The symposium 'Pathways and Barriers to Social Enterprise Success' held in Taipei gathered over 55 participants, including practitioners and researchers, to discuss the challenges and strategies for social enterprises. Key themes included the importance of synergy partnerships, effective measurement metrics, and empowering marginalized communities through social enterprises. The event highlighted a call to action for collaboration and ongoing dialogue to enhance the social enterprise ecosystem in Taiwan.

1. SYMPOSIUM
at the Canadian Trade Office, Taipei
Pathways and Barriers
to Social Enterprise Success
On February 27, the Social Innovation we were pleased to present what we individuals looking to engage with us in
Research Group (SIRG) was pleased to believe was a meaningful dialogue this mission.
welcome over 55 guests to our first between practitioners and stakeholders in The SIRG team would like to take
symposium, “Pathways and Barriers to social enterprise. this opportunity to thank the many
Social Enter prise Success.” T he The white papers within this people without whom the event and
symposium was a reflection of six package are reflections of the these white papers would not be possible:
months of field research, during which conversations that took place at the our panelists, keynote speaker (and prime
SIRG interviewed dozens of social symposium, and it is our hope that they supporter) Prof. Joseph Wong, the staff of
enterprises, non-profit organizations, serve as both an informational tool for the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, the
research institutes, academics and social enter prise practitioners, University of Toronto’s Munk School of
member s of gover nment. T he stakeholders and research elsewhere, as Global Affairs, Asian Institute, and
symposium was based both on our field well as serving as a call to action within Global Innovation Group, and our
work, and on the observation that to the local Taiwanese ecosystem. photographer Gamy Wong. Last but not
accelerate social enterprise, we must In the coming weeks and months least, a heartfelt thank you to SIRG team
consider all the players together, rather SIRG will begin on convening further member Wendy Pan, who although
than looking at them as isolated dialogues to advance the unable to join us on February 27 made
organizations. recommendations expressed here. We an indelible impression on the team and
With audience members from each welcome further collaborations and symposium.
of the listed groups we have worked with, contact from all interested groups and
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2. SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013
Panel 1:
Financial and Human Capital
Panelists: Johnny Wang, iHealth; CT Liu, Taiwan Up Project; Patrick Wang, Aurora Social Enterprise,
Moderators: Melinda Jacobs, Remi Kanji
In building and scaling a social venture, financial and Importance of Collaborative/Synergy Partnerships
human capital are intrinsically linked: both elements are
not only required for organizational growth and health, Synergy partnerships should be considered alongside
but they are also mutually dependent. The panel on investment for growth. They not only provide initial
financial and human capital explored these adjacent human and financial capital infusions to an organization,
topics, presenting panelists with the question: How dotheir existing partnerships and reputation also help it
you balance human and financial capital needs in your gain customer and partner trust more rapidly. Finally,
organization, and how should Taiwanese social synergy partnerships facilitate the transfer of expertise
entrepreneurs broadly address these challenges within and tacit knowledge from a more established
their own organizations? organization to a new one, essentially providing inter-
organizational mentorship. Organizations with parallel
The following themes became salient points in our social missions should collaborate to gain some of the
discussion: same benefits derived from synergy partnerships.
1) Timeliness of external funding Collaboration: Whether through a synergy partnership,
2) Importance of collaborative/synergy partnerships or alternate collaborative relationship, organizations can
3) Resources for founders/social entrepreneurs to leverage joint human capacity to implement a social
grow and develop mission or build a better business. SEs should seek to
4) Building teams that growth with their organization identify and nurture new nodes of cooperation.
