfinance institutions. Going through that process while getting advice from professors and experts, as well as access to Columbia’s network of professionals, was an extremely valuable teaching experience.
And it made me want to continue down a similar path after graduation.
Page 1 of 2
goodworkpeople by goodworkpeople is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.goodworkpeople.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.goodworkpeople.com/license.