5) Driving social enterprise through youth and
mentorship Resources for Founders to Grow and Develop
6) Alternative needs for hierarchy in social ventures
Building any new venture is challenging; building a
Timeliness of external funding social venture is doubly challenging. Some of the most
important early stage support should be designated for
Although funding for social enterprise is important, founder development. Effective early stage leadership is
the panel advised against accepting venture capital at the crucial to helping a founder build his or her team, but
very early stages of venture growth. Firstly, the timeline this capacity does not come naturally to many people.
for ROI may be different and unaligned with the Moreover, because founders are balancing social/
venture’s social mission, and secondly, premature funding financial missions, they may find that their skills are
could delay iterative learning and delay financial lacking in one area or another.
sustainability. Ventures need to test assumptions and
perfect their financial model before deciding which Access to resources: Founders should have access to
model to scale through financing. It was suggested that resources that grow their business, social programming,
early stage support for social enterprises take the form of and/or leadership skills. Though founders are pressed for
orders or sales that would allow for supply chain time, they should set aside time for personal development
development and social value testing. - their organization will grow faster if they take the time
for self-improvement.
Modeling funding after the startups: Organizations should
be given limited early stage funding, giving them time Building teams that grow with their organization
and space to test and iterate, but not scale their
organizations. Investors and donors should organize The best resource for a social venture is a strong and
financial capital infusions in accordance with an committed team. However, in the absence of high wages,
organization’s growth stage. Where possible, social other factors like quality of living and mentorship can
enterprise should rely on sales for survival, and help leverage hiring capacity. Better hours, rewarding
investment for scaling. work and the chance to grow with the company can be
2 used to attract and retain talent.

3. SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013
It is important for employees to be empowered in their models can be more effective than hierarchy and
roles – cofounders should allow them to learn by doing specialization.
and make mistakes, so they can better identify both
problems Coworking - SEs should forgo hierarchical organizational
and solutions in the future. Teams need to see models for coworking/collaborative models, which better
improvement in themselves and others and learn to leverage limited human capacity.
juggle multiple stresses at once.
Conclusions
Investing in employee potential: Organizations need to
consider non-financial incentives to encourage employee When considering the link between financial and human
happiness and commitment. capital, social enterprise should be considered as a system
– not a series of individual organizations. The Taiwanese
Driving social enterprise through youth and mentorship ecosystem needs to leverage its current resources and
create new ones through synergy partnerships, a higher
Youth need to be exposed to the challenges of threshold for risk, and building strong and growing
entrepreneurship early on. Some advocate the merits of teams. Talking about individual competencies and
failure as a learning tool, while others advocate for organizations risks leaving behind a new generation of
exposure to new issues not commonly experienced in systems organized around the creation of financially
home and school life as vehicles for learning. It was sustainable social value.
agreed by both sides that attitudes change when there is a
feeling on contribution.
Mentorship and Mobilization: Mentorship within
organizations and between generations is key to growing
talent. Evaluating younger staff by outcomes such as
personal growth rather than solely performance can
encourage multidimensional learning.Moreover,
encouraging youth leadership within organizations can
help develop entrepreneurial characteristics.
Alternative needs for hierarchy in social ventures
Social ventures need dynamic structures with less
hierarchy, to encourage value creation and learning
within teams, who come from diverse backgrounds and L to R: Melinda Jacobs, Remi Kanji, Johnny Wang, CT Liu, Patrick
Wang
bring different skills. Because of the need to share value
and leadership throughout the organization, co-working
SIRG was
proud to
welcome over
55 attendees to
our first
symposium,
Pathways and
Barriers to
S o c i a l
Enterprise
Success
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4. Panel 2:
SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013
Metrics and Evaluation
Panelists: Daniel Chen, Garden of Hope; Professor Wen, NCCU; Ms. Stacy Po, Zhishan Lohas
Moderators: Remi Kanji, Reza Mirza
Social startups and organizations are often encouraged to impacts are intangible and therefore unmeasurable – in
measure and evaluate their progress, to both enable these instances, an organization may focus on anecdotal
decision-making and communicate results to outsiders. evidence capturing experiences rather than numerical
However, evaluation and data are not inherently valuable metrics expressing finite outcomes.
– deciding what to evaluate is as relevant as making the
decision to incorporate metrics into organizational Don’t be tempted by low-hanging fruit – Organizations should
decision-making. Employing ‘thoughtful metrics’ that be careful about what metrics they measure and how
capture the value provided to all stakeholders can help these are selected – easily measured metrics are not
organizations drive decision making and improvement. necessarily good metrics. Specific recommendations
include remembering to measure denominators and
Our panel asked discussants, “Bill Gates said that disaggregating important metrics to ensure that causal
measurement is key to progress—you cannot change relationships are clearly demonstrated.
what you cannot measure. Many people agree, but a
number of social organizations we interviewed did not 2) Isolate the Value Proposition – Part of the reason why
have impact metrics. Why do you think this is the case?” social organizations might have difficulty establishing
useful metrics is because they tend to be organized
Six key points emerged from our discussion: around multiple value propositions. The value they
communicate to stakeholders like volunteers or recipients
1) Choosing Metrics Carefully of support is different than the metrics that might be
2) Isolate the Value Proposition relevant to an investor or donor.
3) Internally driven metrics
4) Externally driven metrics Ask Why the Metric Matters– use separate value propositions
5) Addressing Failure and metrics to communicate with different stakeholders,
6) Metrics and Scale and ensure this measurement is both necessary and in
alignment with the organization’s mission.
Bill Gates said that measurement is key to 3) Internal Metrics – Internal metrics are best developed
progress—you cannot change what you collaboratively with the group receiving the service
cannot measure. Many people agree, but a provision. Organizations should consider the change they
number of social organizations we hope to engender within these groups, and work with
interviewed did not have impact metrics. them to understand if and how change is happening.
Why do you think this is the case?
-opening question posed to the panel Empathize, Consult, Communicate – Organizations should
encourage collaborative development of metrics with
target groups they are hoping to serve.
1) Choosing metrics carefully – Groups said that
measurement does not always yield useful decision- 4) External Metrics – Ecosystem level organizations like
making data, as social organizations tend to focus on Government, investors, and consultants should work with
what is easily measurable rather than what is useful. As social organizations to develop metrics uniquely suited to
many social organizations face human capacity organizational needs where possible. Applying the same
limitations, this can be a poor use of human capital. metrics to every organization might incorrectly diagnose
Useful measurements tend to be based on clearly challenges or successes, causing a group to apply limited
articulated causal links, which may change as the resources to achieve unhelpful ends.
organization evolves.
Collaborate - Investors, donors, and government should
Calculating metrics can be a difficult process because offer to co-create metrics with organizations, rather than
sometimes-social organizations may be seeking to create using a one size fits all approach for every organization
change that only manifests in the long term, rendering they work with.
short-term metrics unhelpful. Moreover, some social
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5. SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013 5) Addressing Failure – Good metrics can help core - understanding what aspects of their
organizations learn from failure. A culture that sees organization or product should be exported will
value in failure facilitates knowledge sharing in social ease the scaling process.
startup world and lowers barriers of entry for younger
entrepreneurs, who no longer risk being penalized for Moving Forward
their youth.
Although metrics are not universally valuable,
Failure is not taboo - Investors and donors in particular ‘thoughtful metrics’ can be a useful way for
should differentiate between different types of failure - organizations to not only make decisions about strategy
social entrepreneurs who have grown and learnt from and scaling, but also communicate their social/financial
failure are a safer investment as a result of their value creation to donors and investors. Good metrics are
experiences. built around a strong understanding of an organization’s
mission and value propositions. Social enterprises often
6) Metrics and Scale – ‘Thoughtful Metrics’ help wrestle with multiple value propositions, each serving a
organizations determine their efficiency core, if they different stakeholder - developing informative metrics
have one. Once an organization is able to understand can be facilitated through co-creation with different
what aspects of their organization are scalable, their interest groups. SIRG will be hosting a task force on
model can be more broadly implemented. However, not metrics and evaluation in the coming months - we hope
every organization needs to scale or should. to co-create tools for organizations to develop and share
‘thoughtful metrics’ for identifying their efficiency cores.
Scale Smart - Organizations looking to scale need well-
developed metrics to determine their efficiency
Panelists discuss
key challenges in
metrics and
evaluation of
social ventures.
L-R: Reza Mirza,
Remi Kanji (both
SIRG), Daniel
Chen, Prof. Wen
and Stacy Po
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6. SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013 Panel 3:
Working in the Margins
Panelists: Priya Chen - Aurora Social Enterprise Co, Hsiuyen Yang - Children Are Us
Moderators: Reza Mirza, Melinda Jacobs
Social enterprises aim to create value for a targeted Social and financial interests are intertwined in all social
community by engaging them as employees, producers, enterprises, and Social entrepreneurs need to be holistic,
consumers or profit beneficiaries. Balancing the differing learn to see both mindsets and become bilingual in both
needs of these communities and their roles in creating social and financial.The difficulties of maintaining social
value within a social enterprise is a multi-dimensional and financial balance requires on going discipline within
challenge, and often in tension with other competing a social enterprise. In a heartfelt story, Priya Chen
(sometimes financial) interests. To open our discussion revealed that after years of successfully running a social
about effectively working within and for marginalized enterprise, it continues to be difficult to keep an even
groups, we asked our expert panel: “How do you keel. Indeed, she says her cofounder and herself
balance your social and financial missions without regularly argue about how to run the organization. With
compromise?” a background in social work, Priya explains that she
doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with her business-minded
Key Recommendations partner, Patrick Wang.
Maintaining the Delicate Balance of Social and Every contributor needs needs the social entrepreneur’s bias,
Financial whose interests lie in creating value for a community and
• Social interests can compete with financial not in selling a traditional product. Social enterprises
interests, but it is possible to maintain a mutually need a team of cofounders, investors, and board of
beneficial balance directors who share their values, but bring differing skills
• Build teams that balance social and financial to the table. Teams should be willing to question each
perspectives, such as co-founders and boards of other, and express their different perspective while
directors working for a shared goal.
Prof. Joseph
Wong from the
University of
Toronto delivers
his opening
keynote on scaling
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7. SIRGSYMPOSIUM 27 February 2013
Empowering Marginalized Communities: Moving Forward
• Empower employees from your target
community by giving them meaningful Our discussion on working in the margins illuminated
responsibilities two overarching directions that the social enterprise
• Encourage and empower marginalized community wants to and needs to move in. The first is
communities to create their own initiatives, and intuitively understood, but difficult to implement:
transition from “social enterprise for the people” balancing social and financial missions. This is possible
to “social enterprise by the people” through respecting the dual nature of your organization
and having a supportive team. But beyond just running
The key value proposition of social enterprises working a successful social enterprise in the margins, the key to
in the margins is that they provide dignity, the doorway real progress is enabling the marginalized to help
to empowerment and ultimately development. Children themselves through empowerment within your
Are Us runs a bakery that employs the intellectually organization and by partnering with the marginalized to
challenged. Ms. Hsiu-Yan Yang discussed the create new value.
importance of giving this often overlooked group a
chance to prove themselves to themselves and the world.
This is similar to Aurora Social Enterprise, where the
employed aboriginal farmers contribute to running the
businesses. By offering responsibility, social enterprises
offer dignity and and empowerment to the people they
employ.
“Social enterprise does not have enough
examples of groups that are “for the
marginalized and by the marginalized”...
the first step to empowerment is giving a
community responsibility and experience.
The second step is to nurture the growth
and transition from outsiders to insiders.”
Nobody knows a community’s history, problems and
Audience members actively join the dialogue, making contributions
internal dynamics better than those who are a part of it. to the conversation reflected within these white papers.
Social enterprise does not have enough examples of
groups that are “for the marginalized and by the
marginalized”. While this can be attributed to a lack of
resources within the community, the first step to
empowerment is giving a community responsibility and
experience. The second step is to nurture the growth
and transition from outsiders to insiders. Existing social
enterprising can play their part by collaborating and
partnering with with local initiatives.
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